I’m writing this on Mother’s Day, because while we honor our biological mothers, we have long been neglecting and even abusing our universal matriarch, Mother Earth.

There were two significant events at the end of April that have the capacity to transform the character of Palm Beach.

The first zebra heliconian butterfly arrived earlier this past week to great celebration among the ‘littles’.

PHOTOS: Spring offers garden options, but say no to insecticides, pesticides

Spring has arrived, and my garden is a riot of color and activity.

Brilliant yellow flower clusters adorn the Bahama senna (Senna Mexicana var. Chapmanii), and I am hoping to spot some amazing caterpillars of the orange-barred sulphur butterfly that it hosts.

The Garden Club of America presents its prestigious Montine McDaniel Freeman Medal each year to a native plant of exceptional beauty, interest, and importance to gardens across the country.

When Martha Stewart was asked to define happiness at a recent Palm Beach luncheon, she didn’t hesitate with her answer. If you want to be happy for a year, she said, get a husband (It was a mostly woman’s event). If you want to be happy for a decade, get a dog. But if you want to be happy for the rest of your life, start a garden.

Not so long ago, Palm Beach was home to a plethora of delightful songbirds: painted buntings, song sparrows, palm and yellow rumped warblers, purple martins, cardinals, marsh and house wrens, kinglets, gnatcatchers, meadowlarks, woodpeckers, finches, and Baltimore orioles were all common visitors here; the island was alive with their music. Now, we are lucky to see the occasional dove or house wren.

Let’s turn off those lights!

I’m sure most of you favor the habit of turning off lights at night, but that’s usually to save electricity and ensure it’s dark enough to sleep. Many keep outdoor lights on for security reasons, although I thought this was why we lived in Palm Beach: It’s pretty safe here! In any event, leaving a porch light on may be OK for some, but to have the entire exterior of one’s home ablaze all night seems a rather unnecessary waste of money and electricity.

With the rest of the East Coast under a winter storm watch, it’s great to be in Florida, where we are surrounded by bright flowers and lush foliage. Despite the less-than-perfect weather we’ve had recently, or maybe because of it, my garden is full of color and fragrance.

Living shorelines incorporate plants and other natural elements to stabilize shorelines, increase and reinforce coastal resilience and provide habitat for fisheries. These shorelines are not only beautiful, they benefit the environment by buffering floodwater, reducing erosion, storing carbon, purifying water, increasing biodiversity and providing wildlife habitat.

I’ve discussed the dangers of pesticides, fungicides and herbicides in previous articles, but after speaking to numerous acquaintances recently, I was startled to learn how few people actually realize the staggering amount of chemicals used on a regular basis in Palm Beach.

Neonicotinoid insecticides (“neonics”) were introduced in the 1990s and are now the most widely used insecticides in North America.

The recent amount of palm pruning around the island has left many residents dismayed and infuriated at the disregard for proper healthy pruning techniques.

The iconic silhouettes of coconut palms are a symbol of South Florida; their beauty and stature is never questioned. Why then do landscapers feel compelled to prune them into ugly “feather dusters” every spring?

There is no better time, in my mind, than dusk in the garden, especially when surrounded by the wonderful scents of jasmine, brunfelsia, gardenia, or sweet almond bush. While these are all Florida-friendly plants, not natives, their fragrances are so intoxicating they all deserve spots in our gardens.

One of the best things about writing these articles is the feedback I have received from readers and fellow gardeners.

I was fortunate to have a recent tour of the wonderful Phipps Ocean Park. This exciting project will be a tremendous gift to the residents of Palm Beach.

The Preservation Foundation’s plans for the renovation of this 18-acre area include educational facilities and native landscaping to promote and restore environmental sustainability. In 1948, the Phipps family donated 1,200 feet of ocean frontage for use as a public park to ensure the land remained open in perpetuity. The park has not been well-managed in the intervening 75 years, is grossly underutilized, and currently consists of just some random paths and picnic tables with a few cabanas. Plantings are infested with invasive species including Brazilian pepper and melaleuca, and it is not an inviting area to visit.

"Project Paradise," an eye-opening documentary shown at the Society of the Four Arts last week, examined Florida’s most valuable natural resource: water.

We’ve discussed the importance of native plants for the sustenance they provide our birds and butterflies, and for the habitat they afford local wildlife.

But planting natives is also just smart landscaping: Natives need much less water than more commonly used exotic annuals such as impatiens, begonias and coleus, and natives help regenerate and restore the soil. Their deeper, more expansive root systems retain micronutrients and their dense coverage protects from wind, sun and heavy rain.

One of the takeaways from last week’s all-town zoning code review was that the natural environment is our superpower.

Our designs must embrace open spaces, including porticos, terraces and loggias, providing shade, light, and air: design over density. We are a town, not a resort or a gated community; we need to be unified without uniformity.