Novice gardeners—and even some experienced ones—often curse the shade that looms over their beds, borders and other growing spaces. One of the immutable facts of gardening life is that if you want armloads of roses or bushels of tomatoes, you need lots of sunshine. Given that reality, you have two choices. Either you can move … Read more
In the winter I tend to avoid doing necessary things, like cleaning out closets, in favor of wallowing in garden catalogs, shelter magazines, and my large collection of garden and horticultural books. I was indulging myself the other day, when I found out, courtesy of one of the better shelter magazines, that carnations are unfashionable. … Read more
When the winter world resembles a gray, cold veil of sleeting tears, I turn to my library of garden books for psychological sustenance. One of my favorites is Beautiful Gardens in America, a book written in 1915 by Louise Shelton—1867-1934–of Morristown, NJ. I have the second edition, a hefty volume with a gold embossed title … Read more
The winter landscape in my neighborhood features a full range of greens—from dead foliage green to glossy dark holly-green. It features an even larger range of grey-browns. In fact, even the omnipresent deer are grey-brown, their coats having morphed from the lovely chocolate shade of summer to something that blends better with the winter landscape. … Read more
For years I have damned Osmanthus heterophyllus or false holly with faint praise–or no praise at all. Two of the prickly evergreen shrubs stand silently in front of the house, and for years I longed to remove them. Why have I harbored such thoughts about a pair of innocent shrubs? For one thing, I didn’t … Read more
