Master efficient and eco-friendly gardening techniques: seed starting, garden planning, pest control, watering tips, crop rotation, and more. Grow smarter, not harder.
Master efficient and eco-friendly gardening techniques: seed starting, garden planning, pest control, watering tips, crop rotation, and more. Grow smarter, not harder.
I still remember the summer my garden fell almost completely silent. I’d been so focused on keeping things tidy that I’d cut back the “weedy” patches along the fence, pulled out the sprawling catmint, and replaced the old lavender hedge with something neater and more architectural. By July, I realized I’d hardly seen a bumblebee … Read more
I have to be honest with you: I spent the first thirty years of my gardening life convinced that a tidy garden was a good garden. Every October, I’d be out there with my secateurs, snipping back the coneflowers, cutting the sunflower stalks to the ground, bundling up the ornamental grasses, and hauling it all … Read more
About fifteen years ago I pulled out the last section of the old larch-lap fence that used to run along the back boundary of my garden, and in its place I put in a straggling line of bare-root whips — hawthorn, blackthorn, a couple of hollies, and two elder cuttings I had rooted in pots … Read more
I’ll never forget the summer I planted a single native serviceberry at the back of my border — a scrubby little thing that my neighbor said would never amount to much. Within two seasons, I was standing at the kitchen window watching a pair of cedar waxwings strip every berry from its branches while a … Read more
I still feel a little guilty thinking about the spring I happily filled my peanut feeder with whole peanuts, convinced I was doing the neighbourhood birds a great favour. I’d been feeding the garden birds for years by that point, and I thought I had it all figured out. Then I stumbled across a mention … Read more
After fifty years of growing everything from roses to rutabagas, nothing has brought me more pure delight than the morning I picked my first ripe mango from a tree sitting in a pot on my back porch. I thought you needed an orchard to grow tropical fruit, that you needed acreage and decades of patience. … Read more
When I first moved to a Zone 10 climate nearly fifteen years ago, I assumed my gardening life would get easier. No more rushing to cover tomatoes before the first frost, no more saying goodbye to my herbs each November. And while that part turned out to be true, I quickly learned that year-round growing … Read more
After fifty-some years of gardening, I can tell you that Zone 9 is one of the most exciting places to grow tropical plants in containers. We’ve got warmth on our side for most of the year, but those surprise cold snaps in January and February have a way of humbling even the most confident gardener. … Read more
After fifty-some years of growing things in pots, I’ll tell you something that took me a painful decade to learn: container gardening in Zones 8 and 9 is a completely different game than what the glossy garden magazines show you. Those gorgeous terracotta arrangements photographed in mild Pacific Northwest weather? They’d be crispy brown toast … Read more
After fifty years of tending containers on my front porch, back patio, and every step in between, I can say with certainty that the greatest frustration in container gardening is starting from scratch every single spring. You dump out last year’s dead annuals, haul bags of fresh potting soil, and spend a small fortune replacing … Read more