Garden Design

Cherry Ong has taken us to visit the beautiful grounds at Hatley Castle before, during the summer (GPOD on the Road: Hatley Castle). Luckily for us, she went back this spring to see it in its early-season glory. So while it may be summer at the moment, this GPOD post takes us back in time

Today we are seeing photos of Ray Jones’s garden. My garden is on new construction. This was a pasture a few years ago and is in Palo, Iowa, Zone 4b/5a. I grow a mix of perennials, tropicals, and annuals. Much of the yard is still in process. My favorites this year were the petunias ‘Vista

This is Joseph, your GPOD editor, welcoming you to my new garden in South Bend, Indiana. I moved here almost exactly a year ago. When I moved in, the garden had been abandoned for two years and had turned into a mass of invasive weeds. This area along the back fence was lined with invasive

Shelley Haefner is sharing a beautiful garden with us today. One of the best ways to know if you’re planting for pollinators is if you see a continual increase in the varieties that visit. My gardens are organically grown in Old Chatham New York, Zone 5b, where we have a pretty short growing season. Over

Today we’re visiting with Katie Kagler in Hudson, Ohio: My garden was first featured on the GPOD in 2013 (Katie’s Garden in Ohio). In 2019, we put an addition on our house which resulted in having to transplant a large portion of our main perennial garden into the vegetable garden for an entire season while

Dividing perennials is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to get more plants. Many perennials can be divided, but how and when should you do it? Here are three of the main questions people ask when exploring how to divide perennials. Three Questions About Dividing Perennials What does it mean to divide perennials? Dividing

Vegetative propagation, or taking cuttings, is often the best and only viable propagation method that home gardeners can use to make more of their favorite indoor plants. This method is also necessary when you want exact copies of the plant you already have, especially if that plant happens to be a hybrid. Here are five

We’re in the North York neighborhood of Toronto this morning, where Cherry Ong is sharing photos of the Entry Garden Walk at the Toronto Botanical Garden. The Entry Garden Walk was designed by Piet Oudolf. This was his first Canadian project and was inspired by his New Wave Planting style using bold drifts of perennials

Today’s photos are from Priti Pant, who is sharing some beautiful images from her Michigan garden. This beautiful pink peony (Paeonia hybrid, Zones 3–8) is of a type called “anemone form.” These peonies have a ring of large petals with a cluster of smaller petals (petaloids) in the center. This single peony with just a

Today’s photos are from Wendy Quereau. We’ve visited her garden before (Beauty From Wendy’s Garden), and it is always a pleasure to see it again. I thought I’d send more photos to you this morning from my garden in Zone 6A in southeastern Pennsylvania. Summers are hot and humid here, and we deal with dry

Cherry Ong is a frequent contributor to our “GPOD on the Road” series. But she not only loves visiting beautiful gardens. She has a wonderful garden space of her own at her home in Richmond, British Columbia, and today she’s sharing some summer views from that space. It’s been hotter than usual, and the spring

Maxine Brisport in Rotterdam, New York, is welcoming us into her garden today. I started this garden four years ago. It took hours of cutting down very thick foliage (weeds, vines, small trees), as well as removing very large roots, before we could get to the point of preparing the soil for planting. All the

While this elephant’s ear is by no means new, when you see it you can’t help but want to shout its praises from the rooftops. At least that’s how we felt when we encountered ‘Mojito’ during a visit to the Chicago Botanic Garden. The massive leaves (up to 2 feet long and 1 foot wide)

Fall is a wonderful time in the garden. The cool, crisp air encourages plants toward dormancy; perennial foliage starts to yellow and wither as deciduous trees paint the landscape with a kalei­doscope of colors. As we reluctantly accept the inevitable and begin preparing our gardens for winter, we can ease the transition by planting selections

Cherry Ong is taking us along again to visit a beautiful space, the Doris Page Winter Garden in the Horticulture Centre of the Pacific in Victoria, British Columbia. As the name suggests, this garden is focused on winter interest and blooms, but it is full of beauty in other times of the year as well.

