Garden Design

When I was a girl, my mom and I took weekly trips to the market for fruit and vegetables. Even then, I was fascinated by the different apples, lettuce, peppers, and tomatoes—although there was just one kind of paste tomato, and it was always called ‘Roma’. Gardening and canning have since become a minor obsession

Yes, we all want flowers whenever and wherever we can get them, but don’t forget that foliage plants are your stalwart garden workhorses. With this knockout heuchera, you get the best of both worlds. ‘Magma’ delivers with airy pink blossoms on 30-inch stems in early summer, but the real wow factor is its leaves. You

Often it’s easier to explain what a cottage garden isn’t than what it actually is. A cottage garden doesn’t have a plethora of straight lines, defined borders, or a bunch of tidy plants that stay in neat little balls year-round. On the contrary, a cottage garden is usually defined by its soft, curved lines and

Typical cottage gardens—the ones we see in English gardening books and magazines—are undeniably beautiful. But when gardeners in the States attempt to replicate their charming and iconic look, the result can often be unstructured and chaotic. David Kirchner and Scott Warner set out to create a garden in North Truro, Massachusetts, that was inspired by

Gardeners love the creatures that inhabit their backyard worlds almost as much as they love their plants. And with the issue of climate change and loss of natural habitat now right at our doorstep, it has never been a more critical time to do what we can to support birds and pollinators in our cultivated

Today we’ve got an unusual GPOD submission. Janelle Molony is sharing with us the story and some photos of her great-grandparents, Louis and Martha Nasch, from St. Paul, Minnesota. The German-American Nasch family in St. Paul, Minnesota, produced an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables and vibrant blooming flowers in their post-WWI front yard “Victory

Gardeners know that the best way to ensure a good show in their beds is to get ahead of maintenance by starting early and doing tasks continuously. Chores like weeding or pruning can easily become monumental if put off for too long. While we may know this is sage advice, many of us are also

Today we’re celebrating spring with frequent GPOD contributor Carla Zambelli Mudry in Malvern, Pennsylvania. Spring is finally back, and every day brings new discoveries in the garden—heirloom daffodils opening all over, shrubs starting to pop with little bits of fuzzy green. Once again, the first tree to bloom will be a volunteer native redbud (Cercis

Today’s photos are from Laura. After a sudden drop in temperature, my suburban Philadelphia garden was transformed with a shimmering coating of ice. Without much forethought but with my cell phone in hand, I managed to capture the magic as mature shrubs and evergreens glistened with ice that melted away almost as quickly as it

Today we’re visiting with Alan Weisberg. I live in the foothills of Haycock Mountain in rural southeastern Pennsylvania, I’ve been gardening for 45 years on three acres of what was once a 100-acre farm with a fieldstone home and barn built in 1741. The restoration of the structures, landscaping, additions, and vegetable and flower gardens

If you’ve been gardening for more than a few seasons, you have surely heard the expression “Right plant, right place.” This garden shorthand sums up a useful and straightforward idea: If a plant is well-adapted to the soil, light, moisture, and climate conditions of its location, it will perform well without a lot of extra

Yes, that’s right: plants can solve problems. Maybe not problems like those noisy neighbors next door or your husband failing to replace the toilet paper roll, time and time again. But plants can solve problems like a barren patch of garden under a shallow-rooted tree, or a lack of pollinators in your yard. Today’s array

Today we’re in Old Chatham, New York, visiting with Shelley Haefner. I have been gardening for a little over 12 years now. At the beginning of my journey, I just purchased what I loved and planted it wherever I wanted to plant it without giving much thought to the shape of the garden, the soil,

If you still have space for more dazzling options, check out these bleeding heart cousins. They are not all readily available in nurseries or by mail order, but they are certainly worth the space in the garden if you come across them. Photo: doreenwynja.com 1. The climbing bleeding heart, of which ‘Athens Yellow’ (Dactylicapnos scandens

Whether you’re walking through your local garden center, flipping through the pages of your favorite catalog, or scrolling the website of an online retailer, the sheer number of plant choices can be overwhelming. With timeless, classic varieties as well as plenty of new releases every year, it can seem impossible to decide which plants should

Today Bob and Linda Vivian are sharing their Pennsylvania garden with us. There’s plenty of garden here to keep Linda and me busy. We don’t mind it at all. It’s a labor of love. I think it keeps us young even in our “golden” years. It gets us up each morning. A morning’s coffee pause

In 1995, Cindy Lindstedt and her husband, John, moved into a newly built log cabin on 142 acres an hour outside Milwaukee. Since then, the pair has turned much of the property—then overrun with buckthorn, honeysuckle, and other invasive plants—into a cultivated paradise. There are approximately 20 separate “themed” gardens, including a rock garden, hosta

As gardeners, we long for the summer months and picking our first cucumber, zucchini, or tomato. However, you don’t have to wait that long if you grow mustard greens (Brassica juncea and cvs., annual). Mustard greens have a 5,000-year history of consumption that was thought to originate in the Himalayan region of India. Add this

Each year we do a feature in our big spring issue introducing folks to a slew of new offerings from plant breeders. But this is not simply a list of plants that we think look interesting. Our standards here at Fine Gardening are higher. We interview breeders, marketers, and the heads of trial gardens across the

At first glance many hostas look similar, with cool-colored leaves and mounded growing habits. Yet this group of plants is incredibly diverse, with some varieties distinguishing themselves as standouts. The following hostas are a few of my favorites. Photo: doreenwynja.com Name: ‘First Frost’  H. ‘First Frost’ Size: 16 inches tall and 3 feet wide  ‘First

If there were a gardening equivalent to the cooking adage “Salt makes everything better,” it would likely be “Pots make everything pop.” Many of us spend precious time and energy each growing season planting containers, and we rely on these designs to dress up our decks and welcome visitors into our entryways. But if our

One of my favorite shovels is my long-handle round-point floral shovel from Ames. This tool has been with me for well over twenty years. It’s smaller than your standard shovel, with a handle that’s only 43 inches long. It’s also lighter, weighing just 2½ pounds. And yet it’s the perfect tool for many ordinary tasks.

Today we’re visiting Mel’s garden. I have had a landscape design, installation, and maintenance business in the western Catskills since 2005. My business name is Zone4 Landscapes, and I am not changing it to Zone5 Landscapes even though it might be more appropriate now. I called my garden a rustic cabin cottage garden because that

Carol is taking us on the road today to warm, dry, Arizona. I thought I’d join in and share some photos I took while on the road recently. I traveled from Philadelphia to Phoenix and had the opportunity to visit the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix as well as the Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Superior.

They’re often called the “exclamation points” of the landscape, drawing attention in a not-so-subtle way. Of course, we’re talking about columnar (AKA fastigiate) plants and today we’re highlighting some of the best options. Skinny plants are invaluable for several reasons other than their ability to catch the eye. They also have a small footprint which

Snake plants (Dracaena spp. and cvs., syn. Sansevieria spp. and cvs., Zones 9–11) are usually discounted in the houseplant world as reliable and reliably dull. But these often-maligned plants so commonly seen in the background of malls and offices can shine as the center of attention. Snake plants are far more diverse than the ubiquitous

March is the starting line at the beginning of the race called spring. It seems that once spring begins, it speeds up until suddenly it is summer. Early-flowering perennials offer real evidence that warm weather is on the way. Here are a few of our favorites. Photo: Shelley Powell Wherry’s foam flower (Tiarella wherryi, syn.

In the Midwest, the frequently unpredictable weather patterns in spring present myriad challenges related to garden preparations and planting times. Daytime temperatures fluctuate greatly over the early spring months, with the potential for continued frost overnight well into May for some locations. The uncertainty of these temperatures makes gardeners wary of planting too soon. Thankfully,

Heirloom vegetables are renowned for many qualities, such as delicious flavors, vibrant colors, and productivity. Many of these characteristics have stood the test of time, delivering hardiness, superior flavor, and great yields each season. However, sometimes things like new diseases, smaller garden spaces, poor seed-saving selection, or erratic weather patterns can send gardeners looking for

Today we’re off to Texas to visit a gardener who makes the most of a small garden space, filling it with a collection of lovely, cottage-style blooms. A small garden space doesn’t mean it can’t be beautiful and filled with flowers. This garden leans heavily on classic favorites like roses to make a romantic space.