“Looking for inspiration and relaxation? It’s all in your own backyard.”
Garden Reports and Rejoicing – December 27 Berms or Burial Mounds? Here’s the general idea: dump a load of loam on the property, mound it up into a completely arbitrary shape, and plant a scattering of shrubs, trees and/or perennials on top. This is commonly passed off as landscape “interest” or design. Although these piles [...]
Garden Reports and Rejoicing – December 26 Lining up the Usual Suspects Here’s a mystery: Why do people with perfectly attractive homes settle for unattractive foundation beds? And why do those with less-than-appealing houses not use foundation plantings to improve the dwelling’s appearance? Most don’t realize that a line up of the usual suspects (evergreens) [...]
Garden Reports and Rejoicing – December 24 Hacked Plants This pruning style makes shearing (see 15 Things #1) look artful. In fact, you can’t really call this pruning at all. This isn’t even renovation cutting…hacking or butchering is more accurate. A renovation pruning is when a shrub gets cut down near the ground. On some [...]
Garden Reports and Rejoicing – December 23 Plant and Forget Perennial Gardens Perennials come up every year, so they’re really low-maintenance, right? Wrong. Terribly, horribly incorrect. Yet this is not only a commonly held belief, but a widespread practice as well. Many people treat perennial beds as plant-and-forget gardens. All too often from the second [...]
Garden Reports and Rejoicing – December 22 Edged Out No doubt about it, a freshly edged bed can make a garden look spiffy. There is something about having distinct borders between lawn and beds that is attractive. Sometimes that line is made permanent with a material such as cobblestones. In other cases the grass that [...]
Garden Reports and Rejoicing – December 21 Upholstered Shrubs Yes, slip-covered shrubs and, oh dear, even trees get wrapped for the winter. The motive here is usually good. People want to protect their plants from cold and desiccation. The results of this desire for shelter are mixed at best. First of all, these plants are [...]
Garden Reports and Rejoicing – December 19 No Contrasting Foliage Considering that there are thousands of plants available with all types, colors and textures of foliage, it’s amazing that so many people opt for such boring landscapes. So many gardens and foundation plantings are made up of evergreen shrubs with tiny green leaves. How sad. [...]
Garden Reports and Rejoicing – December 18 Plants in Bondage! Some plants are sturdy and grow upright, and some do not. Not much news there, right? So why do we humans think that they should all be vertical, not to mention tidy? When a plant sprawls, what response do people have? They bring out the [...]
Garden Reports and Rejoicing – December 17 Too Much Mulch! Just to remind you all that I’ve committed every design mistake that I’m writing about here, I present #6: too much mulch. The illustrating photo was taken in my garden in September. Note: focus on the foreground, not on the purple flowers of Lespedeza thunbergii ‘Spring [...]
Garden Reports and Rejoicing – December 16 But it’s still alive! There are some people who can’t get rid of a plant if it’s still alive. But to paraphrase Tina Turner, what’s life got to do with it? Not to mention that it just isn’t true. I venture to guess that the same folks who [...]
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