Two reasons explain why non-gardeners are non-gardeners (or ex-gardeners). One is lack of time, the reason behind most every non-something. The other is lack of confidence. Soil rookies either tried and failed, or they didn’t bother in the first place because they were pretty sure they’d fail if they did try. (Homer […]
Since the prolific spotted lanternfly first showed up in America nearly 10 years ago, it’s been causing near panic as it spreads from one area to the next. Some people go crazy when these inch-long flying bugs and their spotted nymphs show up en masse, fearing they’re going to kill the whole landscape […]
You’ve probably heard of the kids book “The Little Engine That Could” in which a never-give-up little locomotive pulls a long train over a tall mountain by believing, “I think I can, I think I can.” It was one of our kids’ favorite bedtime books. It seems I have a plant with […]
Like most gardeners who have moved, I’ve had to deal with starting all over in a new landscape after spending years parenting an old one. My case was probably a bit more extreme than most. My wife and I spent 32 years at our previous home – a third-of-an-acre yard in suburban Cumberland […]
Dr. Ronald Stanley was a fledgling dermatologist when he and his new wife, Cheryl, built a house in 1979 on five acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina. At first, Stanley focused on a rather large and innovative vegetable garden that was good enough to be featured on PBS’ Victory […]
Weeds rank high on most gardeners’ list of landscape vexations, but that’s one problem that’s never bothered me too much. For one thing, my strategy of planting real plants wall-to-wall and mulching the limited or temporary openings doesn’t leave much room for weeds to get started. Plus, I’ve never minded going on […]
There’s a place on this planet where the soil is rich and well-drained, where temperatures sit in the pleasant 70s all year, where the sun shines day after day, and best of all, where deer don’t tread. This gardener’s heaven is the Portuguese island of Madeira, a volcanic blip in the Atlantic Ocean […]
How could this be? After one of our warmest winters ever – including a January that was nearly 9 degrees warmer than average and a February that averaged 7.3 degrees above normal – my landscape looked like it had been to Alaska and back. Most of my variegated boxwoods were the color […]
I wish I could say that my experiment growing 955 spring bulbs of 16 kinds has been a rousing success, carpeting my yard with vibrant color at a time when most everything else is just waking up. But three years after planting, only four of my bulb groupings put on a good show […]
Since few of you likely made it to Pittsburgh to see Phipps Conservatory’s 2023 spring flower show, I thought I’d share a few photos of it this week. Phipps Conservatory, if you’ve never seen it, is a 14-room Lord and Burnham Victorian glasshouse that dates to 1893. It’s filled with changing exhibits of […]