How To Make Mosaic Rock Pavers!

Commonly known as the Winter melon and Chinese watermelon, Ash gourd is native to Japan is found commonly throughout India. When touched, the fruit leaves an ash-like residue on hands. That’s the reason behind its interesting name! Here’s all you need to know about growing Ash gourd!

Do your flowering shrubs need a makeover? Perhaps it’s the overgrown shrub that craves your contact whenever you use the front door or carport. Maybe it’s an old shrub that lost its vitality and produces few if any flowers in its dense thicket of crisscrossing branches. Then there’s the shrub that becomes top-heavy or “leggy”, with most of its leaves clustered at the top, revealing bare or leafless stems below. If you want to improve access to your home or your view from windows now hidden by leaves and branches, consider these three options.

THE PLANT CATALOGS look delicious, but what plans have you made for where those wishlist items might go, and how many of each do you need to make them really say something in the garden? I love creating mixed plantings of shade treasures–bulbs and perennials, and especially extra-early bloomers–under deciduous trees and shrubs. I call the process “Making Mosaics,” and it’s one of the how-to sidebars in my 2013 book, “The Backyard Parables.” It’s also a video, with photos I’ve taken here at my place.

LIKE CLOCKWORK THEY START TO APPEAR ABOUT NOW: A first harvest of cucumbers, and also one of Japanese beetles. Into separate and quite different “brines” they go as fast as they develop, one a vinegar-salt formula, the latter a bit bubbly.

You may remember some of these from A Way to Garden’s series on beloved conifers: You can find those plant profiles by going to this easily browsable page. Many links to individual plant portraits are listed below. But first, the tour (click on the first thumbnail to start the slideshow, then navigate from image to image by clicking the arrows beside the caption): Favorite Coniferous Trees(click any green type to link to the profile of that plant)Golden hinoki cypress, Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Crippsii’Japanese umbrella pine, Sciadopitys verticillataConcolor fir, Abies concolorWeeping Alaska cedar

Start the slideshow by clicking on the first thumbnail, then toggle from image to image using the arrows beside each caption. Enjoy!Note: A list of links to profiles of the plants I’ve mentioned is just below the thumbnails, if you want to learn more than I can fit in a caption.Profiles of some featured plants:Astilboides tabularis Euphorbia palustris Geranium macrorrhizum Geranium phaeum Hakonechloa ‘All Gold’ Hostas (including ‘June’) Japanese painted fern Lonicera sempervirens (honeysuckle) Taxus baccata ‘Repandens Aurea’ (golden yew) Viburnums

Thankfully, for the latter areas, I have old clumps of lower-light plants to divide, including those in this new slideshow of my top 54 shade subjects. I included some woodland-garden shrubs and trees for those seeking to manufacture some shade of their own—or wanting to add more understory structure to what nature has provided.a mostly alphabetical tour of 54 favorites for shadeplant profiles of shade subjectsPerennialsAstilboides tabularis Aralia cordata and Aralia racemosa Cimicifuga, or Actaea, racemosa Dicentra ‘Gold Heart’ Epimedium Ferns:Japanese painted, and Autumn fern plus a wider range

I have known some extreme plant geeks in my time–people whose combined lust and knowledge set them on a course, sometimes to very out-of-the-way places around the world, to find, collect, and eventually disseminate stuff that wasn’t your average red geranium or generic hosta.  One of those longtime he’s-gotta-have-it botanical OCD types, Tony Avent of Plant Delights Nursery in North Carolina, introduced me to the Nichols brothers. What started as the quest to meet and acquire every possible var

Japanese maples always catch my eye. The foliage, the colors, the stature – everything about them is unique and they make beautiful additions to the garden.So it’s extra disappointing when they’re plagu

Whether you’re looking to dip your toe into the big world of bonsai or you just nabbed a cute little tree on impulse at the store, you’re probably wondering how to handle your first plant.At its most basic, bonsai is a beautiful exa

With its honey-sweet fragrance, colorful blossoms, and graceful vining growth habit, it’s easy to fall in love with honeysuckle.So many people have a cherished memory of sipping the sweet ne

One of the best plants for hanging baskets, Tracheophytas can also be an amazing choice to display in a vase and decorative terrariums! If you don’t want to grow them in pots, then these plants can be great centerpieces, too, if you know How to Grow Ferns in Water!