With trees, size matters. Sometimes towering behemoths block light to gardens and greenhouses. Pruning with a chainsaw may be the only option. Or sometimes a lack of trees results in homes and outbuildings bereft of unifying plantings. In both cases, the best garden design strategy—plant the right-sized trees now. I talked with Nancy Buley, Communications […]
It may be cold and bleak outdoors, but this is definitely a time of year when it’s easy to appreciate the advantages of greenhouse gardening. Just take your cue from the Conservatory of Wave Hill, a public garden located in the Bronx, New York. Here, the fragrances and colors of other climes help us momentarily […]
Early March is about when I ought to be perking up and getting out in the garden a little. I should be cutting back the dead hosta flower stalks and all the other debris I didn’t get cleared away in fall. I should be chopping ornamental grasses off at a couple of inches to make […]
It’s time to plan for seed starting, whether you have a greenhouse or an indoor light setup. And it looks like this year, once again, I will be starting my own tomatoes instead of buying grafted plants. I have looked on longingly over the last couple of years as the developing technique of grafting has […]
It’s indoor seed sowing time! Whether you set up a small table, or a full-size greenhouse, seed starting can sometimes be fraught with challenges. Just when you think your seedlings are growing well, they can turn up their toes. It all comes down to the fungus among us, says Rose Marie Nichols-McGee, president of Nichols […]
Many a greenhouse owner wants to grow orchids. Orchids, after all, are the largest family of flowering plants. They can be found on every continent and in a wide range of settings – in rainforests, in temperate climates, and even in rather harsh environments, such as deserts and alpine regions. Many orchids are epiphytes, which […]
Recent years have seen renewed interest in vegetable gardening everywhere, but perhaps nowhere is this more pronounced than inside our larger cities. Despite the challenge of growing in the densely populated confines of city spaces—and subject to the often intense growing conditions within these microclimates, some New York City gardeners appear to embrace their limitations. […]
You water, you feed, you cajole. But despite your best efforts the limp leaves of red and green relax into their juvenility. You estimate the time it will take your baby lettuce to reach salad size. Five, six, seven weeks! By then your crop will be “wise-beyond-its-weeks lettuce,” battle-weary from encounters with aphids and whitefly, […]
The first time I tramped a trail in a Costa Rican rain forest, while being buzzed by hummingbirds as thick as mosquitoes in Michigan, I looked at a vine clambering over a nearby tree and realized: Hey, that’s a philodendron. It was the same plant with heart-shaped leaves that can be found in greenhouses, fern […]
Snow crunches under foot, and a white quilt covers the landscape, reflecting and refracting bright sunlight across the wintery scene. Animal tracks show that squirrels, rabbits, and deer are still foraging, but miraculously your plants are alive and safe from them. This is because your entire garden is concentrated inside a 220 Square foot Hartley Lodge […]
Whether gardeners bring favorite houseplants to a sunny windowsill, or retire them to a greenhouse for winter enjoyment, the act of gardening still goes on in the colder months. So here are some practical—and often overlooked—indoor gardening gifts to add to your list. Cachepots: Humble pots can be slipped inside these beautiful containers. Choose them […]
Glass and gardens are great partners. The dynamics of blown glass capture the echoes of plant growth. I love to see the gleam of glass—small colorful float balls tucked into containers; robust spears stretching upward as focal points; bright dishes spreading open like lilies to capture rainwater among the foliage. But it wasn’t until I […]
