Georgia wears its forests proudly, and the numbers back that up in a way few states can match. Georgia holds more forestland than any other state in the South, roughly 24.8 million acres, covering about 65 percent of the state’s total land area, according to the Georgia Forestry Commission and USDA Forest Service data. What…
Pennsylvania earned its nickname, the Keystone State, partly because of geography. But anyone who has driven through its ridges in October knows the forests deserve credit too. Forests cover roughly 59 percent of Pennsylvania’s land area, or about 16.7 million acres, according to Penn State researchers analyzing USDA Forest Service data. That is a staggering…
I grew up thinking every tall tree in the woods was just “an oak.” Then a forester friend pointed out a tulip poplar towering over everything nearby. It was nothing like an oak at all. That moment sent me down a long path of actually learning what grows around me, and Kentucky gives you plenty…
I planted my first native shrub almost by accident. A spicebush seedling showed up near my fence line. I let it grow instead of pulling it. Two years later, it was covered in spring pollinators and fall berries. That one decision changed how I think about landscaping. Shrubs are the layer most home gardens skip….
I still remember my first real fall in the Catskills, standing in a sugar maple grove that looked like it had caught fire. No filter, no editing, just the tree doing what it does every October. New York earns its reputation for foliage honestly. Forests cover roughly 63 percent of New York State, totaling about…
I remember driving through the Coast Range for the first time and feeling genuinely small under the canopy. Douglas-fir trees stacked up on both sides of the road like green walls. Oregon does not do subtle forests, and I mean that as a compliment. Forests cover more than 30.5 million acres of Oregon, over half…
I still remember the first time I caught the smell of piñon smoke drifting over Santa Fe in early winter. It is one of those scents that instantly tells you where you are. New Mexico’s trees carry that kind of identity everywhere you look. Pinyon-juniper woodland covers more than 10 million acres of New Mexico,…
Maryland packs an unusual amount of variety into a small state. Mountains in the west, rolling Piedmont through the middle, and flat coastal plain running down to the Chesapeake Bay. Few states this size cover that much ecological ground. That variety shows up in the trees. What grows easily in Garrett County often struggles on…
Texas weather doesn’t negotiate. One season brings a hard freeze, the next brings a hundred-degree drought that lasts for months. I’ve watched imported ornamentals collapse under that swing more times than I can count. Native shrubs don’t collapse. They evolved through exactly this kind of extreme, and that history shows in how little they ask…
Florida’s soil is unforgiving. Sandy, low in nutrients, and split between drought and downpour within the same week. I learned this the hard way after losing a rack of nursery-bought azaleas one August. Native shrubs never gave me that trouble. They evolved here. That single fact solves most of the problems Florida gardeners fight against…