TREE PEONIES Somehow I ended up with four tree peonies. I only paid for one of them, which was supposed to be yellow and turned out to have bright cerise flowers. The others came to me as gifts from a fellow gardener who was moving and couldn’t take his tree peonies with him. I … Read more
BUGLEWEED I don’t know how many times I have heard the old adage, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.” Usually I have no interest in joining ’em, because I don’t like ’em, but every once in awhile I depart from that practice. About five years ago I did so with bugleweed, which is … Read more
PRESENT IMPERFECT It has come to my attention over the past several years that perfection is unattainable–at least for me. I have paged through numerous editions of Martha Stewart Living and other publications that specialize in perfection and I appreciate the perfect layouts, landscapes and how-to projects, not to mention the value of inspiration. … Read more
SWEETSHRUB Some shrubs are useful but annoying. Privet falls into that category, especially when massed into a hedge. In my experience, the top and sides of a privet hedge need trimming every other week during the growing season and the base is invariably full of noxious weeds. Privet and poison ivy, for example, … Read more
SPLENDOR IN THE ONION GRASS Onion grass leaps forth from the earth in March and April, heralding the longer days and warmer temperatures of spring. It is one of the seasonal scourges of lawn-proud suburbanites and the mowing crews who service those lawns. If you saw a clump of onion grass that had … Read more
