Y ES, AND THE CHECK IS IN THE MAIL, and that rose you’re about to buy is nonstop, that petunia self-cleaning, and the grass-seed mix? It’s low-mow! Uh-huh. Now how come I have flowerless moments and have to deadhead regularly and the only thing that’s nonstop here is the mowing? Oh, and there’s also the fact that my 20-year-old “dwarf” shrubs are not so little anymore. Thanks to Andre Jordan for another Thursday doodle, the perfect catalyst for a holiday weekend rant: What are your garden regrets? Grab a cold drink and let’s make a list together.
I OFTEN FEEL LIKE I LIVE IN A CABINET of curiosities; you know, those Renaissance-era rooms full of oddities (a vintage image follows), many of them nature-inspired, that in time evolved into an actual piece of furniture filled with the most fascinating mix of stuff? That’s my life here these days. Curious. Read more…
JULY STARTS OUT as Throw In the Trowel Month here, but then summer shapes up and the heat-lovers have their day. All is forgiven! Keeping up with watering (in non-Noah’s Ark years) and weeds tops the to-do list, with planting and other more macho tasks (other than mowing my steep hillside) at a minimum. I started on some of these not long ago, but I have miles to go before I sleep. Read more…
I PROMISED I WOULDN’T ADD EVEN AN EXTRA TRIP TO THE CURB WITH THE TRASH to my schedule, with all the mowing I have to do, but (big surprise) I layered on a couple of events, and I want to make sure you know about them, in case you are in the Hudson Valley/Berkshires vicinity this summer. Another container-gardening class, a 365-day garden lecture with an extra focus on water gardening and the frogboys, and a tour here in August (that last one you already might know about). Details, details: Read more…
J ACK IS A JUNKIE; KIWI VINES ARE HIS CRACK. He knocked down that little Clematis to his left in the process of capturing and subduing his desired prey: the young kiwi vine that’s now half-hidden beneath the subdued cat (above). Yes, some species of kiwi are like catnip, and though Jack thinks that’s the reason to add more to the garden, I’m high on other vines that are coming into their season, from vivid Clematis tangutica to (not yet, but soon) Codonopsis lanceolata. Some favorites (both mine and Jack’s): Read more…
D O THE ‘ORNAMENTAL’ PLANTS HAVE A CRUEL CASTE SYSTEM like some people do; do they really notice when “weeds” move in among them or is every plant born equal? I wonder. So, apparently, does Andre Jordan the doodler; or at least he wonders what the human neighbors will think if we’ve slacked a bit, if not literally wondering what’s on the minds of the intended garden plants. What shall we tell our dear provocateur Andre this week in reply to the question he poses?
P EOPLE WHO VISIT SAY IT SEEMS LIKE PEACEABLE KINGDOM or at least “Animal Planet” at my place, but I am here to tell you otherwise. There’s a whole lot of fighting going on. Since my big bullfrogs departed for better digs during a heavy rain in early spring, the species called green frogs have been full of themselves, masters of the universe, and now with mating season upon us, they’re downright violent. Ever watch a frogfight? Read more…
I T’S THE ONE EVERYONE ASKS ABOUT whenever I have tours, one person or 375 at a time; the one that everyone thinks is a Viburnum but isn’t. Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Diablo,’ the maroon-leaved form of ninebark, is a great shrub: easy and showy over a long season, a giant fountain-shaped creature that attracts attention even from a distance. But it’s not the only variety I grow…there are others. Physocarpus opulifolius: Second in a series on great shrubs. Read more…
I SUPPOSE I SHOULD HAVE DONE AN INCANTATION of one of my favorite songs before things got to this point: 9 inches of rain in barely more than two weeks. I have a wildly eclectic collection of recordings of “You Are My Sunshine” (and thanks to a recent gift from blogger Sarah McColl, a vintage-style sign to accompany them). This 1963 Ray Charles version is one of the best, and I’m playing it loud with the speakers pointed out the window, invoking a prayer that the rain that’s been swamping parts of the Northeast and the northern Midwest will go relieve dusty conditions in places like Texas and elsewhere it can do some good. May the weather you need come your way, and soon.
T HIS ONE SNUCK UPON ME. Allium moly, a foot-tall yellow ornamental onion, doesn’t have the baseball-or-bigger heads of some of its more dramatic purple cousins. But it has the rest beat in foliage (wide, beautifully pleated, blue-green leaves that don’t get nasty practically before bloom the way so many do) and durability. It has been gleaming for weeks here already, despite monsoon weather, its golden-yellow 2-inch-wide umbels screaming in the very nicest manner, calling the eye across the garden to please, come have a look. Read more…
A S IF TO CHEER ME ON DESPITE 7 INCHES of rain that fell the last two weeks, the screaming red martagon lilies are open again, right on time. I just thought I’d remind you in case you’re not the kind of visitor who digs through the archives compulsively (but if you did, you’d see that the similarly screaming red baneberry fruits are colored up now, too). If I had a red rainsuit and boots and perhaps a red umbrella, things would be picture-perfect here.
LAST WEEK, SOME PLANTS TURNED UP DEAD. A week earlier, there was an incident involving a gun. Now it’s robbery (hopefully not armed with said gun), and I don’t know what in the world to think; maybe these things aren’t illegal in Nebraska? Best mind my own business, I suppose. But doesn’t the line in the poem say, “Good fences make good neighbors?” Oh, my, Andre the doodler seems to have veered off course. And you: Coveting anything that is thy neighbor’s there yourself, are you now?
I WAS SO BLESSED TO visit and document many of the nation’s finest homemade gardens for 15 years for ‘Martha Stewart Living,’ first as garden editor and then as editorial director. The places we were proud to publish included my own upstate New York home. Take a tour of 
