book cover

June 21, 2008

enough about me (let’s talk about me!)

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ENOUGH ABOUT ME…well, maybe one last thing. And then I will put a sock in it for awhile (maybe). A young blogger who was among those to inspire me to start on this path honored me yesterday with a profile. It has the bits The Times didn’t tell you, and since I seem to be outing myself with full force this week, why not show you this one, too?

June 9, 2008

yee-hah! we moved to texas

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LEST YOU THINK I HAVE FORGOTTEN YOU, and my commitment to post new garden how-to and woo-woo regularly, it just ain’t so. The weekend was devoted to a higher purpose: moving A Way to Garden to a new, very macho server in Texas, where it can welcome as many of you as wish to show up at any given moment…which we hear might be happening soon. Piqued your curiosity? You’ll just have to wait a little longer to see what’s up, while we weed out all the little bits here and there in the aftermath of The Big Move. Back to gardening shortly, promise.

June 4, 2008

on garden visiting: ‘if only…’

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SERIOUS GARDEN-VISITING SEASON KICKED OFF for me on Monday, meaning visitors besides the usual amphibian suspects like this guy who wait on the doorstep for me to come play each day. Them I can deal with, but the human types! Yikes. My brain spirals, and I keep hearing the same thought over and again in my head while walking guests around: If only you’d come last week (when the lilacs were still blooming). If only you’d come week after next (when the next wave of perennial geraniums and later alliums are happening, since all that’s happening now are faded early ones of each). Shoulda, coulda, woulda…if only. Seeing the holes, not the whole. Bad girl. And more visitors (you, maybe?) are coming soon. Uh-oh.

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June 3, 2008

from the forums: pruning viburnums

Filed Under 'woo-woo' (essays and such), bird sh-t, tools & techniques, trees & shrubs, uncategorized | Leave a Comment

WHEN TO PRUNE VIBURNUMS? That timely question was raised this week on the Urgent Garden Question Forums.
“When is the best time to prune large viburnum shrubs?” asked Forum member ZSteinberg. “Two are double-file, three are American cranberrybush and I don’t know the names of the other three. Any general recommendations?”
I have grown a lot of viburnums over the years, and have pruned them at various times of year for one reason or another. Usually viburnums need relatively little pruning, assuming you planted the right cultivar in the right-sized space (for example, not ‘Mariesii’ among the doublefiles, shown, but ‘Watanabei’ if you only had a smallish area). Even the lightest form of pruning, the removal of spent flowers called deadheading, isn’t needed with most viburnums, since what you want is fruit after the flowers (unlike all that deadheading with lilacs, for instance, to prevent messiness).

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