Gardenig in Germany. Tips & Guides

Oktoberfest season is upon us! It’s a time for sausage, pretzels, lederhosen, dirndls, Bavarian flags, and most famously, beer. It is not uncommon to see your local downtown German restaurant or brewery covered in blue and white checkered flags and have large picnic tables surrounded by revelers. The steady thump of a tuba sets the pace for the Oom-pah band (named after the characteristic sound of traditional Bavarian music) as people clad in lederhosen and dirndls (traditional Bavarian attire) hoist steins or glass boots filled with amber-hue beer in celebration.

I recently had the privilege of attending a presentation by Laura Dowling on arranging flowers in the French style. Laura was the Chief Floral Designer at the White House from 2009 to 2015. Her arrangements were inspiring, and the use of the materials was inventive and beautiful. She attended floral design schools in both Paris and Germany and has continued to pursue new techniques. She has also authored several books on flower arranging in the French style, featuring her design work at the White House. Laura shared her stories of working in the White House and other major events where she designed flower arrangements to create a magical background. Those two and a half hours encouraged me to think outside the box to create beautiful flower arrangements.

I’ve never grown multiplier onions before, an oldtime favorite I pre-ordered in March from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, which offers them for fall arrival. I haven’t found much consistent information about growing the so-called potato onions, particularly in the North, except for Southern Exposure’s fact sheet, which says to save half the bulbs for springtime planting in case the winter’s too hard for them. Sounds a little ominous, but here I go.In my cold area, I’m meant to give them up to 5 inches of soil on top of their pointed ends (only 1 inch or 2 in warmer zones), then scrape some of it away come spring, as they prefer to be closer to the surface in the growing season. As with garlic, shallots and other alliums, the bulbs want fertile, well-drained soil and a sunny location to be happiest.I’d welcome any insights or war stories if you’ve grown multiplier onions, which are also sol

Her names derives from the German for “lady of well-rounded form,” but I grow her a little on the lean and wiry side, which if you’ve ever seen me will come as no surprise.  I grow several plants weaving up and out through the perimeter of an old winterhazel, or Corylopsis spicata, whose foliage (like that of ‘Matrona’) has a pinkish-purple cast in places (in the winterhazel, it’s on new growth). You can see a Corylopsis leaf with this characteristic in the upper right of the photo above.These two same-but-different plants have become good friends, and the Corylopsis shades the Sedum just enough to make it stretch to 30 inches or thereabouts (24 would be more the norm in full sun). It also

I GROW HARDNECK GARLIC because I like the big heads with a few, extra-fat cloves each (usually about four, maybe five), but also because of what happens right now, when my ‘German Extra Hardy’ plants send up their early bonus–a tasty flowering stalk, or scape. I prune each mildly garlicky curlicue off, grill it whole or cut it into pieces and saute or stir-fry it, or make a batch of scape pesto for the freezer.

As the text on Boston Public’s Flickr photostream explains, Louis Prang (1824-1909) was a German immigrant whose highly successful Boston-area printing operation made high-quality prints and also, in the 1870s, began producing America’s first Christmas cards, virtually starting that tradition.But what caught my eye when Flickr-lurking friend Pam Kueber of the Retro Renovation blog passed me the Boston Public link, were juicy heirloom tomatoes (above) and tender portraits of familiar animals and local vegetation. Some of what I loved from the giant trove of riches you simply must “go” see is in the show below.Click on the first thumbnail to start the show, then toggle from slide to slide using the arrows beside each caption. Enjoy!Giant thanks to Boston Public Lib

I blame my orange house trim for my obsession with vivid colors, but what about you–how do you choose what you’ll bring home to pot up? What’s your container-garden color palette this year? Any new plants to recommend?Click on the first thumbnail to start the show, and toggle from slide to slide with the arrows on your keyboard, or the ones beside each caption. The newest photos are in the bottom row, the 2011 update, but I’m growing a lot of the ones from 2010 again, too.Categoriesannuals & perennials container gardening slideshows

