Sreeja’s Rose Garden

My name is Rajini. I am from Bangalore, India. I have a terrace garden and would like to share these pictures.

Lavender fields are impressive, not just because of how incredible they look, but because of the feeling of calm and peace they create that is so hard to find elsewhere. That relaxing property is just one of the many reasons why we love to grow this plant at home, but lavender is also wonderful when used ornamentally. Couple this with its soothing effect and charming aroma, and you start to scratch the surface of its many, many uses.

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Garden Sprouts is a program I run at the South Carolina Botanical Garden that is designed for preschoolers and caregivers. This class takes place once a week for three months every spring and fall. The goal is to share age-appropriate nature-based activities with children, who are mostly three to five years old, but sometimes younger or older. Over time I have learned the caregivers also learn things they never knew, enjoy the activities immensely, and are able to connect more deeply to the natural world through this program. The structure of this hour-long program is three-fold, we begin inside with a book related to the theme of the day, a walk or outdoor activity, and finally a craft. In this blog, I would like to share some of the books, outdoor activities, and crafts we have done in this class.

Native grasses are an excellent choice for low-maintenance, attractive, and wildlife-friendly plants to add to your landscape. Their beauty is often more subtle than the color splashes of perennials and annuals but can add amazing depth and interest to the gardener’s palette. There are so many species of native grasses to choose from, and each one brings differing structure, texture, and color to the garden. Grasses give multi-season interest to the landscape. Perennial grasses mostly emerge in the spring and are at their peak in summer and tend to be happiest in full sun. Persistent seed heads provide structure and movement to the garden in the fall and well into the winter.

Many years ago, while attending a winter gardening symposium at Calloway Gardens in Georgia, I first observed paperbush (Edgeworthia chrysantha) in full bloom. While exploring the gardens during a break between sessions, I discovered a huge paperbush flowering near the butterfly house. I was amazed by the beauty and fragrance of the flowers and immediately fell in love with the plant.

In a series of emails and Skype calls since I began A Way to Garden in 2008, Gayla and I have found so much shared turf:We two longtime organic gardeners can get riled up—over topics ranging from the environment, to chemical companies and the “business” of gardening in general, to dyed mulch and more (her most recent rant on offcolor mulch is way down in this post). We both overdo it—on plants, work, and a major inclination to cart home lots of rusty buckets and other “vintage” metal stuff from tag sales. We both live in the garden offseason crammed into spaces where in many rooms, the plants get a majority of the square footage. (And why not?) In addition to the usual tools, you’ll find us both with a camera in the garden, though Gayla is a professional ph

Adam, a graduate of the prestigious Longwood Gardens Professional Gardener Training Program, joined the staff at Swarthmore College’s arboretum in 2012. The rose garden he’s responsible for was first designed in 1956, then recently renovated to be more sustainable. In a recent chat, Adam shared tips for organic rose care today, both cultural techniques like proper spacing and using fish hydrolysate as a feed and disease-preventive, and also advice on selecting more resistant varieties. We even talked about the dreaded rose rosette disease that has been on the rise in recent years.If you’re near Swarthmore in late May and early June, treat yourself to a rose-garden tour, or just listen along as we get a virtual visit with the resident expert. Read along as you listen to the May 22, 2107 edition of my public-radio

But how do you make a meadow or meadow garden, and manage one? What plants, and what practices, combine for a successful mix?Tom Brightman has been land steward at the famed Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania since 2007, where he oversees more than 700 acres of forest, meadow, wetlands and agricultural lands—including the 86 inspiring acres called the Meadow Garden.Read along as you listen to the Aug. 15, 2016 edition of

On our lists, still: collecting some seeds of natives to sow later and cleaning and preparing tools for storage; lifting tender bulbs and tubers to stash; where to overwinter the nursery pots of things we bought that never found their permanent home in the ground (oops).Ken Druse, author of 20 garden books and an old friend, is back today to help with the countdown, and especially to remind himself and me and all of us not to get lulled into procrastination, even if it has been in the 60s some days here the last we

Not so long ago, the idea of shipping roses across the country was almost unheard of. If you wanted a particular type, you bought it locally or you couldn’t buy it all.While I’m all for supporting local businesses, this

This easy table modification all started because we live in cow country and where you have cows, you have flies. They drive me crazy in the summer so I am always looking for ways to deter them. The other day I was at OSH and the sales lady said that most herbs are a natural fly repellent. That got me thinking and this project was born. Now the jury is still out if this works on the flies but I love the end results anyway.