Stories of gardening, including design, techniques, and the occasional “how-to.”
How do you calculate the value large trees bring to homes? How do we tally the annual unnecessary loss of such trees caused by irrational fears?
I don't find brown, lifeless plants particularly interesting. Many don't have any notable form or shape. They're just dead things sticking up with maybe some seeds or pods at the [...]
Just because we CAN do a thing, doesn’t mean we SHOULD do a thing or even MUST do a thing. This applies as equally to saving tender plants as it [...]
I am sitting in our back porch on my first official visit of 2023. A half-dozen frogs have broken into the porch over the winter. One is reading, two [...]
It’s probably now obvious to everyone why Buffalo gardeners might not put too much effort into gardening for “winter interest.” Here, winter survival - or, more accurately, blizzard survival - [...]
“Next year I promise not to buy any more plants until I have planted all the ones that are currently stored in the garage because I didn’t get around to [...]
Yes, I know. We could have done with this post about two months ago. But two months ago I was planting bulbs and didn’t have time to write it. Still, [...]
Hard Rake: "Tines down when I fall off the rack. Tines up when I'm laying on the ground. If he thinks I'm his friend, he's got another big knot on his forehead coming!"
Streetcleaners scrubbed downtown Louisville this week. No more sodden leaves. Christmas wreaths of evergreens, pinecones and red bows suggested hope; leftover curbside planters suggested otherwise. Our garden is betwixt and [...]
In truth, there's not a lot of difference between the 20 or so hornbeam species, so collecting them might have been a little crazy. Still, I’m glad I did. They're all really nice trees. I've got specimens scattered around the yard and I've given several away to friends who are now in my debt and, because of that, try their best to overlook the awful things I routinely say and do when I'm around them. One thing I'll say about hornbeams that I can't say about most of my friends, they look wonderful from a distance and even better up close.
Experiencing such a garden is the best way I can coax those new to gardening or the natural gardening movement to swap part or perhaps even all of lawn, beds of ground cover, or stands of invasive honeysuckle for plants that are more beneficial to nature and more attractive.
