open day saturday: great chairs, plants, people

As Digital Content Editor Christine Alexander explains, pollinators play a vital role in our ecosystem and we should all be doing our part to support their populations:

Today we celebrate Earth Day for the 46th time since U.S. senator Gaylord Nelson suggested the idea for a national day focusing on the environment. After its first celebration on April 22 1970 in the US, Earth Day has grown into a worldwide environmental movement raising awareness of serious issues such as pollution, global warming, deforestation and the detrimental effect of urbanised societies on the environment.

College move-in day can be almost as stressful as it is exciting. It doesn’t matter if it’s your first or your fourth—there are many things to consider and many ways to make your new temporary living place feel like home.

Home gardeners always seek new and innovative ways to improve their gardens and increase their yields. This is particularly true now, when at-home fruit and vegetable gardening is becoming increasingly popular.

T ODAY IS OPEN DAY AT A WAY TO GARDEN, THE FIRST THIS SEASON. It’s been a little hectic (understatement), but I’m as ready as I can get.

Down the road apiece, all the flat, wide-open fields of my farmer neighbors revealed themselves the last few days, but not here. Not yet.Yesterday my beloved old friends from Windy Hill Farm in Great Barrington, MA, came anyway to prune the beloved century-plus-old apple trees, despite having to trudge through all the white stuff. We just couldn’t wait any longe

CAN ANYBODY RECOMMEND A LAWNCARE EXPERT? That was my first thought after 650 sets of feet marched on the garden Saturday, in my final Garden Conservancy Open Day of the 2013 visiting season. I say “marched on the garden,” because from an hour before official opening time, that’s what it looked like: a march.

Full lecture and class descriptions below, along with ticket ordering for succulent events:11 am lecture: ‘succulent love’PRACTICALLY carefree, with low water needs and available in amazing forms in nuanced colors that mix and match beautifully…that’s why succulents have been the rage in horticulture in recent years.In this visually rich talk, longtime collector, nursery owner and garden designer Katherine Tracey will share some of her favorite ways of using both hardy and tender succulents in Northeastern gardens, including using them as ingredients in mixed planters, vertical gardens and lately as the subject of long-lasting cut material for

Sunday May 23 is Garden Conservancy Open Day from 10-4 (you can get details and directions at the Conservancy website, here). The $5 donation goes to their work to help preserve and promote gardens in America.Then Saturday May 29th, 11-1, my friend Bob Hyland of Loomis Creek and I do an encore of our most popular workshop of 2009: “Contained Exub

There is also an Open Day in nearby Litchfield County, Connecticut that day and in Dutchess County, New York (the other adjacent area to me). Be sure to check for those listings, too, and make a day of it.Can’t make it? How about coming June 2, or August 18? (Or come back; always something different going on.) On the August date, Broken Arrow will be here again doing a sale in time for fall planting, and garden writer and old friend Ken Druse will deliver a morning lecture on plant combinations and do a smaller afternoon workshop on propagation.All the details on those other days, including links to follow for the Ken Druse events, are on my events page.  Ken’s talk and workshop require prior

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

Many visitors have asked me to take it to the next level. Now Broken Arrow Nursery—they always do plant sales at my big Open Days—and I are offering smaller, ticketed, workshop-style events and sales on September 17, lasting a half-day each, with lots of individual attention. Our spring version sold out fast; space is very limited. Ticket includes $25 Broken Arrow shopping credit at the plant sale.Tour with me, Margaret, focusing on how I made a garden for the birds (60-plus species visit yearly); my maybe-too-crazy obsession with gold foliage; my passion for great groundcovers; the pollinator- and bird-enhancing “meadow” I’ve cultivated by observing carefully and mowing differently; and most of all, my intimate relationship with the place that goes wa