By Claire Jones
Poppies are probably one of my all-time favorite flowers for planting in the spring For more planting of cool season flowers, go to Cool Flowers-Early Spring Bloomers. But for your infusion of poppy info and cool facts, read on. Satiny, frothy, picoteed, ruffly, frilly, glowing, shimmery..............the adjectives go on and on to describe poppy blossoms. There …
Custom Condo Attracting bees with the right plants is important, but what about inviting them to make a home nearby with attractive ready-to-move-in housing? A custom condo became my project in the winter for solitary native bees of all kinds who come knocking on my door for a place to lay their eggs. Curb Appeal …
Continue reading "Home Sweet Home-Providing the Perfect Habitat for Native Bees"
Have you ever been served a dish in a restaurant which was garnished with colorful and vibrant  greens? Most likely these were microgreens, know for their visual appeal, and crunch. Though minuscule in size, they are concentrated with nutrients. Studies have shown that micro greens are loaded with good stuff, such as vitamins C, E, …
Continue reading "Micro Greens-Nutrition-Packed Veggies"
Good raw unpasteurized honey tastes very different from the plastic clover honey bear that you purchase at the supermarket. I compare it to processed cheese vs. a home made varietal cheese. Honey bears are simply an accumulation of many types of honey that have been mixed together, heated and made into a homogeneous mixture which …
Continue reading "Taste of Honey"
Now is the perfect time to plant Cool Season Annuals for a quick pick me up color show after a cold winter. Larkspur, Poppies, Bells of Ireland, Calendula, Clarkia, and Love-in-the-Mist are great choices for your spring garden.
The best way to jump-start a conversation at a party is to tell people you are a beekeeper. Inevitably, people will barrage me with questions about my hobby and how they always thought of becoming a beekeeper themselves. Most people don't have a clue of what is involved and for people who are intrigued but don't know …
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Looking at my stats for the past year, I am always struck by the posts which gather the most views from around the world. Some posts are from as long as six years ago and are still going strong with lots of views, like Swarming of the Bees, Luscious Honey Scented Body Butter, Plant These …
Continue reading "The Year in Review-Top 10 Garden Posts for 2017"
Deep freeze covers the East Coast with single digits during the day for me in Maryland, and that gets me thinking about wild bird survival. Birds need every help they can get as the temperatures plummet. Birds have many strategies to survive without our help but as a concerned birder, I like to think …
Continue reading "Surviving Extreme Weather – Top 3 Ways to Help Birds"
Located in New Bern, North Carolina, near the intercoastal waterway, you can experience North Carolina's colonial past in a beautiful historic building that dates back to 1770. John Hawks, a London architect, was brought here by Royal Governor William Tryon to build an impressive brick Georgian style structure to house his family and to …
Continue reading "Tryon Palace Christmas"
America's largest home, Biltmore, was the vision of George W Vanderbilt who built the 250-room French Renaissance Chateau, exhibiting the Vanderbilt family’s original collection of furnishings, art and antiques. The estate encompasses over 8,000 acres which includes gardens designed by famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead. A tradition that goes back 120 years, Biltmore in …
Continue reading "Biltmore-The Ultimate Yuletide Destination"
Volunteering at the White House for Christmas is a bucket list item for many people. It is a great honor to be accepted to decorate at the White House and I have written about previous years. This year was the third time that I participated and I always meet people at the White House who …
Continue reading "Time Honored Traditions-Decorating the White House 2017"
What do you do with a container on your front porch once you have yanked out those sorry-looking frost-killed petunias? Segue into the holiday season with beautiful fall/winter containers using "yard" material. As a landscape designer, my first consideration in planting any tree or shrub is - Can I use it in my seasonal containers? …
Continue reading "Outdoor Seasonal Containers"
