Gardenig in state Oregon. Tips & Guides

PJjaruwan / Getty Images

The garden room at the back of the Buchanan's inner-city London garden

We love a good before-and-after on the GPOD. Getting to see what a gardener started with really shows the work, talent, and time that goes into creating every garden we feature on the GPOD. So today we’re going to share some of our favorite glow-ups.

I CONFESS to something of a weakness for Japanese maples, and I suspect I’m not alone. Now, thanks to breeding work by experts like today’s guests, there are more and more varieties being made available that are suited to a widening range of climate zones and garden conditions, meaning the circle of maple lovers can keep on growing.

How to Grow Five Spot Flowers Nemophila maculata

The summer I was 18, I worked a few hours a week on a small farm just outside of Portland, Oregon. It was a perfect gig for between school terms—I would help harvest things for the farmers market, pick weeds and occasionally round up a turkey that had escaped its enclosure. 

If this is the first time you’ve come across the phrase “crevice garden,” it won’t be the last. This style of gardening is on the tongues of every gardening taste maker I know and is an approach to gardening whose time has come. Crevice gardens bring together a number of elements that make them must-haves in the modern garden. They are water wise, architecturally striking, perfect for small gardens and containers, and provide ideal conditions for growing a wide range of beautiful and unusual plants. Most critical, it is a style of gardening that not only brings a striking, fresh aesthetic to the garden, it also provides ideal conditions for a wide range of plants and helps them survive whatever extremes our climates throw at them. So whether you garden in steamy North Carolina, high-and-dry Denver, or frigid Maine, crevice gardening will work for you and allow you to grow a wide range of fascinating plants.

Idaho Botanical Garden If gardening in a dry climate is your challenge, the Idaho Botanical Garden has lots of solutions! Idaho Botanical Garden Boise, Idaho

(Deut’zia). A group of leaf-losing shrubs that are beautiful in bloom but are otherwise undistinguished. The flowers are produced from the side buds of the previous year’s growth. Many kinds are known, chiefly natives of China, Japan and the Himalayas. The majority are not perfectly hardy in the North against winter cold and should be given sheltered positions even in the climate of New York City and its environs. The Deutzias are closely related to the Mock Orange, or Philadelphus; they belong to the Saxifrage family, Saxifragaceae. The name Deutzia was given in honor of John van der Deutz, a patron of botany and at one time Sheriff of Amsterdam.

WHAT’S NOT TO LOVE about zinnias? Organic seed farmer and breeder Don Tipping of Siskiyou Seeds and I both vote an emphatic “yes” in favor of making zinnias a part of every garden year.

We've been independently researching and testing products for over 120 years. If you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Learn more about our review process.

Frank Lee / Getty Images

From the lucky Shamrock with heart-shaped leaves to the charming Bluebell and pretty Primrose, these native flowers bring beauty to Irish landscapes. Whether it's the yellow Cowslip, fluffy Bog Cotton, or vibrant Buttercup, each flower has its unique charm. Read on to learn about the diversity of Irish flora.

Hey folks, it is your GPOD editor Joseph here… My northern Indiana garden has frozen solid, so gardening activities are on hold here, but I’ve been spending some time thinking about the upcoming spring plant shopping season! I’ve been going through old photos and making a list of plants that I’ve seen in other gardens, or used to have in my own former gardens, and would like to get for my current growing space. So, today, I’m sharing a bit of my garden wish-list for the sunny parts of my garden!

Hi GPODers, your editor Joseph here again today with more plants from my spring shopping wishlist. And today I’m sharing some things I’m eyeing to add – or reaquire – for my shade garden.

Often overlooked in favor of more traditional blooms, these vibrant yellow wildflowers are hardy plants that not only offer aesthetic appeal but also have tonnes of ecological benefits.

When to Plant Succulents in the Northwest

Cobra, the garden machinery experts, are delighted to offer readers the chance to win a CS1024V Li-ion Cordless Chainsaw, worth over £115.

