If you have always wanted to know about the world of different Types of Dragonfly in the Garden, then this post is a must-read!
21.07.2023 - 22:38 / awaytogarden.com
DEAR GAYLA: Since it feels as if we never leave our computers these late-winter days, maybe we could celebrate on Skype together? Our blog anniversaries, I mean—mine’s March 5 (today!), marking five whole years online, and if I’m counting right you’re at like age 13. How can that be?Come to think of it, the number 5 must be numerologically significant for me right now (maybe I should play the Lotto, or consult a medium?). Or at least 5’s are very in-my-face: I’ve been a garden writer for 25 years, and it was 15 years ago that “A Way to Garden,” my first garden book, was published, the one I named the website for.
I don’t know if I ever told you why I started the A Way to Garden website, but frankly it was partly to prevent a panic-attack, or at least total embarrassment–because I didn’t really have a Plan A, let alone a Plan B at the end of 2007, whenI walked away from my longtime “successful” career in the city for a solo rural life. Though I wasn’t worried, people kept asking me what I “planned to do up there.”
Eventually, it made me feel self-conscious, as in: Was I making a horrible mistake? (I hadn’t cooked up ideas for the two books that would eventually be my main “job” so far in this new life, so things were sketchy at first.) I think that saying, “I’m starting a garden website” sounded more reassuring than, “I don’t know,” both to myself and to the many skeptics, and so A Way to Garden [dot] com was born. Happy anniversary, dear blog, now stuffed with almost 1,200 stories and 45,000 comments–the questions and shared wisdom of a whole community of plant-mad friends, including you, I’d never have “met” otherwise.
GOING BACK to the “5’s” thing, Gayla, on December 25—Christmas!—my sister gave me a garden vintage find
If you have always wanted to know about the world of different Types of Dragonfly in the Garden, then this post is a must-read!
Now part of this garden is down to crazy paving the Qualcast grass box is needed less and can be put to a different use. It looks like a ‘unibarrow’ has got in on the act to make a feature planter for these pansies.
Ants can be an unsightly nuisance and inspire concern. However they do not directly damage plants but are more a sign that you have another pest problem.
Fountain in Oxford Botanic gardens.
White is the second most useful colour in the garden after green. I am progressively increasing the number and variety of white and grey plants that I grow.
Grasses give a rich combination of autumnal colours
Some animals can be a real pest in the garden. Their crimes include eating the wrong thing, digging in the wrong area, turning grass brown with urine and leaving a dirty mess. Some chose your favourite plants to damage as I know from some aggressive over fed pigeons in my own garden. In my experience the worst offenders are rabbits, cats, mice, deer, pigeons and dogs including foxes. Rats cause concern but have not caused direct damage in my garden.
Where has all the rain gone? In winter there were floods aplenty so I was predicting water rationing by summer. Now it is mid May and the ground is parched and rock hard.
I was picking the Czar plums to make more jam when a wasp was disturbed from eating it’s lunch. Wasps go for my plums just as they are at their sweetest best. My problem was I couldn’t see which plums had a wasp in the fruit if they were above head height or facing away from my hand. The resulting sting set me on the trail of other stingers in the garden.
Colorful ferns can be an excellent addition to any garden or indoor plant collection. These plants are characterized by their beautiful, vibrant fronds ranging from shades of pink, red, yellow, and even purple.
Want to add a tropical flair to your garden this spring? Elephant ears will add a bold statement to a filtered sun or high shade spot. These striking “drama queens” of the garden may be either in genera Colocasia or Alocasia. The easiest way to tell these beauties apart is that colocasias (Colocasia esculenta) will have leaves that point downward, and alocasia (Alocasia species) leaves will point upward. Depending on the species or cultivar of each genus, the size can range from 3 to 10 feet tall and 2 to 10 feet in width. Both types of elephant ears are native to the tropical regions of Southeastern Asia.
In a year when many of our favorite sporting events have been postponed or even canceled, the garden marches on! As gardeners, we have our own backyard competitions each year, keeping mental notes on which varieties we will plant again or replace due to their performance on our ‘home court’. But choosing which varieties will be in our starting lineup each year can become a daunting task.