Plant lust has come to this – 4 trips to 1 garden center in one day
Bob Hill returns after an epic shopping spree. Enchantment overtakes him. Few of us tillers of the soil plan on visiting the same [...]
Bob Hill, Ranter Emeritus
Finding the right place for new plants turns into a magical adventure
Mid-May planting fever. Eight already full acres and an old golf cart from which to explore. Where to put what? Again. There is no path least taken. They've all been [...]
Porch Postulating on 45 Years in One Garden
High on a Hill in Utica, Indiana A few very random thoughts while sitting in a screened-in back porch in Utica Indiana in early April of 2020 while [...]
On finding a cool plant – confessions of a box-store shopper
Curcuma at hidden hill below our Watering Can Man The curcuma plants were in black, plastic three-gallon containers near the entrance to a local box store, and not [...]
Right Plant, Right Place in my Garden of Low Expectations – the Junque Garden
The flowers – annuals and perennials and a few that hadn’t yet made up their minds which way to go – were stuck in a far corner of our greenhouse, [...]
From Rehab to a “Welcome Home” Garden
So, OK, I’m lucky; not every driveway offers 300 feet of "Welcome Home." I understand that. What I’m talking about here is concept; the need to plant something special at [...]
Quince, Kerria and Dwarf Flowering Almond – Great Shrubs for Spring
As spring roars in behind its exuberant parade of dogwood, redbud, magnolia and cherry trees I sit ready to praise a trio of shrubs that bring me almost as much [...]
Yes, Virginia, bluebells also grow in Indiana
National Park Service photo Geographically speaking, my always stunning crop of Virginia Bluebells got to Indiana from a plant nursery in West Virginia. But as is often the [...]
Seen at Tucson Botanical Gardens
Photo credit: Tucson Botanical Gardens So there we were at the Tucson Botanical Gardens 1,800 miles from our house and still feeling right at home. The good botanical gardens [...]
How Do You Cut Down a Family Tree?
Monet's Giverny - our inspiration. Don't laugh. It’s been more than 30 years since we began converting our eight acres of cow pasture into a mini-arboretum and sculpture [...]
Gardening inspiration on my hottub wall, one quote at a time
As winter moves in, gardening inspiration lives indoors on the walls of our sunlit plant room from November to March, pithy little sayings that are written on wood, steel and [...]
Ending 19 Wonderful Years in the Nursery Business
As anyone who has ever opened a small, home-grown retail nursery can tell you, the economic reality for such is straight out of the veteran horse gambler’s prayer: Lord, I [...]