How-to

Move over, hyacinths. Stand back, amaryllis. It's time for lily-of-the-valley to take center stage. Yes, lily-of-the-valley! Did you know you could force lily-of-the-valley indoors during the winter? It's not too hard at all, if you buy specially prepared roots. And the fragrance is wonderful, not to mention the pleasure of actually watching plants grow while it's snowing outside.

I love to walk the path through our woods. And maintaining them as I walk along them, I feel like I'm gardening in the depths of winter. If you have woods on your property, read how I've created these paths and start some of your own!

There is probably a machine that does what I did today, and does it faster, and maybe even does it better. But I don't know where I would find that machine, and even if I did, I probably wouldn't be able to afford it, not even to rent it. So it doesn't make any difference, except if I had done it with a machine, no one would think I was crazy. But I had a Vision of what I wanted to see come spring, and I was determined.

When I finally grasped the concept of placeholder plants, it changed my life. Well, what I mean is, it reduced my garden maintenance load and I enjoyed my garden more, with less work. Not precisely life-changing, but definitely life-improving. A placeholder plant is a garden-worthy plant that you happen to have a lot of, which [...]

Want to grow perennial Mediterranean herbs--specifically, rosemary, lavender, thyme, tarragon, oregano, and sage--in your cold climate garden? There's a secret to getting them through the winter, which I share in my latest blog post. Hint: it doesn't involve moving to a war

When we first moved here, a bridge across the creek was a fantasy, something that might happen someday if I somehow came into a lot of money. But this year, something changed. Actually, probably a lot of things changed, things inside of me as well as external things. But the proximate cause was my desire [...]

My son Rundy (a former contributor to this website) and his sweetheart Debbie announced their engagement mid-February. They got married on July 16th. I want to share our experiences doing the wedding flowers. (And by "our" I mean several people from both families.) I hope this will help you decide if you want to take [...]

My next webinar, Inspired Design Lessons Learned from Magnificent Gardens in England, Canada and the United States, will be on Thursday, January 26, 2017 at 2:00 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time). Breathtaking gardens will be the classroom for great take-away lessons that elevate landscapes from ordinary to spectacular! What better time than drab winter days to [...]

Kerry Ann says, "At this stage in my life, it seems I am downsizing many things - or better said right-sizing -although chocolate, coffee and coloring my hair are not on this list!  A few years ago I rolled up my sleeves and tackled what seemed to have become a mini-botanical garden in my yard. [...]