3 RULES FOR CHOOSING PLANTS

          This week I've been working with my friend Cindy Huey on the area in my front yard near the entrance. When we moved to this house a few months ago, there were two huge sago palms (which are highly toxic, by the way) and 20 shrubs in an area barely large enough…

Wild about Wildflowers, Part 1

This week I had great fun with the Ft. Bend Master Gardeners in Rosenberg, Texas. They wanted to hear about one of my plant passions: wildflowers. (I'm sharing a list of my favorite wildflowers at the end of this post, plus a FREE BOOK for a lucky winner!) Many Americans alive today were not around…

Nurturing nature(al) readers: YOU CAN GROW THAT!

Watching the nightly news is painful, isn't it?  I hate it in the same way I hate coming up on a bad car-wreck: I look but I always wish I hadn't.  From the newscasts, it would seem playing outside is one of the most dangerous things a kid can do. As a child of the 60's,…

GARDEN DESIGN: Drawing Your Plan

Now that you have a BASIC LANDSCAPE LAYOUT graphed out from last time, you should know where permanent features and plants will be staying.  Time to make final decisions on what goes where for your new do/redo. 1)  Think about the why of it to determine the where.  Clients tell me they want their summer…

“I Don’t Like Spiders and Snakes…”

"Any natural organic way to keep snakes out of the yard? I am not opposed to killing them, but would rather annoy them so much they go off and bother someone else.  Thinking specifically copperheads and garden snakes." This year's record drought in some areas of the country and record rains in others are bringing…