Last year, Don Engebretson suggested in Northern Gardener’s perennial column that gardeners shear back some tall, floppy perennials. He wasn’t recommending judicious pinching to encourage bloom and more side growth, but rather grabbing a big ole garden shears and shearing perennial off about halfway from the top in late May or June. His argument was that plants that have a…
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There’s no prize with this proclamation, just my unending admiration for a plant that bloomed, bloomed, and bloomed again throughout the cool, hot, humid, slow-to-start, slow-to-end summer of 2011. And the winner is: Supertunia® Bordeaux petunia. I bought several of these from Eco Gardens in Northfield back in May for my front porch pots, and almost from the moment they…
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Can you eat a sweet potato vine tuber? While taking apart my front porch container plantings this weekend, the question came to mind: Can you eat these cute little tubers that the ornamental sweet potato vine made? Short answer: Yes, you can. Longer answer: Yes, you can eat a sweet potato vine tuber, but you probably don’t want to. Ornamental…
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If you are wondering whether moles are the source of damage in your yard, take a look at this picture of my backyard. See all the raised patches and the occasional small mounds of dirt? This is what mole damage looks like. I’ve been stomping down the tunnels, but that just seems to encourage more digging. It’s a little disheartening,…
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More big cities seem to be realizing the value of plants and landscaping as a way to create more human-scaled, safer and more attractive environments. Last weekend, I toured the Citygarden Sculpture Garden along the Gateway Mall of St. Louis with two dozen garden writers as part of a regional Garden Writers Association meeting. St. Louis seemed especially vibrant and…
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