Save space and add seasonal interest to your landscape by espaliering fruit trees or ornamental plants flat against a wall, fence, or trellis. With regular pruning you can create living art that adds flowers and fruit to the landscape. The cordon is the most traditional design and often used to create living fences. Branches are trained to grow horizontally…
Preserve the flavor and zest of those few extra herbs you harvested from the garden or purchased at the market with proper storage. Remove any discolored leaves and clip the bottom of the stems off at an angle. Store thin leafy herbs like parsley and cilantro in a jar with an inch or two of water. Loosely cover with a…
Dress up your garden beds, keep plants in bounds, and curb weeds from infiltrating the garden with fun and attractive edging. Lids of pots and pans purchased at various thrift shops and yard sales provide a unique boundary for this garden bed. These old garden bench ends found a second life in this garden. Inverted blue wine bottles invite…
Pollinators are responsible for about 75% of the food we eat. The European honeybee is the most well known but our native bees are also critically important. We can help our native bees and gardens by reducing or eliminating the use of pesticides and providing shelter as well as food and water. About 70% of our native bees are…
Relax away the stress of the day with a cup of tea brewed from freshly picked herbs you grew in your garden or containers. We’re using several colorful pots with drainage holes of course to create this tea garden. The attractive and fragrant pineapple sage (Salvia elegans) is the focal point of the largest pot with sweet marjoram (Origanum…
Toads make great gardening partners. They eat insects, slugs and snails and ask for very little in return. Help attract these natural predators to your garden. Create an inviting habitat for these critters. Leave some leaf litter under trees and shrubs and in the garden. Include a shallow pond or water feature. Even a shallow saucer filled with chlorine-free water…
Conserve water, grow a more productive garden and take the guesswork out of watering your plants with clay pot irrigation also known as Olla irrigation. You can purchase Olla pots like these from a variety of on-line sources. Or create your own from unglazed terra cotta pots. Just plug the drainage hole with a rubber cork like I’ve used…
Proper fertilization will help keep your lawn healthy and better able to outcompete the weeds, tolerate insects and disease and recover from environmental stresses. Start by calculating the area to be fertilized. Measure then multiply the length times the width of your lawn to get the square footage. The bag or your soil test will tell you how much fertilizer…
Eyeballs, brains, firecrackers and popcorn can help persuade the youngsters in your life to start gardening. These plants add a bit of fun and possibly some gruesome beauty to any garden or container. Just give the popcorn cassia (Senna didymobotrya) a gentle pet for a whiff of popcorn. Or sniff the flowers and the peanut butter fragrance will have…
Get the most beauty and edibility from every square inch of your garden or container. Use color and texture to create attractive edible displays. The silver foliage of the artichoke contrasts with the bold red cabbage. The purple fruit of eggplant and leaves of red onyx pepper echo the purple to unify the planting. Fill every space by interplanting…