Mahonias are woody evergreen shrubs and the best of them flower in winter. In the past, they were regarded as something to shove in the shady corner or, even more insultingly, as car park plants. But now – thanks to the demand for architectural foliage – they are having their moment in the sun... or, rather, their moment in light shade, which is where they prefer to be.

In a second building on his property in Springfield, Oregon, Gared Hansen grows mushrooms containing psilocybin, a psychedelic compound that grows naturally in the environment. Hansen harvests the mushrooms after each flush sprouts from the bins and bags in which he plants them. Everything harvested within a 24-hour window counts as a harvest batch, which he sends to a certified lab to be tested. Once approved, Hansen, the owner of Uptown Fungus, packages the mushrooms and sells them to the handful of service centers that have opened in Oregon over the past few months.

Knowing the precise time to get annual plants into the ground and whether or not a perennial will grow in a given location is often buried in local community lore, but the US Department of Agriculture’s plant hardiness zone map is used by millions of growers to help determine which plants are likely to thrive in a location. 

With 2023 coming to a close, many designers are already looking ahead to the New Year to predict the home and interior design trends that will be popular in 2024. One space of particular interest is the bathroom. 

Halloween is just around the corner, and it's the perfect time to get crafty with some ghoulishly delightful DIY projects. This year, TikTok has been buzzing with creative ideas, from eco-friendly hanging ghosts to illuminating mini pumpkin string lights. Here are a few of our favorites that you can try yourself.

Collaborative post

My name is Eric Peterson, and like most gardeners I have been into gardening since I was a child. I live on a 3,900-square-foot lot in Portland, Oregon (Zone 8b). I started my garden when I moved in about 12 years ago. Originally I was renting the house and started a container garden made mostly of plants that I would find on Craigslist for free. It made sense to have my plants in containers so I could take them with me if I moved. I continue to rescue unwanted plants when people are ready to give them a new home. We ended up buying the house in 2017 and still have a lot of container plants.

Monty Don is one of the nation’s favourite gardeners. For nearly twenty years, Monty has been lead presenter on BBC Gardeners’ World, the beloved television programme which inspires this magazine.

Today we’re in Portland, Oregon, visiting with Zeah.

Chris Rauch was strolling past booths at the annual ag show in Spokane last summer when he spotted a large jar full of basalt powder. A nearby sign urged him to spread it on his croplands to help improve soil pH. 

My taste in plants is not exactly traditional. Somewhere along the line, when my gardening priorities shifted toward sustainability, my passion for pretty things morphed into an appreciation for survivalists. I’m fascinated by the ways in which plants have evolved to withstand voracious herbivores and fluctuating climate extremes. The tougher a plant is, the more I like it.

How to Grow and Care for Oregon Grape Holly Berberis spp. (syn. Mahonia)

With 45 types of accepted species of these succulents, you can find them in blue, green, and gray colors – which makes it all so difficult to pick the best onw out. Well, don’t worry! We bring you the best Types of Dudleyas to help you out!

The British have a bit of an obsession with the Mediterranean. It's tantalisingly close, yet sufficiently different that the moment the EasyJet tyres hit the tarmac, we feel transformed and instantly a bit more glamorous.

Brie Goldman. Food Stylist: Annie Probst

With copper-colored wings and an emerald head, the Japanese beetle is pretty, but devastating.

As Digital Content Editor Christine Alexander explains, pollinators play a vital role in our ecosystem and we should all be doing our part to support their populations:

A quick way to clean the algae out of a garden water feature after a long, dark, and wet winter is to use a power washer. It only takes a few minutes to dislodge the long mats of algae, and the low volume of water that blows out of the nozzle doesn’t disturb even the smallest of rocks. Start at the top of where the water flows and work your way down to the bottom of the feature. This is a lot easier and more effective than grabbing the strands by hand and then using a brush to clean the rest away. You can see the difference in these “before” and “after” photos. I enjoy this a lot more than power washing the patio.