As we pass the midpoint of summer and head towards fall, numerous plants continue to shine in our local gardens. Two standouts in particular are looking great, adding bright flowers, nice foliage and ornamental berries to the landscape...
Spring Into Container Gardens
Make Your Garden Look “Hellaciously Good” With Heleniums, Helianthus, AND Heliopsis
We are moving into the later part of summer when all of the spring and early summer perennials have finished up and it is time for those mid to late summer bloomers to take front stage. Keeping the show going in our gardens can be tricky, especially if we are prone to only do our shopping in the spring months and focus on what is in color at that time…
Don't Be Annoyed, Fill That Void!
I am going to go out on a limb here and make a brash statement: “perfection in the garden is fleeting”. Yes, it is sadly true… Earlier this spring I was congratulating myself on how nicely all of my many perennials (probably too many if I am honest with myself) were knitting themselves together and gradually obliterating any bare, visible soil. That is still happening, to be sure, but along the way some of my early bloomers have “gone over” and it is time to take another look at what I can plop in and around them to keep things looking colorful and interesting…
It's The Summer Of Love
I don’t know what it is about the months of July and August, but it seems like every year about this time I fall in love with my garden all over again. For me, the spring season is more of a puppy love or infatuation, but the summer months are when true love really blossoms, both literally and figuratively. It’s when my garden loves me back with all of its beauty and splendor…
'Bee-You' Bee Balm
Love It Or Leave It
6 Steps To Successful Summer Planting
Now that the summer weather has arrived, it never fails that someone will ask me: “Can I still plant now or should I wait until the fall?” For the record, as a landscape contractor in the Sacramento Valley where it was routinely 85 to 105 degrees, I planted all summer long and never lost a single plant. You can have the same success rate by following my directions…
I thought it might be fun to kick off 2025 in style with some talk about climate, gardens, and the adjustments we continue to make to both our gardening choices and practices. Gardeners have certainly always been flexible, or rolled with the punches as they say. As Mother Nature surprises us with this or that, she always…