Decor Works

As I mentioned in my mail the week before last, I have a lot planned for the garden this year and just to prove it wasn’t a load of old waffle I include some photos taken over the weekend of the largest part of the project. For the last five years I had left about […]

Our latest YouTube video shows you how to prune unruly blackberries before spring bud in 3 steps. We won’t say it’s easy, because…well, blackberries have thorns that catch on everything. But if you follow these steps you’ll get the job done efficiently and effectively. Christy dons her bee suit (you’ll find out why) to prune […]

Today we’re heading to Toronto to see the garden of Lucile Yates. About seven years ago, I got rid of most of the lawn in the front garden and planted low-growing, drought-tolerant plants in the front 20 feet. I left the original bed of taller perennials behind them and planted a shade garden of hostas […]

Gardens of Miami No.2 – Vizcaya January 25, 2020 By The Frustrated Gardener January is a month when many of us dream of an escape to the sun. If we’re feeling flush we might take advantage of discounts and book a holiday. A few lucky folk may find themselves in a position to buy a […]

If someone calls you a dirty rat, that could be considered fighting words. But in a different context, being labeled a rat can be advantageous. In fact, in the Chinese zodiac, the rat is the very first of all the animals. If you aren’t up on Chinese zodiac signs, every year “belongs” to an animal […]

I DON’T KNOW about you, but I’m drawn to ferns, to their primitive flowerless beauty, their diversity of foliar textures and shades of greenness, to their range of sizes from tiny to towering. And I want to invite some to come live with me and my begonias and Clivia and other houseplants, but which ones […]

Late in December of 2012, we were gearing up to install the winter pots and lighting at Detroit Garden Works. Central to that display were 6 tall narrow concrete pots that had been fabricated at Branch. They were the devil to address, no matter the season. How so? Despite their height and heft, the top […]

I am not sure what it’s like with you but we have has some real January weather over the weekend with some hard overnight frosts. A hard frost ads a touch of magic to the garden with ice crystals covering branches and old seed heads; scruffy foliage looks wonderful for a few hours before their […]

We just returned from two weeks away on vacation and this morning’s light revealed a bountiful winter garden that looks more like spring. Bonus: a light rain last night left the garden blanketed in moisture. Here’s some inspiration for spring garden planning or winter garden harvesting, depending on where you live. Rosalind Broccoli sets a […]

A LOT OF WHAT I LEARNED about gardening, I learned from seed catalogs, always gravitating to ones featuring the odder varieties the better—plants promising lots of both personality and productivity. So when I got introduced to the nonprofit cooperative called Experimental Farm Network recently, I felt right at home. My annual Seed Series continues with […]