and the frogs were listening

Read on to learn about the Best watermelon Companion Plants and also the bad ones that will ensure you get the best and juicy fruits!

My Rhododendrons were in full bloom when a late frost caught them quite badly. Winter has been wet and mild but if the USA is anything to go by hard frosts may still be on the way so look after your early flowering Rhododendrons.

It is nothing to do with birds or frogs but there is a lot of it about this year.

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First introduced in the 19th century the lineage of Hybrid Tea roses goes back to crossing or hybridising a tea rose with a hybrid perpetual rose. The first example was supposedly ‘Madame Bravy’ x ‘Madame Victor Verdier’ but many more have followed to great acclaim. One such was a rose called ‘Peace’ which has sold, under several marketing names, over 100 million plants world wide.

October 31, 2022“Soul, Soul, a soul cake!I pray thee, good missus, a soul cake!One for Peter, two for Paul,Three for Him what made us all!Soul Cake, soul cake, please good missus, a soul cake.An apple, a pear, a plum, or a cherry, any good thing to make us all merry.One for Peter, two for Paul, and three for Him who made us all!”

Since the book “Planting in a Post-Wild World” came out in 2015, co-authored by Claudia West with Thomas Rainer, I’ve been gradually studying their ideas and starting to have some light bulbs go off, on how to be inspired to put plants together in the ways that nature does, in layered communities.Claudia joined me on the July 17, 2017 edition of my public-radio show and podcast to about some of the practical, tactical aspects of plant community-inspired designs that we can app

Birthdays require flowers. Make mine peonies, one of the best perks of a June birthday. I am currently overrun by them, and the house actually smells too sweet; I had to put several vases outside. I even had the first-ever tree peony blossoms of my garden career (above) to cheer me this time around. That’s ‘Yellow Crown,’ which produced its first two flowers this year. Tada! Looks like a cupcake with lots of frosting, doesn’t it?Birthdays require gifts, and Jack the Demon Cat took care of this one already. Yes, another weasel tail on the front doormat (above); making four in the last week. Wish he’d stick to chipmunk

He said this one was for medicinal purposes only. Hmmm….And he also said alcohol was on the list of required gear.I don’t think there’s any explaining away what happened in this one. Hiccup!Or should I just say: Cheers!Tagsandre jordan

IT’S ALL HITS, ALL THE TIME here at the garden, or at least it is this time of year. Meet more of my beloved companions (click to get to know each one)…and hurry, the next gang will be showing up and showing off at any minute now.

The less scientific part first: When I picked up my mail Friday, there was a box from Shandell’s, a store not far from me whose owner, Susan Schneider, makes astonishing lampshades out of vintage wallpaper and handmade papers and fabrics…or at least that’s her primary business. I was expecting a lampshade I’d ordered not long ago, but unless she’d dehydrated it, no way my big shade was in that little Priority Mail box.Susan’s business motto is: “Things that make you smile,” and she could not be more correct.  Imagine how big my smile was when out of the mystery box came her surprise, no-special-occasion gift: my own custom tissue-box cover, made from decoupaged, downloaded images of my dollface frogboys from A Way to Garden, where Susan is a regular visitor. You can have a memo

T HE BIG CHARITY PLANT SALE NEARBY, “the” event of the season, was last Saturday, and I admit it: I fell off the wagon a time or two. Nobody I adopted cost $50 or $200, hallelujah, but there were two $35 babies in the back seat on the ride home, rare gold-leaf forms of an Aralia I can’t live without and nobody sells but this one guy….oh, you know the story (read: excuse).