Leyland cypress and Green Giant arborvitae are the standards when many people consider plants for screening. Both are attractive and very fast growing, but their mature size may overwhelm many properties. Often, a slower growing evergreen that grows to nearly twenty feet tall is more appropriate. Upright hollies are wonderful plants for this situation. Their…
Category: gardens
How does my garden grow?
Disorder abounds! If an area of the garden should seem too mannerly, too structured, there must be room for a dozen more plants. Or more. In my garden, not yours. Certainly you have more sense than to plant so that one neighbor tumbles over the other, that perennials requiring sun are shaded because some ignoramus…
Way down South
For the next two weeks I’ll be touring tree and shrub growing nurseries throughout the Southeast, an annual pilgrimage for thirty years. I’ll be driving, almost three thousand miles over twelve days, and a different town each night, except for two nights in Mobile, Alabama over the weekend. My traveling partner and I will be…
Summertime, and the living is easy
Thank goodness, most garden chores are done. Now’s the time to sit back and relax. This has been a wonderful Spring for the garden with an abundance of rain and cloudy, cool weather. Oh, we’ll complain that we haven’t seen the sun in weeks, or that it was too muddy for this and that, but plants are…
No deer damage in this garden
No doubt there are many with the same deer problems that I’ve experienced, and probably much worse. Just a few years ago my philosophy was to let the deer have theirs, I still have plenty of garden even with them nibbling a bit. But that has changed. When my wife starts talking about shotguns, I fear for…
Lazy, hazy, crazy days of Summer
Okay, I’m finally willing to admit that Summer’s upon us. Nearly twenty inches of rain have fallen in northern Virginia over the past seven weeks, accompanied by clouds and cooler than average temperatures. But, the party’s over. The garden is a lush jungle, ripe for disaster. So many plants have performed splendidly that there should…
Will wonders never cease?
Most people enjoy their gardens from afar. Park the car, stroll down the front walk and notice the daylilies are blooming. How nice! Maybe even give the roses in the backyard a sniff. If your home has a “landscape”, return on investment and curb appeal are most important. The bed edges must be sharply cut,…
Funky flowers
And maybe a few leaves too. I’m not very funky. I’m not so sure what it is to be “funky”, but I’m not, I can assure you. But I know funky when it comes to flowers. And so, late May through June must be the funky season, because the garden is full of flowers that…
Ain’t no cure
…. for the Summertime blues. I beg to differ. I have a Virginia garden full of plants that stand up to drought, heat and humidity, that withstand torrential rains and hurricane gusts. And for the poor, heat-stricken gardener? Plop down on that mossy boulder beside the pond. Dangle your toes in the cool water as…
Blooming up a storm
A storm is brewing this evening, a severe thunderstorm warning. So what! How many days in a row is this? Never have I seen the garden so lush in mid-June. Though most days are cloudy, temperatures have been moderate and rainfall plentiful. The six ponds in the garden are full to the brim, and surrounded…
Touring Oregon nurseries
I’m back home in Virginia after a week on business in Oregon touring nurseries to select plants for Meadows Farms’ nurseries for Fall and Spring. I managed a few photos to show a bit about the nurseries since I’m certain that most people have never seen a large growing operation. The weather was great, highs…
Mopheads and dunderheads
I haven’t a clue what a dunderhead is, though I have given the title to many for their foolishness. It has nothing to do with mopheads, which are hydrangeas with huge globes of blossoms, but this dunderhead has been negligent in labeling the mopheads in his garden to determine which bloom longer, Endless Summer or…
Ramblin' through Dave's Garden 