A noun. A verb. A blog.
An almost-panoramic view of a Pittsburgh driveway that doubles as an entry courtyard. Nice to see a driveway that paving choice and framing makes both doubly functional and beautiful Of course, my whole garden would fit into this many times over. Still. Inspiring.
This lush rain garden was on the 2014 Through the Garden Gate tour in Hogg’s Hollow Hogg’s Hollow is set in a (surprise!) hollow – a steep-sided ravine – in some places steeper than others. The lucky homeowners who live in this charming setting aren’t always so lucky during heavy rains. Water scoots down the […]
It has become so common, you might pass invasive Phragmites without recognizing it as a problem With all the excitement over ornamental grasses, you might not even recognize this towering escapee growing in many of the city’s wet spaces as an invasive species. The picture above is of a huge stand of European common reed […]
Hmmm. Not sure how I feel about this. Here’s a little Sunday Surprise for you – a novel use for Honeycombs cereal, spotted in a restaurant on a Montreal getaway this weekend. What do you think? Inventive or idiotic?
Star-of-Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum) looking dainty among some Hosta ‘Golden Tiara’ Sometimes you need plant thugs like the disarmingly pretty Star-of-Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum). A difficult spot (dry, maple-root-filled and shady, perhaps) might thank you for the toughness that brings on these bright spring flowers. Luckily, their enthusiasm has been held in check by the sandy, dry […]
This picture shows me where the white tulips are winding down As garden bloggers, we’re often trying to present only the pretty pictures – making the camera show us off to our best advantage. But as gardeners, we really need to look at the “bad side” of our gardens sometimes, using photographs as record-keepers and […]
On their dark twigs, the green and yellow leaves of the grey birch (Betula populifolia) look like floating daubs of paint Some autumn leaves are show-offs. You know who I mean. The big reds and oranges that stand out in a crowd. Now that the early winter storm has blown many of the leaves away, […]
More blow than snow on this first snowfall of Winter 2014 (well, technically Fall). An almost-wordless Wednesday tribute.
A welcoming way to break in garden equipment – invite it to a party and put it to work This wasn’t why we bought the trough, but as a happy coincidence it arrived at our house just before a Big Birthday. Post-Prosecco we put it (and another just like it) to work in another way: […]
Green veins, yellow between them – a symptom of chlorosis It was on a lot of hydrangeas I saw around town this year – yellowing leaves, with the classic green veins that signal chlorosis or lack of chlorophyll. Unsure why this happened more often in 2014, but when it did on my own Hydrangea ‘Quickfire’ […]
The nose knows the “ripe” aroma of the ripe fruit of Ginkgo biloba An early morning walk brought me nose-to-no! with a delightful (not) smell – the slightly sulfurous stench of the ripe Ginkgo fruit. This is the one real problem with this otherwise interesting tree. While not natives, ginkgo trees are great in cities […]
Lovely home, lovely garden, lovely expanse of green “lawn” I’ve seen a few artificial lawns about town. They’re surprisingly lifelike! It takes a closer look sometimes to spot one – they’re getting better and better at making the pattern more random. But even artificial turf might need weeding. For example… Unless this is artificial dandelion […]