Virtual Gardening
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Adapting the Garden to the Gardener
Gardening is a process - things keep changing. Life is also a process and we also keep changing. Sometimes we find that we can't keep up with things the way we used to. But that doesn't mean giving up on the garden. Instead, we need to find ways to make adjustments that let us keep on enjoying our favorite activity, allows us to keep on learning and adapting. Adapting garden to gardener is also a process and it can be educational as well as enjoyable.
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Bye Yew Hedge, Hi New Hedge: The Optimist's Garden
If you must use evergreens as a foundation planting in your front yard - if, in fact, you insist on a foundation planting with shrubs - then why not go the creative route and use colorful dwarf conifers in blues, golds, and bronzes? And while you're waiting for them to grow up, why not use some temporary but attractive filler to make the garden look finished long before it actually matures?
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Learning to Garden Again: Warring with Weeds
What does one do when you have 14 distinct and fairly large garden spots, acres of weeds - and a strict threat from the medical people that spending more than 30 minutes a day in the garden may have harmful consequences? It takes some ingenuity, persistence - and a new way of seeing the garden. But there is still joy to be found out there in the slightly wilder garden that is now mine to tend.
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Trapped in the Garden: Adventures in Spring Pruning
Learn the three Ds of pruning - and what happens when you get so caught up in the sheer joy of sculping your trees and shrubs into healthy, well shaped plants that you forget to look at the area surrounding them.
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Gardening - an Attitude Adjustments -Part 2
We've all grown accustomed to our own styles of gardening, as well as with certain plants that we love even if they are a lot of work. But as we grow less able, something has to change - and it could very well be our attitude about what our garden should be, or about the plants we love.
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Gardening with Limitations - A Few Adjustments
None of us are getting younger, and most of us are finding that we are less able than we once were. Here are a few aadjustments to your garden and gardening style that can simplify the work and keep the joy in gardening.
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Are Gardeners Ever Satisfied?
By this time in the gardening season it seems that we are always looking backward or forward to some ideal day when the garden will look right. And if we don't get it - well, you can always blame the weather. Unfortunately, by mid summer too many of us have forgotten how to enjoy our own gardens.
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Yard Art - A Seriously Tacky Garden
Susan Ray is serious about her tacky yard art - and that is not a contradiction in terms. What initially horrified the neighbors has since become a joint neighborhood project, complete with donor plaques.
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Goodbye Yews All - Front Yard Garden Opportunities
That obligatory line of evergreen shrubs that seem to front most houses is no longer a feature at the Wallace's. But it was an accident - and now the possibilities for replanting are endless. So let the fun begin! (All suggestions welcome.)
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The Garden Vanishes!
Spring brings a bounty of pleasant surprises - and one not so pleasant one. When I raked back the mulch, and the leaves that had drifted over my favorite little garden I found - much to my dismay - that it was gone! The culprits? Voles.
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Danger Lurks in the Spring Garden
We've grown soft and complacent over the winter and may have forgotten that it's a jungle out there - and will be until we've managed all of the seemingly endless spring gardening chores. As glad as we are to be back in our gardens, this early time in the season can be overwhelming, sometimes frustrating and perhaps a bit of a guilt trip for some of us. And that's before we get to the actual aches and pains resulting from unused gardening muscles.
So here are the dangers that lurk as well as the ways you can fight back and have an enjoyable gardening season.
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Dithering in the Early Spring Garden
With the uncertainty of early spring weather comes uncertainty in the garden. Is it too early to prune? Have I waited too long? Should I rake back the mulch or will cold freezes threaten tender shoots? Will gardening season ever really be here for certain? And how will I know?
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The Garden Misses its Entrance Cue – and That's Not All Bad
We're back to the late, cold, spring that I remember growing up with. And while the gardener in me is frustrated, looking for the early flowering displays of the past few years, the practical part of me is grateful. Global warming may mean a longer growing season, but the woes it can bring may be worse that the benefits.
