I love a beautiful Japanese Garden. I’ve visited many in Kyoto, Japan, and a few here in the US. I recently bought a book on Japanese gardens in order to add some elements and characteristics to my garden. I encourage gardeners to contemplate these elements as possible additions to their own gardens. Reasoning behind the love of a Japanese Garden. I know why I love a Japanese Garden – it is because they are so very calming. I’m avoiding the word “Zen” because that is a specific garden type in Japan. But in reading about them, I’ve learned a couple of the reasons they are so calming. They are n ..read more

I was reading my copy of Horticulture magazine this month (March 2022) and I noticed a curious phrase coined by Dr. Doug Tallamy. Dr. Tallamy is a professor at the University of Delaware and the Author of Nature’s Best Hope and Bringing Nature Home. The phrase was “Landscape Art”. Landscape Landscaping is defined as “…all the visible features of an area of countryside or land, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.” (From the Oxford dictionary on the web.) Let’s break this weighty sentence down. To my mind, “the visible features” means things you see that are a feature or aspect ..read more

There is light at the end of the COVID tunnel. We hope. For us gardeners, COVID has only enhanced our compulsion to be outside digging around in the dirt. I’ve been cooped up like normal for winter, but add the isolation of two years of COVID and its variants, and I am so very ready to be outdoors, attending symposiums, and shopping at garden centers. Spring is coming! The impact of COVID on gardening The website called “Plant Addicts” says that gardening interest jumped during COVID. Not only were people forced to have “staycations”, they were also working from home. In general, home improve ..read more

I just finished mulching most of my garden.  Every January/February I get out there before too many things have started to sprout, and after the leaves have finished dropping.  I hope this post will encourage you to get out there and mulch! Why mulch? Mulch has many benefits.  It conditions the soil; cuts down on weed growth; helps retain moisture during hot months and keeps plants warmer in freezing temps. My soil is rock-hard clay.  I’ve mulched almost every year for nine years, and now my soil is dark and rich and easy to plant.  This texture is called soil “tilth ..read more

Late February is what I like to call “Winterspring”. This is when winter is showing signs of losing its grip, spring is starting to appear, but it’s still too cold to go out in the garden most days. And the garden centers have not started receiving spring inventory. It’s an in-between time of hope and anticipation. Winterspring tasks Winterspring tasks are tasks that can be done in about an hour, which is about all of the cold weather I can bear in winter on a daily basis. Remove dead tree branches and twigs, confine leaves to the garden beds. Trees drop a lot of trash. One such tree is the Ri ..read more

One rule of my garden is to incorporate lots of color.  I want it like a kaleidoscope of color, and I want it nearly year round.  When I originally selected the perennials for my garden, I chose red salvia, yellow day lilies, pink and purple verbenas, blue hydrangeas; nothing was white.  It took me several years to realize that all garden color is enhanced by adding white.  White is a color, too! Contrast and Value One reason white is so important is that it provides the most contrast.  White is the punctuation point in the sentence of your garden.  It tells your ..read more

When it comes to anything, including gardening, science, knowledge and facts should carry more weight than opinion. I subscribe to a couple of gardening FaceBook pages, and I read several magazines. I’m also a Master Gardener, so I attend my regular meetings and I love symposiums. I regularly encounter gardening questions about routine garden issues. I usually try to answer the questions. The mission of the Master Gardening program is this: To select, train, and utilize knowledgeable volunteers to facilitate the educational work of the local Consumer Horticulture Agent, by delivering research ..read more

I recently had the great privilege of visiting Disney World with my grandchildren. As you enter Disney, the marquis overhead says “Welcome To Walt Disney World Where Dreams Come True“. That phrase ran through my mind as I walked the Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdoms. The gardens of Disney could be both ornamental and botanical, but either way, they are the gardens of dreams. Some is real, some is fake. Disney blurred the lines between dream and reality throughout the park. Everyone has seen the iconic garden mosaic above. Disneyland has it as well. It’s Mickey Mouse, done with yellow pansies ..read more

No, not a spelling error: I was fortunate to visit Colombia, South America in January. We were in Cartagena, and just outside the city is the Jardin Botanica de Cartagena “Guillermo Pineras”. What a treat! I thought it would be nice to share a bit of this tropical paradise. I’ll remind you first of a bit of geography, Colombia is located on the Northwest corner of the South American Continent. It’s coastline runs north from the western side of the continent from Ecuador, then curves north westward where it intersects the Panama isthmus. This short piece of land then gives way to more coastline ..read more

I’ve posted before about life lessons that I learn from my garden. This spring’s lesson was one about progress and change. Here’s the story: Rose Rosette I’ve had some spectacular years from my antique roses. I know I’ve recommended them to many. Antique roses are more resistant to molds, mildews and other pathogens. I grew “Buff Beauty”, “Souvenir de Mal Maison”, “Dutches du Brabant”, “Kron Princess Viktoria” and “Perl D’Orr”. They all flushed out each spring and fall with spectacular shades of pink and apricot and the entire area was perfumed. Last summer I started to notice bright red growt ..read more