Every once in awhile, a specific plant will have an absolutely wonderful year. This usually happens the year after you give it up for dead but are too lazy or preoccupied to dig it up and hurl it onto the compost pile. My tradescantia were not in any danger of that fate, but up until … Read more
Clearly nobody has informed the catmint and columbines in my garden that the end of the growing season is fast approaching. The columbines or acquilegia are excellent self-seeders and they have had a banner year. I spent a morning moving young columbine seedlings to places where they will do some good and not get stepped … Read more
If the abundant asters, Japanese anemones and the newly-revived roses didn’t convince me that it’s fall, the weeds certainly would. Suddenly the crabgrass—scourge of the summer lawn and garden—is gone and the onion grass is back. I took the first tentative strands of it out today, while I was dividing some tradescantia. More will certainly … Read more
UP ON THE ROOF The media has given a lot of publicity over the past few years to “green” structures, including roofs and walls. Green roofs, when properly supported, planted and tended, can keep buildings cooler than conventional roofing materials. Green walls are a way to beautify interior or exterior space by growing plants … Read more
The tall asters that dominate my front garden used to be known to dirt gardeners and botanists alike as “asters.” Botanists and plant taxonomists now call them Symphyotrichum, a name that makes simple plants sound complicated and inaccessible. Everyone else still calls them asters. I hope the plant taxonomists will take the hint and rescind … Read more
