Today we’re off to Canada to visit with Bas Suharto.
27.09.2023 - 07:53 / finegardening.com / GPOD Contributor
Alice Fleurkens in Sweaburg, Ontario, has shared her garden with us several times on the GPOD, but today she sent in some photos of a friend’s garden, which is just gorgeous.
This is my friend Anna’s garden. I had not been there for quite a while, and boy was I blown away by her little piece of paradise. Her plants have grown to sizes I had never seen before. Anna and her husband, John, really do not have any lawn; their whole backyard is flowers and vegetables.
Look at all the planters Anna makes. She told me they were nicer earlier in the summer, but I think they are still beautiful. The bright red flowers are from begonias (Begoniahybrid, Zones 9–11 or as an annual) and canna (Canna hybrid, Zones 8–11 or as a tender bulb).
This begonia is covered with blooms.
Look at these gigantic agaves (Agave americana, Zones 8–10). Anna told me she has had them for about eight years.
In the winter, the agaves go in the garage. You can see they are set on wheels to make them easier to move. And can you believe the size of the dahlias (Dahlia variabilis, Zones 8–11 or as a tender bulb) in the background? Just totally amazing. I think they are probably 5 to 6 feet tall.
A smaller agave in a ceramic pot and potted angel’s trumpets (Brugmansia hybrid, Zones 8–11) add flare to this planting.
This is the side of Anna and John’s garden. There are all kinds of different small sedums between the rocks. Two weeping copper beeches (Fagus sylvatica, Zones 4–7) have dramatic foliage and fit well in the narrow space.
This orange flower, Mexican sunflower (Tithonia rotundifolia, annual), was supposed to be 6 feet tall but grew to about 9 feet.
Anna John have built many rock walls around their property.
A beautiful hydrangea (Hydrangea panicu
Today we’re off to Canada to visit with Bas Suharto.
How to Grow ‘Polish Hardneck’ Garlic Allium sativum var. ophioscorodon ‘Polish Hardneck’
When Neil Patterson Jr. was about 7 or 8 years old, he saw a painting called “Gathering Chestnuts,” by Tonawanda Seneca artist Ernest Smith. Patterson didn’t realize that the painting showed a grove of American chestnuts, a tree that had been all but extinct since his great-grandparents’ time. Instead, what struck Patterson was the family in the foreground: As a man throws a wooden club to knock chestnuts from the branches above, a child shells the nuts and a woman gathers them in a basket. Even the dog seems engrossed in the process, watching with head cocked as the club sails through the air.
You’re familiar with peaches, apples, and pears. But have you heard of pawpaws?
Today we’re visiting Paula Brown’s beautiful garden in Ottawa, Ontario.
Today marks the 45th anniversary of the Apollo Moon landing, which seems like a good time to take the next step on our space adventure. You choose the topic of bees in space, so here we go!
Header image: Three sisters (winter squash, maize and climbing beans) summer garden at the University of Guelph. (Hannah Tait Neufeld), Author provided
Mary Ann Van Berlo has been gardening on this 2.4-acre riverfront lot since fall 2012. The yard was still a construction site when she moved in, so all the gardens were installed after that.
Have you ever seen a century plant bloom? If not, put it on your horticultural bucket list! Century plant is a common name for a number of species of agave (Agave sp.), usually Agave americana in South Carolina. Most agaves are monocarpic, meaning that an individual plant only flowers once in its life and then dies. In fact, the name “century plant” is a much-exaggerated reference to the long time it takes for the plant to flower. In SC, agaves generally require 10 to 15 years to grow large enough to bloom.
WHO VISITED: We met Twitter friends like @GardenGuyKenn (all the way from Michigan) and other blog-commenters like Bobster (all the way from Rhode Island) and Leslie (from Connecticut) and Ailsa and Patti, from Ottawa, Ontario.We met Joyce from Iowa and Michelle from Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania (31 miles from Wilkes-Barre, apparently) and Sandra from Clarks Summit (also Pennsylvania, 8 miles from Scranton) and Julie from Reston, Virginia, and Stephanie from Bainbridge Island, Washington, and Stephanie from Seattle (both Stephanies, both from prime garden country…a coincidence?). Someone signed in as being from Scotland, but can that be so? And all of you, thank you, whether from a mile down the road or a country or ocean away…or whether you just visited our virtual tour yesterday.Some of t
Its native range, says the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, is New York and southern Ontario to Wisconsin, and northeast Iowa to Maryland, also appearing in the mountains from Georgia to Tennessee. Depending whom you ask, twinleaf is hardy in Zone 4 or 5 to 7 or 8.The New England Wildflower Society’s Garden in the Woods, in Framingham, Massachusetts, was the first place I saw it in profusion, though it is apparently not technically a
I got to know Franca this year when she opened an actual shop for Boxwood Linen in the next town, Hillsdale, New York, at the historic Hillsdale General Store, which was recently renovated. Franca grew up on a farm in Ontario, the daughter of parents born in Scanno, Abruzzo, so she is no stranger to the ways of the garden and kitchen.“We had a cellar, a cantina, at the old farm in Canada,” Franca recalls, “where we’d store not just canned goods but cheese and prosciutto and sausage—but no more!”Now Aida, Franca’s mother (above), visits her daughter’s Hudson Valley, New York-based home from Toronto each late-summer-into-fall, when the garden is offering up its best and there’s work to be done. Together, Franca and Aida continue the old traditions, but in a new location. They do hot-packed tomatoes two ways: chunky, and also as a puree. Aida used to use a motorized mach