too darn hot: hello, spring; goodbye, spring

I am miffed  that the Royal National Rose Society has gone into administration (May 2017). Originally formed in 1876 it owns land in St Albans but finds annual running costs onerous. As small compensation here are details about a couple of charitable red roses.

The seed catalogue season is in full swing and I paused to consider their value to gardeners.

Abeliophyllum distichum also called White Forsythia is more refined than traditional yellow Forsythia to which it is distantly related, both being part of the Olive family.

Flower spikes can reach over 6 foot and when massed together at the back of the border look really special. Delphinium are worth the effort to grow successfully and here are some tips to help.

The two best complimentary colours are Red and Green.  There are many ways this is demonstrated in the spring garden and they will be sure to draw compliments. The Peonies are just opening under a bit of shelter and shade.

If you are someone who loves to see veggies grow fast, then you must check out these delicious and Fast Growing Vegetables For Quick Harvest!

It’s the end of June, and my vegetable garden looks rough. The heat and the insects have wreaked havoc on my once beautiful Garden of Eden. This is the perfect time to rejuvenate some of the crops using a technique call ratooning.

A writer for a popular gardening magazine reached out to me recently and asked what my favorite garden tools for homeowners and small hobby farmers were. Of course, this is an impossible question to answer in just one blog post, so I have compiled my favorite weed management tools for you.

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If you are anything like me, you are constantly adding to your gardening toolbox. Below are a few tools that I cannot live without in my gardening adventures. The best news is that for $40, you can enjoy these tools and the entertainment they provide for years.

In springtime, the deciduous woodlands around us are beginning to awaken as the delicate flowers of spring ephemerals pierce the blanket of leaf litter. Most of these woodland plants are found in areas with rich, humusy soil and layer of deep leaf litter; they flower when the leaves are off the trees and light reaches the forest floor in spring. These diminutive plants are beautiful, but beyond this, they provide critical support for newly emerging spring bees. As temperatures warm, native solitary bees visit bloodroot, trout lily, spring beauty, Virginia bluebells, and other spring flowers to collect pollen or sip nectar. Some of these bees have a close or exclusive relationship with specific flowers, a fact recognized in their names: trout lily bee (Andrena erythronii) or the spring beauty bee(Andrena erigeniae). Trout lily bees visit more than just trout lily, but the latter relies exclusively on the pink pollen provided by spring beauty to provision their nests. However, many other bees visit this spring beauty too. In fact, 58 species of bees have been reported as visitors to this tiny pink flower. Similarly, bloodroot, trout lilies, and Virginia bluebells are visited by a diversity of bees, including bumblebees (Bombus spp.), little carpenter bees (Ceratina spp.), halictid bees (Halictus spp., Lasioglossum spp.), and mason bees (Osmia spp.). Clearly, these spring ephemerals are of considerable importance to the survival of many spring bee species, a fact we rarely consider when we admire their flowers.