Several years ago I bought a book called “Use What You Have Decorating,” which provides useful suggestions about home decor based on the idea in the title: basically, look at your stuff and arrange it to achieve a pleasing result (while also fixing or avoiding common mistakes)—easier said than done, obviously. It occurred to me … Continue reading Winter Inspirations
If you want to support the natural environment in your garden, you have to decide where you fall along the order to chaos spectrum. Clearly, a gardener who is trying to provide ecological niches for insects and wildlife is not going to produce a Versailles-like symmetrical tapestry of plantings (not that many of us aspire … Continue reading Order and Chaos
I have reported on my experience with several low-growing native ground covers that seemed to be relatively immune to deer. I thought I’d revisit this topic, since it’s both perennial and evergreen (sorry, couldn’t resist). In fact, many of our shade-loving native ground covers are semi-evergreen: the leaves mostly hang on over winter, growing more … Continue reading Ground covers revisited
Since I became interested in using more native plants, I have found several low-growing native ground covers that seem immune to deer. They have now been established for more than five years, so I have a pretty good idea what they will do—that is, if the rule sleep (first year), creep (second year), leap (third … Continue reading Adventures with ground covers
A little story: A major event in my development as a gardener occurred when my mother cleared a tangle of rampant vines and other vegetation from the wooded part of our back yard, which backed onto Rock Creek Park. This might have been in 1964; when our family visited the New York World’s Fair, she … Continue reading Spring ephemerals