Garden Design

Taking a photo in a garden is tricky, and more often than not, it doesn’t come out looking as good as you know your garden really is. Follow a few pointers from professional garden photographers. Take photos only on cloudy days or in the early morning or early evening, when there are no shadows to

Today’s photos are from Pat Cassidy. I have been gardening in this space for 30 years now just outside Ottawa, Ontario. The first couple of years, as it is for everyone, it was a challenge. My biggest challenge was that my garden is all sun and my favorite plant is a hosta! Some of my

Once it gets cold, our English gardening side argues a lot with our South Texas side. One half thinks gardening is a necessary year-round activity; the other half thinks going outside in anything colder than 50°F is risky. Compromises have to be made. Creating a garden on our windowsill is the solution. Plants that fit

Today’s photos are from Pamela Stout. I was very inspired by GPOD posts about yearning for spring and color. I can relate! I have my first hellebore bud coming in, so it’s officially the start of the gardening season for me. Yes, I’m a four-season gardener! I have a small urban garden in Northern Virginia

Whether you dwell in the city, suburbs, or countryside, critters are likely to adore the fruits of your garden labor. While small animals such as gophers, rats, mice, squirrels, and rabbits are helpful recyclers in nature through their reducing organic matter into compost, they can also be remarkably destructive in the garden, with their long,

If you live in the Northeast, Mountain West, or Midwest your idea of winter interest is certainly different than say, a gardener living in the South. Those of us who live in cooler locales are often satisfied with calling any plant that sticks its head above a snowbank “a winter stunner.” But in today’s episode

Today we’re visiting with regular GPOD contributor Carla Z. Mudry in Malvern, Pennsylvania. The garden in winter is magical all on its own. It doesn’t have the lushness of a full summer garden awash in colors and blooms, or the refreshed newness of spring awakening full of new greens and springtime bulbs, or even the

My name is Fran Cohen, and this is my second submission to GPOD. (Check out Fran’s first submission here.) I’ve been gardening here in Rhode Island for more than 30 years. This time of year I find it especially warming to go through last year’s photos that bring the outside in with bouquets big and

Today, garden designers Michael and George are sharing a landscape they created. We are a small garden design company (www.bluestemgardens.net) located in Brooklyn, New York, endeavoring to get more people to plant sustainable, primarily native plant landscapes. The photos below are from a project we installed two years ago and is now thriving and buzzing

Today we’re in St. Louis, Missouri, seeing Jana Inman’s garden highlights from 2021! We love seeing images like these on the GPOD, so please send in some photos from your garden. It is fun to see everyone’s favorite garden moments! It’s hard to beat these stunning blue hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla, Zones 5–9) flowers. This type

When a new plant is only trialed in a pot, you can’t truly see how it reacts to real-life garden conditions. Or when all you have to go on as a grower is a packet of marketing materials, things can go wrong. The following are a few examples of how problematic plants can get onto

In Paul Westervelt’s article on perennial upgrades, he explains the benefit of stepping out of your comfort zone and trying new versions of tried-and-true plants: “After whiffing a few times, consumers and pros alike may be tempted simply to stick to time-tested varieties. But some of those varieties aren’t what they once were. In other

In Paul Westervelt’s article on perennial upgrades, he explains the benefit of stepping out of your comfort zone and trying new versions of tried-and-true plants: “After whiffing a few times, consumers and pros alike may be tempted simply to stick to time-tested varieties. But some of those varieties aren’t what they once were. In other

In Paul Westervelt’s article on perennial upgrades, he explains the benefit of stepping out of your comfort zone and trying new versions of tried-and-true plants: “After whiffing a few times, consumers and pros alike may be tempted simply to stick to time-tested varieties. But some of those varieties aren’t what they once were. In other

You are not alone—the yearning for spring is both universal and understandable. And for many of us, spring translates into bulbs. Even more specifically, we think of spring in terms of tulips. But maybe you are thinking twice about tulips. Perhaps an emphasis on naturalistic plantings has brought with it a leaning away from the