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Love Songs from the Garden - Say it With Flowers
It's easy to say "I love you" with a bouquet of red roses. But everyone does that. Show that someone how special they are. Show them that YOU are special. Say more than "I love you" - and say it all with flowers. Flowers you can grow in your own garden that are far more elegant than that trite old bouquet of red thorny things.
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Next Year's Garden - A Resolution
Now, when the yard is blanketed in white and I have a bare canvas to paint dreams on, is the time to prepare for a happier garden season this coming year.
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Gardens for your Many Moods
We are creatures of many moods. And gardens can be places of many moods. When we are in the garden, there is a certain interaction that can affect us more than we might realize. Almost inevitably, we can find a spot that not just suits but elevates our moods. Gardens are for hope.
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Garden Greediness Leads to Gloom
Sometimes we get too greedy. Our plant lust drives us to acquire more plants that require more garden space until we have more than we can comfortably handle. Unless nature and our bodies cooperate it can turn what was once a joyous task into drudgery.
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The Garden Parties Without Me
We treat our gardens like babies that can't get along without us - only to find that even gardens can grow up and act mature and responsible - or, like most unruly adolescents, sometimes get a bit out of control.
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Why is my Black Garden Green?
I chose the darkest of plants to create an experimental black garden. I planted them in full sun, just like the books recommend. So why do I have a garden full of plants that, at best are green tinged with burgundy? I had to drag out the science books for this one!
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Serendipity in the Summer Garden
It really does pay to stop all that summer toil and drudgery and start looking around you. There are wondrous discoveries to be made, lessons to be learned - and a few pleasant surprises.
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Midsummer Doldrums in the Garden
Freedom of choice - and loving what you plant - is the key to avoiding getting bogged down in misery during a drought stricken, heat laden midsummer in the garden.
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The Lost and Found Garden
It's embarrassing - but I somehow managed to lose an entire garden this year. And that's after Ma Nature went to a lot of trouble to point out to me that this was a spot that could use some human intervention.
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Garden Miracles in the Grocery Store Line
Just check the magazine covers as you stand in line waiting to pay for your groceries. Look at the promises. No work gardens. Instant beauty. Perfect plants. What's myth? What is reality?
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Uncertainty in the Garden
Just when you think you've got it right, Mother Nature throws you a curve ball - and you swing and miss. That's when you have to learn to make do with what you've got - whether it's plants, unexpected gaps in the garden - or just an overabuldance of weeds.
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Meet The Victory Garden's Newest Correspondent, Paul Epsom
The Victory Garden TV show is back with a new look - and a new/old focus - back to its roots. Meet one of the new correspondents for the show and learn a bit about his philosophy about gardening - something I know well since Paul Epsom taught me a great deal of what I know about gardening.
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Planting the Walls
If you're running out of horizontal garden space, you can always go vertical - even if the only vertical space you have is an old stone wall with fairly tiny cracks that only hold a small amount of dirt. The right plants can transform it from a gray, gloomy ruin to a flowering feature.
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Hellos and Good-Byes in the Garden
Spring is a time for greeting all the greenery we missed all winter. It's also a time to say goodbye to the litter left from winter. But surprising weather has made this more of a hello and goodbye season than ever.
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How Plants are Like People
A look at the garden shows that it is in fact a small universe of its own, populated by many personality types, from the shy to the pompous, the useful to the useless - the valued and those less valued. Only sometimes we learn to value some plants once we get to know them better - just as we do with people.
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Plants that Make us April Fools
Think about the many times that plants in out garden have fooled us - masquerading as something else, playing chameleon - or even playing dead! And spring is one of the times we get fooled most often.
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Drought Gardening: Going Into Emergency Mode
Many areas have now moved into water rationing - and the whole garden looks threatened. What can we do to save at least our most treasured plants? Here are some drastic measures for drastic times.
