Planting Ideas

Below are links to articles posted in Planting Ideas.

My 2021 Plant Wishlist

2021 is fast approaching, over the last, maybe year, maybe 18 months. I’ve developed a plan (a 30 year plan) to turn my property into botanical gardens. I am now thinking very long term with my plantings and I’ve been saving bookmarks of plants I want to get in the next year but I thought, […]

Using Sunflowers to Christen a New Perennial Bed

I’m pretty excited, the last bit of construction on my house is finally done and we’ve moved into landscaping and cleanup mode and that means gardening. I have ambitious plans and I know it will take me years to fully develop the garden beds I have in mind but I cannot wait to get started. […]

Great Flowering Groundcover: Homestead Purple Verbena canadensis

I have always liked flowering groundcovers, something about a carpet of blossoms just does it for me. Plus the more ground covers I have, the less mulch I have to buy. When I lived in Michigan my go to was creeping phlox, which I had planted all over my yard like in the below photo. […]

Vibrant Variegated Holly

Recently on a Saturday between kids birthday parties I had some time to kill so wandered over to a nearby Lowes to look at the plants and I’m glad I did. I shop a lot at Lowes and Home Depot but generally their plant selections aren’t too great, especially the sort of stuff I like, […]

How to add more topsoil the natural way

The modern method of building is to wipe all the top soil away from a lot, build a house, and bring back 3 or 4 inches or soil or just sod and call it good. This, of course, is not good for gardening, and many people want to increase the depth of the top soil […]

What is Hugelkultur?

There is this old German fairy tale where a pair of spoiled children take their parent’s hard work for granted, not appreciating what is provided for them, until a monster known as the Hugelkultur attacks their cottage on night and eats their parents, leaving the children to survive on their own. Just kidding. It is […]

On This Dirt I Will Build My Garden

The major earth work (backfilling the foundation) around my new house under construction is finally done so I have had the opportunity to lay out my garden. This area still had its normal natural forest top soil, but then a portion had been used for fill dirt storage, so there is probably a remnant layer […]

School Gardens and Green Onions

A, well, I guess a month ago now, maybe more, my kid’s school had a garden work day. When I got the email asking for volunteers my ears perked up. Volunteers you say? To plant and help layout a garden you say? I was there in a heart beat…. and I sort of monopolized the […]

Use Impatiens to Brighten up Shady Spots

I just did a search on my blog for impatiens, I found 0 results, I can’t believe I’ve never mentioned this plant in a post before. It is my firm belief that every ornamental gardener (and even vegetable gardeners – to attract pollinators) should plant both perennials and annuals. I love perennials because you plant […]

Frugal Gardening: Starting Perennials from Seed

I think everyone loves a nice mass planting. Mixed plantings look nice too, but it is hard to beat the statement of a mass planting. A whole bed of lilies, a whole bed of hostas, a whole bed of daylilies, or cone flowers, or rudbeckias, or phlox, or whatever. Maybe not all the same exactly […]

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