When Plants Needs Umbrellas
Bottomless buckets, rusty cans, and decrepit bushel baskets become commodities of value when plants need umbrellas. I once used (with much success) an old bushel basket to shade a white
Landscape
The Dawn Redwood
How well it is named, this tree with an unbroken lineage of two hundred million years! It once formed vast forests around the northern hemisphere—forests in which the dinosaur roamed
Hanging Baskets in Every Climate
Here’s everything you need to know if you want to use hanging baskets in every climate. Containers Old-fashioned wire baskets in various sizes (from 8” to 18” inches in diameter);
Plants for Hanging Baskets
I use the word “basket” to designate any container holding living plants that can be suspended from a support. For example, it could be a purchased or homemade wire basket
Growing Lavender: Touching Hands With 17th Century Manor
To raise lavender in one’s own garden and use the crushed flowers and leaves as a sachet is to touch hands momentarily with the lady of the 17th-century manor. She
The Ancient Custom Of A Grapevine Hedge
Why not emulate the ancient custom of making a hedge of grape vines? To do this, you allow your young vine to develop only one single rod, which you train
How to Grow Perennials from Seed
There is still time to sow seeds of many perennials to provide plants for next year’s garden. If you have a cold frame, you will have space after annuals and
Balanced Diet For Your Lawn and Garden
What is a good lawn and garden fertilizer? There have been many answers over the years, but from the frequency of weed-choked lawns, dead trees and shrubs, disease, and insect
Mulch For Better Plants
Thick layers of mulching materials lessen the need for weeding and cultivating, conserve moisture (reducing the need for watering), and gradually build up soil fertility. And they effectively lower the
Gray Walls and a Green Thumb
Three years ago, the possibility of growing anything in a bed of cinders would have needed more interest for Bill Robinson. Then, he was a get-down-on-the-knees type of gardener who