Garden prep Ideas, Tips & Guides

That first gravel garden at Olbrich Botanical Gardens that Jeff Epping and his team created wasn’t the last. There have been three more since, and gravel gardens created elsewhere for clients. Jeff, who lectures regularly to garden audiences around the country about his passion for gravel gardens, even transformed the front yard of his home to one in 2018, and he explained to me why and how.Read along as you listen to the May 9, 2022 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) or Spotify or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).gravel gardening, with jeff eppingMargaret Roach: Hi, Jeff, how is spring unfolding in beautiful Madison—which is the land of many gardens, as I remember having

To learn about all that I talked to Bill Fonteno, Professor Emeritus of Horticultural Science at North Carolina State University and former technical advisor to the U.S. Mulch and Soil Council, the industry trade association. Learn how deep he recommends applying mulch, how different mulches do the soil-building job at different rates, and also why not to torture trees with the dreaded practice known as “volcano mulching,” among other things.Read along as you listen to the May 23, 2022 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) or Spotify or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).using mulch (and mulch works), wit

Charles Dowding is often called the guru of no-dig gardening, which he practices today in his organic market garden in Somerset, in South West England. He began experimenting with no-dig in 1982 and, over the years since, in his many books and in person and online teaching, including his massive YouTube channel, Charles has brought countless people into the no-dig fold.His most recent book is “No Dig: Nurture Your Soil to Grow Better Vegetables With Low Effort,” about making and managing a vegetable garden without tilling.Plus: Enter to win a copy of “No Dig” (affiliate link) by commenting in the box near the bottom of the page.Read along as you listen to the January 30, 2023 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to al

What they’ve learned so far can help us prepare.Sonja Skelly is Director of Education for the Cornell Botanic Gardens and an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Horticulture there. She gave me a virtual tour of Cornell’s Climate Change Demonstration Garden, and some of the takeaways from their work so far that we can use to make our own gardens more resilient in the face of a shifting landscape.Read along as you listen to the Sept. 12, 2022 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future

And asking experts for help, including today’s guest, Uli Lorimer, Director of horticulture at Native Plant Trust.Uli, author of “The Northeast Native Plant Primer,” has made native plants his career. In 2019, he became director of horticulture at Native Plant Trust, America’s oldest plant conservation organization. And before that he was longtime curator of the Native Flora Garden at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. (Above, frozen dew on Panicum virgatum; Uli Lorimer photo.)Plus: Comment in the box near

But what if we thought of maintenance as an expression of creativity, instead of merely restraint—as part of the art of garden-making? What if we figured it into our design decisions right from the start? Particularly as our gardens shift in a more ecological direction and become more naturalistic, that adjustment and approach seems especially important.Ongoing creative maintenance is our topic today with Noel Kingsbury and Annie Guilfoyle, hosts of the popular Garden Masterclass series of workshops and webinars.Annie Guilfo

But there’s always more to do in other parts of the garden, too.On the list are some strategic summer pruning tasks, and a likewise strategic plan for deadheading or otherwise reducing self-sowers (like celandine poppy, Stylophorum diphyllum, above) so there’s not too much of a good thing, for instance. Plus there are perennials in need of haircuts.My friend Ken Druse, autho