The first year we lived in this home, we noticed a tree in the yard dropping berries. A tree with berries. What? I grew up in the Pacific Northwest where berries are everywhere, I am no stranger to them, but on a tree? That was new. Google Lens told me it was a mulberry, but […]
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Not a Blueprint — A Feeling I think about flower beds the way some people think about paintings. Not in the sense of perfect symmetry or high drama, more like mood, rhythm, and cohesion. I want a space that feels intentional without feeling overworked. A place where your eyes can land, then wander. Where things
Garden Like an Impressionist: If Monet Had a Hose (and a Spreadsheet) Read More »
A Familiar Practice, Seen Anew I wasn’t looking for a shortcut. I was looking for a way to think faster. After a year of watching the yard wake and fade, I already knew its temperament: where the water pooled, which corners baked dry, what the rabbits liked best. What I needed was a way to
The Digital Gardener: Companionship, Not Control Read More »
Opening Observation When I started researching cover crops and natural ways to reclaim the back beds, Alpine Strawberry kept appearing on every list. It was usually framed as a charming option, a ground-hugging perennial that covers soil quickly, suppresses weeds, and offers the unexpected delight of tiny, edible fruit. It caught my attention, if only
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A structured gardening approach to dirt, blooms, and the occasional rabbit emergency I know the type. Barefoot in the garden, flowing dress, maybe sipping herbal tea while gently patting soil around a seedling. That’s not my gardening approach. I’m out there in boots, bent over pulling on some weed or other, sweaty and far from
My Gardening Approach: Not Exactly Barefoot in the Garden Read More »
Opening Observation Loropetalum was one of those plants I first admired from the sidewalk. When we lived in Georgia, I noticed it in front yards all over the neighborhood—rounded shrubs with deep purple leaves and those frilly, pink, firework-like flowers that seemed to appear right around the Fourth of July. I wanted one but didn’t
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Opening Observation Hydrangeas are the comfort books of the garden. Everyone knows them, and yet each type tells a different story: bold mopheads, delicate lacecaps, stately panicles, dramatic oakleafs. They can be showy or subtle, but always familiar. Hydrangea macrophylla, the bigleaf hydrangea, has always been my favorite. It is generous and moody, sometimes both
Plant Profile: Bigleaf Hydrangea (Deep Purple) Read More »
Opening Observation I first learned about Tuff Stuff while designing a shade garden for a neighbor who wanted to surprise her parents with something beautiful, fragrant, and low-maintenance. She sent me inspiration photos filled with layered, flower-heavy beds, the kind that look lush and lived-in. Hydrangeas were everywhere in her examples, but the space she
Plant Profile: Mountain Hydrangea ‘Tuff Stuff’ Read More »
Opening Observation I had admired panicle hydrangeas for years without realizing what they were. From a distance, the cone-shaped blooms looked like a cross between hydrangea and lilac, familiar but not quite. I would see them in the neighborhood, pale and upright, some bright white, some tinged green, some fading to pink, and think they
Plant Profile: Hydrangea ‘Berry White’ Read More »
Opening Observation I found Clethra while looking for something else. I had a list of reliable evergreens—Sweet Box, Pieris ‘Little Heath,’ a few other steady choices meant to hold shape and color year-round. Summersweet was only on the list as an option, a maybe. But the moment I saw it, compact and quietly elegant, I
Plant Profile: Clethra alnifolia ‘Hummingbird’ (Summersweet) Read More »
Opening Observation Artemisia ‘Silver Mound’ was the first plant that taught me about companion planting — even before I knew that was what it was called. I found it years ago in Better Homes and Gardens’ Gardening Naturally (1993), a book that introduced me to the idea that some plants could quietly protect others, deterring
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Spiraea ‘Magic Carpet’ came to me through my landscaper, but it wasn’t new to me. I’ve admired it plenty of times before, that bright chartreuse foliage and those soft pink blooms, and each time I’ve told myself to remember it for next time. And then, of course, I forget. It’s a plant that hides in
Plant Profile: Spiraea japonica ‘Magic Carpet’ Read More »