Ground Ideas, Tips & Guides

How to Identify and Manage Willow Galls

When blankets of green suddenly pop into a canvas of colors with the prettiest flowers, it is truly a sight to behold! The ground covers on this list aren’t just easy to grow; they thrive in the shade and produce mesmerizing blooms even in dimly lit spaces! Let’s dig in.

Mums mean it’s time for college football, bonfires, and pumpkin spice everything! Their bright colors range from sunny yellow to hot pink to burgundy, and they last for weeks, making them the perfect backdrop for lavishfall displays of gourds, corn stalks, and hay bales.

One of the first of many commands my wife gave me after we got married was to rip up all the nandinas in front of my house. «It makes the house look abandoned,» she stated. «If you don't do it, I will.»

Whether you call them woodchucks, whistle pigs, ground pigs, or groundhogs, these large ground squirrels can be a real nuisance in your yard and garden. “Groundhogs eat whatever is available and most nutritious,” says Sheldon Owen, PhD, wildlife extension specialist at West Virginia University. “They consume large quantities of herbaceous vegetation, especially fruits and vegetables. But they’ll also eat clover, bark, and landscape plants.”

Veronicastrum (Veronicastrum virginicum) is a hardy, herbaceous perennial that has been in garden cultivation for hundreds of years but has only gained popularity in the last couple of decades, thanks to a revival of naturalistic planting styles. Its vertical branching stems are excellent for architectural impact in sunny borders, and its long tapering blooms, made up of many tiny flowers, are a magnet for insects.

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Entryways are the first thing that we see when we enter a home. They welcome us in and send us off every time we leave.

Most ground-nesting wasps aresolitary and mind their own business as they pollinate plants and prey on unwelcome garden pests, such as caterpillars. But social wasps, which live in a colony with a queen, can become a problem when their nests are situated to close to your living areas.

If you’ve ever had an ant problem at home, you know how irritating it can be. They’re incredibly stubborn little pests and, unfortunately, it can be challenging to figure out which home hacks actually work. One non-toxic solution people often suggest is using coffee grounds to kill these little visitors—but does it work?

With growing interest in waterwise gardening and water conservation, homeowners are looking for alternatives to water-hogging lawns, which are not always necessary or practical. Turfgrass can often be replaced by native grass species, ground covers, or hardscape materials and still meet your individual needs. When selecting lawn replacements, it is important to consider the various roles lawns play in the landscape and plan accordingly. Lawns provide valuable environmental services such as soil stabilization and erosion control, and they have a cooling effect on the local environment. From a design standpoint, lawns play an aesthetic role, creating openings or voids that help shape the landscape. Finally, lawns provide an area for kids, pets, and adults to play.

The glossy mahogany-brown nuts of the horse chestnut or conker tree, are commonly known as conkers, after the game played with them by generations of children. However, unlike the nuts of the similarly named but unrelated sweet chestnut tree, conkers aren’t edible to humans unless cooked. However they are widely used for crafts such as model-making as well as games.

Le Creuset

Well, I did it: after a few light showers, I took the plunge and moved the roses as planned, breaking all recognised rules about moving and replanting. The existing roses in the rose garden are now planted closely together in groups of 3 of the same variety, to give the impression of larger bushes, together with the new additions making a total of eight varieties in the enlarged bed, leaving the terraced beds either side of the bus shelter empty for some hardy perennials.

The best ground covers are multi-purpose workhorses, suppressing weeds, preventing soil erosion, and adding another level of interest to garden beds. Naturally, we’d prefer them not to be invasive, and to look good over a long season. But why do so many gardeners seem to fall back on the same few choices? In this episode, Danielle, Carol, and expert guest Amanda Thomsen cover new ground in their quest to expand the definition of what a ground cover can be. Whether it’s a tough but underused North American native, a cheeky little annual, or an unusual self-seeding edible, we hope you will find something unexpected but garden-worthy in this episode.  

Not only is high humidity uncomfortable for you, it can actually cause serious damage to your home. Especially in the dog days of summer and long bouts of rainfall, humidity levels have been rising at an alarming level.

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It is indeed painful to find unwanted plants taking over your carefully curated vegetation. While not all weeds are garden enemies, the ones on this list surely are! Learn to recognize the most common and persistent weeds found in the states, and save your garden from invasion now.

A little trim and tuck is all your houseplants need to look their best indoors. While they don’t need as much pruning as the ones in your garden, some shaping and tidying will make them bushier and prettier, instantly uplifting your home’s decor. Lucky for you, we know everything about giving plants haircuts!

