How-to

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 [...]

When I first started gardening, the "proper" way to prepare a garden bed was double digging. I wouldn't recommend that for anything except really long-lived plants, like peonies and asparagus. These days many people recommend lasagna gardening or something similar. I tried that, and it didn't work too well for me. The biggest mistake I [...]

It happens to all of us. At least, it happens to me and a lot of other gardeners I know. Winter is right around the corner and you have all these plants in pots that you were sure you were going to have time to plant during the growing season. And now the growing season [...]

Last weekend the last stage of the front walk project was completed. Every stone had to be leveled and the gaps between stones filled in.That's how my sons did it, at least. A lot of people would use sand for the leveling and joint-filling, but they thought the crushed bluestone would stay put better. They [...]

The path project, on hold for weeks, finally took a step forward this past weekend. The split blue stone from the quarry arrived last week, three large pallets worth. The stone came in a variety of thickness and sizes, from half an inch thick to three inches thick, and from one foot in diameter to [...]

Because my 'Josef Lemper' hellebore was turning yellow, I decided to contact my source for advice. This plant was sent to me to try out in my garden compliments of Skagit Gardens, so I contacted Rhonda Jennings, who sent me the sample, to see what she thought. The best thing to do, if you haven’t [...]

Gardening experience, for the most part, is accrued bit by bit, as decisions are made to do this chore before the other, plants die and we know why--or we don't--and mental notes are made about what is blooming when. But every so often, the gardener has an epiphany, a light bulb moment. These milestones represent [...]