Gardens Ideas, Tips & Guides

My garden is gone.

Jose Yong, Northumbria University, Newcastle

Boglarka Zilla Gulyas, University of Sheffield and Jill Edmondson, University of Sheffield

I don’t generally watch Gardeners’ World these days, but two weeks ago they broadcast a special edition (episode 20 in this year’s series) as part of the BBC’s Big British Asian Summer, exploring South Asian influences on British gardens. Monty Don ‘hosted’ the show from the stunning gardens of Europe’s first traditional Hindu temple, BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in London. The stonework for the temple itself was all carved in India, then brought to London to be assembled. Flowers, particularly the sacred lotus, are represented throughout the decorative motifs. Mountains of flowers are used in the temple’s religious ceremonies, and I was intrigued to learn that – in India – there are businesses based around recycling temple flowers into products such as incense sticks, soaps, and eco-packaging, to reduce their environmental impact. At the London temple, the gardens are a fusion of a European parterre-style design, with Indian motifs, colourful flowers, and a delightful lack of symmetry.

Over the summer I was reading Botanical Brain Balms, a book by Nicolette Perry and Elaine Perry on ‘medicinal plants for memory, mood and mind’. It brings together a wealth of information on plants that can help us sleep or stay calm, ease our pain, improve our memory, and even provide us with mind-altering experiences. Some of the plants are exotic, in that they won’t grow in the UK climate, but which you can find on the shelves of the health food shop, but many are familiar garden plants. Each entry contains a description of the plant and its habitat, a round-up of history and folklore, and the results of modern scientific research proving its effectiveness. You will also find the key ingredients (chemicals) that provide the effect, how to use the plant and any relevant safety notes. There are even some recipes, including a sage, pine and mint cleaning spray to improve memory and concentration, a happy face cream, and teas, biscuits and cocktails.

All these animals are usually lumped in the general catchall of “nuisance wildlife,” but it’s critical to know specifically who you’re up against, to do the best possible job at prevention, or to devise a safe, sane and humane solution, if the unwanted animal is already in residence.For advice, I called Marne Titchenell of Ohio State University. She is a wildlife program specialist in OSU’s College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and when I read about the popular workshop she gives to gardeners called, “The Good, the Bad and the Hungry: Controlling Nuisance Wildlife in

THE GARDEN CONSERVANCY’S national Open Days garden-visiting program is officially under way for 2008, with more than 300 gardens including mine open to the public on specified days.

Since 2011, Timothy has worked at Untermyer Park and Gardens in Yonkers, New York, which is becoming a horticultural destination for keen gardeners wanting inspiration–and a getaway for anyone just wanting to be surrounded by bold, contemporary plantings in a dramatic, historic setting. The Untermyer Gardens Conservancy is a non-profit organization collaborating with the City of Yonkers to facilitate the garden’s restoration (details on tours and how to visit otherwise are at the bottom of this page).In case you’re wondering: that garden has many vivid miles to go before it sleeps for winter. I even saw the phrase “floral fireworks” (such as the crape myrtles and hydrangeas in the right-hand photo below) used to describe it at the end of August, and there are plenty of foliage fireworks, too.Timothy and I worked together for years at “Martha Stewart Living” magazine, and he has been a gardener at the famed Wave Hill in New York City, and at the Garden Conservancy project called Rocky Hills

FROM THE HOW TIME FLIES DEPARTMENT: It has been three months this week since I started weekly radio podcasts with my friends Marshall and Jill down the road at local NPR affiliate Robin Hood Radio. How can this be? But it’s true: the 13th and 14th weekly installments of the A Way to Garden podcast–June 28th’s about making a bird-friendly garden, and July 5th’s on my favorite garden-sized trees–are ready for harvest.

Now as a rural dweller I mostly talk to the birds outside, so Skype and phone sessions have to substitute. My friend Katherine Tracey and I got into it the other day–lots of, “Have you ever grown (fill in the blank)?” or, “Did you see the new color of (insert Latin plant name)?” and then wondering aloud if each one is really a good performer or not, and worth trying.I thought it would be fun to bring all of you into the conversation, too, so once you listen to our chat, tell us your own powerhouse plants, in the comments. Read along as you listen to the Feb. 15, 2016 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).Background on

I guess that’s why she titled her 2011 book, “The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener: How to Grow Your Own Food 365 Days a Year No Matter Where You Live.”Niki’s vegetable garden in Halifax just got a facelift to become even more productive. She is one of the contributors to the blog Savvy Gardening and creator of the award-winning radio program, The Weekend Gardener, that’s heard throughout Eastern Canada. And we spoke just in time for all of us us to order the seeds and learn the tactics we’ll need to grow our own offseason gardens, too.Read along as you listen to the Aug. 8, 2