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The Garden Blooms in Winter
You may be surprised to discover what's blooming these days - even while the snowflakes are flying. Here are several plants that are extremely early bloomers - with pictures taken this wek - March 6 and 7 to be exact - to prove it!
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The Natural Garden That Isn't
Once gardeners interject themselves into the greenery the so-called natural garden is no longer natural. But it can still be a rewarding way to plant, if you're willing to work side by side with Ma Nature - who may have a few ideas of her own.
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Gardens - Call Them Like You See Them
What's in a name? A lot - because what you call your garden style may deeply affect the way people view it. At the least it will affect how you see it and how much enjoyment you get from it. Let's look at what's in a name and what it says both about us and our gardens.
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Meet the 'Other' Clematis
We know them as vines - do we know their shrubby counterparts that can help to weave the garden together?
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Uninhibited in the Garden
There are probably things you will do in the garden that you wouldn't dare do anywhere else. Or at least there are things you're more willing to contemplate doing there. Something about the garden seems to free us from our otherwise inhibited selves and allows us to break loose, to experiment - to dare to have fun. And sometimes in doing so you become freer in other parts of our lives as well.
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Some Easy New Years Resolutions for Gardeners
Instead of those banal resolutions we usually make - generally swearing we're giving up one vice or another, why not take positive actions this year in your garden this next year. Make friends, find peace, alleviate stress, save money - even help the local economy all the while simply doing what you love.
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Where Do Gardeners Go in Winter?
How to survive when your garden is frozen or covered with snow but you still have that "gardening urge". Projects, ideas and a few last minute gift suggestions for spouses trying to deal with garden-deprived mates.
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Update: Anthrax, Irradiation and your Plant Orders
Irradiation - the process that threatened all of our seed and plant orders sent through the US Mails may goout with a whimper - but has already caused one big bang when it caused a fire that wiped out 90 pounds of mail.
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Cultivating Patience in the Garden
As autumn turns cold I can see old garden schemes finally come to fruition - and think about the patience it will take to get through winter. But winter is important in the gardener's scheme of things - the hard work has ceased and now we have a chance to make new schemes.
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If Your Garden were Your House . . .
It's a new way of thinking about your yard and the ways you use it - but it can be helpful to you in creating outdoor spaces that really work for you.
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The Garden Gets Squeaky Clean
It's Fall clean-up time in the garden - as well as bulb, shrub and perennial planting prime time. Here's how to make it painless - and guilt free.
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Memorial Gardens -Gardens for Healing 1-Planning
Planning a garden, however large or small, to commemorate our dead is a form of healing. In this two part series we look first at what a memorial garden is and what it can do to help us to heal.
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Black Tuesday in the Garden
The attacks on New York City and Washington changed a lot of things for most of us in the US, whether we were directly involved or not. And yet in the garden the sun still shines and the butterflies still dance. Is there a lesson for us here?
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Triumphs and Failures in the Garden
As gardening season starts its slow wind-down it's time to take stock of our gardens - what worked, what needs work, and what needs a one-way ticket to the compost heap.
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Art and Artists in the Garden 3: Rosemary Rizzo
You may have met Rosemary Rizzo as one of our Tacky Yard Art contests. She has a yard filled with pink flamingos - which is why she is known as the Flamingo Lady. She's been a winner more than once, too. Not for being tacky, but because she showed us all that even her favorite bird - the very symbol of tackiness - and with humor and skill turning it into something else entirely.
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Art and Artists in the Garden 2: Jerry Kott
Artist, designer and craftsman Jerry Kott's approach to garden art is both deeply symbolic and functional. Does that sound like a paradox? Then consider this - it often displays a fine sense of humor as well.
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Art and Artists in the Garden 1: Kirk Brown of PA
"Have fun. Plant Gardens" says gardener and artist Kirk Brown. And his own gardens show how you can make room for some pretty great art while still having fun. And of course - nothing upstages the flowers!
