saying the ‘f’ word, with some ‘s’ on the way

There is no reason why you should settle down for an empty, boring backyard when there is so much that can inspire you. Check out our post on how Your Backyard Can Be the Best Hang Out Place with these DIYs!

If everything you need to complete your dream home improvement project seems more expensive than ever, that’s because it is—and it’s stopping people from paying more money to have those projects done by professionals. Instead, they’re turning to DIY.

Want to add a tropical flair to your garden this spring? Elephant ears will add a bold statement to a filtered sun or high shade spot. These striking “drama queens” of the garden may be either in genera Colocasia or Alocasia. The easiest way to tell these beauties apart is that colocasias (Colocasia esculenta) will have leaves that point downward, and alocasia (Alocasia species) leaves will point upward. Depending on the species or cultivar of each genus, the size can range from 3 to 10 feet tall and 2 to 10 feet in width. Both types of elephant ears are native to the tropical regions of Southeastern Asia.

When I was growing up in S.C., we kids played outdoors, most days. The weather didn’t matter; I was all about being outside – running, biking, swimming, climbing trees, and exploring. I’ve always enjoyed the woods and creating trails and forts.

Since the book “Planting in a Post-Wild World” came out in 2015, co-authored by Claudia West with Thomas Rainer, I’ve been gradually studying their ideas and starting to have some light bulbs go off, on how to be inspired to put plants together in the ways that nature does, in layered communities.Claudia joined me on the July 17, 2017 edition of my public-radio show and podcast to about some of the practical, tactical aspects of plant community-inspired designs that we can app

Read the vintage essay, or just share your own pain right here in comments. You know how gardens are: They take us to the brink and then win our hearts back by magically rebounding, just as we’re about to mow them down or turn them under. Cheeky devils, aren’t they? Why didn’t I take up macrame or Bingo instead? Off to move the vintage-kitchen-stool-turned-sprinkler-tower to another spot now…Categoriesessays

Yes, said my friend Ellen Blackstone of the BirdNote public-radio program, who has been the tour guide for our ongoing series of bird stories here on the blog. (Browse all past installments.)The part of the bird’s brain that’s used for singing shrinks to lighten the bird’s body mass in the offseason, she explained (and here’s the link to hear more on that). In fall and winter, there is no mating ritual; no need to stake out a territory.Many birds can still s

She is someone I have often heard called a mentor and inspiration by some of my most respected garden friends, especially in the Pacific Northwest. No wonder, because Corvallis, Oregon-based Carol Deppe–also the author of the popular book “The Resilient Gardener”–is pragmatic, but also scientific in her approach, armed not only with precisely the right hoe for the job but also with a PhD in biology from Harvard and a long background in plant breeding.Read along as you listen to the March 30, 2015 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here). We talked about choosing vegetables to grow in combination (and when some crops are most productive and easiest grown alone); about strategic steps to avoid late blight

THE FLYER PIQUED MY INTEREST: Dan Benarcik, part of the creative team at Chanticleer Garden in Wayne, Pennsylvania (a must visit!), would be lecturing nearby about “The Art & Craft of the Garden,” and how to personalize a garden using artistic elements, found artifacts, and ornamental containers. I quickly got a ticket—you can, too, for the June 16 event, including garden tours and a garden market, in Spencertown, New York—but also asked Dan to share some of his ideas and images (including the bromeliad-artemisia- urn-and-melianthus moment at Chanticleer, above) with us, no matter whether we can attend. A Q&A with this enormously talented plantsman and garden artist.

AFTER WINTER SPENT UNCEREMONIOUSLY IN HEFTY BAGS IN THE BASEMENT, the non-hardy bulbs at my place are striking up a chorus of Elvis’s “Love Me Tender,” trying to get through to me that they want a kinder, gentler life than the one I offer here at A Way to Garden.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA-based but Southeast-bred Kevin West strikes me at once as a very modern and also a very old-fashioned guy–a great combination to my mind. Quotes from the classical Roman poet Virgil open the chapters in his book, “Saving the Season: A Cook’s Guide to Home Canning, Pickling and Preserving,” which is also loaded with old-fashioned fruits he hopes we haven’t forgotten about.

The key is which vine for which use, because (hint): planting a trumpet vine or wisteria in your climbing rose bush probably isn’t a good matchup.Dan Long joined me on my public-radio show and podcast from Athens, Georgia, where he owns Brushwood Nursery aka gardenvines dot com. Dan’s the person I know with the most vines—300-something over all in his collection the last time I asked, and more than 150 Clematis species and varieties alone. I suspect he has something for every possible use we can