trees

Mulch Can Kill Trees

– Posted in: Garden chores, How-to

Mulch can kill trees--that sounds kind of extreme, doesn't it? But it caught your attention, right? I suppose it would be more accurate to say improper mulching can kill trees, but as I look around me, improper mulching of trees seems to be the standard practice, the only kind of mulching around trees that's being [...]

Time: The Essence of a Garden (Garden Notes, No. 5, 2011)

– Posted in: Design, Lilactree Farm, Plant info, What's up/blooming

Herbert Butterfield's essay (The Whig Interpretation of History) was an attack on liberal triumphalism [i.e., the 'Whig interpretation']…Whig history purveyed a concept of progress as the central theme of English history…It has become common among historians to speak of 'whig history' for any subjection of history to what is essentially a teleological view of the [...]

Two Plant-Related Children’s Books

– Posted in: Book reviews

I have pretty high standards when it comes to children's books. I don't like them to be preachy or didactic or otherwise disrespectful of the reader, who may or may not be a child. Last night D., my eight-year-old daughter, and I read two children's books by Kathryn O. Galbraith that I received as review [...]

Tree Survival Tips for Summer Heat

– Posted in: Garden Tweets, Plant info, Recommended Links

Tree Survival Tips for Summer Heat via The Wired Gardener http://bit.ly/bvVLTi. The Wired Gardener is a newsletter, now become a blog, of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's McClean Library. It almost always has a link to an online gardening resource I hadn't heard about, and now includes helpful blog posts about current gardening topics, such as [...]

American Beech

– Posted in: Native/Invasive

You just never know when you're going to run into a teachable moment. I mentioned on Twitter that I had hurt my back sliding downhill on newly fallen beech leaves, and someone from the South remarked that they had never seen a beech tree. Well! It's time you were acquainted. The American Beech (Fagus grandifolia) [...]

Early Pruning

– Posted in: Garden chores

Pruning the apple trees is a rite of spring. In past years I had a tendency to get started late and finish in a somewhat hurried splurge of activity—tinged with a bit of panic that perhaps I wouldn't get it done in time. This year I had to take a different approach. Since I'm no [...]

Edward Hamilton: Good gardening books, cheap

– Posted in: Book reviews

One of my favorite places to buy gardening books is Edward Hamilton. They do sell some new books, but most of them are remainders and closeouts. No problem when it comes to gardening books, as they don't go out of date that fast and the good ones always bear re-reading. I hate buying books blind, [...]