Your Backyard Garden Information Source
As winter approaches, it’s tempting just to sit back and put your feet up and not have to think about the garden until springtime. However, just a bit of extra work at this time of the year can save you a whole lot of hassle come planting time. Garden clean-up, the last big chore for gardeners, is often overlooked, especially […]
Arabis – Rock Cress, Wall Cress The Rock Cress is a small, white, four-petaled flower, and its masses of snowy bloom early in the Spring contrast beautifully with the Basket of Gold (Alyssum saxatile compactum) and the blue False Wall Cress (Aubrietia). It blooms very soon after the snow disappears and the flowers are so numerous that when a plant […]
How to Propagate and Grow These Amazingly Handsome Shrubs Evergreen shrubs and trees from China and Japan, belonging to the Tea family, Theaceae. They are adapted for outdoor cultivation in the milder parts of the United States, but in the North need greenhouse protection. Their beautiful flowers, single, partially double, or double, varying in color from white, through pink, to […]
Sooner or later, every gardener falls in love with a few select perennials. Perennials are flowering plants that live many years, but die back during their dormant season which is usually winter. When planted under the right conditions, perennials grow and prosper for years, often with little attention. Each perennial has a peak season of bloom, usually lasting from one […]
It is both irritating and encouraging to have a string of rainy days during the busiest season of the gardening year. Irritating because there is so much to do outside, and so little time to get all the planting, weeding, mulching and other chores done. Encouraging because the rain is needed, and, frankly, so is the respite. I like to […]
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 of […]