Peat moss has long been our go-to, store-bought, plant-growing medium, useful for everything from starting seeds to growing potted plants to “lightening” our lousy clay soil. But its widespread use is under fire lately as some argue that gardeners should move away from peat moss altogether for environmental and climate-change reasons. The […]
The designers of Penn State Arboretum’s new Pollinator and Bird Garden leaned heavily on research to determine the features, layout, and plant selection of this three-acre garden, which opened last month just down Park Avenue from Beaver Stadium. Spots of it are very colorful already. But what struck me during my opening-day […]
For better or worse (mostly for worse), it’s time to rethink how we garden in our new and changing climate conditions. This summer served up a model for what climate researchers and horticulturists say we should get used to in the coming years – warmer winters, earlier springs, hotter/drier summers, increasingly erratic changes […]
This is a classic tale of a good guy turned bad… except the star is a tree instead of a movie villain. It’s about the ornamental or “callery” pear, that hard-to-kill spring beauty that blooms white in yards, parking lots, and along streets all over Pennsylvania and beyond. When it came to […]
Native plants help draw and feed pollinators, but that doesn’t mean non-natives are useless to wildlife.
Here’s an article on an interesting native-plant talk by entomologist Dr. Doug Tallamy and author Rick Darke that made the case for why we should plant more native plants.
Native plants make good sense in the garden. But that doesn’t mean we should plant nothing but natives… or feel guilty about our peonies and hydrangeas.
As our latest experience with the emerald ash borer shows, it’s a bad idea to plant too much of the same thing everywhere. Diversity is a way to hedge our plant bets.
The conventional wisdom of tilling the garden at the end of season is wrong, at least when it comes to water pollution and managing the No. 1 plant nutrient, nitrogen.
One way to attract pollinators and reduce mowing is to convert large, open lawn space into a meadow — in other words, “meadowscaping.” Here’s how and why…