One of the tricky parts about vegetable gardening is knowing exactly when to plant each crop. Some need to go in the garden early so they’re done and ready by the time the weather gets hot. Others will croak if you plant too soon. Still others have two different planting windows, […]
Five hydrangeas with new twists, a compact new native Virginia sweetspire, and a “baby brother” to the popular ‘Green Giant’ arborvitae are among the best new trees and shrubs hitting the market for the 2022 growing season. Growers, local garden centers, and other plant experts picked the following dozen woody plants for the […]
Compact versions of two popular native plants, three new ornamental grasses with golden blades, and two new dark-leafed flowers top the list of interesting new perennials debuting in the 2022 growing season. Growers, local garden centers, and other plant experts picked the following 14 perennial-flower choices for the annual four-part, best-new-plants series I […]
A new heavy-blooming petunia with petite white flowers, two new flowers you’ve probably never seen before, and the world’s first trailing salvia are among a banner slate of interesting new annual flowers debuting in the 2022 growing season. Growers, local garden centers, and other plant experts picked those and more for the four-part, […]
The COVID-fueled boom in vegetable gardening continued in 2021, and research is showing a high percentage of newbies say they plan to stick with this dirty (but healthy) habit again in 2022. Plant breeders and seed companies are riding the wave by rolling out lots of new edible-plant introductions this year. Let’s […]
Will we stick with it? That’s the big question the gardening industry is wondering after some 18 million new gardeners took to the soil in 2020 as COVID forced people to stay at home. At least so far, the gardening boom is showing no sign of a let-up. Seeds and plants […]
If you wonder why Japanese barberries aren’t in garden centers next spring, it’s because Pennsylvania has banned the sale of this popular little thorny-stemmed shrub as a harmfully invasive plant. Japanese barberries have been a landscape staple for decades because they’re heat- and drought-tough, deer don’t like them, they’re compact, they aren’t commonly […]
Most people use their pots for posies – primarily petunias, geraniums, coleus, and other annuals that get planted each May and yanked each October. Then the pots get tucked away for winter until frost stops knocking at the door the following spring. Hardly anyone uses pots to grow woody plants – i.e. […]
Tree leaves that brown around the edges, develop spots, shrivel, and even drop prematurely worry a lot of gardeners. After all, healthy leaves are supposed to stay on our trees until they turn color in fall and drop naturally, right? When that doesn’t happen – as it did in a lot of […]
It’s hard to believe three years have gone by since my wife and I moved from our long-time home (and gardens) in Cumberland County to the suburbs of Pittsburgh. The house we bought was in worse shape than it looked, and we’ve spent a ton of money and sweat equity fixing everything. […]