Years of gardening have taught me one thing for certain: to never rely on my memory of this year’s garden to help me plan for the next. I’m not referring to my long term memory. I can tell a argyranthemum from a leucanthemum in nothing flat. I can tell you if hypericum likes wet...
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One night, not too long ago, my children and I settled down for a little Beatrix Potter before bedtime. As we read about the scamperings of naughty rabbits and rooted for Benjamin Bunny and little Peter to escape Mr. McGregor’s garden, cabbages clutched in their furry little paws, I suddenly had a horrible moment...
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Consider the scenario. You have spent several years creating a garden of which Martha Stewart would be proud. You have planted. You have pruned. You have micro-managed. You have successfully made it through scores of bitter Januaries and scorching Augusts by slowly learning what works and what doesn’t. It’s been a long road, but...
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One of the things they never tell you in all the pretty gardening handbooks, as you are dragged deeper and deeper into this gardening lark, is that you may no longer go on vacation. Not for you summer trips to Yellowstone for two weeks or a cross-country tour to find the world’s largest ball...
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Walking onto my porch a few months ago, coffee in hand, eyes open to any new surprises my garden might throw at me, I was unprepared for the surprises someone else’s garden might throw at me. There, where a seventeen foot lilac had towered for the last six years, effectively blocking my view of...
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July has come. Heralded by the brilliance of fireworks in darkened skies, this month symbolizes summer in the hearts of most Americans. Carnivals abound, the pool is fully open, and children can rest secure in the knowledge that, this year at least, school cannot touch this precious month of suntans, fireflies and freedom.
We have...
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This year, I started a bed on the side of the house that I like to refer to as my “shade garden.” But perhaps it would be far more accurate to define the space as “a-garden-made-up-of-free-plants-that-will-grow-in-the-shade-if-they-are-given-no-other-choice.” Wherever you are in your gardening adventure, the thought has probably occurred to you that this is an...
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The garden is an integral part of my life, and consequently, it is difficult for me to imagine why anyone would wish to live without the joy of eating one’s own produce, watching a treasured cutting turn into a flourishing shrub, or sitting in the midst of one’s own creation on a warm spring...
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I am not a fashion expert. This is made patently clear to me when well-meaning friends drop by on a Saturday with a matronly yard sale find in hand and say “I thought of you when I saw it.” So you will excuse me for offering a bit of fashion advice in the garden...
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Even those of us who spend most of our days up to our armpits in the compost pile have noticed there’s a recession on. If the gloomy NPR voices on my garden radio weren’t enough to alert me, there’s the little matter of my husband shredding the retirement statements to use as bedding mulch. ...
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