The three or four or seven-foot wide strip of grass or weeds between the street and sidewalk is mostly ignored by gardeners. But what an opportunity for gardeners to take on a new challenge! Typically this area, sometimes known as the “hellstrip,” is a hot, dry area subject to dogs doing their business, road salt, [Continue]
When you hear the word “groundcover,” what is your immediate thought? Something to plant where grass won’t grow, maybe in a part of the yard you never visit or don’t want to mow? Boring, right? Things are about to change! Consider planting an herbal ground cover – suitable for those areas mentioned above, as well [Continue]
When my father-in-law passed away in 1997, my husband’s co-workers gave us a nursery gift certificate. We chose a nice ‘Autumn Blaze’ maple and planted it in the back yard, a good distance from all the other trees. When Grandma Koch saw the new tree, she immediately said it was too close to a mature [Continue]
On St. Patrick’s Day, our thoughts turn to shamrocks and searches for lucky four-leaf clovers. You have to be pretty patient in your search though, since there is only one four-leaf clover for every ten-thousand three-leaf clovers. Irish legend has it that St. Patrick used the three-leaf clover to represent the Holy Trinity. [Continue]
Native plants are those that were growing in a particular area prior to European settlement. Wisconsin has a wide variety of native plants because of our diverse landscape of prairies, woodlands and savannas. Native plants aren’t just for people that have acreage to devote to restoring prairies! There are many reasons to consider using [Continue]
What does your front yard say about you? Anything at all? Does it reflect who you are, or does it mirror every other front yard in the neighborhood? Does what’s outside your front door have any relationship to those who live inside? After settling into a home, most people eventually make their living space [Continue]
Gardeners are continuously experimenting and learning and hopefully gaining some wisdom from their mistakes. The gardening mistakes I’ve made over the years basically fall into three categories: planting in the wrong lighting conditions, spacing plants improperly, and not recognizing that a plant is becoming invasive quickly enough. When I first started gardening, [Continue]
My vegetable garden is a large rectangle running east–west along the northern boundary of our property. Over the years, the open field north of our fence has grown up into a wooded area. In mid-summer, even though the woods is north of the garden, it casts quite a bit of shade. The garden once [Continue]
Unless your landscape is very informal, it will look better with definite and neat edges between the lawn and the plantings. There are several ways to do this and they vary in cost, effectiveness and ease of installation. In our area of the country, the edgings that work the best are cut edges, [Continue]
The Perennial Plant Association has named Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’ (golden hakone grass) its perennial plant of the year for 2009. It derives its name from “hakone” a region of Japan, and “chloa” the Greek word for grass. The Perennial Plant Association describes their choice: “Golden hakone grows 12-18 inches tall and 18-24 inches [Continue]