Garden Design

My name is Phillip Oliver, and I sent you photos of my Alabama garden many years ago. Since that time, my husband (Michael) and I relocated across the country to Vancouver, Washington. It has always been a dream of mine to live and garden in the Pacific Northwest. We have been here six years now

Carolyn Hirning, in New Albany, Ohio, went through her photos from the year and is sharing some of her favorites with us today. To begin with, my neighbor’s chickens were unexpected (but welcome) visitors to my front yard. I planted a patch of common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca, Zones 3–9) in a small garden bed a

Perhaps it’s the winter season we’re in right now, or perhaps we’re just hungry, but regardless, we have berries on the mind. This episode highlights some plants that provide us with unexpected (but very appreciated) fruit. It could be a perennial that is grown for its foliage but puts on a late fall show with

Gardeners, when they plant a cherry tree, like to visualize fantastic things, like picking heaps of perfectly ripe, juicy, sweet fruit. If you’ve actually tried to grow a cherry tree, you know that its stores of torment can be bottomless: excessive growth, pollination problems, diseases that rot the fruit or kill the tree, and ravenous

Today Cherry Ong is taking us on the road again to the iconic Butchart Gardens in British Columbia. There are many beautiful sights to be seen in these gardens, but today we’re focusing on some of the tropical plantings. It’s just the kind of escape we need as the weather starts turning cold for most

Today we’re in Hopewell, New Jersey, visiting with Courtney and Denys Turner. We have worked very hard to create hardy but beautiful perennial borders in our back and front gardens, à la Piet Oudolf—the naturalistic style or “new perennial movement.” The back border is against a fence and gets a lot of sun most of

Today we’re visiting Luana Carpenter’s garden in Massillon, Ohio. We’ve visited Luana’s garden before, and it is always a treat to be in this beautiful space. Check it out here. Today’s photos are from the summer when the lilies were stealing the spotlight with their beautiful colors and amazing fragrance. We’ll start with a daylily,

Today we’re visiting with Cindy Strickland, who lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. Hello, fellow gardeners. I wanted to share a variety of mostly dry plant forms with impressive persistence that look suitable for matrix planting or drifts of plants. I photographed them in winter or autumn in Zone 7b or 6b because of their beauty

Building a mini hoop tunnel is a quick process with three easy steps. 1. Insert the hoops In my raised beds, I insert the ends of my wire, metal, or PVC hoops 9 to 12 inches into the soil. If you are building mini hoop tunnels in an in-ground garden where the soil may be

Today Cherry Ong is taking us on the road to a flower farm she visited earlier this year. I’ve been curious about flower farms and so tried attending a flower workshop from a local flower farm. It was hosted by sweet Amanda McCallister of Five Acres Flower Farm in Abbotsford, British Columbia. At the two-hour

Every garden has microclimates—small spaces that stay a little warmer or don’t catch the cold north winds, allowing you to grow a more delicate plant or provide extra care for success. When you’re planting for winter inter­est, it’s important to give winter-flowering plants a bit of protection from the extremes. Here are some tips on

As the last autumn leaves reluctantly drop and as bare seed heads stand tall in the field, we can no longer deny that winter is upon us. Our lush summer gardens are a seemingly distant memory now that many horticultural treasures stand stark, twiggy, or brown and ready to be cut back. What many see

The space at a glance Where: Stony Creek, Connecticut What: A shoreline garden that encompasses two smaller homes and a few outbuildings Zone: 7 Age of the garden: 29 years Size: 1 acre Conditions: Full sun to partial shade; moist, well-drained, somewhat sandy soil  An architect in the garden. The idea might conjure images of

Spring-flowering bulbs are still readily available in November, and this is a great time to plant them in our region. Daffodils, tulips, summer snowflakes, and Spanish bluebells all need as much chilling as they can get in this part of the country, so planting them early is essential for spring flowers. Plant bulbs with a

Carla Zembelli Mudry is welcoming us today to her garden in Malvern, Pennsylvania. November in my garden means fewer chores, and the garden is mostly put to bed. All of the bulbs are in the ground, and the cannas are out of the ground and nestled in pots in the garage. Overnight, we had a

In most people’s minds, humane traps are no-kill, cagelike devices that capture animals using bait. Some claim that certain snares and padded leghold traps are humane, as well, but these devices are more often inhumane because of the injuries they can cause as animals struggle to free themselves. It is important to remember that any

Today Cherry Ong is taking us to visit Hatley Castle in Victoria, British Columbia. This estate garden at the Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia, is magnificent, regal, and majestic. You may recognize the castle from the movies or TV, and I will leave it up to you to figure out where you’ve seen

Well loyal listeners, it’s hard to believe, but this is our 100th episode! We cannot thank everyone out there who has stuck with us from the early days of trying to figure out what a podcast about plants should sound like, and still downloads episodes to this day (when we’ve only figured out a bit

Yesterday, beautiful little seedlings were just poking their heads up in the garden. This morning, tragedy! Some seedlings are missing altogether, while others have been beheaded, their fragile tops cut off, lying neatly beside them. If you’re wondering what horrible thing has befallen your plants, the answer is simple: cutworms. You may be able to

When my wife and I planted our gardens in Sandy, Utah, we knew we’d have to somehow irrigate our plants. For several years, we watered with a hose and sprinkler, but that got old in a hurry. We considered in-ground sprinkler systems, but they seemed costly and wasteful of water. Then I learned about the