Published March 13th, 2012 The best way to keep your gardens in top shape is to prune, groom, fertilize and mulch in the early spring. This is particularly important during the first few years after your plantings are installed. March is the ideal time to get the jump on landscape maintenance, before things start growing …
Published December 7th, 2011 CHRISTMAS TREES YOU CAN PLANT It’s hard to find a better value than a live Christmas tree. Even if you already have a fake tree, planting a real evergreen on your property each year is a terrific tradition and a lasting legacy. Quality evergreens are like compound interest; you can start …
Published October 16th 2011 Young plants in the nursery don’t usually look much like the mature version of the same plant. One big challenge for gardeners is to visualize how plants will look when they grow up. Having a good mental picture of a mature perennial, shrub or tree helps you plant it in the …
Published September 11th, 2011 Growing up in the family landscape business made a strong impression on me when it comes to practical landscape design. Our family company specialized in industrial-commercial landscape maintenance. We made our living by rearranging commercial landscapes so that they took less man-hours to keep them looking nice. I spent my workdays …
Published July 4th, 2011 Growing Kiwi fruit has been a challenge for Ohio gardeners, because most Kiwi vines are not hardy here. We’ve found an answer for home orchardists in the Ohio valley; a self-fertile variety of hardy Kiwi called “Issai”. This particular kiwi has two major benefits; cold-hardiness to zone three (-25 degrees) and …
Published June 5th, 2011 By now just about everyone has heard of the phenomenal “Knock-Out” Rose. Actually there are seven rose varieties currently being marketed under the “Knock-Out” brand, and some are definitely better than others. But they’re all pretty good and some are very good. Overall, “Knock-Out” roses are easy to grow, bloom constantly, …
Published Aprill 16th, 2011 Regular readers of this column already know about our planned Philadelphia Garden Tour, and most people have heard of the tour centerpiece, Longwood Gardens. Fewer gardeners have heard of the nearby Winterthur Museum and Gardens in Wilmington, Delaware. Like Longwood, this fantastic estate was built by the DuPont family a century …
Published March 13th, 2011 The best way to fertilize is to mix the fertilizer with the soil when you plant. This has a “timed-release” effect because the roots find the food as the plant grows. It helps the roots spread quickly. For established plantings you should sprinkle powdered fertilizers generously around your plants before mulching. …
Published February 14th, 2011 One reason many people postpone landscape improvements is that they aren’t sure what they want. Some people are good at imagining finished landscapes, but most people aren’t. Walking around in nurseries can be mind-boggling. Many home landscapes are just a collection of plants that were bought on impulse because they attracted …
Published December 6th, 2010 As a kid I spent many, many weekends at my Oma’s house. My Oma and Opa were my father’s parents, immigrants from Germany, solid working people who loved gardening and their grandchildren about equally. They lived in a cozy little house in the middle of an acre in the New Jersey …