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In spring any color is welcome, but I sometimes think that we end up with a glut of yellows, especially when the daffodils are out. Fortunately, Mother Nature gave us contrast in the form of a few blue flowers that bloom at the same time. The best ones, lungwort (Pulmonaria sps.), false or perennial forget-me-not (Brunnera macrophylla) and true forget-me-not […]
Gardeners practiced the concept of the three R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, long before it became trendy. People who grow things have a special relationship with the land and they naturally take steps to take care of it. Take composting for example, they have always known that recycled plant material was beneficial to the soil. Nothing from my grandmother’s garden or […]
Hillside Gardening Plants for a bank or the hill side. The simplest way to plant a bank is to make a grassy slope of it. This isn’t the best way in which a bank can be treated, since it lacks interest and will be more difficult to mow than a level lawn. If the bank is fairly extensive an excellent […]
Collectors everywhere know what it is like to have a quest—an ongoing hunt for the one little porcelain box or wheat penny or 1950’s lunchbox that will make it all worthwhile. A good part of the joy of collecting in the search for the missing pieces that will fill in the collection. For some people the hunt is everything, and […]
Chicory Sow seeds of Witloof chicory in May or June. The soil must be fertile. Any manure or garden compost added prior to sowing must be very well rotted. Sow thinly in drills 1cm (1/2 in) deep, spaced 30cm (1 ft) apart. Keep down annual weeds by hoeing. When the plants are about 5cm (2in) high, thin to 23cm (9in) […]
How to Grow Pulmonaria Pulmonaria (pul-mon-air-ee-a) From the Latin pulmo, lung; derivation uncertain; either because the spotted leaves bore a resemblance to diseased lungs, or because one species was regarded as providing a remedy for diseased lungs (Boraginaceae). Lungwort. This is a genus of 10 species of hardy herbaceous perennials, natives of Europe. P. angustifolia, a rare native, is an […]
I subscribe to a lot of gardening magazines.Each one is a bit different, but there are some things that are common to all of them.At least every other month, a reader writes in to Horticulture or Fine Gardening or Garden Design to ask about ways of keeping cats out of the garden.The litany of feline evils is always the same: […]
Hedges, screens and shelterbelts Screens and shelterbelts are usually essential in coastal areas; also to farmers and fruit growers. In gardens, private and public, hedges can do much to prevent the intrusion of animals and human beings and to act as windbreaks. Before planting it must be decided what purpose is to be served. If the hedge is simply to […]
ASPLENIUM—Spleenwort (Asple’nium). Ferns which are great favorites for cultivation out of doors and under glass. The cultivated hardy kinds are natives of North America, the others grow wild in tropical Africa, India and other countries. They belong to the Polypody family, Polypodiaceae. Asplenium is derived from a, not, and splen, spleen, and refers to the medicinal properties these Ferns were […]
CALCEOLARIA (Calceola’ria). Mostly tender perennials of herbaceous or shrubby growth, principally natives of Chile and Peru, and belonging to the Snapdragon family, Scrophulariaceae. Calceolarias vary in height from 6 in. to 3 ft. The flowers are slipper-like and are mostly yellow in color, with the exception of those of the herbaceous Calceolarias, which display a wide range of colors. The […]