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Peak Season Chores in the Garden - the Three D's
Peak season in the garden may mean that the strenuous work is done for a while. But to keep the garden looking great you must keep up with the big 3 D's - deadheading, de-stemming and de-leafing.
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Where Have all the Gardeners Gone?
Gardening is the number one leisure time activity in the US today - or so they say. If that's true, why are so many garden related businesses in trouble?
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In the Garden, Disappointed in Love
They say each one kills the thing they love - and my garden seems determined to prove it to me. It's never the dandelions that dwindle - only the plants of my dreams. So why does that make me smile?
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The Secret Gardens of My Childhood
There is little that a child can control about their environmant - but that doesn't keep them from dreaming and trying. In fact there is much to be learned from the very imperfections of the gardens that fall short of our dreams.
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A Garden Full of Deadheads
Prolong your flowering season, make the garden tidier and prevent beloved plants from becoming pests. How? Deadheading! It's easy once you have a few basic strategies down.
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An Almost No Work Sunny Garden, Part 1
Let's start with the basics - plants that ask little and give big - filling spaces with year round interest and few requirements - and some that even help you with your gardening work! This week we look at shrubs, vines and groundcovers for an almost no work garden. Next week we'll fill in the blanks with flowers.
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Gardening - Make it Easy on Yourself
Sometimes contemplating the amount of work that the garden seems to demand can be daunting. Here are some hints, tips, tricks and tools that can help to keep keep the enjoyment in our garden activities.
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Hostas: The New Breed
Most of us can't tell most hostas apart without a scorecard. So why do the hybridizers keep making more? We asked the experts.
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My Plants Came But it's Snowing!
Your plants are sitting in cartons all over the living room - but the weather makes it impossible to plant. How do you make sure your investment in green things doesn't simply wither away?
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What's so Great About Gardening?
It's that time of year - weary of gray days and temperatures that hold the promise of spring before plunging back down to below freezing we start to worry and fret and agonize and wonder - just why are we doing this again??
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Garden News and Notes, February 2001
News from around the gardening world including a plant-napping, a new e-zone just for you, new web sites, plant and gift sources and other resources for gardeners.
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I Don't Believe in Spring
It seems like spring is only a distant fantasy. But here are a few activities that you can use to help you hope that someday it will actually arrive.
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Winter Garden Interest III - Sculpture and Structure
Trees with interesting forms or exotically contorted branches can function as living sculpture in the garden. Add that to a bit of non-living structure - arbors, trellises, or simply the outlines of the raised beds in a garden can create interest on even the dreariest of winter days.
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Winter Gardens - Colorful Evergreen "Bones" - Part II
Evergreens aren't just evergreen - they are ever gold, blue, white, cream - even variegated. And they come in varied sizes from tiny dwarfs to giants that will dwarf your house. They are close to indispensible in creating year-round interest in the garden.
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Color for the Winter Garden - Part 1: Groundcovers.
On those days when the snow melts and we can see through to the ground, wouldn't it be nice to see something besides brown dirt? And better still - as nice a color as green is - wouldn't it be even nicer to see colors? Plants that are anything but green? Read all about them - in this first of a series of articles about color in the winter garden.
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Gardening with Resolution
Every year since I began to garden I have made the same resolution - that this year I'm going to get it right. But this year, I've decided to resolve something different. Different - and maybe more challenging.
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Theme Gardens - Planning without the Pitfalls
Theme gardens can be great fun to plan but may not always work out in the garden unless you use your common sense, give youself a bit of latitude and remember what the plants need.
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What NOT to Get Gardeners This Christmas: Part 1 of 4
Gardeners can be a finicky lot. Ask us what we want and we'll probably just wave broadly and say "oh - anything. . ." but we rarely mean it. So here - in several parts - are some dos and don'ts for garden gift giving. We'll begin with the do not's.
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Has Your Garden Got the Yellow-Leaf Blues?
When catalog shopping through the winter, keep an eye out for plants that will help to hide the depressing aftermath of spring - the yellowing foliage of what was once a beautiful bulb display.