Today we’re off to Germany visiting a beautiful landscape, with photos taken and shared with us by Michael Frick of a landscape created by Michael’s father, Werner Frick Winhöring. It is easy to see the Japanese influence in this landscape, with still water and stone creating much of the landscape’s drama and form. A few

My name is Chris Buscemi, and I live in Wells, Maine. You have posted my photos in the past (see A Profusion of Pink in Maine). Here are some of my favorite photos this year so far. This is in my front yard. I planted a pollinator garden full of pink coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea, Zones

Today we’re visiting Amy Birdsong’s garden in Virginia. Two years ago I became serious about restoring and improving our property, which up until then my husband had valiantly been taking care of with little to no input or help from me. As a kitchen and bath designer I am well versed in space planning, but

Today we’re off to Scotland to visit with Pat Colston. We live in Perthshire, around 12 miles from the east coast of Scotland at an elevation of 143m. Our cottage is around 140 years old, and the garden would originally have been used only to grow vegetables and fruit. (Editor’s note: I have added USDA

Beneficial insects are basically the essential workers needed if a garden is to flourish. They’re the good bugs—including native bees, honeybees, butterflies, ladybugs, praying mantises, assassin bugs, lacewings, parasitic wasps, and hoverflies—that aid the gardener by pollinating flowers and fruit trees. They also prey on the pesky bad bugs that spread disease or voraciously chew

People learn gardening from different sources. When I ask gardeners the when, why, and how of their gardens, they often tell me a story about a person who influenced their start in gardening. Maybe it was a grandmother, a father (mine grew raspberries), or a neighbor down the street who had a fabulous garden and

Cherry Ong is again taking us along to visit beautiful gardens, this time plantings in Niagara-on-the-Lake in Ontario. One of the top reasons I love walking along Queen Street in Niagara-on-the-Lake is to experience the amazing summer annual display along the street and fronting the stores and hotels. I walked the street twice to study

Maureen Budney, in North Reading, Massachusetts, is a talented amateur photographer and often shares the sights she captures with us. I love how this photo of a hardy hibiscus (Hibiscus hybrid, Zones 5–10) makes you stop and take in all the details of this beautiful bloom. Hardy perennial hibiscus are hybrids of species native to

My name is Kimberly Pruett, and I live in Cape Coral, Florida. Gardening is my passion. My family moved into our home about three years ago, and the yard had nice trees but was otherwise just grass and a chainlink fence. My husband and I have worked very hard and spent endless hours transforming it

Today’s photos are from James Dillon. I own a small landscaping/gardening company located near Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. We specialize in residential landscape design/installation and small-scale ecologically valuable plantings like meadows, rain gardens, pollinator gardens, etc. Below are photos I took over a three-year period (part of four growing seasons) of a pocket meadow we

My name is Allison and I am from the beautiful Pacific Northwest, in Bellingham, Washington. I have been working on my garden for about three years now, and I’d love to share some photos with you! I have an eclectic garden, full of pollinator perennials, as well as a small vegetable garden. I enjoy breaking

While working in your garden, do you work on cultivating every square inch of ground? Do you mow, string trim, prune, and weed throughout? Have you ever thought of leaving a bit of untidiness, undisturbed ground, and weeds? This may go against your inner-gardener instincts or what you were taught at one time, but leaving

If you are looking to add more interest and color to the garden, hot-colored plants are the way to go. In summertime, these plants help bring the sunshine in with gorgeous color that celebrates the season. In Some Like It Hot, which features tips for adding hot-colored hues to your garden, we learn that “finding

This is Kevin Kelly, and I thought I would share some photos from my trip to the Philadelphia Flower Show in mid-June. This show is the nation’s largest, and the world’s longest-running horticultural event, having begun in 1829. Over the years the show has been held indoors in early March, but the pandemic has forced

Today we’re visiting with Karen Holmen. A few years back I sent in some pictures of my garden (From Wild to Wonderful and Made for Shade ). Since it always looks different to me—plants die, grow, pop up, get moved or replaced—I decided to send in an update. I live in White Bear Lake, Minnesota,