In Case You Missed It…
December 20th, 2022
2022 was another busy and eventful year on the gardening front.
These new bugs — spotted lanternflies — made a big presence in the Harrisburg area in 2022. (Credit: Penn State Extension)
Lanternflies showed up en masse (at least in some favored areas), lots of excellent new plants debuted, and Pennsylvania banned more plants and enacted new rules that affect how we’re allowed to fertilize our lawns.
I thought I’d close out the year by highlighting some of what I wrote about in 2022, giving you second-chance links in case you missed a post of interest.
Here you go… and happy 2023!
On this website (free, unlimited reads):
I start every new year with a look at what experts say are some of the hot gardening trends of the coming year. See Gardening Trends of 2022.
I then wrote four e-columns highlighting some of the best new plants hitting the market.
Best New Vegetables, Herbs, and Fruits of 2022
Best New Annual Flowers of 2022
Best New Perennial Flowers of 2022
Best New Trees and Shrubs of 2022
Another best-plant rundown I do every year is plants that have won awards. See Award-Winning Plants of 2022.
And these are some of the other topics I wrote about in 2022…
How the State’s New Fertilizing Rules Affect Your Lawn Care
The Philadelphia Flower Show is going back inside for 2023.
Lanternflies: The Grownups Are Here (including a look at whether to take action or not)
Goodbye Burning Bush and Privets (more plants Pennsylvania is banning for invasivness)
Eight Weed Mistakes (things we do and don’t do to make weed problems worse than they ought to be)
Should We Be Cutting Back on Peat Moss? (some say peat moss should be banned for environmental reasons)
My Mini-Meadow… Underwhelming So Far
My Most Favorite Gardening Jobs
My Least Favorite Gardening Jobs
Three More Deer Failures (three more strategies I tried to foil the deer that didn’t work)
Editing the Landscape (how to assess a landscape and move/add plants to make it better)
What made the arborvitae in the middle die while the surrounding ones seem to be doing fine?
What a Dead Plant Can Teach Us (how we can become better gardeners by figuring out and learning from what killed plants)
The Many Ways I Could Have Failed on My Driveway Bank (things that go wrong on bank plantings and how to overcome them)
Are You Suffering from These Gardening Diseases? (a fun look at the “maladies” that trouble crazed gardeners, such as chlorophyllosis, cliptomania, Cram disease, and hypermulchimia)
When to Plant Which Edibles? (a list of when to plant assorted vegetables)
The Best – and Worst – Times to Do Things Around the Yard
On the PennLive.com website
(you have to be a PennLive subscriber to access many of these)
I write a garden column that posts most Thursdays on PennLive.com (website of The Patriot-News). Some of the topics I covered there in 2022:
Barberries are being phased out of sale in Pennsylvania — unless growers can show a particular variety is sterile.
Bye-bye barberries, Bradford pears, and buckthorns: What other plants might be in line to be banned for invasiveness in Pennsylvania?
Invasive garden plants: If you yank them, then what do you replace them with?
New naturalism (a look at the increasing popular style of making our landscapes mimic nature)
Bee lawns: A “lazy-mower” way to help pollinators?
Our eight plant-deadly seasonal weather sins (eight weather issues — two for each season — that pose the most trouble for gardeners)
Gardening in the “new normal” (new factors we ought to consider in how we garden and what we plant as the climate changes)
20 Freakish Yard Mysteries Solved Part 1 Part 2
Seven things that go wrong with spring bulbs and how to fix them
Hardy geraniums are some of the longest-blooming perennial flowers.
20 of the best groundcover plants to head off weeds
Rebloomers (why gardeners want shrubs that bloom a second time each season… and how breeders are delivering)
The 18 best perennials for a season of continuous bloom
The 10 easiest vegetables for beginners to grow
The 12 best trees for your yard that you never heard of
10 ways to attract birds to your yard this summer
Some 2022 This Weekend columns of ongoing interest
Besides the Thursday column, I also write a This Weekend in the Garden feature for PennLive.com that each Friday covers three things you should be doing around the yard and/or other newsy things you ought to know about.
A selection of them from 2022…
Seed-starting isn’t as hasrd as it seems — if you know a few basic how-to tips.
Non-blooming hydrangeas, flowers for July, summer lawn-mowing
How to sprout seeds and grow seedlings inside
Bare-root planting, stopping crabgrass, and brown patches in the lawn
Free grass, free perennials, and direct-seeded annuals
Tree diversity, picking tree sites wisely, planting trees correctly
All about lanternflies (lanternflies in disguise, lanternfly traps, lanternfly myths)
More plants banned by the state and the harm of topping trees(wild chervil, akebia, lesser celandine)
Summer watering tips, mystery balls, and tomato non-production
Best plants for pollinators, daylily leaf streak, voles in the vegetables
How to help a struggling lawn after another rough summer
Defending against deer and dealing with lanternflies
How to make compost and grow flower bulbs in pots
End-of-season yard jobs and prepping for winter