If I had enough money and liked New Jersey, I know where I’d be retiring. Medford Leas. I just got back from doing a couple of gardening talks there through Elderhostel’s Road Scholar program, and despite the rain (surprise, surprise), the landscaping was magnificent. Medford Leas is a huge, upscale retirement […]
Healing and flowers go together. It’s no coincidence that folks take bouquets to the hospital or send cut flowers to friends and family recovering from surgery. Laura Lee Lukunich of Hampden Twp. is using flowers for yet another healing purpose – to remember loved ones lost to cancer. Lukunich is the […]
Do I win a prize for the first killed plants of the season? I’d like to nominate the green mush shown at right – what was to be my 2011 collection of pre-July ripe tomatoes. Every year, I start a few tomatoes inside from seed around the end of January so I’ll […]
I hope you took advantage of the warm weekend (finally!) to get the landscape cleaned up and cut back for the new growing season. This is my biggest spurt of gardening activity for the year since I go light on cleanup in fall, letting behind most leaves and dead foliage as winter insulation […]
Here’s a deal that’s almost too good to be true… a free garden plot, free water and free use of tools. All you’ve got to do is round up a few seeds and plants and get up the gumption to go to Ames True Temper near Shiremanstown to take advantage of this generous […]
Wouldn’t it be helpful if when you went to the garden center to pick out a new tree or shrub, 15 of the region’s top plant experts were there to tell you the best of the best? Actually, there is something very close to that. It’s called the Gold Medal Plant Awards, […]
The first sign of spring to me isn’t the singing of robins but the arrival of the Pennsylvania Garden Expo. This 3-day garden show at the Farm Show Complex is first out of the gate of the four late-winter shows in day-trip range of Harrisburg. Once Expo gets here, things seem to roll […]
Well, I’m back from summery South Africa and shell-shocked (but not surprised) at this mixed mess of wintry weather that threatens to flatten our landscapes. Ice poses a particular problem for woody plants because it adds a lot of weight to already frozen, brittle branches. Given a half-inch or so coating, that’s enough […]
Well it’s not every day in Mechanicsburg you get woken at 4:30 a.m. by the deep, warbling “yahoo” hollers of a baboon. That kind of surprise has been the norm, though, for the two weeks I’ve been here in South Africa on a “garden safari” through Harrisburg Area Community College. Bill Stoffel […]
Greetings from South Africa, where the temperatures are in the 80s and the agapanthus, bougainvillea and blue plumbago are in glorious bloom. Sorry to rub it in, but gardening conditions are near perfect down here where the sun has fled (our winter, their summer). I’m on a “garden safari” with Dr. Don […]