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Winter Gardening - The Hard Work Really Starts Here
Get out your garden journal - or start one - because this is the season for grand plans and inspiration, dreaming and learning. You'd be surprised at how much gardening we actually do in our heads over winter.
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Gardening - On the Inside Looking Out
Think of your window as a picture frame and your garden as a lovely painting that you view from indoors. It's a new way of thinking about garden design.
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Better Landscaping for YOUR Home
Are you STILL trying to figure out how to make your garden look great? Here are seven great tips for adding excitement to your landscape from The Wise Gardener - another in our series of "Garden Articles by You"
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Paying it Forward
Sow some seeds of happiness, plant some joy - it takes very little effort and it really can help to make the world a bit of a happier place.
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Old Plants Don't Really Die - They Reincarnate.
The rosebush in my back garden is hundreds of years old - yet I only bought it five years ago. In reality, it is a reincarnation of a plant discovered in the 12th century. How often do we stop to realize that when we pass a plant along to friends we are also passing a bit of history, as well as a bit of friendship. The plants we share are like living memorials - so choose your gifts of plants carefully.
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It's Autumn Planting Time
Planting season isn't over yet. Fall is the best time to plant both perennials and bulbs - and if you plan carefully while planting them together you can eliminate the problem of how to hide the yellowing bulb foliage.
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Oh Yes, It CAN Happen to You!
Too often we have this magical faith that bad things happen to other people. But do you believe in magic? And are you willing to risk your life for that belief?
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Gardens of Silver
Silver foliage plants can be garden work horses, keeping warring colors apart and creating a misty atmosphere without demanding much in return.
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What Did Your Garden Teach You this Year?
The more you garden, the more you learn - and the more you learn that there is left to learn. So let's start small and share a few of the lessons we have learned this year.
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Serendipity in the Garden - Not Just in Springtime.
Every day is springtime wonderful if you take the time to stop and really enjoy the garden, the way the plants are grouped, and the creatures that live and visit there. There are surprises every day if we just let ourselves see,
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Random Acts of Beautification
Be a modern Johnny Appleseed and sow your extra seeds where they will bring beauty instead of bareness - even if it's in an alley or an unkempt parking lot.
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Gardening Rules - Made to be Broken
Follow the rules and you will probably have a pretty decent garden - and one that you don't feel very at home in. Sometimes rules were just made to be broken.
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Creating a Faux Verdigris Finish
Love the rich look of aged copper and bronze but hate the price tags? A little bit of paint and you can create the impression without the expense.
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Tool Procreation
Don't turn your back - tools multiply even when we try our best to restrain them (and ourselves!)
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At Last! The End of the Garden Tour
Take heart - the tour is almost over and you'll be able to sit back and relax in the shade of the gazebo with the sound of rushing water, chirping birds and buzzing bees as your music.
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Flower Power - Sowing Food for the Soul
Even the strictly ornamental gardener can provide nourishment - for the soul, if not for the body. And it's a great way to get rid of those pangs of guilt you've been having about all those seeds you bought and never planted.
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Slow Stroll through the Gardens Once More
The slow, therapeutic stroll through the garden continues. This time we make it out of the secret garden and up the [ath to the gazebo. (And no - we're not done YET!)
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Gardens for Healing
A garden can give us hope for recovery, and even offer some healing sights, sounds and fragrances. If you must recuperate from a major illness, try to do it in the garden!
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The Three Plant Garden
See what great gardens you can create if you limit yourself to only three kinds of plants.
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Forced to go Fishing!
Butterflies are free - and so were our bass - but in the entirely wrong sense of that word. And so my husband and I lose some money and learn a lesson about freedom.
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Tacky - In the Eye of the Beholder
It really doesn't matter if others think your yard decor is tacky - you'd probably think the same of theirs. But this is our chance to get a peek at yard art all over the world!
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My Garden Grows Up.
