Look Out for Lacewings: Beneficial Insects Coming to a Garden Near You

Cleaning up our gardens too soon and removing all the plant debris and leaves can have a detrimental effect on beneficial insect populations over winter. When habitat and food for beneficial insects are not supp

Great Design Plant: Amorpha Canescens

This Great Plains native is said to be responsible for that zipping noise homesteaders heard when they plowed up prairies. But trust me, you don’t want to get rid of lead plant (Amorpha canescens), as it deserve

New Year, New Landscape — What to Do in Your January Garden

The holidays are receding from view, and the excitement of the new year is brimming. Whether tending your garden is a New Year’s resolution or a release, all sorts of garden chores can make you feel productive t

Design Solutions for the Time-Strapped Gardener

Necessity often drives gardeners to design their outdoor spaces with low or easy maintenance requirements. Is there enough time to look after the garden, and do they have the ability to care for it? There is no

8 New Ways to Garden This Year

Another year is upon us — I can tell because just yesterday I had half a dozen plant catalogs in my mailbox (and probably another half-dozen in my email). Dreaming up garden plans for the growing season is what

Great Design Plant: Mitella Diphylla Provides Snowflakes in Spring

The delicate flower stalks and snowflake-like flowers of this underutilized woodland native plant will rustle in the slightest breeze and provide spring interest to your shade garden. Feature twoleaf miterwort (

Great Design Plant: Picea Abies ‘Nidiformis’

The winter garden can be a lonely place, as the frills and thrills of summer annuals and flowering perennials have disappeared from the solemn landscape. It’s at this time of year when garden structure, along wi

Great Design Plant: Snowdrops Offer a Spring Peek

Common snowdrop is one of the first bulbs to appear, and it’s blooming now in areas where winters are mild. Over the next few weeks, more will begin appearing in gardens as the days lengthen and the temperatures

Before and After: Front Lawn to Prairie Garden

For years my wife and I talked about removing our front lawn and installing a garden. Of course we were hesitant for many reasons, from finances to how the neighbors would react. Finally we got up the gumption,

Great Design Plant: Tradescantia Ohiensis Adds Shades of Blue

Blue is a hard color to come by when designing or planting perennial gardens. Ohio spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis), an eastern U.S. native, helps solve this color deficit by providing clusters of blue flowers

Great Design Plant: Halesia Tetraptera

I first experienced Carolina silverbell (Halesia tetraptera) one summer at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At that time it looked like a rather average tree, but it started getting interestin

15 Ideas to Try in Your Garden This Year

In the garden more than any room in the house, no two years — no two days — are ever the same. Plants grow and die, it rains or doesn’t, and wildlife buzzes around and pollinates plants or deer eat a season’s wo

8 Native Shrubs for Year-Round Bird Feeding

Tell me if you’ve ever had this problem in your garden: One day, perhaps in winter, you’re enjoying a cup of coffee, looking out at your landscape. You’re admiring the grasses and perennials, sedges and trees, w

Great Design Plant: Ribes Malvaceum

Pink chaparral currant (Ribes malvaceum) revives the sleeping garden with elegant pink tassels and handsome mallow-like leaves on its upright branches. The white to pink flowers bloom as early as October and con

Great Design Plant: Olneya Tesota Offers Desert Shade

Ironwood (Olneya tesota), a member of the pea family, has flowers similar to those of sweetpea blossoms in shape. Like many desert trees, ironwood easily handles extreme drought, hot temperatures and full sun, a

Great Design Plant: Pinus Thunbergii ‘Thunderhead’

Pines, like red wine, can be an acquired taste. Many of us played in pine forests as children, never giving a thought as to what makes these trees special. But there are certain pines that can do for your garden

Oh, Deer! 10 Native Flowers That Stand Up to the Herds

Sometimes our garden leaves us wanting to give up and write a “Deer John” letter, especially if it hosts a half dozen Bambis every evening. Sprays and powders are a waste of money, because they sure don’t seem e

Got Frost-Damaged Plants? How It Happens, and When and How to Prune

Freezing temperatures can cause brown, crispy growth on plants that are susceptible to frost damage. Frost damage can occur when temperatures dip to or below the freezing point, 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees

Small Carpenter Bees Are Looking for a Home in Your Plant Stems

Unlike domesticated, managed honey bees that nest in human-made hives, most wild bees are solitary (they don’t nest in a colony) and need appropriate nesting sites in our gardens and landscapes. The majority of

We Can Dream: Lush Life on a Historic Normandy Estate

The Montperthuis estate in France’s Normandy region had a 15th-century manor and an 18th-century house — but no gardens. Its new owners, a young couple, asked Philippe Dubreuil to design landscaping that worked