Published March 3th, 2013 Planting flowers and vegetables each spring can be even more satisfying if you raise them from seed. Seeds cost less than live plants, and often you can find more varieties that way. You can also get a head start; home-sprouted seedlings can be ready for planting a few weeks before live …
Published November 4th, 2012 For those of you with a family tradition of planting live Christmas trees, here’s a hot tip: “Fat Albert” is a particularly handsome spruce tree that makes an ideal Christmas tree. What makes “Fat Albert” special is its wonderful blue color, and the dense, compact shape that makes it perfect for …
Published September 24th, 2012 Our recent Philadelphia Garden Tour took us to the Brandywine River Museum, an art collection that includes many paintings by the Wyeth family along with other American artists. The museum is operated by the Brandywine Conservancy. This organization is devoted to preserving the Brandywine River watershed, a river valley packed with …
Published July 16th, 2012 Marjorie and I recently took a trip to Philadelphia and visited the brand new headquarters of the Barnes Foundation, home of the world’s largest collection of post-impressionist paintings. The Barnes Foundation just completed a very controversial move from a sedate residential neighborhood in Lower Merion (a Philadelphia suburb) to a brand …
Published June 18th, 2012 Picking fresh raspberries is rewarding and fun, and raspberries are easy to grow. If you’ve ever picked wild berries you’ve seen how well brambles produce with very little attention; you can have fat, juicy berries in your own yard with a little work. Pick a spot that gets good air circulation, …
Published May 28th, 2012 Everybody likes strawberries, and it’s fun to grow them. To succeed you must be patient, since strawberry plantings take a year to establish. First, you must understand the difference between June-bearing, “everbearing”, and “day neutral” strawberries, since each of these takes different care. June-bearing strawberries produce a single, large crop per …
Published May 26th, 2012 Regular readers of this column already know that “the best weed control is complete darkness”. In other words, weeds can only grow if the sun is hitting the ground. That’s why we use mulch, and that’s why we have more weed problems in sunny areas than in the shade. Using groundcover …
Groundcovers Reduce Weeding, Mulching and Erosion Read More »
Published April 29th, 2012 Is there anything more delicious than a plate of baked sweet potatoes with fresh cracked pepper, salt and melted butter? Yes. The same dish made with fresh-dug sweet potatoes from your own garden! This is a down-home treat that’s easy to grow successfully, and we see more gardeners trying it each …
Published April 25th, 2012 Everybody likes strawberries, and it’s fun to grow them. To succeed you must be patient, since strawberry plantings take a year to establish. First, you must understand the difference between June-bearing, “everbearing”, and “day neutral” strawberries, since each of these takes different care. June-bearing strawberries produce a single, large crop per …
Published March 20th, 2012 Dogwood trees are the most asked-for tree in our nursery, but they can be a challenge to grow successfully. They thrive in well-drained acid soil rich with humus, similar to the rich compost we see in established forests. Dogwood seeds sprout in the semi-shade and rich loamy soil at the edge …