Garden Design
Gardening tips: The Helpful Gardener brings the pleasure of gardening
to your home. You will find our garden
design articles collected in one spot.
But a better model is starting to take hold. Gardeners like Sara Stein,
who’s wonderful book Noah’s Garden chronicles her education
from fresh new suburbanite to committed native plant gardener, have started
to explore the idea of the garden as not just a tableau for aesthetic
reasons, but an integral working part of nature. It is possible to provide
the basic necessities for a large number of species in a small space if
you make sure to keep in mind the four pillars of habitat: Food, Water,
Shelter, and Cover. read
more
My first remembrance of becoming interested in the plant world takes
me back to my mother’s childhood home in the Berkshire foothills
of Northwestern Connecticut. We were hiking up the hill across the stream
from the house she grew up in... read
more
While designing the landscape around your home can seem a daunting task
to the uninitiated, it is simply a matter of taking things one step at
a time, taking in to account the various factors that can affect our landscape
in the long term. We’ll review the roadmap from planning to planted...
read
more
Part Two of the Landscape Design articles. Considers the usage of the
garden, who will be enjoying it, and how to design a functional garden,
one that will bring pleasure to you and your guests. read
more
Butterflies linger in sunny places
Because they are “cold blooded”, butterflies require warmth
to be active. They do this by basking in the sunlight. Rarely do they
spend much time in the shade. When choosing a spot for your butterfly
garden, choose a sunny area. This will fulfill one more requirement
for the butterfly and provide one more “reason” to linger
in your garden. Oddly enough, most plants attracting butterfly adults
grow well in sunny exposures... read
more
There are very few of us who do not enjoy the sight and sounds of birds
in the garden. Even in the gray of winter, our feathered friends bring
you joy and happiness as they flirt playfully about the feeder bringing
color and excitement to our lives... read
more
When autumn nights start to get cold, it’s time to prepare your
garden for winter. Winter preparation not only makes your garden look
better during the cold weather months, but will make for easier work in
the spring and will protect less hardy plants from the cold. Start closing
your garden down when there is frost in the forecast or the temperature
consistently starts to drop to the low 40’s or mid-30’s (Fahrenheit),
usually around late October or November... read
more
NATIVE
PLANTS
Going Native: Improve your garden with native plants
When I first started doing talks on native plants it was generally to
half a room of people (if I was lucky) and they knew absolutely nothing
on the subject. A few years back I gave a talk on native plants
to a packed house that included one person who had received habitat status
from the Audubon Society and two others in the process. In an incredibly
short time, there has been a rising ground-swell among the gardening community
shifting towards the use of native plantings... read
more
COMPANION
GARDENING
Use shape, color and texture to create a showcase quality garden
Companion plants are plants that balance each other on some level. They
can be either contrasts or complements; this works on many different levels.
Let’s look at some different ways to link plants in the landscape…
read
more
SHADE
GARDEN
Working with shade to create beauty where you least thought possible
Imagine you’re walking down a country lane. As you gaze ahead of
you, you notice the road wanders into an alley of birches. The dappled
sunlight beneath them gives way to a cool tunnel of shade as the lane
winds deeper into the woods. The heat of the summer day begins to dissipate
as you follow further into the forest primeval… read
more
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