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Understanding Garden Design book – Interview on Kirkus Reviews
…in which I tease Amy Stewart about her garden, and get to say “hell” on Kirkus Reviews. I am sure I can die happy now. Read it here: Garden Rant: A Conversation about ‘Understanding Garden Design’
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Wish You Were Here (a Guest Post by The Garden Rockstar)
A guest post by author Michael Nolan When Gen offered to let me take the helm here at North Coast Gardening for the day, I couldn’t resist. I mean really; I live in the Southeastern US, I was never professionally trained as a gardener and to top it off, I love patchouli. What could possibly…
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Greenland Gardener Wall Garden Kit
If you’ve read Susan Morrison and Rebecca Sweet’s book Garden Up! about vertical gardening, you’ve seen the drool-worthy photos of succulent walls. You might have even thought about getting one of those flat wooden frames to make one of your own. The problem with so many of those succulent wall frames is they require patience,…
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Monday Miscellany: Woot! Last Frost! Plus Ballsy Locations for Mulch, etc.
We are doing the happy dance here at North Coast Gardening, because we have just passed our official last frost date here on the coast in Humboldt County. This means I’m planting all the frost-sensitive Fuchsias, lemon trees, sages, etc that I’ve held off on planting all winter. Most of these plants will make it…
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Eartheasy Raised Beds
When I got an email from Eartheasy offering a cool wooden raised bed kit to try out, I was suspicious of their claims. Takes less than five minutes to put together? Easy to assemble? Um, not for me. I’m, like, DIY-challenged or something. I can’t even hit a nail properly. So Amy Stewart of Garden…
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Why Yes, I Do Talk About Non-Native Plants
Just, um, not lately. I’ve been on a bit of a native plant kick in recent days, given that so many of my loveliest natives have been putting on a crazy spring show lately. Anyway, if you’re not sick of hearing me bang on about regional character in landscape design, and supporting wildlife, and how…
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How To Gopher-Proof an Existing Raised Bed (Photo Tutorial)
Ah, gophers. So cute, with their cheeks stuffed with grass and their little burrowing ways. Yet so destructive to our vegetable beds. A client finally got tired of having her beets, lettuces, and other delicious veggies cruelly snatched away by Mr Gopher juuust when they were looking ready to harvest. So we were called in…
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Best Cordless Handheld Vacuum 2021, EraClean Cordless Vacuum Will Surprise You
Handheld vacuums are remarkably crucial cleaning devices; they make it easy to clean little messes without hauling out the full-sized vacuum cleaner (https://www.bestandfirst.com/product-category/car-vacuum-cleaner/). There’s no need to undersell a handheld vac; the ideal Handheld Cordless Vacuums are so great that they can manage any type of mess brief of a deep cleaning, meaning you can leave the…
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Gardening Under Redwoods: Dealing With Dry Shade, Acidic Soil, and Root Competition
Humboldt County’s known for its majestic redwoods, and many of the gardens that I design and care for have a few towering specimens setting the scene. But lovely though they are, gardening under redwoods presents some serious challenges. Shade For one, redwood trees cast some fairly dense shade. This isn’t such an issue if you…
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Regional Flair: Bring it Home With Native Plants
***This is a bit of a local rant, but I do have a point that relates to designers and anyone who expresses themselves artistically in the garden.*** I’m lucky: my college town’s somehow managed to stay funky, cool, small and walkable, and above all, different from any other town in the world. Because us Arcata…
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Top Landscape Plants (Excerpts from Experts)
When the Garden Designers Roundtable chose Top Landscape Plants as this month’s topic, I thought to myself, “Hey, no problem, I can write that in my sleep.” I mean, enthusing about plants is kind of my thing, you know? But given that this is book excerpt week here at North Coast Gardening, I thought it’d…