American gardeners love their azaleas, lilacs, and hydrangeas for the spectacular spring floral shows these classic shrubs put out. But after a year in the making, the show is over in two or three weeks. Wouldn’t it be nice if these plants could bloom longer… or better yet, bloom again in the same […]
It might be hot and dry, but we’re now nestled in that easy-going time frame of the gardening year that I like to call “putter time.” It’s a period of relative calm wedged between the two seasons of soil-jockey fury – spring (when it seems like everything needs to be done all at […]
Doctors can ask patients where and how it hurts to zero in on a diagnosis. It’s not as straightforward in the landscape when you’re trying to figure out what’s going wrong with your plants. Although plants can’t talk or point, they are good at giving us clues. We just have to pay […]
Way back when I was a Cub Scout leader, we started the year by having the boys discuss what the pack’s rules should be. The 8-year-olds’ first suggestion was, “No killing.” I wouldn’t have thought of that, but it was definitely a good place to start. That also happens to be […]
June is one of the busiest months of the year for pruning. It’s prime time to size-control the evergreens, trim the hedges, and thin out and cut back the flowering shrubs that bloomed earlier in spring, such as azaleas, lilacs, weigelas, and deutzias. For most people, pruning means getting out the power […]
I’ve been growing home-garden vegetables in Pennsylvania for 44 years now, which I suppose qualifies me as a seasoned, old, compost-stained soil jockey. Although I’ll admit I still can’t out-smart a groundhog or out-maneuver a deer, I have learned to circumvent many of the other obstacles that stand in the way of picking […]
If you’re like most gardeners, you’ll probably gravitate to the petunias, marigolds, zinnias, and begonias in the next few weeks because, well, that’s just what you plant every May. Most of these old-favorite annual flowers still do a reliable job in filling the beds with summer-long color. But if you’re willing to try […]
When is it “safe” to plant the tomatoes and summer flowers? That’s a question gardeners wring their compost-stained hands over every year at this time – especially the eager ones who don’t want to miss a day of potential frost-free grow time. Not that long ago, Harrisburg-area gardeners could rely on the […]
Organizations of growers, horticulturists, researchers, and other plant experts each year bestow assorted awards on what they believe to be the best of the best plants. Some of these award-winners are new introductions. Others are under-known or under-appreciated oldies-but-goodies that deserve more use in home gardens. Here’s a look at plants that […]
Another warm winter has faked the landscape into acting like we’re farther ahead on the calendar than we really are. That’s not a problem if the weather course stays full steam ahead. So long as temperatures don’t nosedive in the coming weeks, the upshot is that we’ll simply have an early spring. Plants […]