Perennial flowers offer great appeal in the spring, ringing the bell of activity of the gardening season. The great news is that perennials do not bloom only in spring – they offer ever-changing garden views in all seasons. If you plan your garden well, it will offer texture, color and movement appeal whenever you look…
Month: May 2020
Rhubarb
Rhubarb, Rheum rhabarbarum, is an easy-to-grow perennial that lends a delightfully tart taste to pies, crisps and jams. The fact it is a perennial means there’s no extra labor to grow plants annually from seed like you do for the vegetable garden. The edible part of rhubarb, the petiole (also called a stalk), is technically…
Spring Flowering Shrubs – Now and Then
One of the true joys of the well-balanced, diversified landscape are the spring flowering and summer flowering shrubs. Now is the time when we can enjoy the spring flowering shrubs such as dogwood, viburnum, lilac, cotoneaster and forsythia. The good part is that there are many cultivars or varieties of these spring blooming species to…
Woodland Phlox
Woodland phlox, Phlox divaricata, also known as wild sweet William, is a shade-loving perennial that produces lavender blue five-petalled flowers in spring. It has a wonderfully long bloom season. In my garden, it has been sending out flowers for a solid month now. Woodland phlox does best under trees in soils rich in humus….
Mulching – Timing and Products
Weeds are a given. They’re a true guaranteed item in a field of gardening and lawn care variables. In lawn care, common sense turf practices and herbicides can be used to create a relatively weed free part of the landscape. In landscape beds, we turn to mulch. The key to mulch effectiveness is to apply…
Foraging
“Foraging” refers to the gathering of wild edibles for food to grace our table. Historically, the human race began as hunter-gatherers, gleaning food from what was found, not raised. With the growing interest in fresh and local, there has been a resurgence of interest in foraging for wild edibles. Morel mushrooms have always had…
Plant Groundcovers Under Shade Trees
Is the vegetation under your shade tree thin and lifeless? If so, you may wish to consider planting a groundcover instead of turfgrass. Periwinkle, English ivy, lamium, pachysandra, some cultivars of coral bells, ajuga, plumbago, euonymous, Virginia creeper and Hall’s honeysuckle are good options to consider. The bottom line is Right Plant, Right Place, and…