Today’s photos are from Cindi Jacobs. “Timing is everything” as the saying goes, and it was our time to release our home in Wayland, Massachusetts, after 24 wonderful years. While the home and gardens were beautiful and we raised our two children here, we decided to downsize and re-evaluate being full-time in New England. It’s

My name is Lynne Leslie, and I live on a hill (although my garden is on flat ground) in Wellington, New Zealand, which is termed the windiest city in the world, and for good reason. I have lived here for 43 years, taking on a new section consisting of rock, clay, and more rock! Thanks

My name is Angela O’Brien-Ruff, and I live in Seattle, Zone 8b. I have contributed to GPOD a couple of times over the last few years. (Check out her previous articles here, one and two.) We have thawed out from a nearly 8-inch snowfall that came at the end of December, and as I survey

Is there a better time of year than seed-ordering season? You may shop for seeds online, or perhaps you prefer the analog version (like us) of paper catalogs. Regardless, ordering and starting seeds is an act of defiance against the winter conditions outside. Starting seeds says, “Hey snow and ice–you don’t scare me! I know

Today Teresa Watkins is taking us to visit a very unusual garden. After Christmas, I was in Massachusetts to interview garden author Jana Milbocker for my radio show Better Lawns and Gardens. During the interview, Jana told us that we needed to visit the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum when we went into Boston. Despite the

Today we’re visiting with Yvonne Tsikata. My old garden was previously featured in GPOD. In 2017, we moved from that house to a new one. While sad to leave my old garden, I was excited at tripling my garden space and receiving the opportunity to start a new garden from scratch. Retiring a couple of

My name is James Rail, an American, who has been living in Gardaber, a suburb of Reykjavik, Iceland, for almost 60 years. Obviously, gardening conditions in Iceland are different with a short growing season, cool temperatures, and strong winds. Nevertheless, with the long daylight hours of summer, flowers and trees grow surprisingly well. As a

Today we’re visiting with Gail Bromer. For most of my life, I worked, renovated an antique farmhouse in Connecticut, and was a mom to our growing boys. I created small gardens that our neighbors could enjoy as they drove by, adding one or two shrubs a year and a smattering of perennials. I had neither

I’m Carol Verhake, and I garden in Berwyn, Pennsylvania (Zone 6b/7a). My 1.3-acre garden has evolved quite a bit in the over 20 years I’ve lived on the property. I’ve taken down many ash trees (Faxinus species) due to the ash borer threat and added many new beds. I have both shade and sun and

Is it snowing where you are? Here in the Northeast we’ve had a fairly mild winter so far. There has been snow, but not much of it. Temperatures have dropped into the single digits, but two days later we’ve been in the upper 40s. I know that might seem chilly to you Southerners, but for

Our readers have been asking for more regionally focused gardening content for decades, but the logistics and pressures of keeping our national magazine as applicable to as many readers as possible had long prevented us from providing as much regional content as we had wanted to for our subscribers. That all changed in 2019 when

Today we’re on the road with Colleen. We’ve visited her home garden before, but today she’s taking us along on a tropical vacation. I escaped my usual New York winter for a trip to South Florida and some glorious weather this month. I can’t help but think that I’ll go home and view my potted

My name is Kevin Kelly, and I have submitted photos of my 1/3-acre suburban garden in the past. It is now January, and we finally had our first snow. Over the years I have strived to create a four-season garden. I have added dwarf conifers to the garden beds as well as plants that have

My name is Lyle Johnson. I have been gardening on a 60-foot by 180-foot city lot in Galesburg, Illinois, for a little more than 30 years. Over that time the garden has gone through many transformations. I submitted some photos a few years ago. I’m sure they will illustrate a lot of the changes. (Do

Today’s photos are from Barbara Owen in Wellesley, Massachusetts. I’ve been enjoying the submissions from many gardeners showing their “best in show” or “summer highlights.” As I reviewed my photos from the past gardening season, I was reminded of the surprises and lessons my garden had for me. Sargent cherry (Prunus sargentii, Zones 4–7) is