Do not miss Friend of Rant Jeff Gillman’s hilarious appearance on The Martha Stewart Show. Can I just say that I love Martha and have always loved her for this surprising candor, which she’s demonstrated a million times? (Though not necessarily when questioned about ImClone.) Now I love her for having discovered how terrific Jeff [...]
Read more in: Designs, Tricks, and Schemes
Thoughts about our garden. “We desire,” the Emporer dictated, “that in the garden there should be all kinds of plants.” Charlemagne the Gre. […]
Body: posted by Holly Scoggins Of course we want to buy locally-grown plants! There are a gazillion sound reasons to do so. In a paper that may be f. […]
While reading the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens, I stumbled upon a new (to me) trend in outdoor living: Outdoor Televisions! Phew! It’s. […]
photo by Jill Goodell I wish I could achieve something approaching such a sophisticated use of chartreuse in my garden. Gecko at the Turtle Bay Exploration Park in Redding, CA above. Moss on a tree at Mount Lassen below.
Read more in: Designs, Tricks, and Schemes200,000 lights—by terren in Virginia (Flickr)) It wouldn’t be December if we didn’t have at least one post featuring bizarre lighting displays. This year, I found this site. One example from the many, many over-the-top illumination scenes you’ll find is above. Thanks, Neatorama, for the link. I am also...
Read more in: Designs, Tricks, and SchemesMonkey-puzzle tree at McConnell Arboretum I like to think I could garden anywhere. I think I know all the secrets, all two of them: mulch regularly, and obtain composted manure by any means necessary, whether that means panicking the horses, children, and instructors at the barn where your daughter...
Read more in: Designs, Tricks, and SchemesI love this benzene-shaped aluminum trellis: light, strong, hip. My sister-in-law got it at Ikea for $4.99 a section. Clearly, the world could use a little more Sweden in its garden ornaments.
Read more in: Designs, Tricks, and SchemesOn the theory that our readers should have occasional relief from my dreadful work with a camera, we’ve asked photographer Rich Pomerantz to do a guest rant for us. Rich’s book Great Gardens of the Berkshires has just been published, and it features delightful and inspiring private gardens, as...
Read more in: Designs, Tricks, and SchemesIn a manner of speaking. This is our second year with a water feature, and I am beginning to recognize its value. Sure, there have been some emotional ups and downs, the same that attend any major gardening project. Between the time that we first decided to have a...
Read more in: Designs, Tricks, and SchemesLooks like it might be a long, cold winter for many, with the family finances making a tropical getaway improbable (or more improbable than usual). A bunch of us gardeners on the Plurk network have been talking about darker days and subsequent light deprivation; even our Texan mentioned it....
Read more in: Designs, Tricks, and SchemesThe best thing about tazettas is that you can grow them without dirt; in fact, you should. The bulbs can’t sit in water; using pebbles in a clear glass container lets you make sure they’re not. There’s something perverse and kind of cool about using deliberately non-organic media for...
Read more in: Designs, Tricks, and SchemesAs Susan continues to struggle with a groundcover anti-lawn, I am once again contemplating the meadow concept with some help from The New York Times. As Jane Garver reports there, a 40-acre meadow in Connecticut is finally matured, nine years after it was started. It has waves of liatris,...
Read more in: Designs, Tricks, and SchemesGardening magazines and especially television shows seem deeply enamored with firepits these days, which has got me thinking about my long-forgotten chimnea – bought about 10 years ago and used exactly twice. Here it is and sure, it’s good-looking but what I soon learned is that only about a...
Read more in: Designs, Tricks, and SchemesA Garden of Color This article in the LA Times made me more curious about Robert Irwin’s work on the garden at the Getty Center than I’d ever been and more interested in seeing it. Of course, I’ve always wanted to see the museum, having only seen the old...
Read more in: Designs, Tricks, and SchemesP.S. 1 in Long Island City is an outgrowth of Manhattan’s Museum of Modern Art. There’s generally something cool going on there, though I have not visited in a while. This summer I’m intrigued by one of their latest projects, Public Farm 1, which has veggies growing in cardboard...
Read more in: Designs, Tricks, and SchemesUPDATE: Lisa A. wins the book. I, too, agree with much of what she says. On the outdoor kitchens, maybe a return to a simple kettle grill, which cooks the food better anyway? Clueless. I must admit I’m clueless on this one, dear readers. I (and I assume all...
Read more in: Designs, Tricks, and SchemesOver on NPR’s Talking Plants, Ketzel Levine posted about my throwing in the towel as a radical front-yard farmer and said this: No doubt I particularly love her blog post because I’m constantly having to defend my decision to have an ornamental-only garden. Never mind that I don’t cook;...
Read more in: Designs, Tricks, and SchemesAnd a pretty trivial one it is, I am sure, to many of you. I do a lot of container gardening though, to soften the edges of my hardscape-filled space, so this is the type of dilemma I frequently ponder. From last year: I think all 3 of these...
Read more in: Designs, Tricks, and SchemesEveryone should win. I’ve never read a more hilarious, pathetic, and, yes, inspiring group of gardening stories. Though I did have to pick winners, at least Fine Gardening is nice enough to award subscriptions to three runners up. Here they are and very brief excerpts from their stories (visit...
Read more in: Designs, Tricks, and SchemesEvery gardening season, there’s at least one major goal or project that I’d like to accomplish in addition to adding and replacing plants, and keeping everything alive and decent-looking. Last year was the Year of the Pond. My husband and I auditioned three possible pond designers, fought a hell...
Read more in: Designs, Tricks, and SchemesLast year a giant mechanical flower was the talk of Chelsea Trend predictions: how I love them—the sillier the better. And happily for me, trend predictions happen at least three or four times a year in the gardening world. First the New Year’s crop, then a second wave during...
Read more in: Designs, Tricks, and SchemesYou may remember I posted here about the gorgeous conservatory designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Darwin Martin’s estate in Buffalo. After being demolished, it has recently been rebuilt. If you’re interested, you can read more about it in this month’s Garden Design, in an article written by no...
Read more in: Designs, Tricks, and Schemes, Real Gardens
Commented on The Animals and Garden Amenities of Plantsman David Culp { What a perfect garden and I love that you loved the STUFF. Stuff can be a no no to some of the more snobish garden... } – May 25, 10:14 AM
Commented on Cats in the Garden - Solutions Only { In my experience, the presence of domestic cats does have an impact on the wildlife levels in a garden. By wildlife I mean birds, rodents,... } – May 25, 8:05 AM
Commented on The Animals and Garden Amenities of Plantsman David Culp { How? Serendipity! a Locust tree with a know hole to fill ... beautiful. } – May 25, 6:28 AM
Commented on When Food is Too Convenient for Our Own Good { Good point, Sandra. Pollan's been accused of being slightly tone-deaf about the uneven (and gendered) distribution of labor that necessarily follows sustainable and self-sufficient living.... } – May 25, 6:13 AM
Commented on Roses redux { I have never heard that before. What a great tip! My second most favorite rose, Therese Bugnet, is seldom bothered by Japanese beetles (or anything... } – May 24, 8:55 PMWe are:
perfect
magazine
gardens.
Gardening
our
asses
off.
Having a
hell of a lot
of fun.
