Trying to eat healthier? Eat purple. Not so coincidentally, the plant pigments that give burgundy, bluish-black, and purple color to some plants’ leaves, roots and fruits – known as anthocyanins – are the same ones that act as antioxidants when eaten. That’s true of other plants and colors, too. As a general […]
So here we are at the beginning of May, and I’m just now cutting my grass for the first time. I can’t ever remember the grass lagging this long into spring. Then again, I don’t remember a lot of things as well as I used to. The cool April has the whole […]
Succulents are the hot plant category lately… and for good reason. They’re compact, versatile, colorful, and easy to grow. They’re not prone to bugs or disease. They need no spraying, little water or fertilizer, and even the deer and bunnies let them alone. In short, avoid over-watering, and they’re about as […]
One of my favorite public gardens really isn’t a public garden at all. It’s the Epcot theme park at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida – 320 acres of colorful, neatly landscaped gardens, grounds, and displays. But because Epcot’s main draws are the rides and attractions, the scope of what’s there plant-wise […]
Gardeners tend to be durable people. We have to be. Growing a decent tomato or pretty posy requires coping with a host of challenges and adversities. So as we head into another new growing season, I came up with these eight ways that gardeners prove they’re not wimps: 1.) Deer and […]
I’ll try not to rub it in when I admit that I was enjoying 70-degree days in the sunny Deep South when everyone here was dealing with the record-setting, first-day-of-spring snowstorm. See my photo gallery on gardens of New Orleans and the Deep South Though most of the snow was gone in a […]
The first qualification on my new-plant list is that it’s not likely to die. A dead plant isn’t a good plant in my mind – no matter how cool it looked in the garden-center pot or what kind of kudos it got in print. If living is something you value in plants, […]
A lot of people are eager to know next year’s Philadelphia Flower Show theme even before the current show is over. Here you go: “Flower Power.” Part of it will be a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, so expect peace signs, hippie accoutrements, and I’d imagine at least one VW […]
If you’re growing tulips in your yard, odds are the bulbs originated in the Netherlands, that tiny European country that supplies the world with about 1.7 billion tulip bulbs every year. One of the world’s most impressive horticultural sights is in spring in the Dutch rural tulip-growing regions, where carpet-like rows of blooming […]
My fifth gardening book is done and out – a 376-page, $30 hardcover on 19 of the most important and timely gardening topics. It’s titled, “Gardening Complete: How to Best Grow Vegetables, Flowers, and Other Outdoor Plants,” and it’s a Cool Springs Press collaboration with seven other authors, each of whom contributed two […]