I enjoy garden projects – as opposed to chores. To me a project is something that will improve or add lasting value to your garden. Raking leaves, for example, is a chore. Naturalizing bulbs, on the other hand, is a project because a sweep of naturalized bulbs will add years of low maintenance beauty to [...]
Archive for the ‘Garden Tips’ Category
Not Your Regular List of Fall Garden Projects
Posted in Garden, Garden Tips, tagged autumn, fall, projects on October 29, 2008 | No Comments »
Hate Raking Leaves? A Mulch Mowing How-to
Posted in Garden, Garden Tips, tagged autumn, fall, leaves, mulch mowing on October 28, 2008 | No Comments »
“… a mature, healthy tree can have 200,000 leaves. During 60 years of life, such a tree would grow and shed 3,600 pounds of leaves, returning about 70% of their nutrients to the soil.”
Wisconsin County Forests webpage
Think about how many millions of leaves will be gathered here at Winterthur and in the many gardens throughout [...]
Tending the Flower Border
Posted in Garden Tips, tagged Winterthur, perennials on May 21, 2008 | No Comments »
It seems as if spring gently unfolds during the month of April and then suddenly, on a non-descript day in May, the perennial flowers—and the weeds—have grown to surprising heights (this epiphany occurred to me this past weekend while rooting through my own mixed border at home, pictured above); this is the time when I [...]
Gardening Tip #2: Spring Frosts
Posted in Garden Tips, tagged frost on April 28, 2008 | No Comments »
A week of sunny weather in April can give a gardener amnesia. Suddenly you find yourself planting as though it is May, forgetting that the nights can still get cold and turn your hard work into mush. Because today has been cool and cloudy I’ve already had two calls from gardeners asking for advice on frost. Keep [...]
Gardening Tip #1: Pruning Spring-flowering Shrubs
Posted in Garden Tips, tagged azaleas, corylopsis, flowering quince, forsythia, lilacs, pruning, shrubs, Winterthur on April 17, 2008 | No Comments »
A question we often hear this time of year is, “When should I prune my spring flowering shrubs?” Azaleas and forsythia, for example, can take us by surprise in spring by how much they have grown. You may need to prune your shrubs to restore their shape or to reclaim a path or part of a bed. In general, [...]