Several years ago, I read and wrote about Meryl Gordon’s literate and comprehensive biography of Rachel Lambert “Bunny” Mellon, garden designer, tastemaker and socialite, who died in 2007. Bunny Mellon: The Life of an American Style Legend took Bunny through a long and eventful life that included the accomplishment for which she is most often … Read more
Every garden, large or small, has microclimates. Even if your garden consists of a container array on a balcony or a series of window boxes, growing conditions can change depending on where your plants are located. Whether you want beautiful roses, floriferous hydrangeas, or plentiful zucchini, it pays to be mindful of microclimates. My suburban … Read more
Not long ago, Scott Kunst, founder of heirloom bulb purveyor, Old House Gardens, wrote up his simple rules for gardening. Among the most notable were: “weeding is endless–learn to love it”; and “editing is more important than planting. “ I may not love weeding, but most of the time I enjoy it and relish the … Read more
The latter half of the twentieth century produced a bumper crop of great gardeners, garden designers and garden personalities. I have been inspired by many of them, especially British born Beth Chatto, 1923-2018, who shone brightly in that horticultural pantheon. Now, an authorized biography, Beth Chatto: A Life With Plants, presents a fond, but unvarnished … Read more
Life is full of rules. Some, like “no wearing white after Labor Day”, arrived via well-meaning mothers and grandmothers. Others are rules that we impose on ourselves. One of the garden rules that has lurked in the back of my mind forever is “geraniums belong in pots”. The geraniums I deal with most often are … Read more