Organic seed commands a premium price, and limits my choices of vegetable varieties, but as regular readers know, I prefer it. I believe seed bred and raised under organic conditions is the best match for my organic garden’s conditions, and also want to vote with my dollars of demand to help create supply.Having the right seed can provide farmers with the genetic tools to confront day-to-day challenges in the field, so to organic farmers, limited selection and higher prices in organic seed represent a far greater obstacle than to a gardener. Despite the phenomenal growth of the org

This month on our Q&A segment we crammed in as many as we could by taking a shortcut, and instead of having live callers, we gathered more questions than ever and I just shouted them out. Call it our Lightning Round.Important note: Got a question for a future show? Ask it in the comments or contact form on A Way to Garden dot com or KenDruse dot com, or on Facebook dot com/A Way to Garden and we’ll scoop them up as we plan for next time.Read along as you listen to the June 12, 2107 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on

Katrina lives, and gardens, in New Hampshire (that’s the gate to her place, above), and is the author of “The Gift of an Ordinary Day” and “Magical Journey,” and now she has created a brand new book, called “Moments of Seeing: Reflections from an Ordinary Life.”As I was reading through the essays in it last week, one really got to me–speaking of the subject of friends and family. I thought it’s time for you to meet Katrina in person, too.We compared notes on our gardens (and the lessons therein), on the influence of our grandmothers, and Katrina even shared her Cranberry-Orange Nut Bread recipe, just in time for the festive season.

Helping me answer, as he does each month, is my friend and longtime garden writer and photographer, Ken Druse of Ken Druse dot com, author of “The New Shade Garden” and “Making More Plants” and many other favorite garden books.Read along as you listen to the Nov. 13, 2017 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here). If you have a question for a future show, post it in comments on this website, or on Ken’s website, or use our contact forms to email us, or ask us at Facebook.com/awaytogarden.the november q&a with ken druseQ. We’re at mid-November. How much frost have you had, and what zone ar

Background: My keenest gardening friends–some really tough customers–make annual pilgrimages across Massachusetts to Dartmouth (not to be confused with the college in New Hampshire, but under an hour from Newport, and just a bit farther from Boston). They’d come back from Avant Gardens having outspent their budgets, with one gem after another packed into their cars.I eventually called owners Katherine and Chris Tracey, plant collectors since the 1980s (who have in recent years become seasonal sponsors on A Way to Garden, too). Katherine says the nursery was born “when it really got out of control with our hobby.”  They’ve got 25 years of nursery experience–selling both retail and mail-order—and a particular passion for foliage and especially succulents, two big loves of mine.Listen to our entire conversation on my public-r

I decided to invite one to the show to find out. Here to help is Head Gardener Timothy Tilghman, of Untermyer Gardens Conservancy in Yonkers, New York, an ambitious restoration of a historic landscape that he’s been undertaking with his team since 2011 and gaining lots of praise in the press and from visitors. (That’s Timothy watering the greenhouse flats of annuals, below.)Read along as you listen to the Feb. 25, 2019 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Spotify or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).hot annuals, with untermyer gardens’ timothy tilghmanQ. Hi, Timothy. It’s me again.A. No, it’s always fun to hear from you.Q. Needing more plant ideas again. We should probably just as an introduction for people who

I had to shut up and turn the mic over to Ken, an award-winning garden author and photographer of more books than I can count or apparently write myself. And he began (jokingly) like this:Ken: “Hello and welcome to ‘A Way to Garden. I’m your visiting host, Ken Druse. I’m the author of, as someone said, soon to be 20 books on gardening, and our guest, our special guest today is someone who is familiar to all listeners to the radio show and the podcast and visitors to Margaret

All I came up with was this thought, and it’s how we’ll start today’s show, too:So Ken and I wanted to talk about what our gardens mean to us, and especially what they can mean to all of us gardeners in this unusual year.Fellow garden author Ken Druse and I have known each other through many gardening seasons, like about 30. And we’ve each bee

Elizabeth Lawson is a naturalist and writer from Ithaca, NY, with a doctorate in botany. She’s also the new president of the American Primrose Society.The name Primula translates as “little first one,” and they are a welcome sight of spring. She introduced me to the best primulas for our gardens today, and some primrose legend and lore. Plus: Enter to win the

