Dead Plants? It’s OK with Me
October 18th, 2016
Killing plants is part of gardening. Don’t feel bad about it. Look at it as a learning experience… and a new vacated place to plant something else.
Navigation
George’s new “50 American Public Gardens You Really Ought to See” e-book steers you to the top gardens to add to your bucket list.
Read More | Order Now
George’s “Pennsylvania Month-by-Month Gardening” helps you know when to do what in the landscape.
Read More | Order Now
George’s “Survivor Plant List” is a 19-page booklet detailing hundreds of the toughest and highest-performing plants.
Click Here
Has the info here been useful? Support George’s efforts by clicking below.
Looking for other ways to support George?
Click Here
George’s Current Ramblings and Readlings Category
Snowy Winter Ahead?
October 11th, 2016
I read AccuWeather’s long-term forecast for this winter with a touch of dread. The projection is for temperatures 3 to 4 degrees below average with a lot of “snow events.” I don’t care for even normal winters (whatever they are anymore), so this supposedly cold and snowy one isn’t one I’m looking forward to. The […]
Plants Like Ours
October 4th, 2016
Although it’s six time zones and an 8-hour flight across the Atlantic away, France has remarkably similar plants to our own. I’m just back from leading an 8-day trip to great gardens in and around Paris, and of all the foreign countries I’ve been to (not counting Canada and Texas), this one was the most […]
Name That Plant
September 27th, 2016
One of the hardest questions I get is, “What is this plant?” People will bring me a dried-up blossom, email me a blurred leaf photo, or show me a tiny photo on a smart phone, hoping I’ll be able to tell them what they have or what they saw. Sometimes I can tell, mainly when […]
Why We Shouldn’t All Plant the Same Thing
September 20th, 2016
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.
Go with the Good Stuff
September 6th, 2016
As we head into the season’s second superb planting window between now and the end of October, we’ll have some decisions to make. The toughest, in my mind, is which plant is likely to do well in which site. That takes a lot of experience and intricate plant knowledge, which is why so many people […]
Gardens vs. Landscapes
August 30th, 2016
I finally figured out what’s wrong with my yard. I like plants way too much to have a nice landscape. That sounds contradictory, but it’s not if you’re a fellow plantaholic.
Chain Reaction Time
August 16th, 2016
One of the hazards of gardening in general – and being a plant-trialing garden writer in particular – is the fact that plants always need to be moved around. Some plants croak, some grow out of control, some get eaten by voles/deer/groundhogs/rabbits, and some just end up in a wrong place due to operator error […]
Dying Douglas Firs
August 9th, 2016
You’re not imagining it if seems like your Douglas fir trees are getting thinner and thinner. And you’re not alone either. This popular species of screening evergreen is running into increasing disease trouble lately, leading to widespread drop of needles and the bare look that accompanies the loss. A pair of fungal diseases called rhabdocline […]
Planting Every Last Inch
August 2nd, 2016
They dig up their entire front lawns, and turn them into perennial gardens. They fill their postage-stamp back yards with vine-covered arbors, espaliered trees and pots full of annuals and tropicals. And when every last inch of ground space is gone, they hang flower baskets from their fences, mount wooden boxes full of basil on […]