Tagged: Evergreen Shrubs

Colonial Williamsburg Arboretum / Evergreen trees / Forest Bathing / Fragrant Plants / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Healing Garden / Trees / Trees in Winter / Wildlife Gardening / Williamsburg Botanical Garden

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How Do You Bathe in a Forest?

What is Forest Bathing? Have you ever wondered about the practice of forest bathing?  It is one of several recent eco-prescriptions to help us heal what ails us and adapt to the stresses of contemporary life.  Many therapists and physicians are sending their patients outdoors to enjoy the benefits of unplugged time in nature, away from screens, pings, and climate-controlled spaces lit with fluorescent tubes and LEDs.  Ecotherapy has proven highly successful for millions of people.   Biophilia Medical professionals...

Community Gardening / Conservation / Edible Plants / Evergreen Perennials / Evergreen Shrubs / Flowering Shrubs / Food Forest / Fragrant Plants / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Healing Garden / Heirloom plants / Herbs / Native Trees / Permaculture / Sanctuary Garden / Sustainable Gardening / Therapeutic Gardening / