Last week I wrote about the lowly but gorgeous purple and white-spotted petunia that wowed the crowds on our local garden tour. That got me thinking about petunias, a plant that I never really cottoned to. In the neighborhood where I grew up, everyone grew pink, white or purple ones in containers or in narrow … Read more
Last week my garden was part of a local charity garden tour. The weather for the two- day event was perfect, with warm temperatures and low humidity. On the first day, a Friday, the crowd was a steady stream of retirees in straw hats. On the Saturday the crowd was a mix of all kinds … Read more
It is exactly one week until my garden must look its best for the charity garden tour. After a washout over the long weekend when I had planned to move the planting scheme towards perfection, speed gardening has become the order of each day. Speed gardening means moving fast, focusing on the most visible parts … Read more
Inspiration comes at the strangest times and in the most unlikely places. The other day I was walking in a neighboring town, doing what I always do—looking at other people’s landscaping, envying some of the results, and imaging what I would do with less inspiring properties. This practice is highly satisfactory because it exercises my … Read more
I fall in love with some plants easily. Others take longer—sometimes a lot longer. That was the case with Stachys byzantina, known to its friends as lambs’ ears. It is not as if lambs’ ears wasn’t on my radar. When my daughter was small, she saw a bed of the plants, touched their soft, fuzzy … Read more