“Monocots,” he said.To which I said, “What?”“I want to talk about monocotyledons,” he said, using the unabbreviated name of one of the two gro

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

Colorado-based Kenton Seth and Paul Spriggs from British Columbia are garden designers with a particular specialty in rock gardens. We did a “New York Times” garden column together not long ago, and I wanted to learn more.When they appeared this spring on the popular Garden Masterclass webinar series, British host Noel Kingsbury said this in the way of introducing them: “Rock gardening will no longer elicit a yawn because this is the future.”I was so glad to talk with them to give us a peek into this brave new world. (Above, from the book, part of a

Many gardeners know the value of mulch around plant roots. Mulches stabilize soil, enrich it, and can contribute to better biodiversity. There are many landscape mulch alternatives to standard bark mulch. Many of these are cleverly recycled items that prevent landfill waste and foster a sense of sustainability.

For well-heeled opera lovers, the hottest ticket of the summer is the Glyndebourne festival. Sitting in the bucolic edges of Lewes, the 1200 seat auditorium welcomes over 150,000 visitors who trek to East Sussex for an extraordinary programme of six operas in the summertime, from Mozart to Handel, Poulenc to Britten. The flagship season attracts the finest operatic talent from across the world who dream of gracing the stage of one of the globally-recognised stalwarts of opera production, where both innovation and history marry together in glorious harmony. 

Are you planning a holiday by the sea? Discover some of our lovely coastal 2-for-1 Gardens to visit, uncover the unique plants that thrive in these microclimates and enjoy the views out over the water. Make sure you pack your2-for-1 Gardens card in your suitcase before any trip away, to ensure you’re saving money on garden visits.

For well-heeled opera lovers, the hottest ticket of the summer is the Glyndebourne festival. Sitting in the bucolic edges of Lewes, the 1200 seat auditorium welcomes over 150,000 visitors who trek to East Sussex for an extraordinary programme of six operas in the summertime, from Mozart to Handel, Poulenc to Britten. The flagship season attracts the finest operatic talent from across the world who dream of gracing the stage of one of the globally-recognised stalwarts of opera production, where both innovation and history marry together in glorious harmony. 

Vertical pocket planters are a great way to add some greenery to your home or garden without taking up too much space. Check out these DIY Vertical Pocket Planters For Urban Homes & Gardens to create amazing vertical planters. They can be used to create a privacy screen, add some color to a dull wall, or simply provide a home for plants creatively in a limited space.

At Tidy Mom, the blogger Jessica shares how she made a wooden outdoor planter on wheels. You can also use it as an indoor planter. Some woodworking and painting are required. But, overall, it’s not that difficult.

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. Are you looking for a way to improve the

A sprawling, green lawn might be a suburban landscaping classic, but there are other ways to landscape your yard. Phase out a grass lawn by adopting ground cover plants instead, and you can conserve water, spend less time behind a mower, and attract vital pollinators to your backyard. Plus, many of these hardy low-lying plants are edible, native species that will spruce up not just your backyard but your kitchen as well.

There are many reasons to think that our gardens will not look the same in 2050 as they do today. 

Organic, no-till systems are the best option for farmers and gardeners who understand the value of soil and want to take steps to preserve, protect, and improve it over time. Most simply explained, the method relies on disturbing the soil as little as possible and adding organic matter to the surface.

Bloom is the biggest annual event in the Irish gardening calendar featuring show gardens of all sizes, themed floral displays, nursery displays, plant sales and a range of interactive platforms where visitors can get professional advice from a host of gardening experts. Before you go here’s what you need to know, along with some of the highlights of this year’s show.

Hens and chicks plants make great low-maintenance options for dry, sunny gardens. And there are so many interesting cultivars available in a range of hues, from chocolate brown to green to bright orange and yellow. The common name may be confusing until you grow them yourself and realize it makes sense. One main rosette (mama hen) will eventually produce several offsets or babies (the chicks!). Though I’ve never heard them referred to by houseleeks, their other common name, the Latin name you’ll see on plant tags for these popular succulents is Sempervivum. They are members of the stonecrop family (Crassulaceae).

Bamboo plant supports are the perfect supports for tall and vining vegetables like tomatoes, pole beans, and cucumbers. They’re strong and sturdy, so they serve a practical purpose, but they’re also extremely ornamental and add a natural element to the garden. Plus, there are many types of bamboo structures for every sized space, including containers. In this article, we’re going to share some of our favorite bamboo staking and trellising products, offer advice on when and how to use them, and the best plants to pair with these attractive structures.