fall

Lessons

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LESSONS               Three days from now my garden will be open to the public as part of a local fundraiser centered on art, music and gardens.  The preparation for the event was a big part of my campaign to spend one year, beginning last February, making my garden as lovely as it could be. … Read more

Year End Review

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YEAR END REVIEW               The end of the growing season is here, and it’s time to size up which plants and practices worked this past year and which didn’t.  I do this review on a more or less continuous basis as I rake leaves, plant bulbs or pick the various odds and ends of … Read more

Marvelous Miscanthus

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Everyone is familiar with the classic love/hate relationship.  You come into contact with a person or thing–usually, in my experience, it’s a person.  You find that there is much to admire about the person, but the he or she also has traits that drive you crazy.  From the sound of it, the late, great English … Read more

Colchicum

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COLCHICUM             Good gardeners can’t be prudes.  After all, sex happens all the time out there among the roses and lilies, and some plants display their private parts in the most scandalous ways.  As I write this, bumblebees are committing random acts of pollination all over my asters, and the monarch butterflies appear to be … Read more

Sweet Autumn Clematis

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SWEET AUTUMN CLEMATIS             What plant has had more names than a check forger, sometimes runs completely out of control and still makes regular appearances in respectable gardens everywhere?  Sweet autumn clematis is the plant, and if America’s Most Wanted had a plant list, this fall bloomer would surely be on it.             Sweet autumn … Read more