Last Chance for June Cutbacks
Life is too short to fuss with staking perennials to keep them upright and looking good. It's easy to control the eventual height of many perennials if you cut them back early. Cutting back stimulates new branching.
Choosing the Right Tree – Decisions, Decisions
Trees have a big, hopefully long-lasting presence in a landscape. Choosing just the right tree means asking a lot of questions beyond - but definitely including - appearance.
Allium Christophii – A Garden Goldilocks
Showy Star of Persia (Allium christophii, aka A. albopilosum) is a garden star. It's a Goldilocks plant - not too tall, not too short, with easy-to-hide foliage, just the right-sized flowering globes - and pizzazz to spare.
Dealing With Daffodil Foliage
Ripening daffodil foliage is not a pretty picture. But knotting, braiding,bunching, wrapping with rubber bands, bending leaves or cutting them down too soon is detrimental to the health of the plant. Look for good companions to hide and support bulb foliage.
The Art and Science of Mingling
In nature, you don't see plants just sitting there next to each other, politely not touching. They grow together, in community, without wood chip mulch in between, without social distancing. How do they manage to mingle, and how can we emulate natural plant communities in our home landscapes?
Eating Really Locally
I've been making a game of seeing how long I can go without going to the grocery store. That means not just living in the garden, but living on what grows in it.
Step Up Your Eco-Game: Part 1. Brainstorm and Lay Out Gardens On-Site
How to get rid of lawn - equivalent to an ecological desert - and create perennial beds under trees. An eco-friendly garden coach and homeowner brainstormed together and laid out new beds to create an attractive eco-friendly yard that attracts wildlife and is easy to maintain.
What Are Your Weeds Telling You? And What To Do About It
In my training as a NOFA-Accredited Organic Land Care Professional, I was intrigued to learn a bit about what the plants we call weeds reveal about soil. Wanting to learn more, I called the instructor Michael Nadeau, Wholistic Land Care Consultant at his home in Connecticut. Mike, a leading authority on sustainable organic and ethical [...]
Do Native Plants Have a P.R. Problem? Depends How You Look At It
In this season of rapidly emerging garden weeds, Doug Tallamy's recently published Nature's Best Hope really got me thinking about how subjective and value-skewed the word "weed" is. We want plants with wildlife value but get tripped up with words that carry a lot of baggage. The common definition of weed as a plant out of place is subject to all sorts of interpretations. It depends on your point of view.
It’s Hellebore Heaven in March
After such a mild winter, my 'Brandywine' strain hellebores (Helleborus x hybridus 'Brandywine' ™) are especially lovely. Time to give these Lenten roses, aka Oriental hellebores, center stage. Even my cut-leafed stinking hellebores (Helleborus foetidus) look pretty good this spring.