If the tree expert is the doctor, you are the nurse. This is your busy season because your shade trees need the most help between now and mid-July. This is the time of year when trees face the most ravaging effects of insects and diseases. It is when trees must be at their peak efficiency … Read more
From a postage-stamp-sized city backyard to the rolling hills of a magnificent country estate, there is hardly a garden or landscape where vines can’t be used to give the scene graceful beauty and vitality. And few other plants serve so many practical purposes as well. Vines have character and individuality. Some are modest and attract … Read more
A well-designed front-yard planting should provide a setting for a house but should not compete with it for attention. Flowers and colorful trees and shrubs can easily dominate a landscape scene, but they may be used in the front of your house and still not steal attention from the house itself. The pictures opposite and … Read more
Are you taking advantage of the many interesting, dramatic effects you can achieve in your garden by using annual vines? If not, you overlook one of the easiest and least expensive ways to lift your garden out of the ordinary by giving it the third dimension—height—which too many gardens lack. Even on the smallest home … Read more
He’s just like a doctor, says George M. Codding. “That’s the best way I can describe what a tree expert is.” “His job, is mainly preventive medicine—to keep your trees as healthy and beautiful as possible. He takes care of shade and evergreen trees after they are planted. He does no landscaping or planting himself.” … Read more
The Crab Apple is one of the best small ornamental trees for planting on the home grounds. It is suggested here as only one example of crab apples grown throughout the entire country wherever apples prove hardy. Although many a majestic elm may have admirers, the flowering crabs seldom grow over 30’ feet tall, making … Read more
Much of the excitement in Pacific Coast gardening comes from experimenting with plants native to western states and those from other countries with similar climates. Many natives have adopted themselves to zones and exposures quite unlike those in which they are found. Fallugia Paradoxa “Apache Plume” One of these shrubs is Fallugia paradoxa, more commonly … Read more
Seven of the fifteen known garrya species are native to the Pacific Coast. Evergreen Garrya elliptica, Coast silk-tassel, is the one that has been in the trade the longest and is still the species commonly planted in gardens and parks. It grows wild on the slopes of coastal ranges from the Rogue River in Oregon … Read more
The convexed-leaved variety of the Japanese holly is one of the best low evergreens for ornamental planting. In fact, over vast areas of the northern United States, it can be considered the best substitute for the less hardy boxwood. The leaves are about the size of boxwood leaves but slightly curved convexly, hence its name. … Read more
Those familiar with the out-of-doors in the eastern and central United States know the native witch-hazel (Hamamelis virginiana), the last shrub to bloom in the fall. But they may be entirely unfamiliar with another excellent native witch-hazel—the first shrub of the year to bloom—the vernal witch-hazel (Hamamelis vernalis). Native in the Lower Mississippi Valley, this … Read more