It’s not necessary that every flowering plant in your garden screams, “Look at me!” Sometimes your eyes and brain need a place to rest. Here are two plants native to Wisconsin that offer beauty but don’t flaunt it quite as boldly as others. These are also good choices if you are in the process [Continue]
In my opinion, one of the most beautiful features in any home landscape is a vegetable garden. Not everyone agrees. In fact, some homeowner’s associations specifically prohibit vegetable gardens. But just because you don’t have space for a vegetable garden or are forbidden to have one doesn’t mean you can’t grow your own food. [Continue]
The International Herb Association has chosen hops as its 2018 Herb of the Year. Hops are known for use in beer making, but also serve as pretty ornamental vines that have other uses as well. Hops are a perennial vine with vigorous growth – up to one foot a day! Vines get to 25 [Continue]
How are you coming along with your fall yard and garden clean-up? Still have a ways to go? Wouldn’t it be much easier to leave the annuals standing, the perennials uncut, the leaves unraked and the brush piles unburned? You could just quit now and allow your yard to be a haven of shelter and [Continue]
Several years ago a fellow Master Gardener asked the group for information on black flowers because she wanted to make a black garden. I was a bit worried about her state of mind, but also intrigued because I had never seen a black flower. This year’s seed catalogs offer a plethora of black flowers, so [Continue]
Do you need a challenge to perk up your enthusiasm for gardening? Why not try a theme garden? A theme garden is a mix of plants related in some way. The connection between the plants may be very apparent or it may be a little more difficult for visitors to discern. The most obvious of [Continue]
Ornamental grasses can play a part in the summer garden, filling space and providing vertical interest, but fall is when they come into their own. Many of them develop deep rust, golden, or brown colors and their seed heads can be lacy, plumy or stiff. When the trees have lost their leaves, the annuals have [Continue]
Chrysanthemums are gorgeous and spectacular and an easy way to provide bright splashes of color in your fall landscape. There are other perennial plants, however, that will hold a place in flowerbeds all summer and bring forth their blooms in fall. Just when everything else in your perennial bed has petered out, chelone, pronounced chee-LOW-nee, [Continue]
Isn’t it funny how you can have absolutely no interest in an entire group of plants and then you look at one of them one day and suddenly your interest is sparked? In my case, it happened with ferns.. There have been some ferns growing on the east side of my garage since we moved [Continue]
Just as a tree attains the majesty for which it is destined, its roots may begin to rise up from beneath the soil. These surface roots are difficult to mow and trim around and may cause a tripping hazard. While some tree species are more likely than others to form surface roots, the reason they [Continue]