how to know your weeds, with richard dickinson

It’s time for a test that’s different from the regular ones we see over social media. Here you can check your own knowledge on the most common fruits and vegs, as well as learn several new and interesting facts for some of the most commercial products that inevitably found their way into your stomach once in your lifetime at least.

I have been reading the Penguin Encyclopedia of Gardening which aims to provide ‘….an explanation of words used in a technical sense in a horticultural context in the UK and USA.’ Set out as an A to Z this resulting post, missing a thousand definitions, is unlikely to rank highly with search engines.

As summer arrives, I’m drawn outdoors whenever possible to make the most of the long days, but as I work from home I still have to spend quite a lot of time inside, in front of my computer. Fortunately, the house plants that fill my home provide a wonderful link with greenery and nature, and, at the height of summer, the lush, verdant foliage helps me daydream about holidays in far-flung destinations.

Rows of tall Delphinium ‘Strawberry Fair’ in Polly Nicholson's Wiltshire garden

Requiring less watering and weeding than any other type of garden, a gravel garden is ideal for anyone with a busy lifestyle. Comprising freely draining soil covered in gravel, through which suitable plants grow, the only effort required is in its creation; after that, this contemporary form of garden largely looks after itself.

A potager in a Devon garden by Dan Pearson

Winter is the perfect time to install a drainage solution to remove standing water in the yard by adding surface drains, French drains, or both. Removing excess standing water helps with disease prevention in turf. Many turf diseases are made worse by prolonged wet conditions.

No rain.That about sums up how I feel about the so-called gardening season of 2010. No rain.  Believe me, you don’t want to hear me say much more, as it gets ugly fast.The only good parts: few fungal diseases and lots of frogs (who stayed here with me by the little backyard pools in even larger-then-normal armies–as groups of frogs are called–since there wasn’t much moisture in the vicinity otherwise). Lots of a

Andrew, who is now assistant director of the Chicago Botanic Garden, is past president of Magnolia Society International’s board of directors, and remains a member of the society’s board. In his tenure over 20 years as curator at Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, Andrew built the magnolia collection from about 50 to more than 200 cultivars. That’s a lot of magnolias.Now Andrew Bunting is author of a book on the queen of flowering trees, called “The Plant Lover’s Guide to Magnolias,” just out from Timber Press as part of an ongoing series on various distinctive genera of plants.We talked magnolias on my public-radio show and podcast. Read along while you listen in to the April 25, 2016 edition of the podcast using the player below (or at this link)–and even learn how to train a magnolia or any w

Each of her 150 recipes is delightfully prefaced with what amounts to its provenance: a juicy and sometimes hilarious back story that Clark tells in as simple yet deft a fashion as the style of the dish that follows. I sat right down to chapters like “Better Fried” and “It Tastes Like Chicken” and “My Mother’s Sandwich Theory of Life,” the perfect mix of a good read and a good meal.For me—a flavor-fearing kid who rinsed most of her entrees off at the sink conveniently positioned halfway between the Garland range and the family dinner table—Clark’s childhood tales are positively hair-raising: Summer vacations were spent touring France with her psychiatrist parents, gourmands determined to eat at every Michelin-starred restaurant there. Worse yet (or to Clark, more thrilling): Th

I SAY THANK YOU to the University of Chicago Press for investing in “Weeds of North America” (above) by Richard Dickinson and France Royer. The Canadian authors have created a massive work (800 pages paperbound) covering 500 of the continent’s pest plants, including aquatics. Key ID tips include not just flower and foliage photos, but also images of seeds and seedlings.This serious reference volume illuminates other reasons to consider the plants as pests, beyond the space they steal from natives. Such traits include toxicity to livestock (like milk thistle) or transmitting a disease to a valuable crop (like barberry does w

I CAN’T SEEM TO KEEP MY TOMATOES (or anything else) well watered enough in this dry year, and am expecting some kind of havoc as a result. Extended 90-degree daytime temperatures have already caused some flowers to drop before producing, for instance.