Spectacular Spring Ephemerals in Jay Sifford’s Back Garden

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This year we are celebrating 30 years of 2-for-1 Gardens, and we have 407 gardens taking part, from local hidden gems to national landmarks! To kick off your year of garden visits, we’ve picked out some of the 2-for-1 Gardens in the scheme this year which are perfect for a visit this month. Head out with your 2-for-1 Gardens card and enjoy saving money on days out with friends and family, whilst gathering lots of garden inspiration!

Happy Friday, GPODers!

Hi GPODers!

The Best Flowering Vines and Climbers to Grow in Garden & Containers can add vertical interest, frame doorways, or even create privacy screens. And the best part? They’re really easy to take care of. 

You must be careful when you enter the backyard of garden designer Jeff Epping. No because you’re likely to trip on something but because you might be dive-bombed by a pair of nesting hummingbirds, or a bevy of butterflies, or any number of other pollinators that make this shady Midwestern garden their home. Jeff Epping is the principal designer at Epping Design & Consulting and the former director of horticulture at Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, Wisconsin. Given this background, it’s no surprise that his home landscape is something special. He writes about this beautiful space in his article, Design an Engaging, Naturalistic Garden in the Shade.

Twenty-five years ago when my wife Kathy and I started searching for a new home for our growing family, she focused on all the qualities one looks for in a new house. I, of course, looked at what every gardener considers imperative—the lot. Thanks to Kathy, we ended up with a wonderful new place. And much to my delight, the property had one particularly important feature—good soil. The other nice bonus was that the backyard bordered a small city park, with lots of open space for the kids to play, so my garden design did not have to include an area for kicking a soccer ball. Plant-wise, however, there wasn’t much other than invasive shrubs and trees. So after removing all the nasty invasives, I had a clean slate to work with.

Starting a new garden from scratch can be daunting, but it’s also a fantastic opportunity to create exactly what you want. The vision I had for my new garden (two decades ago) was based on the many small English gardens that I was lucky enough to visit—not the gardens with impeccably maintained lawns and neatly clipped hedges, but those that had plants spilling out of every nook and cranny. Since its inception, the landscape has been slowly undergoing a transformation over the past decade, from a traditional shade garden to a more naturalistic one that embraces an ecology-first mindset. This evolution, however, hasn’t sacrificed the original intention of my dream garden—that it be a visually appealing space with plenty of activity.

Cucumbers are among the most popular crops for home gardeners. They’re easy to grow and just a handful of vines can provide enough cucumbers for fresh eating from mid-summer through late fall. But proper cucumber plant spacing can mean the difference between healthy, productive plants and disease ridden, low yielding ones. Let’s take a look at how far apart to plant cucumbers based on your growing technique and the method you use to plant them. Why properly spacing cucumber plants matters Before we dive into the details on proper plant spacing for cucumbers, let’s take a

Bridgerton is coming to Chelsea this month, as Netflix makes its debut at the flower show, with a garden themed around its popular TV show. First time Chelsea designer Holly Johnston has created a garden based on the personal journey of the show’s main character, Penelope Featherington. The Bridgerton Garden is part of the Sanctuary Gardens area at the show.

Today we’re exploring more of Jay Sifford‘s lesser-seen back garden. We’ve toured and featured the award-winning landscape designer’s immaculate stylized meadow front garden, but now we’re wondering why the blooming bogs at the back of his home aren’t getting more attention.

Chives (Allium schoenoprasum) are among the most popular herbs for home gardeners to grow. They are easy to plant and care for, and since they are a hardy perennial, they return to the garden year after year. The fragrant and flavorful leaves of the chive plant are delicious to people, but the deer and rabbits leave them alone. To add yet another benefit, chive flowers are a favorite nectar source for many of the pollinators who also help pollinate other edible crops. Learning how to harvest chives for use in the kitchen is key to enjoying this easy-to-grow herb. Let’s take a look at several different ways to harvest chives for both fresh use and for preservation. The best time to harvest chives Before we get to the information on how to harvest chives, it’s important to understand