My first lawn-replacement project. The combo of clover and Sedum sarmentosum looked great – for about a year. Back in 2007 I started experimenting with other groundcovers – to replace a tiny front lawn and also a 1,000-sf back lawn on a slope. I ditched my lawns for two very selfish reasons – because lawn … Read more
Some people look out for interesting street food or creative entertainers and artists while traveling, craving a unique cultural fix. Not me. I’m into street plants, especially hitchhikers and rowdy renegades looking to party. I can fall head over heels for a gutter poppy (below) or an opportunistic malva (above). Give me a hothead survivor … Read more
When I sit in those pink chairs on my front patio I want some screening from the cars and people passing nearby. That’s why 12 years ago when I moved here I reflectively planted a short boxwood hedge, some of which is visible here on the right. Like most of us, I assumed that only … Read more
‘Little Joe’ Joe Pye weed Seeing Joe Pye weeds blooming now in my garden and around town, I say “Where has this great perennial been all my gardening life?” It seems it wasn’t available here in the U.S. until the Europeans fell in love with this native of Eastern and Central U.S. and its popularity … Read more
We’d all been missing the bees and butterflies, due to the cold and wet we’d had. Then a little heat and they’re back! Bombing around, making up for lost time: Here they are, on an Echinops sphaerocephalus, otherwise Globe Thistle, which I can’t resist putting up for you, for the sheer plethora of bee. They … Read more
I wrote out another hopefully thought-provoking article for GardenRant. But it will save for another day. I spend too much of my time thinking about frighteningly important things at the moment, and I think it would be cathartic to just do something about plants for a change. I hope in some small way these plants … Read more
Is it possible to get sick of hydrangeas? Apparently not. If, like me, you can withstand a 4-day garden tour in the Pacific Northwest followed – two weeks later – by a six-day get-away in Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard, in which every private garden and every piece of public landscaping was dominated by billows … Read more
Charles rules the ex Veg Plot at the Veddw. (It hasn’t been a Veg Plot for over 15 years but the name is horribly stubborn) This is a follow on from cardoons, as Charles grows dozens of those for a dramatic display here. But he has habitually complained about the way bronze fennel is seeding … Read more
Apparently I can’t stay away from nurseries, especially the large ones that are well stocked even in late August. My excuse for going there this week was to find a replacement for a ‘Golden Mop’ Threadleaf False Cypress (Chamaecyparis pisifera – above) that I wrongly assumed didn’t need watering during our long, very hot drought … Read more
As a recovering software engineer, I sometimes miss geek culture. So, when Mike (the software engineer who keeps bees in my garden) showed up with Pavel (a Moscovite comp sci guy, legendary apiarist in Russia, and budding pumpkin growing champ) and Gregory (a certifiable pumpkin champ), I was sucked into discussions of homemade experiments, grand schemes, … Read more