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Trees have an almost mystical fascination for many people. Their silent lives, spread over decades or centuries, and even millennia, speak to us of survival and endurance. The almost magical experience of a walk in the woods has been proven to promote calm and balance in our bodies and souls. Even trees along our busy […]

These days, recycling is everywhere. We recycle everything from newspapers to car tires. But our gardens give us one of the most worthwhile opportunities around to recycle and get the benefits for ourselves. I am talking about garden recycling, or, as it is usually known, compost making. Our gardens generate quite a bit of waste […]

Winter is a time when the garden is quiet. Few shrubs or trees bloom, although in warmer areas there are a number that do – the fascinating Paperbush (Edgeworthia) for one. But for the most part our gardens in winter are a place for gentle reflection on the beauty of twigs, and the soft tones […]

As fall arrives, and the holidays are just a short few months away, red berries in the garden start to look like a great idea. There must be a million pictures out there of holly berries and snow, it is such an iconic Christmas image, but it remains an attractive and enduring one. That splash […]

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 […]

Gardeners fall into two camps when it comes to evergreens – those that love ‘em, and those that hate ‘em. Some people find them boring, since they don’t flower, and mostly keep their leaves all year, with little color change as the seasons pass. Others love them for exactly the same reasons – they give […]

Everyone loves Japanese maples, with their diversity of leaf color and form. Some are upright, some weeping, while some cascade elegantly over rocks and walls. Leaves may be green, or the coveted rich-reds that are always so popular. Their fall coloring is also varied and spectacular. Some have attractive seed clusters hanging from their bare […]

Planting shrubs is the best way to create form and structure in your garden, and working with a selection of different ones, both evergreen and deciduous, and large and small, is the way to create variety too. Getting the balance right, between mass planting and individual specimens, using different heights, and with different foliage types, […]

Now that spring is behind us, and summer has officially begun, don’t leave the pruning of your spring-flowering shrubs any longer. Ideally it should be done immediately after they flower, so for next year, make a note. However, ‘better late than never’, so if you didn’t do it yet, bring it to the top of […]

It sometimes seems that garden writers are obsessed with the ‘off’ seasons in the garden. There are endless blogs on flowers for spring, color in fall, how to have winter interest, but summer seems to be forgotten. Yet that is the time when almost everyone is in their garden, enjoying a vacation at home, barbecuing, […]

When organizing the layout of plants in your garden, making the best and most exciting arrangement you can is the key to making the ordinary look extraordinary. Most plants are basically rounded, and the eye tends to pass quickly over them. What gets our attention is vertical lines. There are quite a few plants that […]

Almost every garden has shade – and even if it begins as sunny, once trees and large shrubs develop, shady areas are almost inevitable. We can treat shade in two ways, as a problem, or as an opportunity. Once we see it as an opportunity to grow plants that prefer or even require shade, a […]

Bringing living green inside your house is a great way to improve your indoor space. Not only do plants add that special something to your rooms, softening the sharp angles of furniture, and filling corners effectively, but multiple studies have shown their amazing ability to remove polluting chemicals from the air. With plants in it, […]

When we look at the huge range of different trees and shrubs available for our gardens, we take it as a given that something new is always coming along – the latest variety of rose, like the arrival of the Knockout Rose, or the exciting twice-blooming Encore Azaleas. Like the latest models of our phones […]

When choosing plants for the garden, the words shade-tolerant, or grows in shade are regularly seen. The true situation with shade is a little more complicated than that, and a better understanding of the various kinds of shade found in gardens is helpful in making good choices, and avoiding costly failures. Let’s think about the […]

At this time of year, we look anxiously for the beginning of spring, especially those of us who live in cold areas, where April is merely the month when all the snow finally disappears. We might take a walk around our neighborhoods and see plants in bloom, but when we come back through the gate […]

The succession of flowering shrubs through the seasons is a large part of the beauty of a garden, bringing interest to every part of the year. Yet in many gardens the shrubs are overgrown, and often flower poorly because of incorrect pruning. A little understanding can go a long way to help that, and it […]

Camellias are the aristocrats of the garden. They stand majestic, wrapped in rich green and glossy leaves all summer, and then when winter comes they burst into bloom, bringing exotic forms and rich colors to the garden when most other flowers have finished blooming. By choosing several varieties, it is possible to have camellias in […]

Let’s be honest, roses have a reputation for being difficult. While most people love those big blooms, especially from the flower shop, growing them in gardens has faded from a high-point reached perhaps 50 years ago. As the world got busier, people had less time for their gardens, less time for the detailed pruning and […]

Hedges are important garden features, for privacy, shelter and appearance. Evergreen hedges are always the most popular, since they give protection 365 days a year, and often the need is greatest in the winter, just when a deciduous hedge is bare and open. That doesn’t mean deciduous hedges are not a good choice in many […]

Finding enough room in your garden for all the plants you want to grow can be a challenge. As well, many gardens have large blank walls of wood, brick or stone, or fences around the property. These tend to be forgotten when planning the garden, but they offer lots of interesting opportunities for growing plants. […]

Spring is the great highlight of the gardening year, always with a profusion of color, scent and interest from all kinds of flowering plants. Just when exactly that great moment arrives depends on where you live and what kind of weather we have had. There is a way to encourage spring to arrive as soon […]

Gardening in sight of the sea presents special challenges. Most plants are sensitive to salt, which draws water from the leaves and roots by the process of osmosis. However, as the saying goes, ‘Nature abhors a vacuum’, and numerous plants have evolved mechanisms that protect them, and allow them to grow in areas where nothing […]

Introduction There are many evergreen trees to choose from for the garden, but one of the most useful is the Arborvitae, or Thuja. These soft-leaved, upright trees grow in a wide range of climates and soil conditions. They make excellent specimens and are among the very best trees available for making hedges and screens, a […]