How-to

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. A good remedy when I feel snappish and sorry for myself is to cross something off from my never-ending to-do list--preferably a project that has been hanging over my head for a while. That way, I get a morale boost from getting it done, [...]

Long time readers of this blog may remember when Saxon Holt wrote about hardy succulents way back in 2009. In that post, he talked about the challenges of choosing photos for a gardening book that will have a national audience. Today he shares some tips about photographing ornamental grasses. It's part of a blog tour [...]

I do sometimes wonder if gardening is an addiction. If so, I had a very abrupt withdrawal this year. One day, 55F and sunny, the next day, BAM! cold enough to snow. And every day it got colder and colder. Time for some hort therapy. And--I don't know about you--but many indoors plants just don't [...]

I am always looking to cram more color into spring.So when Longfield Gardens offered me the chance to try 25 Mystic Van Eijk tulips and 50 grape hyacinths, I was happy to take them up on it. But we have a lot of voles and chipmunks around here, which love to eat tulips. We also [...]

True confession: I have a secret desire to create a garden so spectacular that it will stop traffic. I know that's not realistic. For one thing, we don't have much traffic. If ten cars go by in an hour, we say, "Gosh, there sure is a lot of traffic on the road today." I'd settle [...]

If you've been following my back page, you probably already know that I've been invited to the 2014 version of P. Allen Smith's Garden2Blog. I'll be joining twenty-plus other bloggers for two jam-packed days of tours, demonstrations, and workshops, while squeezing in time to get to know my fellow bloggers and P. Allen Smith himself. [...]

The snow is melting, but not fast enough to suit me. I've already taken pictures of where the snow melts first, so I know where to plant my spring-flowering bulbs this fall. In the spirit of making lemonade out of lemons, I realized this lingering snow was the perfect opportunity to outline a new garden [...]

In case you are just joining in: About two-and-a-half years ago our family moved from our long-time rural home to a different 19th-century farm house about twenty-five minutes from our previous one. I have been renovating the landscape around the house in a non-systematic frenzy and writing about it as time permits. (Previous posts are [...]

A guest post about Meiwa kumquat trees for a blog about gardening in cold climates? Oh, yes. If you have a sunny spot in your yard in summer and a south- or south-west-facing window in your house, you'll love this little tree. I live in suburban Maryland, and am the happy owner of the two [...]