the ‘wildscape’ around us, with nancy lawson (‘the humane gardener’)

I’m always being asked for ideas for breaking up the space in a shallow wide garden, and also how to make it look longer.

Hopefully you don’t think of soil as just dirt.Soil is actually an incredibly complex ecosystem, with billion

A busy working life may make it difficult to source the right plants for your garden, but gardening subscription boxes and gardening kits save you time, delivering anything from seeds to gardening kit, to helpful gardening instructions straight to your door. This convenience has given gardening kits and subscription boxes a growing niche among subscription-style services, delivering houseplants, seeds and vegetables direct to your door every month, season or just when you need them.

Today’s guest, Erik Keller, has practiced horticultural therapy for more than 20 years, using plants and nature to help clients from cancer patients to special needs children and disabled seniors, to help them cope and to make positive life changes. He’s also author of“A Therapist’s Garden: Using Plants to Revitalize Your Spirit” (affiliate link).Erik’s a master gardener and manages the gardens and horticultural therapy program at Ann’s Place in Danbury, Connecticut, an organization assisting cancer patients and their families.We don’t need to be in a formal horticultural therapy program, though. Erik wants to remind each of us of the power of what we

If you are unfamiliar with the term, «bolting» is the name given to the phenomenon when plants rush prematurely to flower and set seed. Bolting is, in essence, the process of plants hurrying to enter the reproductive phase of their growth. 

Embarking on the journey of creating and caring for a garden can be both exciting and daunting

DR. JAMES NARDI says you can tell a lot about a tree by the company it keeps. From life in the soil around their roots to the action up in their canopies, trees are swarming with engagement—unseen microbes and fungi, countless insects and other arthropods, and vertebrates like birds, squirrels, and even porcupines.

Jenks Farmer, a longtime horticulturist and garden designer, is also a writer with several books to his credit and a Substack newsletter that I’m really enjoying and more to come. He’s founder of Jenks Farmer, Plantsman, which makes gardens for clients and is also a mail-order nursery specializing in unusual bulbs.Read along as you listen to the May 15, 2023 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) or Spotify or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).Quick note: Because the longtime local radio-station engineer who records and edits my podcasts has been ill, this one has some little blooper

I wanted to learn more about how to give the desired plants the edge, including some of the native perennials that have proven to be Nancy’s allies in out-competing the undesirables.Nancy Lawson is author of “The Humane Gardener” and more recently of “Wildscape.” In that book, she stresses that we’re not alone out there, and promotes animal-friendly planting and maintenance strategies. She helps us tune into everyone whose home it is through a mix of findings from scientific research and her own intima

As a matchmaker for my human loved ones, I’ll admit I don’t do so well. But when it’s time to pair okra plants with beneficial companions in my home garden, I have an enviable success rate.Part of the reason is that okra, unlike some of

Looking for fun and easy ways to brighten up your home or garden? Learn about the myriad Things To Do With Terracotta Pots, and let your imagination soar as you give these classic pots a new purpose. We have listed some of the easiest ideas right here!

By Stacey Kelleher