Too often I see properties that have been overwhelmed by a single tree, so that branches block driveways or walkways and must be chopped annually to prevent structural damage. The fault is not with the tree, of course, but in lack of attention in making an appropriate selection years earlier. There is a wealth of information…
Category: gardens
A break from Saturday’s chores
Please forgive me if I sometimes sound like working the garden is constant drudgery. I find it very much the opposite, though there are afternoons when I would prefer to be lounging on the couch with a cold beverage watching this basketball tournament or that. Saturday morning began cool and cloudy, and I prepared to…
Weekend plans
Don’t bother me on Saturday. Or Sunday. It’s probably best not to call any day in March, I’ll be busy cleaning up and tending the garden. Maybe even into mid-April, but positively I’ll be finished and relaxing by the first of May. Unless it rains. I won’t be visiting family or friends for awhile, and…
The blooms of early March
The long, drooping stems of Winter Jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum, below) cascade over boulders at the pond’s edge, and if February days are sunny the warm stones encourage early blooms. This year there have been only a scattered few until the past few days, but now the bright yellow flowers are abundant. Winter jasmine will root…
A better dogwood?
Through the years I have planted a handful of native dogwoods (Cornus florida) in my garden, and each year I am overwhelmed by their incomparable beauty. White blooms arrive on bare branches by mid April, followed by lush, medium green foliage, clusters of red berries in late summer, and leaves that turn to a brilliant…
No hurry, be happy that spring is near
I hesitate to offer gardening advice since I follow how-to and when-to instructions so poorly. There are numerous tasks that must be accomplished to keep a garden humming along, but much of what you read and hear is not based in fact, and often is wrong. Not that it matters much. The week past I…
Garden ponds are a delight
I have been gardening this plot for more than twenty years, and no tree or flower has brought me a measure of enjoyment to compare with the garden ponds. There are five ponds in the garden, and another rainy season, dirt bottomed pond that captures runoff from neighboring properties and stays damp enough throughout to…
Spring garden show
I have been occupied this week constructing Meadows Farms’ display garden for the Capital Home and Garden Show in Chantilly, Virginia. Apparently there is an art to building show gardens, and after many years I almost know what I’m doing. We finished building a day early, and while the other gardens are still works in…
Too many Japanese maples!
Cruising down a country road just to the south of Aurora, Oregon there are fields of blueberries to one side, and wheat to the other. A bit further down the lane are endless rows of raspberries, and fescue and rye grasses grown for lawn seed. Then, the eye is captured by a sea of red, which…
Better late than never
A few warm days in February set the heart aflutter with anticipation of spring, and a week ago I heard from a gardener in town who is celebrating the arrival of the first snowdrops and hellebores. In years past I have seen snowdrops poke their heads above an inch or two of fresh snow, but…
Twelve months of bloom
This morning I discovered some remaining yellow blooms on a Mahonia ‘Winter Sun’ (below) that receives little sun in the winter months. Only the side of the evergreen that is most shielded from sunlight was flowering, and they are a bit meager, but now I can enthusiastically proclaim that there are blooms in the garden…
Ramblin' through Dave's Garden 