Your Garden Connection and Viewsheds

In a very real way your garden is the connection between you and your surroundings. That has a number of different perspectives, including the house and the greater surroundings, the plantings and the house, and the garden with “borrowed views”, or viewsheds. Some of us are blessed with dramatic natural viewsheds, whether of mountain or ocean, or forest. Some have viewsheds including churches, or...

The Xeriscape Solution

What is a xeriscape? Xeriscaping is the art of taking plants that need little water and using them in your landscape. That is the best worded definition I have found. The dictionary says, “environmental design of residential and park land using various methods for minimizing the need for water use.” Don’t you hate hauling that hose all over the garden when it gets dry? That is one of the most...

Three Garden Questions

Many know of the garden author Christopher Lloyd and his famous ‘Great Dixter‘. Christopher Lloyd passed on from this earthly garden in 2006, but his achievement in creating one of the great gardens of the world continues. An interview with its head gardener, Fergus Garrett, presents some history and insights into how the garden was made, and from this comes three questions for our home...

Rose Romance and Clematis Tales

Peanut Butter and Jelly, Romeo and Juliet, Pen and Paper, some things just belong together. That is how you might think of rose bushes and clematis vines. Both are gorgeous in flower, and impart a romantic presence to a garden. Their complementary forms create privacy as they clothe walls and fences which help support their display during the height of summer. With the many hardy, good quality [read disease...

Flora and Fauna: Hummingbirds

Animated Jewels of the Garden The tiny hummingbird captures our hearts with a fascination few other birds inspire. And since I have my own little anecdote to share,they rate an entire page to themselves; but as you will see, that is nothing, there are whole sites dedicated to them. A few facts for fun:Hummingbirds are highly territorial The male likes a high perch to keep an eye out for the female while she...