We can learn a lot from Buffalo. You’d think gardeners in this Lake Erie city would be a pretty discouraged bunch with all of the snow dumpings, late freezes and Canadian cold they get. Quite the contrary. I just got back from my first visit to the 2-day Garden Walk Buffalo — the […]
Interesting thing about how lawns have bounced back (or not) from last week’s rain that followed the three-week blow-torch dry spell. Some sections have greened up just fine. Others look like the grass went from brown and dormant to brown and dead. Why the discrepancy? These five reasons explain most of it: […]
I’m just back from leading an 8-day garden-themed tour of Ireland with 32 fine, fun, fellow soil jockeys from central Pa. The first thing I plan to do is file a protest with the World Court on behalf of all Pennsylvania gardeners. It seems that when it comes to gardening, the Irish […]
Lots of cities and towns have garden tours. Six or eight avid gardeners open their yards to the public, people pay $10, and everyone spends an afternoon garden hopping. And then there’s Buffalo. This city best known for snow also happens to have America’s biggest and best garden tour – a gargantuan […]
By Sue Weigel Happy Father’s Day to all you gardening fathers! Since many of you have invited George into your homes on Thursdays in the Patriot-News, through this website or through him doing a Garden House-Call, I thought you might enjoy getting to know a bit about what makes George George. That […]
Add a little rain to warm soil and that’s a perfect recipe for June weeds. You’re not imagining things – they did spring up almost overnight. Have you ever heard the old weed saying, “Pull when wet, hoe when dry?” There’s truth to that. Weeds come out much easier when the soil […]
What’s a Master Gardener’s yard look like? We’ll all get a chance to see on Sun., June 13, when eight Cumberland County Master Gardeners open their landscapes as part of the 2nd annual “At Home in the Garden” garden tour. The way it works is you buy a tour booklet for $8, […]
We’re blessed in central Pennsylvania to be within driving range of so many wonderful public gardens – New York Botanical and Brooklyn Botanic in New York, the National Arboretum and U.S. Botanic Garden in D.C., Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh and the nation’s biggest hot-spot of two dozen public gardens in the Philadelphia area alone. […]
On the fungal front this week, I’m getting questions already about growths emerging from lawns and mulched beds. Most of these are harmless mushroom-like fungi that feed on decaying (and sometimes live) wood. A few look more like something the dog did (i.e. the slime mold or “dog-vomit” fungus we’ll be seeing […]
Pssssst… do you know about Lurgan Greenhouse? People kept telling me about this old-fashioned family-run garden center in the boonies between Shippensburg and Chambersburg – almost like it was some kind of secret only to be shared with nutso fellow gardeners. Last May I finally got there. I took my wife for her birthday-present […]