I can't tell you how many times people have gone gaga over the lowest priced plant in the garden. Isn't it funny, how you can moon over some rare and expensive plant. And then you finally add it--just to have peeps push past to rave about some inexpensive annual...
I'm sure everyone is tired of my bellyaching about the weather, but come on weather gods, this is ridiculous. The biggest problem I see, besides the-whole-earth-is-in-trouble thing, is that it feels like late August, and we haven't even made it through July. The poor...
My brain likes puzzles, and the longer I live in my own flip flops, the more I appreciate this as a bona fide creative strategy. Puzzle working is in my bones. My parents claimed I could work a wooden US puzzle when I was just three--and lickety split. Now it's my...
All the “how to” websites will tell you silver foliage is a great addition to the garden because it cools things down and plays nice with the hot colors. Then they go on to show photographs of plants that are actually grey, white or blue. I have nothing against those...
I wish I had more to report in the way of progress in the Sea of Juniper bed, but alas, forward ho is stalled. Everything takes so much longer than I think it will. Between the remaining juniper stumps and the weather, it's not going as fast as I had hoped. I always...
Xera Plants' small retail shop in Southeast Portland is always good for an armload of fabulous plants, but last weekend was double worth the trip since Roger Gossler of Gossler Farms was in town with a truckload of newly leafed out beauties, saving me the two hour...
It might be the first time in history that I didn't stab myself on this Yucca whipplei, but I was determined to snap photos and not sustain injuries--or pull weeds. It's mushy in the garden. Even Pumpkin declined her invitation for a walkabout. Several plants were...
Winter is a great time to appreciate year round punch. The bones of a good tree, fruit laden shrubbery, spiky plants scoffing at cloudy skies. The bark of Crape Myrtles, Stewartias, and Japanese Maples, ooh la la. Confiners busy on double duty, sinewy structure...
Truth be told, I’m having trouble sticking with the Plan, big P plan. Oh, I’m weeding and shopping and planting, but I seem to be happiest muddling my way through without a blueprint. But see all that grass up there, I can do better. A...
I really meant to draw up a blueprint for Flamingo Park Gardens, develop a strategy, make a definite plan—on paper. And if wishes were horses… I seem to be buying plants, quite a few plants, and working the “plan” outward from there. Oh, I can hear professional garden...