Jane Horn's Prior Lake gardens are featured on the "Better Homes and Gardens" Web site, the Internet home of the popular lifestyle magazine. The self-taught gardener offers tips on a range of issues, including plant choice and how to cultivate a luscious landscape.

The "Better Homes and Gardens" feature isn't the first time Horn, a Scott-Carver Master Gardener, has shared her yard space with the public. In July 2009 she hosted a public viewing of her garden, with proceeds going to support the Piper Breast Center at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis.

By Lori Carlson, Editor
An upcoming tour of Jane Horn’s gardens will combine two things – one beautiful, one ugly – with which Jane is closely familiar.

By Stan Tekiela
We are moving into the doldrums of summer. Gone are the fast-paced days of spring when the pre-dawns are filled with hundreds of singing birds and the cool nights are filled with a million calling frogs.

At this time of year, most of the birds are wrapping up nesting. The fevered pitch of spring-time nesting is over for another year. It’s time for the adult birds and their young to have a few weeks of relative calm and prosperity before moving into the next phase of avian life.

By Stan Tekiela
Nature is a strange and wonderful thing. It is so incredibly complex that scientists have yet to wrap their minds completely around it. Yet nature is simple enough to be well-balanced and takes care of itself without help from people.

To see an example of this, just take a look around your own yard. Have you ever seen a tiny adult bird feeding what appears to be a very large baby bird? That is what I’m seeing in my yard this week.

By Stan Tekiela
Spring is an amazing time of year filled with all the hope and promise of life in the natural world. As a wildlife photographer, I am privileged to witness firsthand the awakening of spring and the miracle of birth of many tiny birds and fuzzy animals.