I Hate my Arborvitae Hedge
I'm here to vent. In order to provide some enclosure and block the primary view from my house of a parking lot, I did the only thing that my co-op's [...]
Susan Harris
Susan’s a garden writer, teacher and activist in the Washington, D.C. area. Co-founder of GardenRant, she also wrote for national gardening magazines and independent garden centers before retiring in 2014. Now she has time for these projects:
- Founding the pro-science educational nonprofit Good Gardening Videos that finds and promotes the best videos on YouTube for teaching people to garden.
- Creating DC Gardens, the nonprofit campaign to promote the public gardens of the Washington, D.C. area, and gardening by locals.
- Creating and editing the nonprofit website Greenbelt Online to serve her adopted hometown of Greenbelt, Maryland (a “New Deal Utopia” founded in 1937).
Susan rants about anything that misinforms or discourages gardeners – from old-school quacks to mistaken do-gooders to local laws that mandate conformity.
Contact Susan via email or by leaving a comment on one of her articles.
September Visit to the Smithsonian Gardens
I feel lucky every time I ride the subway down to the National Mall, where the many museums and gardens are free - and fabulous. I did that recently and [...]
Scott Beuerlein Wins 2 Gold Awards at GardenComm 2019!
Saturday night in Salt Lake City was awfully good to GardenRanter Scott Beuerlein. First he collected a gold GardenComm Media Award for writing his magazine column. In the photo above [...]
First Comic Film Ever was about Gardening
I have a back-to-school post! Readers may remember my posts about the History of Landscape course I took last semester at the University of Maryland (as a free-tuition retiree – [...]
Easy Rain Gardens, Walk-in Tomato Cages and More from a Baltimore Master Gardener
Robert Cook in rain garden, with elderberry. My post about a recent tour of Baltimore gardens omitted one because it was SO interesting, I wanted to go back and [...]
Deer-Driven Container Re-Do – no more Sweet Potato Vine!
'Standing Ovation' Little Bluestem. Credit: North Creek Nurseries. Got deer? Then you relate to this sad before-and-after duo. I'd planted the red Iresine 'Blazin' Rose' there before, with [...]
Lotus Festival for ‘Grammers and Regular Photographers
There's only one national park dedicated to aquatic plants, and that's Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, located surprisingly IN the District of Columbia. I was there in Mid-July for their Lotus and [...]
DC is Tops in Green Roofs! Some Actual Good News
Did you know that Washington, D.C., with 1.2 million square feet of green roofs as of 2014, won bragging rights as the greenest U.S. city? No, really. (Source: EcoWatch.) If [...]
When Guerrilla Gardening is Just Stupid
Back in 2013 I wrote approvingly of DC's "Phantom Planter" and his planting of flowers in public spaces without permission - guerrilla-style. But with his latest attempt to beautify the [...]
How to Get Poison Ivy Off Your Skin and Avoid Getting it There in the First Place
Anyone else gardening around poison ivy? How to Remove Poison Ivy Oil on your Skin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oyoDRHpQK0 I've been wondering what to do about the poison ivy in my garden, so [...]
Great Gardens of Baltimore!
I've become a fan of the Maryland Horticultural Society, which attracts big-name speakers and puts on the very best garden tour in the Mid-Atlantic, if you ask me. So I [...]
Glenstone in May Makes Eco-Landscaping Look Great
From left, Jon Sander, Matthew Partain, and Paul Tukey. When I showed you Glenstone in Winter last December I promised return visits throughout the year. Well, last week [...]