Gardening Help

Truly artistic garden art is not always so easy to find.  The market is flooded with kitsch and sometimes downright tacky garden “art” so truly beautiful, and unique pieces that are appropriate to grace a beloved garden are often hard to find.   Joy de Rohan Chabot’s furniture and garden accessories are different.  They are unique and interesting expressions in bronze that celebrate the beauty of nature in nature.   The Pansy chair is my favorite — I think I would use it as a focal point in the same way a bench might be a garden destination, but this has so much more color and style to work with.   My head is spinning with what plants would best partner with it for an exciting overall composition.  My first thought is peachy colored irises…..but I am curious what you would plant near it?

Im always delighted when one of my kids takes a run at a dream. And Im very delighted that my Elizabeth has decided to let loose her writing on the rest of the world in the midst of sharing another dream. Shes a great writer and has been breaking up friends and family for years with her notes and descriptions of life and stuff.

So she and her partner have set up the next adventure in their lives. And shes describing it here.

I rather suspect there will be gardening stories involved here as she just tilled up her very first garden (remember though she grew up in a nursery).

So stories of young people chasing a dream with a writers twist.

Are you ready for another Latin lesson?  I hope you are finding this useful, and please, if you have a question, I will do my best to answer.  So lets look at a few more ‘A’ words. Aquatica, Arenarius, Arboreum and Arundinacea.

Aquatica – I think this might be one of more obvious ones, but just in case — Aquatica refers to water.  Aquatica plants are either water plants or plants that grow near the water.   In the case of something like Mentha aquatica, it is the only variety of Mint that grows in this environment.   Phalaris aquatica (above) is bunch grass that I find particularly attractive – but when researching for this post, I learned it is invasive in many areas and is toxic and even deadly to some livestock.

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If you’re a pet lover who happens to love gardening, don’t be dismayed. You and your four-legged companion can coexist quite happily in your backyard oasis if you follow a few simple pet-friendly guidelines. Take our quiz to see if your garden is ready for your furry family members. 

1. Cocoa mulch may look great covering your flower beds, but it can be lethal to dogs and cats.

2. Pools and ponds can be a refreshing place for your pet to cool off, but be wary of hidden dangers.

3. Pesticides and herbicides are not harmful to your pets.

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Where a lawn meets the edge of a border is where many a garden battle is won or lost. Some people don’t mind letting the bugleweed, creeping phlox and whatnot co-mingle with the grass. However, I prefer to keep grass out of my borders, which means spending an afternoon or two with a sharp-edged spade, slicing away slivers of turf to create the sharp, neat edge that I like. What I don’t like is having to do this at least twice a year, year in and year out. After realizing I’ve probably edged the equivalent of a football field or two, I decided it was time to draw a line in the sand—or, in this case, install permanent edging.

Border edgings vs.

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