Blue moths are not just a mesmerizing sight in your backyard but a symbol of a thriving ecosystem.
17.11.2023 - 18:43 / gardengatemagazine.com
Meet Our 2023 Reader Garden Award Winners! These award-winning gardeners combine science with artistry to create an inspiring landscape. Take a tour with us! Introducing Our 2023 Garden Gate Reader Garden Award Winners!
When Philip Zhao and Tingshu Hu moved to their suburban home in northern Massachusetts nearly 20 years ago, it took them 2 hours to mow the 1-acre lawn. This wasn’t how they wanted to spend their time outdoors. So they set a goal of reducing their lawn by half, which they hoped would cut down on water usage and lawn treatments. Now they tend a couple of large vegetable plots, countless flower and shrub borders, three ponds, two greenhouses and even a flock of chickens. Watch our Talk & Tour video interview above and read more about this couple’s creative efforts and see the great-looking results below.
A winning teamTingshu, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Philip, a computer engineer, have planned and executed every project themselves. Along the way, they’ve experimented with new plants, faced challenges and built some pretty innovative garden structures. All of these factors led us to select them as Garden Gate’s 2023 Reader Garden Award Winners.
Entry garden with multiseason interestThe beautiful border along the front path above holds a diverse mix of shrubs, perennials and annuals, and plant lover Tingshu has carefully planned it to display color in all four seasons. She credits the new perennials’ and shrubs’ fast growth to the chicken manure compost they used to improve the soil throughout the garden.
Spring and summer flowersIn spring, visitors are greeted with bulbs and spring-flowering shrubs. Summer perennials include false indigo (Baptisia australis), geum (Geum hyb
Blue moths are not just a mesmerizing sight in your backyard but a symbol of a thriving ecosystem.
Words by Phil Clayton
The festive season is upon us, and what better way to spread joy and warmth than by adorning your outdoor spaces with dazzling Christmas lights? Outdoor Christmas lights have become an integral part of the holiday tradition, transforming ordinary surroundings into enchanting winter wonderlands. In this guide, we'll explore the magic of outdoor Christmas lights and share tips on creating a stunning display that will leave your neighbours in awe.
Small Space Garden Design Ideas from the Pros Learn how to make the most out of small garden spaces from 4 designers. Elevating Small Space Gardens
Mushrooms in the garden can be an unsettling sight, indicating changes in the soil and in growing conditions generally. While growing mushrooms is becoming more popular as a home interest, fungi can be unpleasant in gardens when they arrive out of nowhere. These unplanned garden guests can also be toxic, so you’ll want to remove them if you have curious children or pets.
Most ornamental grasses will stay intact through the latter part of the year, providing useful colour and structure in the autumn, when herbaceous plants are dying back. Some are particularly vibrant, picking up on the colours of the trees to echo their shades of russet and yellow, but with lower, softer silhouettes and lots of movement. Using them is easy. Weave them into a herbaceous border, or create more impact in larger gardens by repeat planting, as Piet Oudolf did at Scampston Hall in North Yorkshire, with his sinuous banks of Molinia caerulea subsp. caerulea 'Poul Petersen'. Some grasses are deciduous while others are evergreen. It is the deciduous grasses that can dramatically change colour during the autumn.
We’re in Beeton, Ontario, today, visiting Marina. We’ve been to her beautiful garden before (Marina’s Garden in Beeton, Ontario) when it was just a few years old, and we’re back today to see how it has thrived and grown since then.
Visit the Hampton-Preston House and Garden in Historic Columbia. It was built for Anisley and Sarah Hall in 1818. They lived here until 1823, when the house was sold to Wade Hampton Sr and his wife, Mary Couter Hampton.
Last week, I told you about a garden talk I attended at the Robert Mills Carriage House and Gardens in Columbia, SC. Jim Martin (The Magnolia Plantation and Gardens Director of Horticulture & Landscape) was the second presenter. He discussed using bulbs to create “special little moments” every day.
There’s nothing quite like coming home to your own slice of paradise, such as a pocket of greenery in the backyard. But transforming a drab garden into an oasis is not everyone’s area of expertise and can be costly if it’s attempted without a little know-how.
We’re off to New Zealand today to visit Lynne Leslie’s garden. We’ve visited before (Lynne’s Garden in New Zealand), and it is always fun to see what she is growing.
Made up of mellow stone buildings, many of which are medieval, the city of Oxford is the ideal base for an exploration of Oxfordshire. The city itself is picturesque, but also compact, making it easy to walk around and take in the many sights on offer. See the college buildings that make up the University of Oxford, visit the world’s oldest museum, the Ashmolean, to see its Egyptian and Anglo-Saxon treasures, and admire Oxford Botanic Garden, Britain’s oldest botanical garden, right in the heart of the city.