As the first frost approaches, now is the time to take essential steps to protect your garden and set yourself up for success next spring. Below are a few simple garden tips that can help you save money and preserve your favorite plants while extending the beauty of your garden into the cooler months. Propagating … Read more
Russian Sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia or Salvia yangii), is an absolutely awesome perennial plant that I have always enjoyed in my garden. With its silvery-green foliage and tall spires of lavender-blue flowers, Russian Sage has a knack for standing out among the perennials. It has serrated feathery leaves and aromatic scent that make it a popular … Read more
One of my favorite flowers to enjoy each year is coreopsis! It has an unfortunate nickname that may make you wary, but just because coreopsis is also called tickseed does not mean it will bring ticks! More on that later, but for now here is why coreopsis should be a plant in your garden. Why … Read more
Seed starting is just about to begin in earnest for the year. In some cases the seeds you might want to grow may require some extra steps to germinate best. Annuals tend to do just fine without much pretreatment but often perennials need a period of cold to break dormancy and begin to germinate. This … Read more
OK, you might be thinking to yourself that this headline “How to Buy Mums” is about a topic we don’t even need to discuss. Really, how hard can it be? You go to the nursery, pick out a full bushy plant full of blooms. You walk to the check out counter buy it and go … Read more
Spring time is such an exciting time for gardeners. The weather is better, the garden is growing again, and it’s time to add more plants to the garden! Thanks to Monrovia plants I splurged on plants for my garden the other day! Which one’s did I add? Heucheras and heucherellas! Before I tell you more … Read more
Recently I was given the opportunity to check out Nancy Ondra’s latest book called Five-Plant Gardens. Nancy Ondra writes the blog Hayefield and has written several other books including The Perennial Care Manual. She is definitely what I consider and expert on perennial plants! This latest book isn’t about the care of the plants it’s … Read more
Never say never right? In my experience there are very few plants that are truly safe from deer. This year I’ve had big time deer issues. The extra tomato bed I planted was completely devoured by the two deer that are camping out in our backyard. That isn’t shocking really. I wasn’t able to put … Read more
Perennials are the work horse of just about every garden. Trees and shrubs provide structure, but perennials provide a consistent impact. Annuals are great for an instant punch but perennials give you a repeat performance year after year. Some perennials bloom consistently through the season while others give a nice show for a short period … Read more
Over Christmas we traveled a little. Not much, we never go very far. We just visited with family. One evening a family member asked me if I knew of some attractive, easy to grow, low maintenance plants she could put in the front of her house. She wanted something she could plant that wouldn’t require … Read more
Yesterday I traveled up to the Cheekwood Botanical Gardens to listen to Tina from In the Garden. She was doing a talk on Winter Gardening and all that it entails so we thought it would be a great opportunity for us to visit with her and check out the gardens while we were there. We … Read more
This morning’s cool temperatures made it feel like my favorite season is well on its way. Of course autumn is coming but the extra cool August temperatures we’re having have me hoping for an extended fall season. Here’s a look at a few things from around the garden this morning! ‘Arizona Sun’ Gaillardia – Blanket … Read more
A couple years ago I was given a blackberry lily (Belamcanda chinensis) to add to my garden. I planted it when it was covered with seeds and let it go to grow as it could as I do with so many plants. I forgot about it but apparently several seeds landed in different location near … Read more
Over the years I’ve planted quite a few heucheras for my garden. Heucheras or coral bells are becoming more and more popular as a wide array of unique cultivars continue to come on the market. You might even think that heucheras are relatively new to the horticultural world when in fact they’ve been tinkered with … Read more
I hope when you read this post that the rains are coming down in a delightful shower to water your garden, because they certainly aren’t here! It’s dry, extremely dry. Working in the ground is like cutting through a brick. Fortunately we’ve planted plants over the years that can tolerate these dry drought conditions. Autumn … Read more
Gladiola Flowers The beginning of June is quite capable of leaving us mesmerized by all the flowers that appear. There’s no shortage of blooms for pollinators or for the gardener to gawk at! So today I’m going to share with you a bunch of blooms. And I mean a bunch! I probably took too many … Read more
In our front yard is a triangular shaped area that for now I’m calling the Iris Garden. In a week or so after the irises finish blooming I’ll have to change the name to something else but for now the Iris Garden works! I actually began this garden area as a winter color garden but … Read more
This weekend after all the garden related chores were done for the day, and just before sunset came, I took a few photographs of how our gardens look this April. I still have mulching, pruning, weeding, and many other things to do but I thought it would be a good time to share some of … Read more
Let’s be real, foliage is more important than flowers! Foliage is there 3 out of the four seasons and unless you have some fantastic re-blooming plant that blooms incessantly from spouting to leaf drop you aren’t going to have something interesting all the time – unless you plant with foliage. Color, leaf texture, leaf shape, … Read more
This year I thought I’d try to start something on each Friday. At the end of each work week I’ll make a list of five things from the garden. They could be anything, everything is fair garden, as long as it can be related to the garden! To start things off I’m going to mention … Read more
I wish I could say I had thousands of plants sitting in the backyard from my plant propagation experiments but unfortunately I’ve just been too busy to do much this year. That isn’t to say I’m not happy with what I’ve accomplished. Sometimes the uniqueness of the experience is much more valuable and satisfying than … Read more
Daylilies are one of those plants every garden should have. Unfortunately I’ve been lax in adding daylilies to the garden over the years. I’m not sure why really. It might be the fact that daylilies in the garden centers aren’t all that thrilling and that is where I do most of my shopping. I’ve perused … Read more
This weekend’s weather was a sign that there really is a light at the end of this dark tunnel we call winter – and it’s not another trains headlight! Spring is coming and the warm weather that we’re having this week has me itching to get in the garden – which is exactly what I … Read more
Do you want to know how to propagate salvia? Learn more about growing and propagating salvia in your home garden!
One of my favorite little garden spots is the shade garden. It’s nestled into a little corner created by the layout of our house. When I began gardening here I knew I wanted a shade garden somewhere but our options were extremely limited. Most of the yard was full sun back then, but that’s changing. … Read more
Salvia is one of my favorite perennials to propagate and spring and summer are the best times to do root cuttings of salvia from stem tip cuttings. Pretty soon our gardens will be filled with salvia blooms and you’ll see why I like them so much. I’ll post a picture at the bottom of this … Read more
I was out today looking at the sorry state of the gardens and though it might be an interesting exercise to look back at how the gardens appeared last spring and compare them. Over the next few posts I’ll go back for a few photos of the spring time version and contrast it with that … Read more
In my last post I showed you some of the perennials around our vegetable garden. In this post I’ll show you some of the perennials in the garden around our deck. Despite my title not all of these plants are perennials. One of the most striking plants in this grouping is in fact an annual … Read more
Do you want an easy to grow shrub that has very few pest problems, isn’t munched on by deer or rabbits, and looks great at the end of summer? No it’s not impossible, think caryopteris! Caryopteris (Caryopteris x clandonensis also called blue mist shrub, bluebeard, or blue mist spirea) is deer and rabbit resistant if … Read more