Sometimes parents need to give their children room to grow on their own, reaching their potential because, difficult as it may be, they have to live their own life.
Surprise - the same holds true in the garden.
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What Kind of Gardener Are You?
It takes all kinds of gardeners to make the world. Even if you exclude veggie gardeners and only look at those who do ornamental gardening, conversation often grinds to a screeching halt as we try to find common ground. The trouble is there seems to be a language barrier among all of the different kinds of gardeners that we are. Maybe it will help to examine those different types of gardeners. And maybe you know of a few types that I have missed.
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Little Miracles in the Spring Garden
A slow stroll around the spring garden reveals little miracles - things often so small that only a gardener could love them - but all full of hope and renewal.
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Try to Remember what Grew in September
There are many things we need to remember before charging out into the spring garden with that new box of plants. Unfortunately, after a long winter's hiatus, most gardeners haven't a clue.
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Step by Step - Putting It Together
Spring cleanup only LOOKS impossible. Break it down into little segments, and figure in times to stop and smell . . . well, if not the flowers, atleast the scent of fresh soil and green.
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Launching Spring!!
My first sign of spring wasn't a robin, but a brilliant cardinal in full song. What, sunshine and a peek of green sprouting here and there - and it's time to break out the tools!
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What's New In Gardening, March 16 2000
What's new - this month we have nursery sales and internet only specials, space saving garden systems and cold hardy crape myrtles - plus hope for those who forgot to plant daffodils last fall.
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Spring: Hope Eternal
If you finally get it right - if you suddenly find yourself staring at your garden and saying "That's it! I've got it right!" - did you ever stop to wonder? What comes next?
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When Life Hands you a Lemon Tree
Lemon trees have thorns. They bear bitter fruit. You can complain about that. Or, you can make lemonade from what life hands you. Really good lemonade.
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Temporary Gardens
Give your garden a whole new look with the seasons - or by the week.Then be sure to check out the accompanying book review on Annuals with Style.
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Gardening: The Art of the Possible
A new patch of bare earth - and a promise. Gardens are works in progress, always as much potential as they are actuality. And that is what has us hooked!
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Why are these Plants so Expensive???
Scarcity, supply and demand - or just plain marketing strategy - why is it that some plants pop up with price tags high enough to make one consider taking out a loan?
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Where do All These New Plants Come From?
It's not necessarily some mad scientist in a laboratory. It's quite possible that nexy year's "must have" plant could originate in your own back yard - if you know what to look for.
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What's New in Gardening?
An experiment in information - news about some of the latest gardening books, tools and products that we all may find helpful. I'll see how well this is received and may make it a regular monthly feature.
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The Self-Cleaning Garden
An enormous amount of our gardening time is taken up by small chores like deadheading and cleaning up the resulting debris. So why not buy plants that clean up after themselves?
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Simplify Your Garden with Shrubs
Simplifying the planting scheme means reducing the number of different plants with different cultural requirements that you need to keep track of. One way to do that is to plant mixed borders that incorporate easy to maintain shrubs and trees.
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Lawn Maintenance Solutions for Creaky Gardeners
Experts claim that the largest percentage of garden energy is expended on maintaining the lawn. Yet few people are willing to forego that bright carpet of greenery. Here are a few ways to keep it, but cut down on the upkeep.
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When it Hurts to Garden
The onset of age or disability can add a new dimension to gardening - and not always a pleasant one. But, as with everything else in life we can learn to adjust. We can even find joy in the new creative challenge!
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Gardening American Style?
We have clear pictures of what English style gardens are, and French and Japanese. Ever wonder what they think when you say "American style garden"?
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Such a Polite Garden!
What is a polite garden anyway? And why do so many people seem to insist that you plant them?
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A Gardener's Journey into Winter.
"Sometimes I can believe as many as six impossible things before breakfast" said the Red Queen to Alice. And I can say the same thing. The passage from summer to winter is also the journey from the garden in the yard to a garden in the imagination.
