Category: Garden Maintenance

Deer / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Perennial Care / Resource Protection / Soil Conservation / Summer / Water Wise / Weather / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Summer in the Garden: To Do, To Do Less, and To Avoid

  Summer at last!  Tomatoes are ripening, flowers blooming, and we are enjoying prime time in the garden.  July and August can be our most productive season in the garden.  But these months challenge our ingenuity and dedication when the weather turns hot and dry.  All our garden dreams can wither under the summer sun or topple over in a summer storm if we neglect the basic maintenance routines that help our gardens thrive.  Here are a few tips to...

Edible Plants / Evergreen Perennials / Fragrant Plants / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Herbs / Pollinators / Spring / Summer / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Magical Thyme

  “I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine: There sleeps Titania sometime of the night, Lull’d in these flowers with dances and delight; And there the snake throws her enamell’d skin,  Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:” William Shakespeare, from A Midsummer Night’s Dream Magical Thyme If you are wanting to conjure a bit of magic in your...

Beneficial Insects / Bulb Gardening / Carbon Garden / climate change / Conservation / Ferns / Flowering Shrubs / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Geophytes / Propagation / Resource Protection / Soil Conservation / Spring / Sustainable Gardening / Water Wise / Weather / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Early Summer: To Do, To Do Less, and To Avoid

What To Do in May and June Avid gardeners find lots to do during May and June as spring melts into summer.  The enjoyment of spending time outside watching things grow and listening to the birds can distract us from our spring to-do list.  But taking care of business early in the season will result in a more attractive garden and more success through the summer months ahead. The days are getting noticeably longer and warmer as the first flush...

Beneficial Insects / Birds / Carbon Garden / Climate Change / climate change / Conservation / Edible Plants / Flowering Shrubs / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Invasive Plants / Larval Host Plants / Nuisance Plants / Ornamental Shrubs / Resource Protection / Soil Conservation / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

A History of Our War With Plants

  “I use only native plants, native to the planet Earth.  I am using indigenous plants; they are indigenous to this part of the universe.” Bill Mollison, Founder and Director of The Permaculture Institute     In the Beginning… Let’s begin with the obvious:  we live within an ever-changing ecosystem.  Europeans came to North America more than four centuries ago, cutting trees, planting fields, building homes and roads.  Native Americans also cut trees, built homes, planted fields, hunted, and lived...

edible ferns / Edible Plants / Ferns / Fiddleheads / Food Forest / Foraging / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Native Plants / Poisonous Plants

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Can I Nibble the Fiddleheads?

Fiddleheads Perfect little green, tightly curled fiddleheads will soon push through the damp earth and begin to unfurl themselves into delicate fern fronds. They might look tasty, and you might wonder whether you can pluck one to nibble as you hike through the woods. Coastal Virginia hosts almost 30 native fern species, and fern-loving gardeners plant dozens more introduced species.  Quite honestly, unless you are a Pteridophile, or fern-o-phile, they probably look much the same.  You will find fiddleheads in...

Carbon Garden / Compost / Conservation / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Resource Protection / Soil Conservation / Weeds / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Reduce, Re-Use, Recycle: Coffee Grounds

  Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium and More That pile of wet grounds left from your fresh pot of coffee contains nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, magnesium, calcium, and iron. Does that list of ingredients sound familiar? You may recognize this nutrient list from the last bag of fertilizer you read. Brewed coffee grounds, the dried and ground remains of the coffee bean, which is a seed, can be repurposed to enrich compost and improve soils. Grounds may contain up to 10% nitrogen, intended...

Beneficial Insects / Birds / Bulb Gardening / Carbon Garden / climate change / Compost / Conservation / Deer / Evergreen Perennials / Evergreen Shrubs / Evergreen trees / Ferns / Flowering Shrubs / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Larval Host Plants / Ornamental Shrubs / Perennial Care / Phenology / Trees in Winter / Watering / Wildlife Gardening / Winter

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Winter in the Garden: To Do, To Do Less, and What to Avoid

  We can consider winter as the ‘weekend’ of the gardening year, both the last month and the first months of the year when we can enjoy a much-needed rest from the regular routine.  A period of rest and renewal restores energy to both the garden and the gardener.  It allows us time for reflection on the successes and challenges of seasons past and an opportunity to plan and prepare for the seasons to come. If winter is the weekend,...

Conservation / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Larval Host Plants / Native Trees / Soil Conservation / Tree Care / Tree Identification / Trees / Trees in Winter / Wildlife Gardening / Winter

 by Elizabeth McCoy

The Beauty and Promise of Trees in Winter

  There is a special beauty in the form and structure of a bare tree after it has dropped its annual crop of leaves.  Like the beauty of a classical statue, one can see the truth of its bones.  Leaves, for all of their movement and color, veil the beauty of branches and buds. Looking at a bare tree is a study in pure potential.     All of the tree’s life  draws inwards to the wood and roots as...

Carbon Garden / Evergreen Perennials / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Hummingbird Gardening / Invasive Plants / Larval Host Plants / Native Plants / Nuisance Plants / Permaculture / Poisonous Plants / Sustainable Gardening / Trees / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Climbing Vines in Coastal Virginia

  Vines of all types love our Coastal Virginia climate.  Many different species thrive in summer’s heat and humidity, growing by inches each day.  They creep across the ground until they encounter something to climb.  Their tender, flexible tips reach up and out in search of a support, and then they climb. Benefits of Vines All vines in our area produce flowers and seeds.  While some flowers are bright and showy, like the bright orange trumpet creeper, others are nearly...

Birds / Carbon Garden / Conservation / Flowering Shrubs / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Hummingbird Gardening / Summer Color Plants / Sustainable Gardening / Water Wise / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

The Lantana ‘Stand’

    I never intended to create the Lantana stand.  Never in my wildest gardening dream did I expect it to get this huge.  There were no warning labels to prepare me for what it has become.  And it all began so innocently… In the beginning, there were only a lonely tea rose and  a few New Guinnea impatiens, I. hawkeri, growing in the neat round bed in the center of our new front yard.  We bought the house in...