I love ‘Sun Gold’ tomatoes, the tangerine-colored cherry, and wouldn’t be without one plant each year, but I’m always wishing there was a red cherry-sized fruit that was a little different—not your predictable ‘Sweet 100’ or ‘Sweet Million’ kind of character. The larger ‘Chadwick’s Cherry’ is someone special, but an indeterminate grower and later to yield. Perhaps in ‘Riesentraube’ I have finally found my dreamboat?‘Riesentraube’ (which means giant grape, probably for the way the fruits are bunched) is various said to have good flavor—beefsteak-like, says Southern Exposure—in a highly prolific plant that produces several hundred flowers and then giant clusters of 20 or even 40-plus fruits apiece. I can hardly wait, but I must, as it’s not time to start tomato seeds here yet by a longshot. Though some sources say ‘Riesentraube’ is a compact

Technically speaking, a “good bug bloom” would be one whose individual flowers are small (even if they’re massed in a big flowerhead, as dill or fennel are), and whose pollen and nectar are exposed for easy access.  They’d attract beneficial insect pollinators and predators—lacewings, for instance, or ladybugs, or ground beetles or beneficial wasps—creatures who spread pollen and/or feed on insect pests.A succession of beneficial blooms—not just one species or variety—will yield season-long appeal to a range of desired insects in all their life phases. Co-founder Ken Greene of Hudson Valley Seed Library says their Good Bug Blooms mix was formulated with that (and also eye-appeal to humans) in mind.Their current mix includes sulphur Cosmos, annual Gaillardia, ‘Lilliput Mix’ zinnia,

Timing: Sometime in the second half of October, ideally about five weeks before frost is in the ground, I plant the biggest cloves from the biggest heads of my July-harvested crop.  (I eat the rest, whether while cooking up easy soups and tomato sauce to freeze in the late summer and fall, or through the winter from heads hung in net bags in my 45ish-degree barn loft, with some of the harvest peeled and frozen right now like this to use next spring and summer, when even the best-stored heads would have sprouted otherwise.)An expert 101 on how to plant garlic, and which type is best for your area. How deep? I poke the cloves, pointy side up, so that the tip is about 2 inches below the surface of the soil in my raised beds.  Mulching at planting time in areas with cold winters is recommended, so I simply layer on some leaf mold or composted stable bedding, which also helps come spring in weed control (it’s essential to keep garlic beds weed-free!).How far apart? Spacing is

IT’S MY FAVORITE HARVEST MOMENT OF ALL: The garlic is in, and the barn smells like it. Seventy-five big, fat heads of ‘German Extra Hardy,’ a hardneck variety also sold as ‘German Stiffneck’ and beloved by Northeast growers in particular, are up and out and under cover.

And that’s where the seed for ‘Liebesapfel’—the pepper that began Sarah Kleeger and Andrew Still’s fast-growing Capsicum annuum collection—arrived from, or more specifically, Germany via Denmark.On their first Seed Ambassadors trip to search out potentially Northern-adapted seed from Europe in 2006, Sarah and Andrew carried ‘Liebesapfel’ (left) back to the New World themselves—tho

WE ALL KNOW that living organisms adapt over generations to their environments, but this recent example made me smile: A bird species in the U.K. (the great tit, above) have developed longer beaks in recent decades, Oxford University reports, perhaps as a result of their attraction to bird feeders provided by humans. (Photo from Wikipedia by Shirley Clarke of Fordingbridge Camera Club.)ebird and ‘all about birds’ sites have new lookSPEAKING OF BIRDS: My go-to resource for information on them, All About Birds from Cornell Lab of Ornithology, has had a redesign (look at the new species profile page for cedar waxwings, for instance). So has it

Linda Beutler is author of three books about clematis, president of the International Clematis Society, and curator of the Rogerson Clematis Garden collection in the Pacific Northwest, just outside Portland, Oregon. Suffice it to say, Linda knows from clematis.In a recent conversation, Linda shared tips on matching the right clematis to the right support, and what to look for (not flowers!) when buying nursery plants, and why following the traditional rules on pruning without applying some common sense as well isn’t the way to go. Plus: Enter to w

