How to Make the Most of Gray Water to Reduce Your Water Consumption

ANNIE SCHLECHTER

Flowers are usually the first things that grab our attention when we are selecting plants to add to our landscapes. However, most plants only flower for a short period of time, so it behooves us to consider plants’ other attributes—and there are many! Sometimes the same flowers that seduced us into opening our wallets are replaced with an amazing fruit display. Colorful fruits of all shapes and sizes can add drama to our landscapes throughout the year. In addition to their visual beauty, many fruits are important sources of nutrition for wildlife, particularly birds. Here are a few examples of awesome plants whose fruit shines in the garden in summer, fall, and winter.

As someone both blessed and cursed with a keen sense of smell, I sometimes wonder what it would be like to lose it. To never again inhale, for example, the sweetness of a rose. To be forced to go without the spicy, spring perfume of witch-hazel, or the fresh-earth scent of newly dug potatoes, or the sharp, vegetal tang of tomato plants softly baking in a hot glasshouse in high summer.

Flowering shrubs can grace your garden, adding color, interest and sometimes fragrance to the home landscape. For the biggest, showiest flowers, you’ll also need to take into account the sun exposure of the garden site. But never fear, there are flowering shrubs for landscaping that like sun and others that like shade.

After 20 years of having a lawn that took, I wanted a yard that contributed: to the planet, to local animals, to biodiversity, to my neighbors, to my mental health. With the sage (native plant pun intended) design work, counsel, and collaboration of David Godshall of Terremoto and David Newsom of Wild Yards Project—and a plant-friendly paint palette from color consultant Teresa Grow—another little garden that gives was born.

Kids can have fun in the garden and on a windowsill. It can give them an understanding of food and green issues in a fun environment. Help them grow plants that are easy, reliable and develop quickly to maintain interest. Give them good soil, a sunny location and help so they are not put off  gardening in the future. Kids can be turned into enthusiastic gardeners from an early age and with luck it will stay with them for life

Whether you're revamping a certain space within your home or are moving into a brand new house, you may be wondering how to best select a color palette for a given room.

Are you confused about How Often to Water Mint? Well, don’t worry! This guide will help you to keep it thriving!

In case you hadn’t noticed, weeds are having a bit of a moment, and have been for some time. They were stars of the show at Chelsea this year and are increasingly being appreciated for their up-until-now-overlooked ornamental value. They are also living proof that our attitudes to gardens – who they are for and how they should look — are shifting. Gardens have always been a mirror to society, and now more than ever we see the pressing issues of our time reflected in how we think about them. We are no longer creating gardens solely for our enjoyment, but for the birds and the bees too. We are also being much more mindful about resource management, selecting plants and materials which will have the lightest footprint, requiring the least intervention. Weeds (whatever that term means) are the perfect solution. Incredibly well adapted to their environment, they will need little or no nurture to get established and thrive. And because they’re native, they support a huge range of insects and invertebrates who have evolved alongside them.

We are well and truly into festival season, but for some of us the allure of live music and days of partying is cancelled out by the huge crowds, shared facilities and mandatory camping. So why not bring that festival back home and create a wonderland in your garden for entertaining friends and relaxing, far away from the madding crowd?

Hi, there. I am your neighborhood stormwater pond. You might call me by a different name, maybe lagoon, lake, or fishing pond, but chances are if you live in a community with a pond, it’s me, your friendly stormwater pond. I have been designed by engineers to perform an important job and help manage flooding and stormwater pollution in your neighborhood. Each time it rains, stormwater runoff is directed to me through a network of drains, pipes, and ditches; once it reaches the pond it is temporarily stored and slowly released over time, reducing flooding around your streets and homes and capturing and trapping pollution in your pond, protecting downstream waterways. I do such a good job at these that I am one of the most frequently used practices to manage runoff in our communities. In South Carolina’s eight coastal counties, researchers have documented more than 9,000 stormwater ponds alone!

If I had a dollar for every time a client called this year about a wet spot in their lawn, I’d probably be able to adopt another dog. Fortunately for our clients, there are several ways to address this common issue!