Native to tropical Asia, coleus is a shade-loving annual belonging to the mint family. While it produces blooms, this plant is treasured for its spectacular foliage, which appears in numerous hues, patterns, and sizes. So, we’re here to help you make your coleus bushier!

Fall armyworms (Spodotera frugiperda) are not a welcome visitor in the Southeast. They often appear in large numbers inlate summer to early fall and make the ground appear as if it’s moving as they devour every bit of vegetation in their paths. “They will march across your lawn, just like an army,” says Clint Waltz, PhD, turfgrass extension specialist at theUniversity of Georgia. “The adult moths are not a turf issue, but they lay eggs which become voracious caterpillars that can decimate a lawn and heavily damage certain types of turfgrasses.”

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For our 2024 Idea House in the Kiawah River community on Johns Island, South Carolina, the natural surroundings proved a generous source of inspiration. This was especially true of the landscape design, notes Scott Parker, the project’s landscape architect and co-founder of Charleston-based DesignWorks. “One of the things that we wanted to do with the landscape and the garden design was really to ground it in the DNA of the Lowcountry,” he says. That meant tailoring their plant selections to mimic the maritime forest that covers parts of the property, as well as choosing more formal ones to reflect Charleston’s long-standing garden traditions.

If you have a fully operational garbage disposal in your kitchen sink, you’re likely in one of two groups. The first is comprised of conscientious individuals who know exactly what they should and should not toss down to prevent those blades from grinding to a halt.

While the summer is a great time to enjoy warmer weather, it can make your home’s temperature harder to regulate. Even with the AC pumping, one common problem is a comfortable ground floor and a sweltering second floor.

It's a huge bummer to see a nearly-ripe melon that's fallen to the ground or one that's developed an unsightly layer of mold from resting in the dirt.

Geranium macrorrhizum, or big root geranium, is one of my all-time favorite perennials for its ease of cultivation, attractive foliage, pretty summer blooms, and incredible vigor. It’s perfect at the front of a perennial or shrub bed, along a pathway, or as a groundcover under shrubs. Big root geranium spreads and forms a dense carpet of foliage, but it’s not so aggressive that it becomes invasive. In this article you’ll learn all about planting, growing, and caring for this stunning plant. Get to know Geranium macrorrhizum Also called big root cranesbill, Geranium macrorrhizum is a perennial plant hardy

For those of us who garden in small spaces, container gardening strikes an ideal balance between structure and flexibility. Potted plants can be rearranged as often as necessary, which makes it easy to accommodate new additions and to ensure that each plant gets the sunlight or shade it requires. Compared to traditional in-ground beds, container gardens also give us a bit more control over factors such as water, weeds, and pests. I’ve spent the past few decades creating designs for roof decks, balconies, courtyards, and patios in San Francisco. Through this work I have discovered that the key to container gardening success is always the same: finding a mix of appealing plants that are well suited to each garden’s specific climate and light conditions. Using my home garden as a testing ground, I’ve developed some strategies that anyone can use to create lush urban jungle and cohesive container displays that truly stand out from the crowd. 

Even though pineapples are considered a fruit (and a fruit generally comes from trees—unless it’s a berry), pineapples actually grow on a plant close to the ground. Each pineapple plant bears exactly one pineapple. So where did pineapple come from in the first place?

If left untouched, this lovable houseplant can turn into a gentle giant! But you don’t always have to get your shears out, as there are smarter ways to handle its size issues. Read on to discover secret hacks to shape your overgrown pothos into a thing of beauty!

John Bessler

Trader Joe's

One of our most striking moths, the elephant hawk-moth is a large species, mainly golden green but with bright pink patterning on its body and wings. It’s named after its caterpillar, which has large, fake eye spots and is said to look like an elephant.

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There are several species of wild dead-nettle in the UK, as well as many cultivated varieties that are grown in gardens as groundcover plants. Dead-nettles are members of the Lamiaceae or mint family. They have nettle-like leaves which are often covered in hairs. Hooded flowers grow in whorls around the stem and come in a variety of colours depending on the species. Although dead-nettles resemble nettles, they’re in a different family of plants and they don’t sting.

Sweet william (Dianthus barbatus) is a short-lived hardy perennial, loved for its showy display of colourful summer flowers. The foliage forms low rosettes of non-spreading mid-green or bronze-green leaves. Large flower clusters are borne on sturdy stems up to 60cm high, made up of many individual florets with a surrounding ‘ruff’ of green foliage. Flower colours come in shades of pink, purple, red, dark maroon, and white, and blooms are often bicoloured, too. Sweet william is hardy, easy to grow from seed, and makes an excellent cut flower.