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,…
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Get all the latest insight into the world of plants, from experts.
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…
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…
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…
An Update for the PG Hydrangea
Travel in late summer through the colder states, especially in the north-east, and everywhere – in parks, private gardens, and even cemeteries – you will see a bush with large white flower heads,…
Native Trees from the Four Corners of the Country
A big trend in gardening is growing native plants. This began with wildflowers, but it has spread to trees and shrubs too, especially with all the alarming stories of invasive species escaping gardens…
Jump-start Spring with These 5 Early-blooming Shrubs
Especially in colder parts of the country, it can be a long wait for spring. When the snow begins to melt, and the days lengthen, we can become impatient to see some signs…
5 Steps to the Best Garden Beds Ever
Everyone knows that in real estate the secret is ‘location, location, location’, but many gardeners don’t realize that the secret of good gardens is ‘soil, soil, soil’. That doesn’t mean you have to…
Spring is Coming – 5 Steps to Get Your Garden Ready
After the cold, dreary months of winter, spring has a habit of jumping out at us, and taking us by surprise. We may be grateful to see her (or him), but we are…
Pollinate Your Citrus Trees for a Bumper Crop
Growing oranges, lemons, limes or other citrus fruits in pots is a popular activity. Planting them in a container means you can grow your own citrus, no matter where you live. They spend…
Useful Tips for Pruning Fruit Trees
As winter moves hesitantly into spring, and the worst weather has passed in your area, its time to turn your thoughts to preparing the garden for another season. If you are lucky enough…
Easy Winter Pruning for Great Summer Flowering
In some parts of the country the first signs of spring are already showing. In colder places there is some time to go yet, but it is not too soon to start some…
5 Amazing Shrubs That Flower in Winter
If you live in warmer parts of the country, where winter is shorter, and days above freezing are common, then your garden doesn’t have to be a blank canvas of twigs and leaves…
4 Things to Know About Your Garden Soil
No two places on the planet have exactly the same soil, although sometimes similar types of soil can cover large areas. Plants growing in a particular place have adapted over millions of years…
Making Compost at Home, Part 2
In our last blog we talked about the basics of compost making. Making this ‘black gold’ from garden and kitchen waste is not only a fantastic way to put goodness into your soil,…
Make Your Own Compost – Part 1
The word ‘organic’ has many meanings these days, and most people probably think of ‘food grown without chemicals’ when they hear it. An older meaning is, ‘made from something natural’, and that meaning…
5 Steps to Know Your Garden Better
This quiet time in the garden, when not much is happening, is the perfect time to check out your garden, and learn more about it. The biggest stumbling-block in creating a beautiful garden…
5 Trees That Make the Perfect Gift
Gift-giving is a big part of the holiday season. Besides family and friends, it is common to give gifts to pets too – a bone for the dog, a catnip mouse for the…
7 Great Evergreens for Winter Interest
As the first snow settles in northern areas of the country, and the fall colors become a memory everywhere, the smart gardener has by now cut down or dug up their flowering plants,…
Garden Plants for Holiday Decorating
The ideal garden is one for all seasons, and that includes the most important one of all – the Holiday Season. Many people decorate a spruce or fir in their garden with lights…
The Star Magnolia – Star of the Cold Garden
Even the name has a magical ring, and magnolia trees are among the most beautiful trees in the garden. Sometimes they can be confusing, because there are two distinct groups. So when a…
5 Ways to Give Your Trees Their Brightest Fall Colors
As the days shorten, and the weather becomes cooler, the grim prospect of winter is softened by the glories of fall. For a short time, our trees surrounded us in the brilliance of…
Trees in Containers – Perfect for the Smaller Garden. Part 2
When we started talking about growing trees in pots and planters, there was so much to say about choosing a container, soil, planting and pruning, that we never got around to looking at…
Trees in Containers – Perfect for the Smaller Garden. Part 1
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…
Making Compost at Home
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….
Flowering Evergreens for Year-Round Interest
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…
Holly Berries for Every Garden
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…
American Boxwood – More Versatile Than You Thought
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…
Fall – the Ideal Season for Planting Trees
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…
Top Drought Resistant Trees and Shrubs
With summer in full swing, and many people on holiday, plants in the garden can suffer in the typical dry conditions at this time of year. This may not be an exceptional summer…
Some Interesting Evergreens for Gardens
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…
Summer Care of Japanese Maple
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…
Tips on Placing Shrubs in Your Garden
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…
Time to Prune Spring-flowering Shrubs – Part One
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…
Bring Lots of Color to Your Summer Garden
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…
Dramatic Vertical Garden Accents
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…
Hydrangea – Queen of the Shade
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…
Basic Care of Houseplants
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…
Where Do New Plant Varieties Come From?
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…
Understanding Shade in the Garden
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…
Plants for Early Spring Blooming
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…
Tips on Pruning Shrubs and Flowering Trees
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…
Roses as Landscape Plants
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…
Colorful Hedges for Any Garden
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…
Growing Plants on Walls
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…
Flowering Trees and Shrubs for Early Spring
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…
Best Plants for the Coast
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,…