Autumn Color
Most of the time “autumn color” means brilliantly colored trees. Red maples, yellow birches and rust-colored oaks. But the hues of autumn are striking at all levels and in all areas of the landscape. At this time of year we’re surrounded with a richness of colors and textures and it’s important to savor every inch of the yard and garden.
This corner of the yard continually calls to me in the fall. the flowers on the Pee Gee Hydrangea, the red stems and fading foliage of the variegated red twig dogwood, the textures of the variegated Carex and the green juncus, and the coral winter berry holly fruits… they may not be as striking as a brilliant red sugar maple but they are completely rich and beautiful. Even the poison ivy on the trees joins the party!
Keeping Azaleas Full and Bushy
When you bought that azalea it was thick and full, right? Then three or four years later you see that above that bushy layer of foliage and flowers there are suddenly tall sticks that are bare, with green growth only on the top of those stems. Your azalea is getting...
I Love Papaver rhoeas
Name: Papaver rhoeas aka corn poppy or Flanders poppy Type of Plant: Self-seeding annual for full sun. Why I love this: These poppies create a showy celebration in the early-summer garden. When they are happy you’ll have them coming back every spring. Corn poppies...
Planting an Old Wicker Chair
Yes, I was driving home yesterday after doing a garden consultation for the garden center and saw this on the side of the road. Since I was on company time, I didn't stop, but thought to myself "If that's still there tomorrow morning when I drive this way, I'll stop...
Cooking Sugar Snap Peas – post #1
Peas are one of the first crops we can plant and harvest in the vegetable garden, so we love them first for their earliness. Sugar snap peas are particularly satisfying, since they can be harvested early and eaten whole, or picked slightly later and shelled as regular...
How to Make Daisies Look Better After Flowering
Once oxeye and Shasta daisies finish flowering the plants aren’t an asset in the garden. The variety of Shasta called ‘Becky’ is the exception and we’ll talk about how this plant should be treated later in this post. Oxeye daisies (Leucanthemum vulgare) bloom in late...
Garden Totems and Supports
One definition of totem is "anything serving as a distinctive, often venerated, emblem or symbol." We often think of totems as being tall and thin...vertical elements that are visual punctuation marks if you will. In the garden these are usually ornamental, but they...
Garlic Scapes
Garlic is normally planted in the fall and harvested in mid-summer. A few weeks before harvesting, however, it starts to form flowers. These are called scapes and are usually cut off so that the plant will put all of it's energies into forming large heads of garlic in...
Is It Too Late To Plant?
From early June though July I hear this question. "Is it too late to plant...?" Some ask if it's too late to plant vegetables, others want to know if they can still plant shrubs, annuals and trees in the summer time. For some reason people have a notion that it's OK...
Newsletter Signup
Order Cocktail Hour Garden
Order Coffee For Roses from Amazon
