Using Organic Material When Planting Trees & Shrubs
Back when I was a student of horticulture, the use of synthetic chemicals for gardening was widespread. Since then most home gardeners have moved away from them, and for many today they are…
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Winter Protection for Rose Trees
Almost everyone loves roses, and with today’s easy-care modern varieties, it’s easy to care for the things you love. Besides the huge number of different varieties, divided into different types – landscape roses,…
The Peach Comes to America
Nothing says ‘summer’ like a ripe peach, but where did this delicious fruit come from, and how has it come to be so ‘American’, when it’s roots can be traced back to ancient…
Everything You Need to Know About Gardening – A Guide to Our Blogs
The end of the year is always a time for reflection, and I am reflecting on my writing over 300 blogs on our site. No world-record, but enough to mean finding your way…
How to Grow Magnolia Trees
Magnolias are without doubt a highlight of the spring. There is something almost unworldly happening when we see those extraordinary blooms standing proudly on the bare gray stems of the tree. Larger than…
Dwarf Crape Myrtles Fit in Every Garden
There is no question that crape myrtles are among the most colorful of summer-blooming plants – that’s something that has been agreed on for 250 years, since the first plants arrived in Charleston,…
Rose of Sharon – Some New Takes on an Old Favorite
There was a time when the arrival of a new plant was a great event. When that happened in Europe around 1600, when a new, remarkable bush began to appear in gardens, one…
The Fabulous Tale of Figs
Figs are the oldest fruit, certainly being eaten many thousands of years ago all around the Mediterranean and in the Middle East. Fresh figs are today the goal of home gardeners, who want…
All You Need to Know About Gardening with Ferns
Valuable solutions for shady parts of your garden, ferns offer us an enormous variety of forms. Large or small, bold or lacy, there are fern solutions to most gardening problems, and they add…
Overwintering Potted Plants
The clocks have changed, the nights are shorter, and much colder, and maybe there have already been flurries in the air. As winter comes our gardens go to sleep, but if you garden…
Five Great and Different Fast-growing Privacy Shrubs
When it comes to privacy, it’s a shame that a small handful of plants have taken over, so most gardens use the same old plants, and we all end up looking the same….
5 New Plants For Your Garden
There is nothing so much fun as planting something new in your garden. The planning and thinking about it’s suitability; the waiting for its arrival; unpacking that box; choosing the perfect spot for…
Is It Too Late For Fall Planting?
“Am I too late to plant?” Seems like a simple question, so what’s the answer? It’s complicated! Factors like the type of tree, where you live, if the tree is in a container…
Arborvitae Privacy Trees – Pick the Right Tree
Privacy trees are almost always at the top of list for gardeners moving into a new home, or when new buildings go up around you. We all want to feel our house and…
Garden Design 101 for Home Gardens
So you want to design your own garden? You don’t need a degree, or years of study to do a good job of it – just a grasp of some basic principles and…
Choosing Screening Trees and Shrubs
Most of us want privacy in our gardens, so we can relax and enjoy ourselves, free from the noise and dust of a highway, the curiosity of passersby, or the scrutiny of neighbors….
Choosing a Small Tree for Your Garden
As gardens have become smaller, planting trees has become harder. There is an irony to this, as a time when everyone is being urged to plant more trees, but it is important to…
Shrubs Beside Water (or in Wet Soil)
One of the most common instructions we find ourselves giving is to grow a certain plant in ‘well-drained soil’. That is fine, but what if you don’t have soil like that, perhaps because…
How to Create a Garden in the Japanese Style
For many people, the Japanese are the greatest garden-makers in the world. So for many gardeners, creating a Japanese garden is their greatest ambition. Some study the different types of Japanese gardens for…
Some Harmless (but interesting) Garden Pests
I’m sticking with it, but looking back at the title I just wrote for this blog, I see right away a classic oxymoron – if they are ‘harmless’ they can’t be ‘pests’. But…
The New American Garden: A Home-Grown Garden Style
Without realizing it, many of us create gardens in styles that we bring from other countries. This is obvious when you are inspired by Japan or Asia to emulate their beautiful gardens, but…
The English Flower Garden
After our last ‘Garden Styles’ blog on the Classic American Garden, we are going to step outside the US for a moment to look at the most influential garden style of the last…
Garden Styles – the Classic American Garden
For the first style in our series, we will start with a garden look that is seen almost everywhere in the country, but perhaps especially in the east. Houses that are now around…
Garden Styles – How to Get the Garden Look You Crave
In this era of computers, there is an app for everything. When it comes to doing your own design for the garden around your new home, or making improvements to an existing garden,…