Beginners

Workin’ Like a Pro: Gardening Tools I Adore Right Now

October 5, 2011 11 comments
Thumbnail image for Workin’ Like a Pro: Gardening Tools I Adore Right Now

You all know I’m a bit of a tool evangelist. After having countless employees bust up inferior tools during our 40-hour workweeks in the garden, I do get a bit swoony about the tools that last. But of course, merely surviving the garden isn’t good enough for pros. We do so much pruning, digging and [...]

Click here to continue reading →

Five Books: for Beginning Gardeners

January 4, 2011 2 comments
Thumbnail image for Five Books: for Beginning Gardeners

Newbie gardeners are greeted to the gardening book section by thick encyclopedias on Crocus, for example, or how to design in specific styles. But when I was a new gardener, I didn’t know what style I wanted to design in. And I was still working my way through the common, easy-to-grow plants – I think [...]

Click here to continue reading →

Fall Leaf Raking: Finding the Middle Ground

November 6, 2010 17 comments
Thumbnail image for Fall Leaf Raking: Finding the Middle Ground

All gardeners evolve. There is something about being outside and working hard in nature that inspires learning and growth. The issue of fall leaves is one I’ve been struggling with lately. Last year I wrote about why you shouldn’t let your fall leaves stay, and all of those reasons are still true, but… This year [...]

Click here to continue reading →

Low-Maintenance Landscaping: How to Tim Ferriss Your Garden Routine

September 16, 2010 9 comments
Thumbnail image for Low-Maintenance Landscaping: How to Tim Ferriss Your Garden Routine

Do you have more garden than time? Even people who love, LOVE to garden sometimes find their landscape a source of guilt rather than joy. So many times when I’m visiting a garden, I’m making enthusiastic exclamations over the abundance and beauty of it all, the owner of the garden is saying things like, “well, [...]

Click here to continue reading →

Coastal Gardening: How to Garden on the Seacoast

April 11, 2010 11 comments
Thumbnail image for Coastal Gardening: How to Garden on the Seacoast

Coastal gardening presents some big challenges. There is constant strong wind,  sandy soil that doesn’t hold water well and is lean on nutrients, and the salt! Oh, the salt. Of course, it has its benefits too. Nowhere else do you get such a sense of motion in the landscape, between the beauty of the waves [...]

Click here to continue reading →

Gardening Basics: How to Water

June 21, 2009 6 comments
Thumbnail image for Gardening Basics: How to Water

Watering seems like one of those bonehead tasks that everyone should get right on their first try, right? I wish! The truth is, I see more gardens that are sick and unhealthy due to water stress than any other single issue. Luckily, watering properly isn’t complicated once you know a few simple things.

Click here to continue reading →

Gardening Basics: How to Apply Mulch

June 16, 2009 11 comments
Thumbnail image for Gardening Basics: How to Apply Mulch

We’ve talked about why a thick layer of mulch, composty soil, and good watering habits are important if you want to garden more organically; it’s all about giving your plants a foundation of good health so that pest problems will be few and far between. Today we’ll talk specifically about mulch: what it is, what [...]

Click here to continue reading →

Soil, Water, and Mulch: The Three Key Steps to a Healthy Organic Garden

June 14, 2009 3 comments
Thumbnail image for Soil, Water, and Mulch: The Three Key Steps to a Healthy Organic Garden

As a professional landscaper, I get to see and diagnose a lot of garden issues. I find many people at wits’ end, spraying for pest problems and dealing with unhappy plants. Most of the time, the pest problem or grumpy plant shouldn’t be looked at as the problem itself – more accurately, they are symptoms [...]

Click here to continue reading →

February Garden Maintenance for the Pacific Northwest

February 4, 2009 9 comments

February feels like the eye of the storm for us gardeners – there’s just enough time between the winter pruning rush and the flurry of spring to take a deep breath, and begin thinking back on what worked especially well last year and what projects we might like to tackle this year. Most of my [...]

Click here to continue reading →

In Other Words: Winter Pruning Guides from Around the Web

January 27, 2009 11 comments

I’ve found some wonderful tutorials on pruning in the last few weeks, with easy-to-understand photos and step by step advice. Pruning can be intimidating for beginners, but these guides break it down and have an encouraging tone – they don’t make things more complicated than they have to be. Here are the articles I’ve liked [...]

Click here to continue reading →

← Previous Entries