Category: Ornamental Gardening

Made for the Shade – Perennials

One of the most important considerations for putting the right plant in the right place (RPRP) is the amount of sun that an area receives. In shady spots, many options are available, as long as consideration is given to just how shady it is.

Rules 8-10 of Garden Catalog Shopping

With site assessment, spacing, sun/shade and other considerations covered in Rules 1-7, it’s time to think about the actual plants in the catalogs. Rules 8-10 highlight the need for color, accents, textures, massing, repetition, all season color and experimentation in the landscape.

Rules 5-7 of Garden Catalog Shopping

Getting the most out of your online or hardcopy garden catalog experience is best done by following rules. Well, they’re not so much rules as “guidelines”; Bill Murray knows what this is all about. For the Midwestern gardener, rules 5-7 focus mostly on the size of the plants and where they are planted in the landscape.

Rules 3 and 4 of Garden Catalog Shopping

The first two rules of shopping for landscape plants with garden catalogs are centered around needs, much like shopping for groceries. The next two focus on the landscape itself in terms of cold tolerance and disease susceptibility of certain plants.

One-Two Punch Rules for Garden Catalogs

The first two rules of shopping for landscape plants with garden catalogs are centered around needs, much like shopping for groceries. A “shopping list” will serve the gardener well, just like the family grocery shopper.

Thinking Ahead: Annual and Perennial Flowers

Growing a vegetable garden versus growing a flower garden can be hotly debated. Vegetable gardeners ask, “What good is it if you can’t eat it?” Flower growers think if it is not pretty, what’s the point? For me, growing both vegetables and flowers are necessary—vegetables nourish my body while flowers feed my soul. As the…

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The 10 Garden Catalog Rules

Most of us hate rules, myself included…so why does the title of this article contain the word “rules”? Actually, they’re not so much “rules” per se, but guidelines to help make the most of the garden catalog perusing experience and application for better outdoor living in the landscape.

Pruning Planning for 2021

Pruning is like a lot of other things in life – it needs to be planned beforehand, you should do it only when needed, not too much at a time, and the right way.

Late Fall Color in the Landscape

As we ease into winter, late November keeps our attention focused on a few plants that exhibit great color even though a few hard freezes have been delivered.