Planting a steep bank is one of gardening’s worst challenges. When the bank is covered in weeds, pock-marked with rocks the size of riding-mower engines, and obscured by poison ivy, wild grape vines, and wintercreeper vines growing 40 feet up half-dead trees, it’s more nightmare than challenge. That’s what I faced in […]
I hope you’re staying on top of the garden-watering. Yeah, water is expensive, and watering the plants eats up a lot of time. But the alternative in a dry, blistering July spell like this can be even more costly in terms of dead plants. When temperatures rise into the 90s day after […]
There’s usually at least one suitable plant for any planting situation. But I have nothing to tell the guy who emailed me looking for an evergreen he can use to give dense privacy in the shade of his mature trees. Jim said he had tried interspersing ‘Green Giant’ arborvitae (an excellent plant) […]
A little virus named Covid-19 changed the way the whole world works. One of the changes has been in how we communicate in group settings. Whether it’s a teacher in front of a class or a speaker at a conference, the whole concept of group talks got swept away overnight. To […]
Two tenets of gardening that really fell out of favor in the last generation were growing vegetables and starting plants from seeds. Both were victims of convenience. Why dig, sweat, lug, and get dirty trying to grow your own food when you can just go to the store and buy whatever you […]
Three more garden trips that I was going to lead this year through Lowee’s Group Tours are now off, victims of the lingering coronavirus pandemic and the uncertainties it’s brought. Both of our June day trips – the June 18 trip to the new Delaware Botanic Gardens and Mt. Cuba Center and the […]
One of the odder things you’ll sometimes see in nature this time of year is little green balls about the size of Ping-Pong balls. Sometimes they’re very light-weight and papery with white fibers inside. Other times, they’re spongy – almost like over-ripened, mini green apples. People usually don’t know what to make […]
A lot of gardeners are trying to lean native in the landscape these days. Trees are one of the easiest ways to do that because, fortunately, many native Pennsylvania and U.S. tree species are as functional survival-wise and wildlife-friendly-wise as they are beautiful and “well behaved.” If you’re planning to add a […]
I got an email from Cathy in Camp Hill wondering what to do about her 70-by-70-foot lawn that’s so overrun with weeds that there’s barely any grass left. “I’m die-hard eco-friendly,” she says, “and I really don’t want to use anything toxic to the birds I feed or the insects they eat.” […]
Be on the lookout for some new little bugs crawling around that you might never have seen before. The spotted lanternfly – that voracious new bug from Asia that was discovered in Berks County in 2014 – has officially spread into Cumberland, York, and Perry counties in addition to Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon. It’s […]