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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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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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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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Coastal Gardening: Groundcover Plants for the Sea Coast
Using groundcovers in sea coast gardens can give you easy low-maintenance color. I love to use ground-covering plants in masses because the waves of color kind of echo the broad waves of the ocean. Planting groundcovers also avoids a lot of the issues found when planting individual shrubs or trees. When planted in masses, the…
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Plants to Love: Purple Catmint (Nepeta faassenii)
Simple, lush, gorgeous. This sun-lover attracts bees and beneficial insects, resists deer, takes salty seacoast wind, and looks great with any number of plants. All it asks in return is good drainage and full sun. I love it with just about any ornamental grass, pink or yellow roses (it attracts the beneficial bugs that eat…
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Coastal Gardening: Shade-Loving Plants for the Sea Coast
Sea coast gardening is challenging enough in full sun, but choosing wind- and salt-tolerant plants for the shade can be downright daunting. Most shade plants didn’t evolve in unprotected, windy zones – they are used to the shelter of trees. Not to worry – there are a few beautiful plants that can help give your…
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Coastal Gardening: Perennial Flowers for the Sea Coast
Recently I discussed some of the challenges people face when gardening in windy coastal conditions, and some counter-intuitive tips for gardening on the sea coast. The biggest struggle is finding plants that will thrive and bloom even with all that wind and salt. Trial and error is a big part of gardening, but it’s nice…
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Callunas, Ericas, Daboecias, Oh My! Demystifying the Different Kinds of Heather
I first heard about the heather plant when I was 10, reading an old-fashioned British book about a group of children who escaped their abusive guardians and made a home together on a secret island. They built a willow house out of live willow stems, so their home grew lush and protected, and they used…
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Coastal Gardening: How to Garden on the Seacoast
Coastal gardening presents some big challenges. There is constant strong wind, sandy soil that doesn’t hold water well and is lean on nutrients, and the salt! Oh, the salt. Of course, it has its benefits too. Nowhere else do you get such a sense of motion in the landscape, between the beauty of the waves…
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Bringing Some Semblance of Order to Your Crazy Busy Garden
If you’re a plant geek, you’ve probably fallen prey to the “one of this, one of that” style of gardening. You know how it is – you walk out into your garden one day and realize that your beloved plant friends are all clamoring for individual attention (Look at me! No, look at ME!), with…