By Claire Jones
An heirloom cutting garden - a patch of garden used primarily for cutting old fashioned flowers and arranging in vases - sounds kind of elitist. Like a prim and proper English lady who has a team of gardeners, and ventures out to the garden with a floppy straw hat with her 'secateurs' to cut flowers …
Continue reading "Grow Your Own Bouquet With Heirloom Annuals"
Fresh off the MANTS (Mid-Atlantic Nursery Trade Show) floor in Baltimore, I made lots of fresh contacts and found many exciting plant introductions that I want to use in my future landscaping projects. I am stoked for the 2024 gardening year and the new plants and ideas that are hitting the nursery and garden center …
Continue reading "Mid-Atlantic Nursery Show 2024 for New Plants and Gardening Trends"
This post has been updated to Seed Starting Made Easy. Everybody is into seed starting this spring because of renewed interest in gardening and there are lots of tips and tricks to this great money saving hobby that I have gathered over the years. New gardeners frequently think that you just throw some seeds from …
Continue reading "Seed Starting Made Easy"
After a hectic year of non-stop landscaping work, I have some time on my hands and discovered 'winter sowing'. I started doing it last winter in a small way with Bells of Ireland and was so successful, that I am winter sowing in a big way this January and February to save my precious time …
Continue reading "Simple Seed Starting Using Winter Sowing"
It's that time of year when all of our fresh garden flowers are gone and we turn to those that we dried or preserved for the long winter season. For my post on the rebirth of dried flowers which were very popular in the 70's and 80's, go to Dried Flowers Back From the Dead. …
Continue reading "Dried Flower Christmas"
Going to Longwood Gardens in the Brandywine Valley at Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, has been a long-standing tradition with my family for many years. Each year that I visit, I am wowed by the different decorating themes and this year is no exception with "A Very Retro Christmas". Reminisce and imagine Christmas of years past with …
Continue reading "A Very Retro Christmas at Longwood Gardens"
An easy centerpiece to whip up for your fall themed table, using a handsome pumpkin, can be done in half an hour. Integrating dried flowers, pods, and juicy succulents, your centerpiece will last for weeks. Drying flowers all summer long from my garden gave me ample stock to pick from, and I had a bumper …
Continue reading "Pumpkin Succulent Centerpiece Made Easy"
Tasting like a blend of bananas and mango, Pawpaws have a tropical taste, totally unexpected where it is indigenous - the Mid-Atlantic, the South, and the Mid-West of the United States. Growing in a temperate deciduous forest, this native tropical-like fruit is unique to the US and is the largest edible fruit native to …
Continue reading "PawPaws: America’s Best Kept Secret"
Celebrate the fall season by these top 10 ways of pumpkin decorating. From mini chalk-painted pumpkins to gorgeous hand-painted marble creations, step up your style this year with these no-carve painted pumpkin ideas. These creative painted pumpkins think outside the box with modern metallics, fresh florals, and gold studs. Get inspired to take your pumpkin …
Continue reading "Pumpkin Decorating 10 Ways"
Sweet Annie, Artemisia annua, is an herb I remember from the seventies and eighties. Intensely fragrant smelling green herb wreaths were made up in the fall from the cut branches and I would see them everywhere for sale at craft fairs and outdoor festivals. I kind of forgot about Sweet Annie for a long time …
Continue reading "Sweet Annie – Versatile Aromatic Everlasting"
Spring perennial bloomers are easy. There are so many great spring performers that you always have something blooming all spring long with little effort. Fall can be a little trickier to have a constant parade of colorful bloomers, and I always am looking for new candidates and old favorites. Mums and asters are the usual …
Continue reading "Top 10 Seasonal Stars of the Fall Garden"
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"