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Holiday Shopping for your Favorite Gardener
It's that time again - time to start thinking about great gifts to buy your favorite gardeners. Here are some suggestions, ranging from the tried, true and practical to the downright whimsical.
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A Bit of Patience - a Lot of Imagination.
Large oaks from little acorns grow. . . but oh so slowly.Gardening is a lifetime process - not a weekend project. To truly enjoy gardening takes patience - and a lot of imagination.
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WHAT winter color??
Its tough to get color and beauty in a winter garden when you live in the frozen north. But all that blankness does have its compensations.
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Fall Comes Unexpectedly
Frost strikes. A few things need to be rushed in and cared for. Many just keep on keeping on. But that first frost is the clue. Start planning for next year.
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Beware of the Passalong Plant
Why do you suppose some gardeners are so eager to share their surplus perennials? Because some of them are the zucchinis of ornamental gardening.
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Just Pretend it's an Annual
Roses as annuals? The idea sounds not only crazy, but wasteful at first hearing. But maybe it's not such a wild idea.
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What the Rains Brought
Water all you like with your hoses - but it takes a real rain to bring the garden to life. Even the rain from a hurricane can bring delightul surprises.
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Yard Art Odyssey
A journey through the neighborhood teaches an interesting lesson about tacky - or at least some of it.
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A Chance to Start Over
The silver lining in this cloudless time of drought - we now have a chance to correct old mistakes and plant things that will do well for us and look great.
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Gardening on Rock
The bad news is - your soil is full of rocks. The good news is - your soil is full of rocks!
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Japanese Maples: Luxury Lace
Japanese maples are not just gorgeous - they come in so many shapes, sizes and colors that you can fit them into almost any garden scheme.
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The Boring Phobia
I'm not sure who's yawning - but whether I'm the provoker or provokee I find boring to border on traumatic.
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Yard Art that Works
Capturing enchantment simply means using your garden ornaments with thought and a bit of imagination. And don't forget the element of surprise.
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To Tacky - With Love.
If it's done with love, it's just not tacky - no matter what the neighbors may think.
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Thieves in the Garden
As gardening rises in popularity, so do garden thefts. Not just the statues and tools but the very plants! Do we have to put iron gates around our gardens and padlocks on the plants? Could be. . .
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Mother Nature's Paint Box
Open your eyes and really look at your blue flower and you'll find that it will tell you exactly what color will look good next door.
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Living my Dream?
Cowardice becomes nightmare becomes dream come true. If only I had dared to try earlier in life to be what I wanted to be!
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Pleasing Plantings - One Leaf at A Time.
A garden that looks good all year starts with the foliage color, texture and shape. Get that right and you'll always have an interesting garden - even when nothing is in flower.
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I'm Afraid to Have People See My Garden!
So - your garden just doesn't look like those in the glossy garden mags. Do you think the gardens in those glossy mags look perfect? Or might there be a few tricks you and I can use to fool the eye and please our gardener's soul?
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Sprucing up the Garden Decor
Fun with paint! Time to clean up the lawn furniture, pots and garden structures to get them ready for summer. But it doesn't have to be drudgery and can even be wonderfully creative.
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Fun With Garden Design
The real process of making our gardens beautiful is still in the future, when things are up and growing. But here are a few fun projects that we can start right now - while we can still find our way through the plantings.
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Out of the Cave and into the Sunshine!
Spring clean up is blissful torture - rediscovering old friends and new foes, old joints and new muscle pains - getting back into the gardening season.
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Y2K and the Gardener
OK - I'd prefer to be an ostrich and just ignore this whole issue. I can't believe the world is going to crash when that clock rolls over at midnight. But just in case it does. . . we gardeners can really help!
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Hurts so Good!
A big backache and a lot of blisters spell JOY for most gardeners. It means the season is underway once more. But it can slowly get to be a literal pain - unless we take some basic precautions.
