Someday I will write a garden book and the title will be My Garden in Twenty-Five Mistakes. Each chapter will detail one of my particularly egregious garden mistakes and the steps I took to rectify it. My book will be the perfect antidote to all those garden books that detail how the garden owner inherited … Read more
It is almost mid-spring and creeping phlox—Phlox subulata—is having its moment. You can see it on the edges of flower beds, in planting boxes and cascading politely over garden walls. Healthy creeping phlox looks like a plush pink, blue/purple or white carpet that spreads outward just in time to make you forget that the daffodils … Read more
In 1928, a year before the onset of the Great Depression, the Carter Family, of folk and country music fame, recorded a song, “Keep on the Sunny Side”, that was originally written as a hymn. It became one of their standards and has lifted spirits ever since. The refrain is as follows: Keep on the … Read more
Garden spiderwort or Tradescantia x andersoniana is one of those plants that invariably pops up on lists of flowering specimens for partial shade. To say that it flowers is an understatement. It actually rampages. A mature clump of spiderwort may boast scores of flowers, but it conceals another talent—self seeding. Right now I am up … Read more
My county has some of the loveliest public parks around, with long, winding roads, beautiful trees and winsome water features. The paths through these parks are among my favorite walking routes. I was out walking not long ago and spotted a clump of yellow flag iris or Iris pseudacorus on the edge of a large, … Read more
