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03.05.2024 - 14:14 / backyardgardener.com
The best thing about early spring is seeing something new daily in the garden. Of course, the pundits would say that if you have done your garden properly, you should see something new every day of the gardening season, but that is another issue. In spring the pace of growth accelerates, and the plants almost seem to be in a competition to see who sends up the first shoots. Last week I couldn’t find a trace of any of my many hostas. Today, when I took my daily inspection tour, I found that most of them were at least an inch out of the ground.
As the daffodils gradually fade, I am encouraged by the sight of the first ferny leaves of the thread leaf coreopsis (Coreopsis verticillata) in my front border. I divided these extremely hardy plants last year, and it appears that all of the divisions “took”. With their small pale yellow flowers and ground covering ways, the coreopsis will step up and provide much-needed camouflage as the daffodil and tulip foliage turns ugly. From the looks of things elsewhere in front, I will have more daisies of various kinds than I know what to do with. This is a good thing, because I have already promised divisions of those daisies to a gardening friend.
If you have hydrangeas, check them. They should be showing signs of new growth along the stems. I have a “peegee” hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora) that has done a good imitation of a dead plant since last fall. Just as I had resolved to get out the spade and consign it to the compost heap, I noticed signs of buds along some of the stems. Another near-corpse of a hydrangea that I was enticed into buying while on a trip to a far-off garden center, last summer seems to have at least a few green shoots. It’s enough to restore my faith in
The Best Flowering Vines and Climbers to Grow in Garden & Containers can add vertical interest, frame doorways, or even create privacy screens. And the best part? They’re really easy to take care of.
You must be careful when you enter the backyard of garden designer Jeff Epping. No because you’re likely to trip on something but because you might be dive-bombed by a pair of nesting hummingbirds, or a bevy of butterflies, or any number of other pollinators that make this shady Midwestern garden their home. Jeff Epping is the principal designer at Epping Design & Consulting and the former director of horticulture at Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, Wisconsin. Given this background, it’s no surprise that his home landscape is something special. He writes about this beautiful space in his article, Design an Engaging, Naturalistic Garden in the Shade.
Twenty-five years ago when my wife Kathy and I started searching for a new home for our growing family, she focused on all the qualities one looks for in a new house. I, of course, looked at what every gardener considers imperative—the lot. Thanks to Kathy, we ended up with a wonderful new place. And much to my delight, the property had one particularly important feature—good soil. The other nice bonus was that the backyard bordered a small city park, with lots of open space for the kids to play, so my garden design did not have to include an area for kicking a soccer ball. Plant-wise, however, there wasn’t much other than invasive shrubs and trees. So after removing all the nasty invasives, I had a clean slate to work with.
Starting a new garden from scratch can be daunting, but it’s also a fantastic opportunity to create exactly what you want. The vision I had for my new garden (two decades ago) was based on the many small English gardens that I was lucky enough to visit—not the gardens with impeccably maintained lawns and neatly clipped hedges, but those that had plants spilling out of every nook and cranny. Since its inception, the landscape has been slowly undergoing a transformation over the past decade, from a traditional shade garden to a more naturalistic one that embraces an ecology-first mindset. This evolution, however, hasn’t sacrificed the original intention of my dream garden—that it be a visually appealing space with plenty of activity.
Like many northern gardeners, I had red-hot poker envy for many years but ruled out growing them because of their iffy -chances of surviving winter in my region. However, I am very excited about some of the newer Kniphofia introductions we are growing at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Being able to overwinter a South African plant in the Midwest is pretty cool, right?
Cucumbers are among the most popular crops for home gardeners. They’re easy to grow and just a handful of vines can provide enough cucumbers for fresh eating from mid-summer through late fall. But proper cucumber plant spacing can mean the difference between healthy, productive plants and disease ridden, low yielding ones. Let’s take a look at how far apart to plant cucumbers based on your growing technique and the method you use to plant them. Why properly spacing cucumber plants matters Before we dive into the details on proper plant spacing for cucumbers, let’s take a
TODAY’S TOPIC is orchids, but not the ones you might be growing as a flowering houseplant. Our subject is native terrestrial types that are more often than not under great pressure in the wild, their numbers dwindling.
Summer Perennial Bed with Mighty Chestnut Daylily 'Mighty Chestnut' daylily is a mighty fine addition to summer perennial beds. Add colorful perennials to summer-blooming beds
Bridgerton is coming to Chelsea this month, as Netflix makes its debut at the flower show, with a garden themed around its popular TV show. First time Chelsea designer Holly Johnston has created a garden based on the personal journey of the show’s main character, Penelope Featherington. The Bridgerton Garden is part of the Sanctuary Gardens area at the show.
Chives (Allium schoenoprasum) are among the most popular herbs for home gardeners to grow. They are easy to plant and care for, and since they are a hardy perennial, they return to the garden year after year. The fragrant and flavorful leaves of the chive plant are delicious to people, but the deer and rabbits leave them alone. To add yet another benefit, chive flowers are a favorite nectar source for many of the pollinators who also help pollinate other edible crops. Learning how to harvest chives for use in the kitchen is key to enjoying this easy-to-grow herb. Let’s take a look at several different ways to harvest chives for both fresh use and for preservation. The best time to harvest chives Before we get to the information on how to harvest chives, it’s important to understand
Do you remember that garden Bunny Guinness designed at Chelsea Flower Show in 2011? You know, the one with the beautiful hazel-hurdle-raised-beds burgeoning with edibles and ornamentals. Well, if you don’t, it was stunning. I could not stop staring at its honed perfection. But, I thought at the time, ‘this is a Chelsea Garden that can’t be recreated in reality’. So, was I right? Can you combine ornamentals and vegetables without either party being compromised? Can you truly make a space that is at once pretty, productive and practical?