It will be October in less than a week, and many of you may have given up on your gardens for the winter. When most gardeners think of October, they think of raking leaves and cleaning out for the spring. But, if you have a garden project you are just itching to finish, don’t wait. The [...]
As gardeners we have an opportunity to be a little more in tune to the changes and happenings as the seasons change. Migrating birds, the coming and going of pesky insects, clouds of pollen, budding, blooming, and eventually, seeding are all things that pass under the nose of the ever-observant gardener. Watching nature can [...]
Okay, pleasing tactile and auditory sense organs may be a stretch, but the texture of the fruit is nice, and the sound of rustling leaves on your patio is peaceful. But, my point is, Citrus kumquat 'Nagami' goes a long way towards turning your modest patio garden into a tiny tropical oasis. The sweet fragrance [...]
Cornus kousa Venus® is a brand new dogwood with bigger blooms, improved drought and cold tolerance, and better resistance to the most common dogwood diseases.The huge snow-white blooms float on the outside of this peculiar tree like big butterflies. Venus® has an odd but interesting habit, with branches all the way to the ground, creating [...]
This weekend I bought a big bag of kumquats. I had never actually tried one, though I’ve been fascinated by the little guys for years. Not only is it one of the most fun fruit names to say, they’re like tiny, perfect little oblong oranges. I was pretty sure that you’re supposed to eat the [...]
We're always on the lookout for unique and interesting trees and shrubs, and it always pleases us to find a quality plant that will really stand out in your landscape. Our Korean Fir 'Horstmann's Silberlocke' (Abies koreana 'Horstmann's Silberlocke') is definitely one of those plants. Korean Fir is a real show-stopper, featuring dark green needles [...]
While on a short day trip to nearby Athens, Georgia this weekend, I had a chance to briefly visit one of my favorite places in the world, the Tree that Owns Itself (or, more properly, the Son of the Tree that Owns Itself). It is a white oak tree that was propagated from an ancient [...]
After years of badly wanting to go, I finally got a chance to attend the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C. We left on a last-minute (and poorly-planned) whim Friday evening and returned Sunday night. We were extremely fortunate to have had a free weekend just when the blooms were at their peak, and [...]
We don’t all have the good fortune to live in Florida or Southern California. Some of us have to get our limes, lemons, and avocados the hard way: from the grocery store. However, there is another option for growing warm-climate fruits in not-so-warm areas. Some smaller varieties of fruit trees do very well in containers, [...]
I was at my mother’s house this weekend, and I couldn’t help but notice that the backyard fence seemed a bit more exposed than usual. I could easily see out the back window all the way to the road. It seems that my father’s late-summer yard cleanup exposed a bit more than he’d expected.This isn’t [...]