‘We call Mount Congreve Ireland’s global garden because there are 10,000 different plants here’

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. 

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.

Like many northern gardeners, I had red-hot poker envy for many years but ruled out growing them because of their iffy -chances of surviving winter in my region. However, I am very excited about some of the newer Kniphofia introductions we are growing at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Being able to overwinter a South African plant in the Midwest is pretty cool, right? 

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

As someone who shivers at the thought of a chilly breeze, I’m well and truly done with our long, wet, cold spring. So much so, that I find myself daydreaming of brilliant sunshine, blue skies and warm breezes.

Shangri-La Paris

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.

We’re always excited to learn about trendy gardening styles and techniques, and recently, one piqued my interest. With a name like “chaos gardening,” how can you not be instantly curious?

If you spend a lot of time out in the garden it's smart to have the skills to identify the different types of bees—plus wasps and other insects that mimic bees—that you're most likely to encounter.

We shared this on Chemistry Cachet several weeks ago, and we are already having readers write in saying they love it!