On the 15th of every month, Garden Bloggers everywhere post pictures of the plants that are blooming in their garden. Here are a few from mine. The above picture shows purple coneflower, Echinacea ‘Magnus’, with white-flowering Echinacea ‘Avalanche’ in front. ‘Avalanche’ is a new cultivar that is shorter – to about 18 inches – and very [...]

The last Friday in April is Arbor Day in Ohio. That’s today – April 30, 2010. According to the Arbor Day website, Arbor Day was first conceptualized by J. Sterling Morton, who moved to the Nebraska Territory from Detroit. He and his wife were lovers of nature, and planted lots of trees and shrubs at [...]

Many of us celebrate St. Patrick’s Day by wearing green or drinking green beer. Being half Irish on both sides of the family, I also celebrate by cooking corned beef and cabbage, with Irish soda bread on the side. And I typically buy a Shamrock Plant: Oxalis regnellii. Shamrock is a tender pot-plant that grows from [...]

Green leaves on houseplants add a relaxed ambiance to a room, while bold red, orange or yellow colors provide a dramatic statement. And a single colorful plant among a group of green plants makes the whole grouping stand out. Plants with colorful leaves and flowering plants usually require brighter light to put on a good [...]

To my delight, I was given a cheerful red cyclamen plant as a gift from a neighbor last week. I think the indoor Florist’s Cyclamen, Cyclamen persicum, is about as pretty as anything you’ll find in a pot at this time of year. Florist’s Cyclamen have sweet scented small flowers in an intense range of [...]

We’ve had an inch or so of snow this past week, which makes everything look beautiful, but is not enough to be too hazardous. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! I like to check out the tracks in the snow to see what creatures have visited the garden. In the past few days, [...]

Strong smelling soap is supposed to repel animals like deer and rabbits. With this in mind, I went to Costco last spring and bought an enormous package of Irish Spring soap. I nestled the bars amongst my hosta foliage, in an area devoid of Wireless Deer Fence, for testing purposes. Things went well until about [...]

I resisted starting this blog for a long time. I wasn’t really sure people would read it. I would have to learn a new technology. It would take a lot of time to keep it up-to-date. And after all, there are already a lot of gardening blogs out there! Although there’s a lot of information [...]