Caitlin Atkinson
21.07.2023 - 23:09 / awaytogarden.com
IS THERE ROOM FOR ANOTHER TREE in your landscape, if it’s a small one? I seem to always be trying to make more room in mine. As you head out nursery-shopping, perhaps this list of some of my favorites will help focus the treasure hunt. They all have something in common: multiple seasons of interest; no one-trick ponies or flashes in the pan on this list. And the winners are…With surprisingly timed summer flowers, hot fall foliage and handsome, peeling bark to recommend it, Stewartia pseudocamellia (top) is a treasure. It grows happily even in part-shade, and reaches about 25 feet here. Read its profile.
Perhaps the smallest tree I grow (maybe 5 feet tall and 9 feet across at present) is an oddball weeping Kousa dogwood, Cornus kousa ‘Lustgarten Weeping,’ which stirred some controversy at A Way to Garden when I almost sent it packing last spring, after years of non-love for it. I relented, and made it a proper home of its own, as you said you desired.
Another small Kousa, perhaps the best, is the variegated one called ‘Wolf Eyes,’just 6 or so feet tall and 10 feet wide. It’s like a beacon, even from a distance, with white-edged foliage and all the other kousa-dogwood traits: big white spring flowers, large red high-summer-into-fall fruits, and foliage that warms up as it prepares to fade and drop in fall.
I’m crazy about crabapples, with their springtime show but most of all their fall-into-winter fruit that the birds and I adore. My favorite red-fruited one (above), ‘Ralph Shay,’ is hard to find, with bright red crabapples big enough to poach. Among gold-fruited kinds, I like ‘Bob White,’ whose small yellow crabapples don’t get all brown and mushy, but mellow instead to a sort of butterscotch color; not gleaming, but niceCaitlin Atkinson
Are you dreaming of an exotic garden full of flowers with hard to pronounce names that will awe your guests? An understandable dream. But most tropical green life are not meant to grow in the weather conditions that the UK offers.
One of the most beautiful and delicious fruits, kiwis are favorites of both children and adults alike. However, like camu camu, these bright green fruits might be most adored by the wellness community, as they're incredibly nutritious. One potential health benefit of kiwi that's been causing some buzz recently? Eating one before bed might help you sleep better—and as it turns out, that might be true.
When was the last time you replaced the air filters in your home? With poor air quality becoming a growing concern across the United States and Canada, you are probably more aware of your home’s air filters than ever before. Air filters help keep our home’s air clean and free of dust, dander, and pollutants. This not only helps us breathe easier, but it also keeps the HVAC systems in good shape and prevents them from experiencing potential damage due to the buildup of airborne particulates.
Ah, garden dreams. We all have them. You drive by someone’s front yard and gasp at how original, yet welcoming it is. Or you go to a friend’s garden party and get positively green with envy over their, well, greenery and the overall flow of the space. To achieve such greatness, you decide you need to hire a landscape designer. And then you realize you have no idea what to do next.
Pre-lit Christmas trees can be used outdoors, provided they are marked as outdoor-safe by the manufacturer. To protect them from weather damage and prolong their life, ensure they are adequately covered or sheltered from the elements.
If you are looking for some striking and colorful addition to your vegetable garden, here are the best Types of Ornamental Pepper Varieties for you to grow!
Did you know that citrus fruits are one of the only fruits in season during the winter? Not too long ago, the joys of taste-testing some unique citrus fruits was limited to winter, but now we can enjoy many citrus fruits (and their many benefits) all year long. One delicious type of orange that you may not be familiar with is the cara cara orange. A relatively new kid on the block, the cara cara is not only beautiful, but it also has a flavor profile that might just make it your new favorite citrus.
A writer for a popular gardening magazine reached out to me recently and asked what my favorite garden tools for homeowners and small hobby farmers were. Of course, this is an impossible question to answer in just one blog post, so I have compiled my favorite weed management tools for you.
Winter weather and rising food prices can make folks eager to get started in their gardens. Some gardeners even want to rush to “correct” last year’s mistakes.
The Latin specific epithet, or species name, of the Stewartia I grow is pseudocamellia, which roughly means it disguises itself as a camellia when in bloom (a nod to the look of its lovely and plentiful white June-into-July flowers, and the fact they are very distant relatives in the Tea Family).But this Stewartia, from Japan, which gets to maybe 25 feet or so in a Northeast garden setting and is happy in part shade or sun, isn’t content to offer up just nice flowers for the privilege of living with you. It gives you peeling, lovely bark all season long (below), and hot fall color, too,
My mathematical equation starts on paper around June, like this:1. Make a list of what you want more of (or a first crop of, if it’s a warm-season thing or if you simply didn’t plant an earlier crop).2. Make a list of things that have gone by or will soon, to assess real estate that you can utilize. In early to mid-June my lists looked like the one below; yours may be very different. My July and August list–for my latest s