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Plants to Love: Fragrant Sweet Box (Sarcococca ruscifolia)
This unassuming little shade shrub is one that people often don’t notice at first. There’s nothing particularly showy about its graceful arching stems, deep green leaves, or the tiny white flowers that hang from its branches in winter. But when those small blooms open, people walk around sniffing all the big, showy flowers in the…
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Monday Miscellany: Crafts, Cocktails, and Snappy Repartee
Summer’s here and you know what that means – summer cocktails, reading and lots of fun craft projects. At least that’s what it means to me! 🙂 Gotta let the body rest from all the gardening we’ve all been doing, right? Simple Paper Flowers, DIY Birdbaths and Scanned Flower Portraits The DIY Wedding has a…
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Bulletproof Rhododendrons: Rhodies for Sea Coast Wind and Other Tough Conditions
Rhododendrons are tough performers in our Pacific Northwest climate, and have become a standby for landscapers looking for a plant that’s sure to thrive. But not all Rhodies are created equal; some are more suited to tough conditions than others, as evidenced by the horrible-looking Rhodies in so many local parking lots. Finding the right…
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Plants to Love: Mexican Feather Grass (Nassella tenuissima/ Stipa tenuissima)
This waving blonde grass is a great way of bringing a sense of movement to your garden. It looks great massed, and brings a beachy feel to the garden with its bleached straw-colored seedheads. Nassella tenuissima does need to be cut to the ground once a year, but I’ve had great luck doing it at…
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The Little-Known Favorites of a True Gardener: Books From an Estate Sale
This morning I took my mom to an estate sale I saw advertised locally. (An estate sale, for those of you not familiar with the lingo, is a sale of someone’s possessions after they’ve died.) I find them heartbreaking and fascinating and delightful all at once. We put so much of our hopes and dreams…
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Worm Compost: A Fictional FAQ for Vermicomposting
I’ve gotten a few questions lately about vermicomposting -composting in a small bin using worms. Folks seem to know that worm castings rock, and they are really expensive to buy. Other folks want worms for fishing. And still others just want a simple way of keeping their veggie scraps out of the landfill. So I…
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Monday Miscellany: Twitter, Container Ideas, and Garden TV
The garden blogging world seemed to take a short hiatus from posting cool stuff when spring first arrived, but now they’re back in force, with all kinds of new ideas, hot photos, and inspiration we can bring back to our own homes and gardens. The last couple weeks have seen some great lists of gardening…
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Coastal Gardening: Screens and Hedges for the Sea Coast Garden
If you’re gardening on the sea coast, the wind can make it hard to enjoy being outdoors. Using fast-growing hedges or screening plants can help you block the wind and enjoy hanging out and working in your garden. How to use hedges and screens successfully to block wind: First, think of what direction the wind…
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Monday Miscellany: Birds and Bees Edition
As a happy chicken-owner myself (except when the ladies happen to lay a 6 A.M. egg and wake me up!), I’m always excited when I find some cool resources that help others learn to keep chickens. Really, they’re great pets, turn table scrapings into eggs and useful manure, and the eggs! Bright orange yolks and…
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Should Plant Nurseries Offer a Guarantee on Plants?
I read an interesting post from my friend Debbie Roberts in Connecticut about her experience with a nursery that did not offer a guarantee on perennials, and it really made me think about the business of plant selling, how much responsibility us gardeners should take when we buy a plant, and whether offering guarantees on…
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Monday Miscellany: Garden Photography, Containers, Lascivious Plants and Orchids
Garden Photography Advice from Saxon Holt (and a podcast with Alan Detrick) Garden photographer Saxon Holt, who has photographed some of my favorite garden books (like Grasses by Nancy Ondra) has a post about how he views light in the garden. If you struggle with getting a good shot of your garden, Saxon’s a guy…