Dog-Friendly Garden with Rustic Charm

You've likely heard that burying banana peels in your garden is a good way to add important nutrients to the soil to grow healthy plants. Banana peels do contain nutrients, but not as many as you may think. Plus, it's not as simple as placing them in the soil and skipping fertilizer or compost.

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“Uncontrollable changes in a garden are inevitable and wonderful opportunities,” says Donald Pell, a landscape designer in Chester County, Pennsylvania. To prove this is true, Donald and his associates created an incredible series ofnaturalistic gardens around their studio. This landscape has become an invaluable laboratory where Donald and his team learn from failures and from the many years of watching this landscape design evolve. “Establishing a garden based on an initial plan (perhaps one even scribbled on paper) is a great place to start, but as plants, the setting, conditions, our knowledge, and our tastes change, so should our designs,” Donald says.

Charming Shade Container Garden Ideas Need new container ideas for your shade garden? Get inspired by this gardener's collection of planters, featuring lush foliage and even a few perennials from her garden. Summer container garden ideas for shade

There is no way to sugarcoat the challenges many of us in the Mid-Atlantic region have faced this summer. The inconsistency of rainfall and the extreme high temperatures have greatly impacted our efforts to garden successfully. Even with valiant efforts to apply supplemental irrigation, I have witnessed a wide range of plant material showing signs of drought stress that I have rarely witnessed in my 15-plus years of gardening in this region. To say it is cause for concern would be an understatement. As a result, in the last few months I have been repeatedly asked how we can prepare our beloved gardens to reduce heat and moisture stress for future growing seasons. One answer to this conundrum is to add organic matter to the soil in the form of compost.

Autumn is a magical time in the landscape. Leaves sparkle on tree limbs like gemstones and flowering plants gear up for their season finale. The cool nights and crisp clear days of fall rejuvenate flowering annuals and perennials that may have languished in the heat of summer. The result is a riot of blooms that gives the trees a run for their money. Among the spectacle are gorgeous annuals for the fall garden that bloom well into autumn.

Scent is powerful, triggering memories from long ago and transporting us to faraway places. In the garden, fragrant perennials often connect us to childhood walks through our grandparents’ gardens or summer days spent gathering bouquets. Aromatic flowers and foliage also play upon our emotions. Some scents are soothing and can be used to enhance outdoor seating areas to help us unwind after a long day. When planted near the front door, fragrant perennials make an alluring first impression. Fragrant blooms also attract a diversity of pollinators to the garden.

I WAS SCROLLING through Instagram the other day—yes, sometimes I just can’t help myself—when I saw a post by Matt Mattus about Christmas cactus. So even though it’s still high summer, it made me long for one of my own.

Hi GPODers!

Hi GPODers!

Join us this summer as we explore some of the UK’s best 2-for-1 Gardens to visit in August, for fun days out with all the family. Whether it’s an adventure playground or woodland trail for the kids, or a rose garden or restored Elizabethan garden for the horticulturalists, there is plenty to enjoy at these gardens. Visit using your 2-for-1 Gardens card to save money on your trips to all these wonderful gardens.

I SUSPECT I’m not alone when I say that weather extremes in recent growing seasons have made me feel a bit like a stranger in a strange land in my own garden, wondering what will bloom when and when to do what. And most of all, wondering what madness is coming next.