Spring

A Super Hero in Disguise

By |2018-06-22T23:45:42+00:00June 23rd, 2018|

  A flower is the culmination of a seed’s story. And while there are as many stories out there as flowers, every once and awhile one of those stories stands out from the rest and deserves to be told. Sometimes it deserves to be shouted. Such is the story of one man, his family’s seed [...]

Nursery Spotlight: Music, Inspiration and Retail Therapy at Surreybrooke

By |2018-06-22T13:19:23+00:00June 22nd, 2018|

Join me in this series as I visit some of Frederick County, Maryland’s finest independent garden centers to find out what makes them unique. Finding and buying plants that you love is often much more pleasurable than figuring out how to successfully incorporate them into your landscape once you get home.  We all struggle with [...]

Weeks of Water

By |2018-06-04T16:16:46+00:00June 6th, 2018|

Last night my husband and I were awoken by yet another storm pounding on what currently passes for a roof around here.  After a few minutes of staring at the ceiling thinking about the gutters, the bridge, the foundation, the tarped roof, the barn, the trees and the newly sand-mortared patio amongst other night terrors, [...]

A Gardener’s Progression of Cruelty: Volunteer Seedlings

By |2018-06-03T19:23:58+00:00June 1st, 2018|

‘One must be cruel to be kind’ is a hackneyed phrase that must have originated in a garden setting. Where else do men and women of good conscience perpetuate extreme acts of violence without a moment’s thought or consideration of that conscience? Once the deed is done – be it dismemberment or execution – ‘tis [...]

Gokhale’s Got My Back

By |2018-05-17T17:01:47+00:00May 17th, 2018|

Over the last year, I have dealt with chronic back problems for the first time in my life. Over the last three months I have, for the most part, solved those problems with the help of a miracle-working book and its miracle-working author, Esther Gokhale.  So this week’s column is not a call for sympathy, [...]

Getting Edgy

By |2018-05-11T12:35:09+00:00May 11th, 2018|

  May has dawned, and with it, the realization that my edges will have to be seen to.  I speak of course of garden beds. There is little that can be done to smooth the sharpness of my tongue and it certainly needs no further definition. There are many ways to approach this problem, and [...]

Brown Is The New Green

By |2018-05-04T02:26:49+00:00May 4th, 2018|

    John Willis and I have been discussing camellias this month (MacGardens.org). Or rather, he has been emailing me pictures of his mature specimens, blooming happily, and I have been weeping over my new acquisitions. John and his wife Beth are excellent gardeners, and though I am very happy to have them close by, [...]

The Case for Plant Labeling

By |2020-12-04T16:07:02+00:00April 21st, 2018|

We all believe (as Garden Geeks) that the minds we have at twenty-four will stay supple and fit, able to remember a thousand genera and ten thousand named species at a moment’s notice – not that we have much call to provide such information at a moment’s notice (at that age) unless we’re lucky enough [...]

The Patience to Wait

By |2018-04-11T00:20:22+00:00April 10th, 2018|

  Great gardeners and optimists know that a dead plant represents an opportunity to grow something new. But what of a dead tree? What of five? So much opportunity at one time can cloud a mind already weakened by the fumes of a chainsaw. It’s probably best then to stifle knee-jerk reactions – particularly the [...]

In The Frenzy of Spring, Remember The ‘Why’

By |2018-04-02T18:40:00+00:00March 30th, 2018|

Not satisfied with feeling overwhelmed with spring cleaning, spring wardrobe changeover, spring home repairs and spring holiday plans, I thought it might be clever to go outside last week, pick up a trowel and increase my anxiety in the spring garden. Beginning the process means a shift in priorities and a horrifying realization of everything [...]

Ashes to Ashes: The Legacy of The Emerald Ash Borer

By |2018-03-24T15:04:45+00:00March 23rd, 2018|

About two years ago in the early winter months, I spied three pileated woodpeckers on an ash tree outside my office window and immediately felt like an Audubon rock star.  These are large, colorful birds – the sight of which gives the amateur birder a feeling of accomplishment. The sight of three sent this ignoramus [...]

Growing a Beautiful, Not Just Edible, Vegetable Garden

By |2018-03-15T15:00:27+00:00March 16th, 2018|

Beautiful vegetables?  What is she talking about? Aren’t all vegetables beautiful?       For those who live and breathe a garden life and not just a garden life-style, the answer is of course yes.  Even flopping potato vines are attractive when you know that there are forty pounds of soon-to-be buttered lusciousness a few [...]

Air Plants, Demystified.

By |2018-03-12T20:25:25+00:00March 9th, 2018|

Air plants are the new It Girl.  From the common grocery store checkout aisle to the upscale garden center, they’re pretty much everywhere.  They’re even turning up in the houses of your less-horticulturally inclined friends (which was probably your first clue that this particular plant trend isn’t just for those who know a hydrangea from [...]

10 Reasons to See The Philadelphia Flower Show

By |2018-03-23T14:40:18+00:00March 7th, 2018|

It’s Flower Show week in Philly, and refreshed by the excitement of our electricity being restored after four days and the roof tarped against further storms, yesterday I decided to stop moping around in fourteen layers of fleece, shower off the pervading smell of wood smoke and un-cancel somewhat cancelled plans to grab a friend [...]

My Soil / My Self

By |2018-02-23T21:12:45+00:00February 15th, 2018|

Whether you like it or not, planning what you’re planting in the season ahead is less important than figuring out what you’ll be planting it in. Soil matters, and can spell the difference between healthy, beautiful plants that resist the malevolent forces of Mother Nature, or weak, pest-infested plants that you have to stop yourself [...]

When little becomes big – Avoiding the headache.

By |2018-02-20T20:40:47+00:00June 16th, 2017|

  It’s disconcerting to realize your plants are bigger.  A lot bigger. When a tree or shrub finally grips the earth with a committed heart and gets down to the business of seriously growing, the gardener can instinctively feel the change.  And it’s frightening.   This Edgeworthia chrysantha doesn't look like much its second [...]

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