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IT’S ALL HITS, ALL THE TIME here at the garden, or at least it is this time of year. Meet more of my beloved companions (click to get to know each one)…and hurry, the next gang will be showing up and showing off at any minute now. (By the way, the third click’s the charm; the photos are better big.)

HAVE YOU VISITED OUR Urgent Garden Question Forums? And if not, why not? (I felt I had to ask.) Read what they’re about…or just go. And while you’re there, upload photos of your sick/beautiful/unknown plant and get it promptly healed/admired/identified. You get the idea: Got a gem/problem? We praise you/fix it. All of life should work like this.

FOR SEASON-LONG COLOR in containers, true annuals (like marigolds or petunias or zinnias) aren’t the only answer. I always keep a few choice hostas ready to do duty as pot plants, carrying them over from year to year in the vegetable garden when it’s empty all winter, then lifting the big clumps out and popping them into pots for use in shady areas spring through fall.

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the oldest apple with hellebores, hylomecon, etc. COME AND JUST TAKE A WALK with me. No big plant lesson, nothing to prune or weed or sow. Just pay a visit as I do early each morning and evening to the parts of the garden that are calling out to me in living color. Read more

I WAS READY FOR RAIN, long prayed for, with the requisite equipment: two sets of foul-weather gear, rubbery bib pants with hooded jackets and all (two because…surprise…the first one gets wet by lunchtime, and wants replacing). Rubber boots, of course, were also at the ready. Far more important, I had three of the most delightfully cheap