Peyton’s Potting Shed

07/04/2026

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Fireworks produce 150-170 dB — louder than a jet engine at takeoff.

Within a 3-mile radius of your backyard display:

Nesting birds flush from nests in blind panic. Eggs and nestlings are abandoned, exposed to predators and cold. Some adults never return.

Deer and rabbits bolt in random directions — straight into roads. Vehicle-wildlife collisions spike 100%+ on July 4th and 5th.

Rabbits and small mammals can die of stress-induced cardiac arrest from the concussive blasts.

Fireflies — in peak mating season RIGHT NOW — go dark. Their bioluminescent signaling is disrupted by the flashes. One night of disruption = missed mating = fewer fireflies next year.

Perchlorates and heavy metals from fireworks residue settle on soil and water — toxic to aquatic life for days.

Your dog? 1 in 5 lost pets go missing on July 4th. More dogs run away on July 4th than any other day of the year.

The alternative: attend your town's professional display. One concentrated show, one location, managed impact. Not 10,000 backyard shows across 10,000 neighborhoods.

Celebrate freedom. Just not at the expense of everything that can't.

07/03/2026

We will be at the Pittsburg Farmer’s Market tomorrow! Open from 8:00 to noon.

Now is a good time to get those Summer and Fall blooming perennials in the ground!

07/02/2026

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Kansans must eradicate an invasive honeysuckle and four other plants from their land after the state added them to the noxious w**d list.

06/28/2026

Yes, save this little shade loving native in your yard! It is typically found growing in shaded areas, such as under trees.

I don’t know how many times I heard at plant sales this last year “oh, I pull those every year” from customers not realizing they are a VITAL pollinator host plant.

And if you do not have any but would love to add some to your yard, we have plenty of common blue violet for sale.

SAVE the Violets, SAVE the Butterflies!🦋

The Great Spangled Fritillary caterpillar can only survive on violets, but chemical treatments and lawn obsession are wiping them out.

Let violets grow wild 🌱 and ditch the chemicals. You’ll be helping butterflies, bees, and other pollinators thrive.

06/28/2026

😮‍💨😮‍💨 I’m getting better!

You saw me on the warm stones and screamed. I was the best pest control you had.

You found me sunning on your garden wall. Someone went for a shovel. I tried to leave — they were faster.

I am a common garter snake, and I was working for you. The slugs that shred your hostas, the grubs chewing your roots, the beetles and cutworms in the vegetable beds — I hunt all of them, every day, for free.

Look at me before you decide what I am. Three yellow stripes running the length of an olive-brown body. Round pupils. A narrow head no wider than my neck. No fangs. No venom that can hurt you. I am one of the most harmless animals in your entire yard.

When something startles me I might release a little musk, or bluff with a raised head. That is the whole arsenal. I have nothing else, and I never needed anything else.

Leave me the stone wall and the leaf piles. I will keep the garden from being eaten alive.

06/27/2026

On my morning coffee walk in my back yard, I stopped to enjoy the beauty that nature provides. Even though I am located in the heart of small-town Oswego Kansas, I still have the ability to enjoy my own slice of serenity protected by four walls of cedar fencing.

It serves as a place of refuge, for when this world moves at such a fast pace that instant gratification supersedes the moment of tranquility, of respite, of balance between the fast paced demands of our society, driven by technological advances. And not just for humans, but for wildlife as well.

As I walked and enjoyed the simple moment, I am reminded that those moments can quickly be replaced by congestion, concrete, construction, all for the benefit to live up to the demands of our ever-growing, technology driven, rural towns. I couldn't help but wonder if after I am gone and in another five, ten, twenty, fifty years, what this area meant to be a safe haven would become? Data center? Urban Solar Farm? A run down, dilapidated house? An unoccupied downtown building? Or simply a bare lot, that fell through the cracks of city infrastructure problems, riddled by lack of funding, leadership, governance and direction?

I hope that if it becomes any of the latter, that someone in history, has pictures of what the beauty was before man came along and wrecked its existence. I hope that they are able to show their grandchildren that lawns really did have green grass and not painted concrete, that wildflowers really did grow in the cracks of the sidewalk, and that towns really did at one point, care about the future of their community.

06/26/2026

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🌊 You're not the only one enjoying the water this summer.

Kansas lakes, rivers, and shorelines provide important habitat for turtles, shorebirds, waterfowl, and countless other wildlife species.

As you paddle, fish, boat, or explore:

🐢 Give turtles space when they're basking on logs.
🐦 Avoid disturbing birds nesting along shorelines and sandbars.
🚤 Slow down near wildlife when possible.
🗑 Leave the area cleaner than you found it.

A little extra awareness can go a long way toward protecting the wildlife that calls these places home.

06/19/2026

We will be at the Pittsburg Farmer's Market tomorrow from 8:00 AM until noon.

We will have a few new plants available such as Frost w**d and Prairie Smoke (old man's whiskers).

We look forward to seeing everyone and be sure to check out the other great vendors too!

06/13/2026

Today, a few members from the Oklahoma Native Plant Society took a “wildflower walk” around the Rogers State University campus nature trails.

We found many interesting plants and wildlife.