I love clafoutis (kla-foo-tee), a humble French concoction that’s like a Huffy-Puffy or Dutch Baby or German pancake–whatever you call it, that’s my favorite Christmas-morning food. But the clafoutis is sweeter and has fruit inside. If you have 3 cups of fruit and some kitchen basics like milk and eggs and flour, you can make this dessert very last-minute, even just as you sit down to eat the main course, another selling factor. Easy, yet quite impressive.Though clafoutis is traditionally made with cherries, as it was in the recipe Martha shared in her must-have 1995 cookbook, “The Martha Stewart Cookbook: Collected Recipes for Every Day” (affiliate link), I’ve come to regard her batter as the universal solvent for all things fruit.With it, I have since made clafoutis from peaches, plums, pears, various berries, cherries, and mixes of fresh fruit and dried (such as by adding a handful of dried cranberries or cherries to pears

When it comes to gardening in a shaded location, many of us turn to classic fallback options like hostas and foxgloves. Astilbe is a perennial that blooms for up to three weeks, producing elegant spikes or clusters of flowers.Find the perfect cultivars for your shady areas with this guide.

Why would anyone bother to grow plantain?Largely ignored by the modern gardener, and often regarded as an irksome

This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Thyme is a lo

This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Growing chamomile for

A thriving urban forest can plant the seed of wellness in the minds and hearts of people navigating the dense brush of mental illness. 

Adam Messerich a bourbon shrub Rose bred in Germany in 1920 by Peter Lambert.

Whether or not you are a fan of them, the Flower Carpet Rose Amber and others in this series of Roses gives a grand show.

Multiflora pot chrysanthemums give the illusion of mid Summer in the month of November.

Like tiny pieces of bright blue sky dropped into your garden, forget-me-nots are one of the few true-blue flowers available to gardeners.These plants are steeped in history and symbolism, and are eas

Curious about the different names of Cilantro? We have translated Cilantro in Different Languages for you!

As the late summer sniffles simmer down and crisp fall winds begin blowing through the air, it is time to think about preparing for the impending cold and flu season – which, for me, includes harvesting and preparing my favorite winter remedies.We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy

Colorado potato beetles pose such a grave threat to potato crops that flamethrowers have been used to control them. However, you do not have to go to such extremes in your garden.We at Gardener’s Path provide a number of natural control methods to use ag

Gentlemen’s breeches or old ladies’ bonnets. Wait, are we talking about old fashioned clothing on a gardening website?Eastern bluebell, Virginia cowslip, or Roanoke bells. Phew,

Tasty, nutritious, and easy to grow, ‘German White’ garlic is a hardneck variety also known as ‘German Extra-Hardy,’ ‘German Stiffneck,’ and ‘Northern White.’We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our

If you want to adorn your garden with some stunning blooms, then we have the best Types of Morning Glory Flowers that you can grow!

A DIY backyard beer garden is easier to create than you might think. Some shade, seating, and good beer is really all you need. But to create a dedicated space and a more special home beer garden, use these ideas for inspiration.

Recycle a tetra pak or juice carton to make a cool DIY flower vase from it. It won’t cost you a dime and your decor item will be ready. Keep a fresh cut flower in it or use a faux flower, it will look beautiful.

Two things we really like are coffee and plants. Ok, let us add a third thing that we truly love: nice, personal and green interiors. For our series ‘A World of Plants for USM Haller’ we traveled this time to the German city of Fulda and visited the creative local Simon Zimmermann in his stylish home.

Discover a collection of theBest Seedless Tomato Varieties popular for their amazing taste and, obviously, absence of seeds. These juicy types are easy to use in different dishes and bring delicious flavor to your meals!

Let’s explore the origins of these flavorful nuts and discover the fascinating history behind them. From the ancient pine forests of the Mediterranean to the modern-day harvests in Asia and North America, let’s uncover the story of “Where do Pine Nuts Come From?“

I love this time of year, the days are getting longer, the tulips are out in force and there’s plenty of opportunity to enjoy the garden. This year I plan to spend more time enjoying the garden and one way of achieving this is to make the transition between the garden and the house as simple as possible. You see this being achieved on programs like grand designs where large expanses of glass can be opened up and the living and garden space become one. Before we go into the different types of aluminium door