Steve Boehme
Steve Boehme is a landscape designer/installer with a lifetime of experience. “Let’s Grow!” simplifies landscape topics in clear, direct language, for non-technical readers, with no ads or popups.
This popular weekly gardening column appears weekly in 16 southern Ohio newspapers, reaching over 300,000 households.
Experts can disagree, and there are always exceptions, but these simple columns give you the basics. Search by topic or keyword to quickly find simple answers to your landscaping questions!
This Weeks Column
Jasna Polana Part III
Witnessing Perfection as an Estate Gardener I was only twenty years old when I started work on the grounds crew at Jasna Polana, the J. Seward Johnson estate in Princeton, New Jersey. My previous employer recommended me for the position;...
Jasna Polana Part III
Witnessing Perfection as an Estate Gardener I was only twenty years old when I started work on the grounds crew at Jasna Polana, the J. Seward Johnson estate in Princeton, New Jersey. My previous employer recommended me for the position;...
Jasna Polana Part II
Estate Gardens – Cost No Object! In last week’s column I wrote about my short career as an estate gardener at Jasna Polana, the 200-acre Johnson estate near Princeton, New Jersey. I worked there less than a year, but I had experience...
Jasna Polana Part I
Estate Gardener – A Dream Job? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be an estate gardener? Perhaps you’ve visited the Biltmore Estate, Longwood Gardens or other private estates that are now open to the public. These places...
Pine Bark is the Ultimate Mulch
Pine bark mulches are the most beneficial for most landscape plants, and for growing blueberries and strawberries. Pine Bark is the Ultimate Mulch For more than twenty years we’ve been using pine bark mulch on our own gardens, while mu...
Bulbs for Early Spring Color
Naturalized drifts of daffodils can really brighten the early spring landscape, if you plant them in autumn. Plant Bulbs Soon for Early Spring Color Fall is the season to plant bulbs for early spring color. You can have a colorful garden...
Protecting Trees During Construction
Protection During Construction Construction projects can be disastrous for existing trees on the building site. A tragedy we see often is when home builders attempt to save existing trees, only to have them die because of construction-...
Johnny Appleseed
The Real Legacy of Johnny Appleseed John Chapman is one of the most misrepresented and misunderstood figures in American history. Otherwise known as “Johnny Appleseed”, Chapman could be described as a successful real estate specula...
Bermudagrass Revisited
Time to Control Invasive Bermudagrass We’ve seen many landscapes where Bermudagrass has taken over lawns and then invaded flower and shrub beds. The grass creeps along the ground, rooting wherever it touches the soil or mulch, f...
Pine & Spruce Tree Ailments
Is Something Wrong with Your Pine Tree? Is your pine tree dying? Perhaps, but probably not. Let’s take a close look at your tree and see if there’s anything to worry about, or anything you need to do. Many Pine trees turn yellow...
Beating Japanese Beetles
Japanese Beetles Suddenly Japanese beetles are invading our gardens, stripping our favorite plants practically overnight. How do we combat this annual invasion, now and in the future? You need a long-term strategy to defend...
Designing & Installing Perennial Gardens
Perennial Gardens Step by Step For the home gardener, the term Perennial means a plant with stems that usually die back in winter and a root system from which new foliage and flowers grow the following year. Most perennials have herbaceo...
Watering by Drip Irrigation
Watering Landscape Plants Automatically Landscape planting in summer has always been risky. Newly-installed plants need frequent, sometimes daily watering until they get established. Even regular rainfall won’t penetrate more than a fe...
Landscape Mistakes – Top 10
Top 10 Landscape Mistakes Out-of-control landscapes are unfortunately very common, and they began with poor design (or no design). Low maintenance landscaping starts with good design. Good landscapes get better and better over time, and ...
Heirloom vs. Hybrid Vegetables
Is Your Favorite Tomato or Pepper an Heirloom? Vegetable plants can be either “heirloom” or “hybrid”. During the gardening season, we often hear about “heirloom” vegetables, and many of the tomatoes and peppers we personally ...
Design – Necklace or Den?
Landscape for the Way You Really Live How about trading your “necklace” for a new den? Sounds silly, and maybe you don’t even own a necklace. But we’ll bet you’ve gone to a lot of trouble adorning your house with a “necklace...
Planter Pots Make Flower Gardening a Breeze
Planters, Pots and Containers Part 1 Most home gardeners agree that perennials are less trouble than annual bedding plants, because “they come back every year so you don’t have to plant them again and again”. We agree with this sen...