Professional Gardening Tips
Sometimes a garden needs a bit of intensity. For several years my front borders have been full of soothing pastels, with peaches and pale yellows predominating, accented with lots of white. The result is pleasing, but nothing reinvigorates like a […]
Reports show that the population of bees has continued to fall, putting food security at risk as they play a crucial role in pollination. The fast population decline can be attributed to the continued use of agricultural chemicals, climate change, […]
Oxypetalum caeruleum is a South American member of the Milkweed Family which deserves to be better known. A reference to it in an English gardening magazine aroused my interest, and in the summer, I sowed a packet of seeds in […]
A genus of herbaceous perennial plants from tropical America, grown mainly for their ornamental foliage, though some also have showy flowers. They need warm greenhouse treatment in cooler areas. From the Greek dis, twice, chorizo, to part, aner, anther, referring […]
In many places in the United States columbines (Aquilegia ssp.) still grow wild. Highbrow hybrids dominate the marketplace, but even they seem to retain some of that wildness. While cleaning out an overgrown greenhouse once, I noticed columbines of indeterminate […]
Although insect pests and plant diseases are generally easy to control in the flower garden, animal pests are not. For one, much of our wildlife is protected by law and can’t be indiscriminately eliminated. You may have variable success with […]
The plants offered to gardeners or non-gardeners at nurseries, garden centers and the corner store vary immensely. They may be culinary herbs suitable for all sorts of savory dishes, or valued for their blooms or can be used medicinally. In […]
Since confession is good for the soul, I feel compelled to say that I always order too many seeds. And since making excuses is one of the hallmarks of the human condition, I will also say that my seed surplus […]
A few weeks ago, I went to the garden center to buy some pansies to put in decorative pots by my front porch. In my experience, pansies hold up even after the mums bite the dust, and they provide color […]
One of the most enjoyable aspects of landscaping is reviving the gardens of older properties, where generations have pottered and pruned. The Cottage Garden Challenge We had been asked to restore the charm of a cottage garden. The clients knew […]