Gardens are great for allowing us to live in the present moment. Certain jobs, like weeding, can bring us vitally into the here and now. See weed, pull weed, drop in bucket—repeat. The world has no past or future, only the interval where I wrestle with dock leaves or Russian thistle, intertwined among the roots […]
One week, I had a pot of purple petunias sitting in the summer garden, adding a spot of bright color in a groundcover bed. Days later, it was compost. The pot had become a muddy, stinky lake with some dead stems straggling out of it. It was a textbook case of what happens when you […]
From mid-summer until November, rhododendrons and camellias are forming flower buds for next year’s display, so it’s essential that the compost or soil around them doesn’t dry out at any point, if it does they simply won’t form buds or will demonstrate their disapproval by shedding the ones that have already formed. Check your plants […]
This May was a season of firsts. It was my first time attending the fabled Chelsea Flower Show in London. And it was Hartley-Botanic’s first time building a display garden on the Main Avenue. I met up on Press Day with Catherine MacDonald, the garden’s award-winning designer. She invited me to experience their magical woodland […]
Eastern European ways with rock garden design have changed how we garden with alpines. Once upon a time, the alpine glasshouses at RHS Wisley, the famed display gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society, south of London left me in speechless awe. It was like visiting an art gallery: Nano-tufts of rare aubretia, doll-sized clumps of […]
One recent sunny day I forgot to open my greenhouse doors and windows in the morning, and by noontime the temperature inside had reached 108˚. The plants were sadly wilted, so I quickly misted the entire greenhouse to lower the temperature and raise the humidity. Fortunately, by late afternoon, the sagging plants had recovered, but […]
California gardeners are in the phalanx of water conservationists who are working to stem the effects of drought in the Golden State. While we gardeners in Colorado are just a little excited that the state’s legislature has finally spiked the law against the residential collection of rainwater, which served to resuscitate heated discussions about rainfall and […]
At any given time, my greenhouse holds about 30 Streptocarpus plants, commonly called Cape primrose. I give many to friends who, like me, love to see them bloom, so I have to keep constantly propagating these plants. This is done in an unusual way, using a leaf from a mother plant. First, select a leaf […]
A wise friend once shared the secret for taking time-crunch stress out of daily living—create a transition space between endeavors. End one thing. Then stop. It could be for five minutes, or fifteen, or even an hour. After that, begin the next task. That transition time is exactly what award-winning author C.L. Fornari is talking […]
How do the weeds get everywhere? They’re in the cracks of the sidewalk, in the potting mix of the containers, even in the greenhouse. They’re thick as a cornfield in my perennial beds. I can weed my heart out, and a week later I have a whole new jungle. Weeds are always everywhere, just waiting. […]
Now that greenhouse tomatoes are growing well, remove the side shoots of ‘cordon’ varieties, as they appear, using your finger and thumb, this will create a single productive stem. Keep the compost constantly moist, particularly if you are using growing bags, as the compost dries out rapidly; twice a day is ideal, depending on the […]
