Category Archives: Uncategorized

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”

I never knew how much I enjoyed the birds, butterflies, bees and other creatures that visit my garden until I had the time to actually watch them. When I worked full time, I did have a long garden border on the sunny side of my house that I glanced at from time to time asContinue reading “Hummingbirds and Butterflies are the Best Garden Party Guests”

Gardening brought much joy to people, young and old, during the worst months of the pandemic. My garden was one of the few places where I felt like things were “normal”. Like many, I spent too much money on seeds, bulbs, and mail-order perennials, but I have no regrets. Growing plants helped me cope withContinue reading “Gardening is not for Quitters”

If you love to buy plants just as much as I do, as the seasons pass your garden might be begin to look like a bit of a hodge podge, which is of course fine.  It is your garden, and as such it should be a judgement-free zone. Most of us, however, don’t want toContinue reading “Create Unity in Your Garden with Color”

I’ve been recording reels for my instagram feed lately, trying my best to capture the over-the-top party that is spring in the South. It was cooler than normal in April and May, which slowed the pace of spring growth, allowing all of us to enjoy a bounty of blooms before summer heat set in. NowContinue reading “A Look Back at the Glorious Spring Season”

Having now gardened in three states — Kansas, Georgia, and Alabama, I’ve come to this conclusion: You don’t really know anything about a new garden space until you’ve been digging and planting and sweating and killing plants for at least three seasons. Maybe longer. The act of growing things on any parcel of land will,Continue reading “Gardening is a Journey (A Lesson in Patience)”

I can’t help myself. Woody ornamentals are my weakness. They are the biggest temptation for me lately, and in a weak moment I will buy a shrub, or small tree, with no real consideration what I’m going to do with it. This is bad. Very bad. This is exactly what I tell people not toContinue reading “Confessions of a Shrub-aholic”