The Original World Wide Web is Hiding in Your Soil
Right now, beneath your freshly laid June mulch, a massive, underground gossip network is buzzing. While you are busy checking your phone notifications, your tomatoes, marigolds, and oak trees are actively texting each other.
Let’s Talk About Rain
There are few things in nature more universally loved, misunderstood, romanticized, and complained about, than rain. Gardeners pray for it. Children dance in it. Dogs reluctantly endure it.
Signs You’ve Become a Garden Person
You check the weather more often than your bank account. There’s no going back. The garden has claimed you. Welcome to the club!
A Completely Natural Celebration
There are holidays that make perfect sense - Mother’s Day, Thanksgiving, the first warm day you can finally sit outside with coffee and pretend you have your life together. And then… there is World Naked Gardening Day.
Peonies: A Practical Guide to Growing, Caring, and Enjoying Them
Here is a photo I took on April 28, 2026 of one of the peonies in my garden, called Coral Charm.
Wonder changes everything – 1000 Hours Outside Podcast
https://pod.link/1448210728/episode/NWQxYmYwZmUtMmZkOS0xMWYxLWI1MWQtZmYyMWQ0MTY3OGM0 instagram.com@1000hoursoutside https://www.facebook.com/1000hoursoutside https://www.1000hoursoutside.com/
Living a Life Full of Wonder and Joy
I often give talks about the emotions of wonder and joy, and how our connections with nature, each other, and with “something bigger,” positively impact our health and wellbeing.
Amazon Best Seller April 2026
I'm so grateful (and a little bit amazed) to share that Wonder and Joy for the Wired and Tired has mad the Amazon Best Seller list...again.
Ornamental Pears: The Tree That Chose Chaos
Every spring, ornamental pear trees burst into bloom like they’re auditioning for a bridal magazine - clouds of perfect white flowers, lining streets and parking lots with suspicious enthusiasm.
In Search of the Northern Lights (and Everything Else Along the Way)
I’ve been away from my blog for a few weeks because Marty and I just returned from a vacation. As an anniversary present, we booked a Viking cruise to see the Northern Lights – in Norway – above the arctic circle.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day – March 17th
Today we celebrate Ireland, resilience, poetry, faith, folklore… and the annual global commitment to wearing aggressively green clothing and (for some) consuming far too many drinks containing liquid courage.
MY BOOK
Click the image below to buy the book.
Dr. Pam Stephens Lehenbauer (AKA Mother Nature’s Apprentice) is an epidemiologist, researcher, nurse practitioner, adjunct professor, and popular guest speaker. She is also a Master Gardener, Certified Home Horticulturalist, and conservationist who has won several awards for gardening, landscaping, and creating sustainable wildlife habitats. Pam has an earned Ph.D, an MSN, an MBA, and has just written her first book on wonder, joy, and well-being. It will be available in the August of 2025. In her blog, Pam enjoys writing about topics related to gardening, health, nature and the environment, quirky science, and life.
