Author Archives: roxannward_eplwpc

Back in the day, Martha Stewart would share something wonderful (a tool, a kitchen gadget) and declare “It’s a Good Thing”, and we believed her. This month I thought I would share a few of my favorite things, from overalls to garden tools – and maybe even a plant or two. WORK OVERALLS. I neverContinue reading “My Top Ten Useful Things for the Garden”

Here in Georgia, winter brought arctic cold and weeks of rain, followed by unseasonably mild temperatures for the month of February. March has arrived and it appears that mother nature has thrown off her covers and decided that it is spring. In my zone 8a garden this week mama wren is building her nest in theContinue reading “Spring has Sprung”

I have no right to complain. My garden is not covered with a foot of snow, nor is it buried under a layer of ice, but nevertheless I’m cranky about the state of things. No matter how I might try to write a few cheerful paragraphs about some aspect of winter gardening, I can’t seemContinue reading “Oh Just Snap Out of It .”

As I look through garden photos from 2022, I’m reminded of the fun I had this year simply watching plants grow. What strikes me now, as I look at the sunlight streaming through the bare branches in my back garden, is how peaceful everything looks. We don’t have many snowy or icy mornings here inContinue reading “A Year in the Garden”

It’s bloom season for the Camellia sasanqua here in the South, and looking around it’s not hard to understand why she’s the queen of the winter garden. While she’s beautiful on her own, I like to add a variety of both foliage and flowering plants around my camellias to finish the look. I thought I’dContinue reading “Companion Plants for the Regal Camellia”

What I’m planning to do better in 2023… The fall season is winding down in my Georgia garden. Luckily, some of my favorite plants seem to be shrugging off the cold, at least for now. My camellias are loaded with blooms and looking gorgeous. If I could figure out a way to squeeze just oneContinue reading “There’s Always Next Year”

Plant envy. It’s that feeling you get when you realize that you purchased plain jane plants at the garden center a few years back, and there’s something blooming in your neighbor’s yard that you’ve fallen in love with. The good news is that autumn is the perfect time to plant a few of those late-bloomingContinue reading “Why Didn’t I Plant That?”

Learning to garden in the South has its challenges.  I’ve written many times about my first attempts at gardening in sticky red clay. Having moved to Georgia from the Midwest, where my garden soil was a rich, brown loam,  I didn’t have much success gardening here until I understood that some plants thrive in acidicContinue reading “Will This Plant Thrive in Clay?”

Like many gardeners, I’m happiest during spring and fall, when the weather is pleasant and I can spend entire days doing what I love best: messing around with plants. You would assume that the dead of winter – January – would be the worst month to be a gardener. This isn’t true. When January arrivesContinue reading “A Game Plan for August, The Toughest Month in My Garden”

The crinum lily is a strange and wonderful creature. She’s exotic when combined with a few of those heat-loving plants Southerners love (cannas, elephant ears, hibiscus), and elegant when placed in a summer border filled with agapanthus, summer phlox, and hydrangeas. I was lucky enough to find three tiny crinum lilies already growing in theContinue reading “The Crinum Lily Makes a Comeback”