Many of the most successful garden designs link indoor and outdoor space by using colour, materials and even furniture to create a seamless transition. Sometimes it’s called ‘blurring the boundaries’ between house and garden. I spoke to two people with very different garden styles, but who both successfully connect their…
You can group pots to create a complete ‘garden border.’ Or you can drop pots into a border to fill a gap or add colour. If you garden in a rented garden or a very small space, you can achieve the colour and impact of a herbaceous border with a…
I first really saw prunella as a herbaceous border plant in my sister-in-law’s garden in Australia. It isn’t a show stopper. But I consider it amongst the top perennials because it is charming and easy. It flowers for months at a time, either in sun or quite shady spots. It’s…
I killed my first hydrangea by pruning it in fall. Thought I was helping. Cut every stem back to six inches. Next summer? Zero flowers. Just leaves. That was ten years ago, and I’ve since learned the hard way that the single most important rule of pruning hydrangeas is knowing…
It’s time for the potting shed tidy up. While I’m sorting the tools and accessories, I’ll picking out which ones I want to replace or repair and which I’ll throw away . The best quick shed tidy tip I hate tidying, so I have to force myself. One trick I’ve…
You dug the hole, dropped the tree in, and backfilled. Now the leaves are yellowing, or it’s leaning, or it just looks sad. Did you plant it wrong? Probably. Most people do. Here’s what actually matters when planting a tree – and how to undo the damage if you already…
The Real Reason Most Perennial Borders Look Bare by August The border looks incredible in June. By August it’s tatty foliage, bare patches, and a few stragglers clinging on. I’ve watched this happen in garden after garden — including my own, in the early years — and it almost always…
You put $75 worth of petunias, impatiens, and wave petunias in the ground in late May. By mid-July, the impatiens collapsed. The petunias stopped blooming without deadheading every five days. The wave petunias held on — but only barely, demanding water daily through a three-week dry stretch. That’s a plant…
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