Gardening

What every container garden needs – pot feet

Some of the most overlooked effects of watering containers are the ugly stains that happen beneath your pots after a season or two of resting on a porch, deck, or patio. It’s a pain to have to scrub this off or continue to look at black rings of container-water residue. That ...

Lingonberries outshine Thanksgiving cranberries in backyard gardens

Not to be unpatriotic, but another "cranberry" outshines America's traditional Thanksgiving cranberry. This fruit – sometimes called mountain cranberry, partridgeberry, or foxberry – is esteemed in other parts of the world. You may know it by its Scandinavian name, lingonberry, because that's where it is most popular, with many thousands of ...

Unplanned garden ‘accidents’ have lovely results

Developing a pleasing landscape or garden is the most wonderful work. We plan and design and deliberate. Plants are considered for one location or another, one function – like developing a hedge for privacy – or another, such as softening a stone building. It’s more fun than I can usually contain! Sometimes, ...

Gardeners love new plants even when they run out of space for them

If you garden in one place long enough, you eventually run out of room to plant new goodies. This is a problem when you visit a nursery of rare and choice plants. Your eyes are bigger than your real estate. I now have three superb shrubs in pots, a witch hazel, ...

Ways to overwinter tender succulent plants

I love growing succulents -- you know, those alluring fleshy, spiny, hairy, thorny, and otherwise bizarre-looking plants – in old bird baths, troughs, dishes, and other small containers outdoors during the summer months. These tender, no-fuss plants offer interesting textures, shapes and colors, creating individually fascinating gardens that, for the most ...

A city farmer faces the challenges of urban gardening

There are certain phrases I never expected to utter in my lifetime. Things like, "Excuse me if I don't shake your hand. Mine's covered in horse urine." Or, to my son, "When you're finished with dinner, clear your plate and feed the scraps to the worms." Yet those are exactly the ...

How to place rocks around water gardens

We’ve all seen them, those water features — particularly small ponds — dotted on the edges with natural rocks that look totally artificial. You may even own one. After years of writing about backyard water features all over the country, I’ve come to think of this artificiality as distinguished by “same-size ...

Plant a seed, get a tree

Planting seeds is a satisfying way to grow trees and shrubs, and gives you a special affection for the plants. Don't be put off by how long it takes: Unless you are interested in flowering or fruiting, you can expect plenty of shoot growth from most young trees and shrubs. ...

House plants for black thumbs and cave dwellers

I’ve killed more than my share of houseplants. One of the great paradoxes of life is that accomplished gardeners who grow prize-winning roses and gigantic tomatoes frequently turn into grim reapers when it comes to ficus and philodendron indoors. Gardeners are used to supplying plenty of water and nutrients to their outdoor ...

Unemployed workers learn to grow their own food

Many of the new gardeners didn't know how to grow vegetables, and weren't sure what to do with them once they did. They learned, though, as part of a project by a local college to help a community hard-hit by the recession grow some of its own food. Wilmington College provided the ...