Colorful spring containers celebrate the start of the gardening season and creating them is fun and easy if you know which plants to choose. Look for these great gems to create a new spring container or refresh an existing pot.
Who isn't captivated with the lush blooms of the peony? We still get excited when peonies begin arriving! Alex LaVilla, our perennials buyer, has a few planting and care tips to help you be sure your peony is as happy and productive as it can be.
Early-blooming plants help brighten the gray, rainy days and remind us that warmer days are on the way. Here are a few of our favorites for the period we call “early spring” (February-late March). Some even bloom earlier in winter and well into April!
No matter whether this is your first-ever vegetable garden or just the first time planting this year, if you take a little time to prepare before you plant, everything will go more smoothly and you’ll be more successful. Here are a few simple things to consider when starting a vegetable garden this spring.
One of the first activities I want to do outside in early spring is to plant my early spring vegetable garden. There’s nothing like the smooth, clean surface of prepped garden beds, the soil still pristine and just waiting to nurture rows of bright green spring vegetables, carefully planted in perfect rows. It’s like a fresh school notebook - full of promise. But what to plant? Here are a few of my favorite vegetables to plant in spring, with tips on when and how to plant them.
My fascination with tiny worlds has never left me. Today, when I'm not writing stories set in worlds of my own creation, I am building miniature gardens. To me, miniature gardening is another form of storytelling, and like any good story, they should have a theme. The theme I have been experimenting with for the last two or three years is what I call 'The Lost Daibutsu.'
Each bird took his or her turn trying to land on the stalks supporting the seed heads, with predictably hilarious results. The stalks couldn't support the weight, and the little birds slid off. A few tried the hummingbird approach, wildly flapping their wings to stay in place while pecking at the seed heads. Others tried the popcorn technique - bounce up from the ground, wings flapping, and snap at the seeds on your way down.
So I confess I was a bit surprised when I stumbled across a great article about the virtues of the dandelion, written by Saara Nafici of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Brooklyn? you say. I know, right? When I think of Brooklyn, I think concrete jungle, not meadows of wildflowers (It's okay, Seattle, our designer chickens are still designery-er than theirs).
