Even with the recent downturn in garden product sales, plants are still a multi-billion dollar business. We gardeners love plants–old plants, new plants, easy care plants, drought tolerant plants, shade loving plants and quirky plants. Some of us like to be the first in the neighborhood to install a new hybrid. Others want so many … Read more
A great, recently-deceased English garden expert never failed to recommend that weeding be done from a kneeling position. One of his equally great American counterparts, who is still among us, dictates that weeders should never kneel. What’s a diligent gardener to do? Kneeling is hard on the knees and bending can be torture for the … Read more
I have never been a person who gravitated to warm places in search of respite from winter’s rigors. Growing up in the Snow Belt I learned that real virtue comes from toughing out the cold weather, the better to truly appreciate the spring and summer. My recent trip toBermuda convinced me that all that virtue … Read more
My mother loved to use antique pots to hold plants and cut flowers, and when I was growing up our house was filled with an assortment of old brass kettles, copper wash boilers and salt-glazed pottery crocks. The crocks were the most interesting because they were “country” pieces, used on farms in the last quarter … Read more
Every time I open a garden or shelter magazine I gaze with awe at the things people do with their multi-acre lots. I covet their allés lined with scores of trees, their deep ponds and their mammoth kitchen gardens. These people have large plots and large plans and the assets to meld plots and plans … Read more
