The Garden Diaries Blog
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A garden/floral designer who has had a trowel in hand and dirty fingernails since I was four years old, I have over 30 years of hands-on experience. I am Claire - a writer, consultant, teacher, lecturer, beekeeper, and garden designer. I love to write about all my successes and failures (many of these!) in gardening.
The Garden Diaries Blog
4d ago
Keeping honey bee hives means you will likely encounter swarms, honeybees that split off from a mother colony. A natural reproduction process, swarming can happen to any beekeeper, so you should be prepared when it occurs. It is a sight to behold when the swarm is in full flight. The season of swarms is typically ..read more
The Garden Diaries Blog
1w ago
Lilies are my favorite flower. They last a long time in the garden, are usually fragrant, make great cut flowers, and pollinators flock to them. Oh, and they are so easy to grow! All these attributes make lilies my go-to flower to plant every year to increase my varieties. But some lilies just increase ..read more
The Garden Diaries Blog
2w ago
In my garden travels around the world, I am always looking for new and different plants. After a recent visit to Sissinghurst, I observed a plant that I really wanted to try at home, having never seen it before. Beautiful in flower, the foliage is quite attractive too. Cerinthe major atropurpurea , featured at ..read more
The Garden Diaries Blog
2w ago
Native vines are a totally underused plant in Mid-Atlantic gardens. Filling gaps, covering walls and fences, and a great vertical element in any garden, vines can be used to attract native butterflies and insects to your garden. Vines are useful if you don’t have a ton of vertical room and usually grow quickly and form ..read more
The Garden Diaries Blog
1M ago
As a landscape designer, an increasingly frequent request from clients is getting rid of their lawn and replacing with more natural alternatives, like a pollinator friendly meadow. Water hogging and pesticide laden lawns are being replaced nowadays with different varieties of grasses, flowering plants (weeds!), and other perennials. Rewilding is a term that is being ..read more
The Garden Diaries Blog
1M ago
Have you seen a little yellow flower that you think is very cute blooming on your property??? It forms a ground covering mat of glossy green heart shaped leaves punctuated by buttercup like flowers. You might have looked at it and thought it was the first sign of spring! If your answer is yes, get ..read more
The Garden Diaries Blog
2M ago
Grape Hyacinth (Muscari armeniacum) is an early blooming, perennial bulb in the Lily Family (Liliaceae) native to southeastern Europe. Not a true Hyacinth, the common name comes from the resemblance of the clusters of the small, bell-shaped, cobalt-blue flowers to upside-down clusters of grapes. Grape hyacinth is hardy in zones 3-9. Many people dismiss these common ..read more
The Garden Diaries Blog
2M ago
Top 10 Deer Strategies Having observed so many people get frustrated and ready to throw in the towel because of deer and rabbits, gave me the impetus to write this article. Taking all the pleasure out of gardening, animals can be a ongoing annoying and expensive problem, but that doesn’t mean it is insurmountable. There ..read more
The Garden Diaries Blog
3M ago
There are so many flowers that you can use before cold temps subside in the spring (below 35 degrees Fahrenheit at night) that I make up at least a half dozen containers to cheer me up after a long cold winter. Having hung up my winter coat and wearing a light fleece, I am ready ..read more
The Garden Diaries Blog
3M ago
Sunny yellow blooms fringed with a fringed ruff poking through snow is my first sign that spring has sprung. Eranthis hyamalis, or Winter Aconite, in the buttercup family, is a spring ephemeral, which means that it is a short-lived plant above ground with a burst of blooms, then disappears, remaining under ground until next winter ..read more