By Claire Jones
Why wait until May to plant your containers? I keep mine going all year long. By early to mid-March, I’m already pulling out winter greens and tucking in cool-season flowers that don’t just tolerate the cold—they thrive in it (see my favorites below with frost tolerance). When summer containers start to look tired in early …
Continue reading "The Secret to Continous Color in Spring Containers"
Who says you have to wait and plant your containers in May after a final frost? I have plants in my containers all year long and start my season in early to mid March after pulling out Christmas greens, using a long list of early spring flowers (see below) that can tolerate and flourish in …
Continue reading "Continuous Containers With Cool Season Flowers"
Grape Hyacinth (Muscari armeniacum) is an early blooming, perennial bulb in the Lily Family (Liliaceae) native to southeastern Europe. Not a true Hyacinth, the common name comes from the resemblance of the clusters of the small, bell-shaped, cobalt-blue flowers to upside-down clusters of grapes. Grape hyacinth is hardy in zones 3-9. Many people dismiss these common …
Continue reading "Grape Hyacinth – Animal Resistant, Long Lasting, and Beautiful"
There are so many flowers that you can use before cold temps subside in the spring (below 35 degrees Fahrenheit at night), that I make up at least a half dozen containers to cheer me up after a long cold winter, here in the mid-Atlantic region. Having hung up my winter coat and wearing a …
Continue reading "Annuals That Can Take the Cold"
Native container gardens are much easier to put together than full sized gardens. If you are new to gardening or have limited space, natives in pots are a gateway to sustainable gardening on a larger scale. Placed alone or in groups, containers are versatile little packages that can be moved around at will and easy …
Continue reading "Native All Star Containers"
Native container gardens are much easier to put together than full sized gardens. If you are new to gardening or have limited space, natives in pots are a gateway to sustainable gardening on a larger scale. Placed alone or in groups, containers are versatile little packages that can be moved around at will and easy …
Continue reading "Native Plants in Containers"
Christmas porch pots are the easiest method to decorate your outside entrance or deck inexpensively and quickly. If you need some pizzazz to greet visitors, create a live green arrangement with evergreens and twigs cut from your property. Jazz it up with something sparkly and you can leave it in place for weeks without any …
Continue reading "Top 10 Tips for Creating Outdoor Christmas Arrangements"
Gardener's Dictionary Hypertufa (n.): An artificial and lightweight stone that gardeners can create from a recipe and mold into plant containers, troughs and any other shape. If you mention hypertufa to a non-gardener, you would probably get a blank look. But in the gardening world, it is very trendy and a sign of a serious …
Continue reading "Make Your Own Hypertufa"
This post has be updated to Continuous Containers with Cool Season Flowers with more information and more cold loving containers. Who says you have to plant your containers in May after the danger of a final frost? I have plants in my containers all year long and start in early March after pulling out Christmas …
Continue reading "Cold Loving Spring Containers"
If you are on the fence about starting a garden in 2021, and have watched all your neighbors jump into growing everything under the sun, then read the following guest post from Carrie Spencer of TheSpensersAdventures. The images are property of TheGardenDiaries. Gardening can seem intimidating when you’re just starting out. Fortunately, most plants are …
Continue reading "How to Get Started Gardening (Without a Green Thumb)"
Evergreen Magnolia, Magnolia grandiflora, is one of my favorite greens to decorate for the holidays. The large textured leaves are the perfect evergreen to embellish with for Fall and Winter, simplifying the making of wreaths, table pieces, and mantel garlands. Using them extensively in my porch pots, it is always the Magnolia that stands out. …
Continue reading "Magnolia-The King of Greens for Decorating"
What do you do with containers on your front porch or deck once you have yanked out those sorry-looking frost-killed petunias? Segue into the holiday season with beautiful fall/winter containers using "yard" material. Forage for material from your property on or around your home. Snips in hand, I venture into roadside edges and woods and …
Continue reading "Front Porch Winter Cheer"
