2-for-1 Gardens – Winter wonders

Early summer displays simply aren't the same without alliums. Their spherical shape and vivid colours welcome early summer with gusto, adding texture and height to your borders.  These blooms reappear year after year, too! Great for those on a budget. Wondering which to grow in your gardens? Here are our top 10 alliums to grow for summer.  Image In order: Mount Everest, Violet Beauty, Millenium, and sphaerocephalon

Today we’re visiting Gail Bromer’s beautiful garden at the top of the continental divide in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina:

This article has been checked for horticultural accuracy by Oliver Parsons.

Joseph here, in northern Indiana, where normally December and January is an indoor-only gardening season, with lots of snow, frigid temperatures, and ground frozen solid.

Red is an attention-grabbing color in the garden. Bold, loud, and bright. And it plays well with other colors as well – pair it with orange and yellow for a hot, exciting bed, or blues and purple to created a deep, rich, moody tone. Here are some of my favorite red blooms for the garden… what reds are you loving in your garden?

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.

I wasn’t expecting a lot from today’s count, but mild temperature in the week leading up to Christmas Day must have given things an unseasonal boost and I have had some surprises in the last few days. Having noted it was still only in bud, I wasn’t going to include sarcococca in the total until I came out of the back door again a little later and was instantly hit with an almost overwhelming fragrance: tucked under foliage and sprawling ivy was a clutch of fully open blooms, doing what they do best and perfuming the garden from several metres away.

How to Grow and Care for Mexican Fan Palms Washingtonia robusta

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:

Want to know the secret to a lush, green, and thriving lawn and the right tools? Keep reading to find out How Often Can I Apply Sulfur to My Lawn and transform your garden into an envy-inducing show-stopper!