Garden Design

Welcome to Kevin Kelly’s garden, where containers are used as pieces of garden art to accent the plantings. I have been gardening in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (Zone 6b), for over 25 years. My garden is on a third-acre lot in a suburban neighborhood. I am not surrounded by any amazing vistas, nor do I have any

Today we’re visiting with Lila Johnson (whose garden we’ve visited before: The Flowers of August). My garden has been featured in the GPOD previously, but after much thought and several bids later, my husband and I moved forward with a landscape makeover in early April 2021. At our ages, 78 and 77, we had a

Today we’re in New England visiting Lea’s garden. A pretty magical image of a beautiful garden—it looks like Lea has combined every possible shade of green to make this perfectly lush image come together. This is Lea’s “Moss Mandala,” part of a bigger garden that she calls “The Puddle Garden,” as it fills with water

As William Cullina mentions in his article on plants for birds, the sad reality is songbirds are disappearing: “Habitat loss, pesticides, and the accompanying decline of insect populations have contributed to a loss of 25 to 30 percent of North American songbirds since 1970.” But gardeners can help, and it just requires buying new plants!

Today we’re visiting Nicki’s beautiful garden. I have been gardening my whole life and in my current suburban Chicago location for 25 years. These photos show a long planting bed along the west side of my backyard. When we moved here in 1996, the garden was a narrow strip along the fence with a few

Today Sue Hughes is sharing a friend’s beautiful garden. I’d like to share the beautiful garden of my neighbor and friend Dana Kline. I spent the day in her garden with her and her dog Hadley and thought it would be fun to share my photos of it with other gardeners on Garden Photo of

Today we’re headed all the way to Hyderabad, India, to see Sarada Tummala’s beautiful garden. I am a freelance content writer. I love documenting my home garden and farm. I am into sustainable living and love the science of organic gardening and farming. I live in a west-facing villa with my extended family. We have

Peas and carrots. Peanut butter and jelly. Batman and Robin. If this was Jeopardy  the correct answer would be, “What are perfect pairings.” On this episode we’re talking about two plants that just seem to belong together. It could be that they have complimentary textures, or they bloom in unison, or perhaps their habits fit

Today we’re heading to Averill Park, New York, with Stephanie Stewart. These are shots of some of my favorite pollinators. The hummingbirds are attracted to salvia (Salvia guaranitica, Zone 7–10 or as an annual), honeysuckle (Lonicera spp.), and trumpet vine (Campsis radicans, Zones 5–9) in our garden. The butterflies love the many colors of phlox

Today we’re visiting with Michele Baker and seeing how she has transformed her new garden on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. I’ve loved Fine Gardening for years and am always inspired by readers’ photos with new gardens and what they’ve been able to accomplish. I finally got a chance to do the same thing last year.

Today we’re visiting the garden of husband and wife Tim Boland (a botanist) and Laura Coit (a designer). Here are some pictures of our home garden on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. It is a drought-tolerant garden amid an oak forest where the soil lacks organic matter. We garden on composted soil built up over 16 years.

Today we’re revisiting Lena White’s North Carolina garden. I submitted photos of my spring favorites (Spring in Lena’s Garden), and summer has brought lots of heat to North Carolina as well as many other parts of the country. Even so, there’s been lots of early morning gardening and lots of color and joy, for which

I have no recollection of burnets—native or cultivated— before my back-to-back encounters with great burnet (Sanguisorba officinalis) in the South Korean countryside and on the grassy steppes of Siberia. The sight of its curious purplered flowers wind-dancing on tall wiry stems stayed with me, kindling thoughts about burnets in the garden and wondering why they

My retirement plan had always been to move to a tropical island. In the past when folks told me they wanted to spend their golden years in Maine, I never understood why. In my mind you’re supposed to pick a place where you love to vacation—where you can spend the day under the shade of

Maureen Budny, in North Reading, Massachusetts, is a talented amateur photographer who has shared her beautiful images with us before (Garden Photos from Maureen). I always love when I get photos from her in the GPOD inbox, because she zooms in to see the beauty in details that you might otherwise overlook. Her images are

Ground covers may be the most underappreciated plants in the garden.  They don’t have the flashiest blooms or the most interesting habits, but they’re invaluable in so many other ways. A great ground cover can crowd out weeds, stop erosion, fill in the gaps between larger perennials, and even soften the edges of walls and

As summer sets in, gardeners start to think about cutting stems from our beds and borders to bring inside. Everyone loves to see a gorgeous vase of blooms sitting on the kitchen table. But knowing when the right time of day is to cut those flowers—and how to prep them so they last as long

It’s easy to ignore the shady corners of our gardens and focus on areas with the most light, especially when it comes to creating warm-season containers. Many of us get frustrated or bored with the limited options in the shade annuals section at local garden centers. However, lightly shaded locations are the perfect places to

Today’s photos are from Teresa Watkins. Living in tropical gardening Zone 9b, I’m always excited to visit my husband’s family in Taunton, Massachusetts, to envy their Zone 6b gardens. This year’s weeklong family gathering celebrated the 18-month, pandemic-delayed wedding of niece Kelly with multiple outings. My sister-in-law, Jackie, and her husband, Craig Machamer, have been

There is perhaps no more iconic flower than the hydrangea. Whether it’s the massive blossoms of the bigleaf varieties (Hydrangea macrophylla and cvs., Zones 5–9) or the interesting star-shaped blooms of the mountain types (H. serrata and cvs., Zones 6–9), hydrangeas add drama to the garden like no other plant. Not all hydrangeas are built