Fall color is one of the great highlights of the year. Tourists come from around the world to see the colors of eastern North America, and almost everywhere, as the summer comes to an end, our gardens pulse with the brilliance of maples and oaks. In older, larger gardens, there is always room for a large shade tree, but in today’s modern, smaller gardens, such…

If you can only grow one citrus tree, the lemon is the ideal choice. It takes a lot of oranges to make a pint of juice, and not everyone loves grapefruit, which anyway grow on a large tree. But one lemon goes a long way, and if you only have room for a tree in a pot, then a lemon tree will give you enough…

When most people think ‘boxwood’, they picture clipped balls or low hedges. But there is so much more to boxwood. This is an ideal time to plant some, so it’s also the perfect moment to think about other ways of using this versatile and attractive evergreen. Leave Boxwood Unclipped Some gardeners avoid boxwood, thinking it needs constant clipping, so that is the first myth to…

With Labor Day just around the corner, we have reached the traditional end of summer – even if, in some areas at least, hot weather will continue through September. There is nonetheless a sense of an ending. The sun, now lower in the sky, casts longer shadows, and the evenings arrive sooner and sooner. In many places, this change of season is marked by rain,…

When you move into a new home, especially a newly-built home, the garden is often left, while you settle into the house. That is only naturally, but there are two things that you should try to do as soon as possible. One is planting hedges, and the second is planting one or more shade trees. Why? Simply because these garden features take time to grow,…

If you live in colder parts of the country, the chances are good that you have seen the PG Hydrangea, even if you didn’t know what it was. This plant is a true garden classic anywhere winter temperatures fall below minus 10, the limits of zone 6. In these colder areas the ‘ordinary’ hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla) doesn’t flower, because it needs some branches from the…