Fine Gardening editors

Happy New Year! It is your GPOD editor Joseph here, and today I’m sharing some of my New Year’s Resolutions… for my garden. Some things that I’m thinking I want do to in the garden this year.

Gardeners often find ingenious ways to solve problems. Below you’ll find tips from our readers that repurpose common household items to great effect. Get an edge on gardening and peruse all of our past gardening tips here.

I prefer to top-dress my flower beds while my perennials are napping safely underground, but I often find myself doing this while the plants are up. That chore is made much easier with a 58-ounce cast-aluminum scoop. It’s small enough to maneuver among plants but holds enough compost, mulch, or—as shown here—composted wood chips to cover real estate quickly. Lastly, it leaves a hand free to hold plants aside while I’m applying the product.

Today we’ve got photos from Christine Callwood’s garden, sent in by her daughter, Jinger.

Alright, one last wishlist post from me, your GPOD editor… This time I’m looking past flowers to foliage that I want to add to the garden. Everyone knows that foliage is the heart of a well-designed garden as it lasts so much longer than flowers. BUT I’m very guilty of being seduced by pretty flowers, so I need to really focus on stepping up my foliage game this year.

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.

We’re visiting with Tingshu Hu from Massachusetts again today. We’ve visited their beautiful garden in the spring  when the flowering trees are stealing the show, and today they’re sharing their garden in the summer, with photos they took in June:

We’re back in Massachusetts, visiting with Tingshu Hu again. Yesterday we took a look at summer in her front garden, today she’s sharing views from her beautiful back garden, with photos all taken last June.

This is your GPOD editor, Joseph, from my frozen garden in northern Indiana. Winter has well and truly arrived for me here, we’ve had a few snows, good hard freezes. Not much is going on in the garden outside, but luckily for me, I live a short walk from a wonderful public conservatory. I love public spaces like these, a little magical escape from the winter cold into a delightful haven of plants. Here’s a little taste of some things that caught my eye on my last visit:

Kathy Sandel sent in just a few more photos of hercurrent garden in Sacramento, California, and I couldn’t resist sharing them:

We’re back today in Harriet Robinson’sbeautiful Maine garden, today exploring her collection of irises:

We visited Harriet Johnson’s Maine garden last week, but just focused on what she’d planted in a space that had previously been an in ground pool. She mentioned to me that she had other garden spaces too, so I asked if she’d let us visit those as well… happily she agreed, and today we’re getting a tour of the space she calls her fence garden:

This is Kevin Kelly, and I have posted photos of my garden in the past. With the holidays approaching, I thought I would share photos of some of the beautiful hand-made wreaths at Colonial Williamsburg. I was just there and had a wonderful time. I hope they bring on the holiday spirit.

Last week Kathy Sandel shared her former garden in Calabasas, California, and today we’re back visiting her current garden in Sacramento:

Sabrina Farber sent in today’s photos:

Today we’re visiting with Harriet Robinson:

Hi, I am Belinda Smith Lawson. I live in Riverview, Florida, which is Zone 9.

We’re in  Dunstable, Massachusetts (Zone 5b) visiting Tingshu’s beautiful garden. We’ve visited her garden before and last week she shared with us some of the beautiful flowering trees in her front yard. Today we’re back to see the spring bloom in her back garden.

There are a bazillion bigleaf hydrangeas out there. So when a new one comes out, it really needs to stand out from the crowd. Meet Eclipse® bigleaf hydrangea—a unique selection with dark purple leaves that hold their color throughout the gardening season. In summer the dramatic foliage is accompanied by striking cranberry blooms with white centers.

Today we’re in Raleigh, North Carolina, visiting with John Matthews.

A trellis is a utilitarian thing. Normally, vines scramble along the ground until they find something to climb on. We gardeners, always seeking to help a plant out, are smart enough to try to put something right next to the vine for it to grow on. While some gardeners stop there, we all want to make this structure as attractive as possible. Limiting factors are our budgets, engineering ability (thanks for nothing, gravity!), durability, and style.