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Growing in Blissful Ignorance
All kinds of learning experiences for new gardeners - such as annuals that aren't, and seeds that surprise you. Plus - how compost saves.
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Dying for Dirt
Of winter madness, spring fever, tubers, rhizomes and a lunatic longing for dirt.
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Plants for all Seasons - Planning the Front Yard Garden II
If you have to walk past it every single day then you want it to look GOOD every single day. Planning a front yard garden is less forgiving than those conveniently hidden in the back. You need plants that look good - or at least interesting - 365 days a year.
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A Rose Garden for Romance
A romantic rose garden - the kind we see in films and read about in novels - somehow just isn't one of the recipes you find in garden design books. So I've conconcted my own!
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My Garden, the Awkward Adolescent
In its adolescence garden gets a sort of confused and awkward look that is as uncomfortable for it as it is for the viewer - and it's going to take some tough love to straighten that out.
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Trying to be Resolute
Some New Years resolutions take more advance planning than others - a year or more's planning if you're lucky!
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Tapping into Trends - The Designer Plants of 1999
First we had designer gowns - originals by Dior, Chanel and the like. Then we had - designer jeans?? Not long ago I could swear I saw designer toilet paper in some upscale boutique. So why not designer plants? We already have the designers.
Most people know them as hybridizers - and a few have achieved designer status.
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Virtual Winter III: Paper Gardens
We build marvelous gardens on paper each winter - but at a price. Is there a way to make them reasonable but still beautiful enough to dream about as well as to plant on our yards?
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Is Your Garden a Fashion Victim?
Do you read the decorating magazines? Shop for the latest fashions? Are you up on what "this year's color"is? And is that having an influence on your garden design?
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Real Men Don't Plant Pastels - Do They??
Society divides the world into feminine and masculine colors, and appropriate colors for young people and older people. It's all good target marketing for the great consumer culture. But do those rules apply in the garden?
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Blooming Biases - Plants that will never make my "A" list.
It's your garden party - so give some thought to the invitation list. Do you really want bores, or uptight plants, or those that demand to be pampered and petted beyond endurance? Or would you prefer those that bring delight and variety to the party?
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Being Grateful in the Garden
Gardens give us backaches, calluses and permanently dirty hands - but they also give us lots to be grateful for - even if that's hard to remember in these days of cold, chilly clean-up time. So let's pause for a message from Mother Nature.
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What am I going to do all winter???
Spend your winter growing yourself as a gardener! If you're lucky you'll be so busy with this that spring will come before you're even ready.
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Garden Gleanings
Quick! The season is almost over! But there's
still time to preserve some of the glory that is
out there to enjoy over the long, cold winter.
What you need to do is take a nice, leisurely
garden tour and see what is growing in your
garden that will be suitable for making into fall
and holiday decorations.
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Gardens for Impatient People
Are bare dirt and green fuzz the look you really want for that first-year garden? Or is there a way to fool the innocent onlooker into thinking you've been tending it for years?
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Creaking through my Garden
This gardener hits the half-century mark, and starts preparing the yard for easy gardening in the second half century. There are lots of tips and tricks you can use to make gardening easier on creaking joints and aching bones.
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Our Love Affair with Lawns
Should a green, velvety lawn still be a status symbol for the neighborhood and a measure of our civic pride?
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Full Moon Madness
Scientists may sneer at the idea that the full moon affects behavior - but try to tell that to the average person caught in traffic on the day of a full moon!
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Gardens for Sanctuary
A garden is like a room of our own - a place to escape the workaday turmoil and soothe the soul. Here's how to create one for both for ourselves and to share with friends.
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Gardens for Contemplation
Find a nook in your garden where you can free your mind to contemplate great ideas - or just find some peace and tranquillity.
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Are Annuals Outdated?
There must have been some good reason for those Victorians to have been mad for annuals!
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Secret Gardens
Maybe we can't have a walled garden like the one in the book - but we can make our current garden a bit of a secret.
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