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The catalogs are a little slimmer this year, but they are still full of the hope and glory of spring and summer. Flowers, vegetables, fruits and herbs burst forth from the pages, each better than last year, allegedly foolproof and free-flowering, requiring little or no maintenance and a great return on investment. It all goes to show that gardeners are […]
I am very prone to love at first sight. In fact, it happened just last week. I saw a tall southerner “across a crowded room”, as the song says. My heart stood still (as another song says). I was enraptured. The tall stranger was plumbago (Plumbago auriculata, also known as Plumbago capensis), which is sometimes also known by its extremely […]
When I moved into my house in mid-February a year and a half ago, one of the first things I did was to walk around the yard, and try to figure out what the previous owner had planted. The winter had been exceptionally mild, and she had done little garden clean up, so it was easy to identify the remnants […]
In his classic book Mormon Country, author Wallace Stegner noted that nineteenth century Mormons planted rows of Lombardy poplar trees wherever they established settlements in the territory that is now Utah. The trees served as windbreaks and boundary markers, but they were also the flags that marked the advance of Mormon civilization in a hostile territory. In my hometown and […]
I have given up indoor seed starting completely on several occasions. The first time it happened I was a novice gardener. I had ordered seeds of just about every plant that I saw in the garden catalogs without thinking about such practical things as gallons of potting soil, hours of daily watering, and square feet of windowsill space. It also […]
I think that one of the best things about gardening is that when I am weeding or planting or pruning, I worry a great deal less about losing my mind. The seeds of insanity, or at least confusion seem to lurk indoors-—in the stuffed-full file drawers, the paper-strewn desk, and the Everest-like laundry pile. If I do not get out […]
Hepatica Plant Care Today I went out my back door and noticed that one of my rosebushes was, unexpectedly, sporting a fresh new flower bud. It was within a day or so of opening up–small, greenish and obviously defiant of the season. The bud was an oddity on a rosebush that is itself an oddity. When I bought the small […]
Pansies are annual garden flowers (blooms for only one year, then dies) that are usually the first you find for sale in stores in spring. Pansies have been around for many years and are popular, being easy to grow and so colorful during the cooler days of spring and fall. In cool northern climates, pansies will bloom well into summer […]
This is that time of year when we take cuttings of our beloved plants. These are the indoor plants that grew too big over the summer months, the perennials we would like to increase in numbers rather than dividing, or from bringing in an entire annual plant from outside. Taking cuttings isn’t difficult, some simple steps are needed though, to […]
Gardeners today with busy schedules want less work in their gardens, and thus a need is established for plants that do just that. Their focus is more on leaf texture and foliage colour, rather than blooms and pruning schedules, consequently plants that don’t require a lot of care and maintenance are sought after. Self-sufficient ponds, shade gardens, and woodland gardens […]