The best kind of sustainability is to take a waste product and turn it into a valuable resource; to turn garbage, as it were, into gold. There’s a farm family in northwestern Connecticut doing just that these days, and in the process it’s also creating an opportunity for gardeners. Amanda Freund is, along with her … Read more
These were cheap and great from the botanical gardens sale. Not having even looked at any of the predictions or surveys regarding general gardening behavior, here is my wishful thinking for the coming year: More six-packs, fewer pricy branded potsI am lucky enough to be able to order interesting new cultivars from the yearly sale … Read more
Jerry Baker, the self-styled “America’s Master Gardener” and highly successful huckster for home-remedy books and products died in March of this year at the age of 85. I was curious to see how the gardening world would note his passing, especially those who attacked his teachings, some repeatedly. I myself started attacking Baker’s advice on … Read more
For decades in a former garden, my bird-watching consisted of standing on my deck and pointing the trusty binocs at the bird houses in the wooded valley below. I can’t tell you what birds actually filled them – I’m that bad at bird recognition – but anyway, my favorites were the flying squirrels that lived … Read more
Jack Schultz, News-Herald photo. There are few families in American horticulture with four generations of successful nursery crops. There are even fewer nursery legends with a story so well remembered as that of Jack Schultz, the 88-year-old Schultz family patriarch and founder of Springbrook Gardens, wholesale perennials growers, in Mentor, Ohio. Jack’s dad, Elmer, started … Read more
It is time to say good-bye to the wonderful and versatile Jelitto Perennial Seeds—at least in one sense. I’ll be clocking out, for the last time, at the end of the year. I am grateful to my friend Klaus Jelitto for giving me a job 22 years ago. There has never been a dull day. … Read more
No holiday post from me – but I bet you’ve seen plenty lately and anyway, this post has been sitting in draft for ages. From video by Land Designs in Connecticut Because I watch so many gardening videos, I’ve naturally come across a few about landscape fabric, also called weed cloth. Though we associate its … Read more
Guest post by Constance Casey Onward and Upward in the Garden by Katherine S. White is often recommended as the prima book about gardening. Readers seeking to grow the perfect zinnia or tomato might be disappointed; there’s not a lot of information about how to grow things successfully, or what it feels like to be in … Read more
Arborist wood chips, from One Yard Revolution video Arborist wood chips are in the gardening ether these days, with Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott herself (of Garden Professor and myth-busting fame) leading the charge to promote them above all over types of mulch. (Details in this brochure.) Just recently she’s debunked myths about them on a Joe Gardener podcast. … Read more
I grew up near Richmond, VA, about an hour from Brent and Becky’s, the beloved flower bulb company in Tidewater, VA. I’ve even known Brent since I was a preteen and our families rented nearby beach cottages in Nags Head, NC. But it took a regional event of the Garden Writers Association for me to … Read more