When I am doing battle with the English ivy at home, I am convinced there is nothing worse. It inveigles its way into the garden beds, climbs the sides of the house and races up and over the perimeter fence. Some days it scales the trees faster than the squirrels. If you tear it off … Read more
Chicory (Cichorium intybus) is one of the best blue-flowered plants around and at this time of the year it is ubiquitous–by roadsides, nudging hedgerows and even making appearances in vacant city lots. The woody stems, rather nondescript leaves and modest buds are nothing to write home about. The flowers, though, distill the color of the … Read more
Right now morning glories are working their way through the garden, climbing the trellising by the back porch, creeping along the ground in front of the privet hedge and insinuating themselves into the plantings between the sidewalk and the street. In short, they are everywhere. The reason for this is that ‘Grandpa Ott’s’, the variety … Read more
My garden spent most of the month of July sweltering in hot, sticky heat and parched because of minimal rainfall. Even with daily watering, plants suffered, especially those in containers. The end of the month has brought almost too much relief in the form of daily thunderstorms. Mushrooms are growing now in beds that were … Read more
Garden restorations never cease to fascinate me and I am especially inspired by the restoration of the Old English Garden in Battersea Park, London, featured recently in The Guardian newspaper (http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/gallery/2012/jul/13/transformation-old-English-garden-in-pictures?INTCMP=SRCH#/?picture=393026851&index=0). The restoration is being done under the auspices of Thrive, an English charity devoted to horticultural therapy, with the actual work completed by gardening trainees … Read more
