Lawn & Garden Education
Garden Design 101: Adding Style & Year-Round Interest with Garden Statuary, Sculpture & Art
Half the fun of gardening is plunking a plant in a new spot and seeing what happens–the results could be just blah, thrilling, or really terrible (my purple/pink Black Beauty Lilies looked atrocious growing next to my salmon Christopher Marlow roses). Due to my short-ish growing season here in New England, sometimes it may take a few years to know if I’ve had a garden design success or failure. That’s why I ... read more
Seaside Gardening – Choosing Plants & Adding Beach Style to your Landscape
There are few things as delightful to the senses as a stroll along a beach; ocean views, sand between my toes, the smell of briny sea air, all while feeling a spray of water as its whipped up by the wind. Unfortunately, all the things that make coastal living so wonderful, make it very challenging to keep flowers, shrubs, and plants alive. Sandy or rocky soil, punishing winds, salty air, ... read more
Keep Your Trees Green! How to Care for Evergreen Trees and Shrubs
Evergreens are a wonderful way to bring year-round interest and structure to your gardens and borders, and with the introduction of new dwarf varieties, there is renewed interest in adding them into the landscape as specimen plants. Several species of evergreens are also extremely popular as hedging plants, as their narrow, columnar form and year-round foliage, are ideal for tight spaces. Unfortunately, because of their growing popularity and perhaps over-hyped easy-care ... read more
Help for Moldy Plants and Other Summer Garden Diseases
Cloudy, hot, humid summer days are hard on everyone, but flowering plants, trees and fruit & vegetable plants can be devastated during this weather by the appearance of some common garden diseases. One day your garden is blooming and lovely, the next your tomatoes are turning brown and your hosta is turning yellow! Fungal diseases in particular are a huge problem for mid-summer gardens where hot and humid weather is common. ... read more
Water Wise Container Gardening – 6 Tips for Keeping Plants Healthy on Hot, Summer Days
There are few things worse for a gardener to see than a formerly lovely container planting, withered and brown by mid-summer. Passing those sad wrecks for weeks until the owner swaps them out for Halloween decorations is pretty depressing, and leads me to believe that a lot of people are making some basic container gardening mistakes when they set out those pots and planters earlier in the summer. Luckily, there are ... read more
City Garden Field Report
In need of a little garden inspiration, I decided to take in Boston’s South End Garden Tour, and what a treat it turned out to be! The tour was a real education in small-space and city gardens and how people handled the challenges of bad light, little dirt, and spaces that had to do double or triple duty as mini-farms, playgrounds and outdoor kitchens. There was so much to see and ... read more
Potting Soil 101: How to Select Soil for Container Plants and Raised Gardens Beds
Whenever the urge strikes me to try out a new container garden idea, I happily select my pottery and plants, but get to the potting soil section and nearly have a heart attack when I see the price of my favorite bagged potting soil. It doesn’t seem to make any sense that dirt actually costs big money! But in fact, a lot of science and labor (yes, labor) goes into ... read more
Container Gardening Guide: Tips and Design Pointers for the Beginner
In theory, container gardening is a really simple way for everyone to dip their toes (or fingers) into gardening. Pretty much anything that will hold a growing medium (dirt), and has a drainage hole can be turned into a container garden that lights up a bare front porch or neglected patio. Seems simple enough; fill a pot with good potting soil, buy some pretty flowers, and ta-da: instant beauty! But ... read more
Why It’s Best to Buy Local Vegetable Plants for your Garden
Some might think a plant is a plant is a plant, and one tomato plant, should do as well as another, but for a number of reasons, locally grown vegetable transplants are leaps and bounds better than the alternative. They are better for the environment, better for the health of our soils and local farming community, and most important of all, in my selfish thinking, is that they are better ... read more
Beyond the Basics: Tips for Growing Vegetables in Raised Garden Beds
Now that you have built your raised-garden bed, and filled it with a high-quality garden soil, I bet you’re super excited to start actually growing vegetables. But there are a few more tips we at GGS wanted to share with you to ensure the most successful harvest. And whether you are a first-time gardener, or a seasoned grower, it’s always a good idea to keep up on the latest gardening ... read more
