Professional Gardening Tips
The commonest types of nut grown are the hazel and walnut. The two variants of the common hazel, Corylus avellana, are the cobnut with short husks and the filbert with long husks. Both are suitable for planting on poor, stony […]
Two weeks ago I went to a wonderful lecture at the New York Botanical Garden. The speaker was Barry Yinger, a well known plantsman and author who specializes in Asian flora. The topic for the day was “New Japanese Plants […]
Annuals Most of the flowering bedding plants sold in the spring are annuals. Annuals usually bloom continuously for months and are then killed by frost. They are often used as companion plants to perennials or bulbs (which bloom for a […]
I used to spurn exotic plants, even those with glorious flowers. Looking back, I think the avoidance was probably yet another form of adolescent rebellion. After all, my grandmother was passionate about birds of paradise, and my mother probably bought […]
When I was growing up in a rural area in western New York State, some of the farmers used to say that drought came in eleven-year cycles. This was not as bad as it sounds. To my knowledge, the area […]
In my lifelong quest for infallibility, I have come up short yet again. Last fall I predicted a long hard winter. So far winter has been the usual length and not particularly hard. Barring end-of-season snow or ice storms, we […]
Japanese Maples Landscape Planting If your soil is heavy, it should be an amended with sand, bark, or other material to improve drainage, and the soil should be mounded above grade to assure good drainage. Maples are very adaptable 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 […]
Gardening is such an integral part of my life, that I can’t imagine not doing it. That’s why I cringe inside whenever I hear someone say, “If we have a drought and water restrictions this spring and summer, I just […]
Whenever I am asked to disclose my principal formula for a successful garden, I will invariably return the same verdict – to evoke an atmosphere is paramount. Many of the ideas I employ in garden design originate from something I […]