Our Blog
We know that the secret to a great garden is great information and practical advice! For more than twenty-five years, we’ve given thousands of helpful garden tips in newsletters, newspaper columns and radio shows. We draw on that gardening and landscaping experience to give you in-depth information you can use today and it’s right here.
Check back each month for a new article that will help you achieve your goals for outdoor living.
Beneficial Insects for Gardens and Lawns
As children, we learn to think of insects as bad guys, home invaders that we must squash on sight. We carry this perception into the garden and assume that all bugs are bad guys that should be blasted with chemicals on sight. While some garden insects are definitely...
Great Gift Ideas for Valentine’s Day
We’re in the throes of winter, starting to count the days until spring with Valentine’s Day as the only thing to look forward to in the next month. Your challenge for this upcoming holiday is to find a gift for your sweetheart that shows more creativity than a box of...
The Dawn of a New Year!
What makes one night more special than another night – one moment more magical? By agreement, we organize our lives and our collective history by days, months, years, decades, and millenniums. We pass from one interval to another at observable moments,...
“Coaxing” Branches for Early Spring Bloom
There’s a German legend about a beautiful and graceful young woman named Barbara, whose father locked her in a tower to keep the young men at bay. Fortunately, fathers have evolved since then! While locked away, Barbara pined for the warmth of the sun, the song of...
Dreaming and Planning Spring Gardens
Long ago, February 1 was considered the first day of spring in the gardener’s year. It seems appropriate then that shortly after February 1, we start getting seed catalogs in the mail and seeing a bumper crop of special gardening publications at the checkout...
Gaze at a Winter Landscape and Visualize Changes for 2018
In the hush of a snowfall or tranquility of a gray winter day, we can better see the form of a landscape….. A month ago, in mid-December, we still had leaves on the trees and temperatures in the 50s. Then abruptly, those temperatures plunged to record setting...
Memories of Christmas Past!
Those who celebrate Christmas engage in a month-long whirlwind of decorating, card writing, carol singing, cookie baking and gift buying. Even though we may feel overwhelmed with the demands of this busy season, we know that it all adds up to a lifetime of happy...
Holiday Celebrations Abound In December!
For weeks now, Americans have been bombarded with songs, images, and marketing geared toward the celebration of Christmas. We don’t often hear about them, but there are two other holidays – celebrated worldwide by many millions of people – that also fall in December....
Stopping By On Their Long Journeys – Why and How Birds Migrate
Once upon a time, people worked closely with nature in order to survive. A farmer’s work regimen was ordered by the changing seasons, hunters searched for signs to tell them when to hunt, and fishermen tracked the moon and tides to bring in the best catch. Nowadays,...
How Autumn Leaves Get Their Luscious Colors
No matter how many autumns I’ve seen, I never tire of watching the trees transform from an undefined backdrop of green to a diverse group of colorful individuals. The colors are not only breathtaking – they become our key to identifying particular trees. The dark,...