Garden Journal

Sometimes the garden evolves, and what seemed like a perfectly good idea just doesn’t work anymore. In this case, I planted this “Quickfire” lacecap hydrangea about a decade ago, and for many years, it was one of my favorite shrubs in the garden, with early white blooms that went a gorgeous pinky-red as summer turned […]

So, after yesterday’s exuberant shopping binge at Sunrise Greenhouse, I have a lot of plants to plant! The temptation is to just start bunging them all in, but there are a few good steps to take first: a) check the weather and see if it’s going to be a good day for planting. Today, it’s

Road trip! Well, tiny road trip. Road excursion? I convinced Roshani to come with me to finally check out Sunrise Greenhouse in Grant Park, which is a 1.5 hr drive away, because various people in the local garden club said it was a) huge and b) cheap. So off we went in her minivan, and

I’ve been a little under the weather, and it’s been grey and rainy, which I usually love, but the combination has made it a little tough to do much gardening. I do try to get out and do something every day, though — it’s good for my sanity. So I trimmed the remaining dried flowerheads

First, a reminder to local gardeners — it was unseasonably warm yesterday, and even more so today — check any plants you’ve bought and haven’t planted yet, and also any new plantings and give them a good drink of water. They’re going to suffer and possibly die otherwise. This is also a great day to

I know you’re supposed to prune the roses when the forsythia bloom, but sometimes, life is busy, and that’s okay — even if you can’t do a garden task at the optimal time, you can usually do it a little later without too much in the way of negative consequences. I was working on a

Redbud Syrup This recipe uses roughly a 1:1 ratio to make a simple syrup out of redbud tea and sugar. The thin syrup is suitable for creating lovely spring drinks; the thicker syrup can be drizzled over pancakes or used to soak a pound cake. Redbud has a delicate floral flavor, so be careful not

I spent much of last year’s gardening season wondering if I should get a headlamp in case I wanted to garden at night, and thinking that was silly, and talking myself out of it, and somehow this year I just went ahead and got one last week, and today was a long and complicated day

Here’s my main tip for buying plants in spring — it’s really easy for new gardeners to get intoxicated and buy a ridiculous number of plants. And that’s fine, but YOU MUST ASSESS YOUR WATERING CAPABILITY ACCURATELY. When my kids were little, I optimistically bought more plants than I had time / energy to water.