Fall – The Ideal Planting Season
Somehow, over recent years, the gardening year got turned around. Today everyone rushes into their garden at the first sign of spring, and immediately starts planning and planting for the best garden ever….
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Are You Growing These Fall Blooming Plants? You Should Be!
We tend to think of garden flowers as something that happens in spring and summer and having blooms at those times is relatively easy. Too many gardens though, are finished by Labor Day,…
Plan Ahead for Winter Interest in the Garden
While we enjoy the last balmy days of summer, it is hard to think of the winter to come, but it will come, and our once-green gardens will be a lot barer when…
Summer Tree Problems – What Counts, and What Doesn’t
There is a cycle to the growth of a garden through the seasons. After the silent wait of winter, spring arrives full of promise. The fresh, new growth of trees and shrubs is…
Time to Plan for Fall Color
Summer is at its height, but the smart gardener is always thinking ahead. Fall will be with us all too soon, and if you want to continue the garden fun and beauty into…
Pick the Right Boxwood
Boxwood shrubs – as hedges of different sizes, clipped shapes or growing naturally – are the backbone of the structure of many gardens. Boundaries and edgings are the easiest way to bring order…
Flowers All Summer with the Butterfly Bush
As we enter the hot days of August, our gardens can begin to look a bit tired. The heat and drier conditions mean that the flowers of spring and early summer have faded,…
Diseases of Crape Myrtles
Crape Myrtles (Lagerstroemia) are very popular shrubs for warmer areas, and no wonder. They have spectacular blooms for an extended period, grow well in poor soil, and are heat and drought resistant. They…
Why We Stake Trees
Planting a tree is always a great moment – most trees have longer lives than we do, and although a newly-planted tree will be a beautiful addition to our gardens after just a…
Meet the True Cedars – the Genus Cedrus
Across most of the country, you will see, and probably have in your garden, cedar trees. The name ‘cedar’ was given by the early settlers to several tall evergreen trees they found in…
Gardening with Ornamental Grasses
It has not been all that many years since grass had only one place in the garden – green and mowed weekly on the lawn. It took some adventurous growers and garden designers…
Groundcover Plants for Shady Places
Shady parts of the garden are often welcome in the summer, as cool refuges from the heat. But most plants don’t find them so welcoming. When we put in a new garden it…
Xeric Gardening – 5 Tips for Using Less Water
There is a big push these days to use less water on our gardens. Periods of drought, limitations on city water supplies, concerns about long-term freshwater availability, and increased costs to home-owners –…
Get the Most from Your Mulch
New gardeners quickly hear about this thing called ‘mulch’, but often all that hear is, ‘mulch regularly’, or ‘use mulch for weed control’ – without getting any real idea of what it is,…
Diseases of Pine Trees
Planting a tree is an action full of hope. We hope that our tree will grow and flourish, living out its life – which will certainly be decades, and perhaps even a hundred…
Cold Hardy Holly Bushes
Holly is one of the most popular broad-leaf evergreens. It’s deep-green glossy leaves look great in the garden all year round, and the winter bonus of bright red berries really brings color and…
Give Them Room! Spacing Trees Correctly
A drive around any older neighborhood will quickly show you giant trees right up against houses, blocking windows, damaging foundations and drains, and making rooms dark and gloomy. Bad decisions about planting distances…
New & Exciting Panicle Hydrangeas
If you have gardened in colder parts of the country for a long time, you will remember the ubiquitous PG Hydrangea, still seen in many gardens. It’s a standard shrub for later flowering…
Agave & Yucca – Cool Plants for Hot Places
Wherever you garden, even in cooler climate zones, you can have hot, dry areas in your garden. Those places that bask in the sun all day, perhaps with sandy or rocky soil that…
It’s Plant a Pine Tree Time
Spring is the big season in the garden, and this is when we all go out and look at our gardens, to see what we can grow that will make them more beautiful….
Grow Living Fossil Trees in Your Garden
Most of us grow plants in our gardens simply for their beauty, and that surely is the best reason of all. But many plants also have a story to tell, perhaps of how…
7 Top Plants for Japanese Gardens
Japanese and Asian-themed gardens are amazingly popular – and no wonder. They combine beauty with serenity, and by using just a few carefully chosen plants they create low-maintenance gardens, turning a few plants…
Native Shrubs from Across America
The single biggest trend in gardening over the last couple of decades has been the growing of native plants. An interest in the environment, concerns about the spread of alien species – these…
The World of Japanese Maples
Spring brings life back to our deciduous trees, and the delicate unfolding leaves are beautiful, no matter what the tree. But the most beautiful of all are undoubtedly the new leaves of Japanese…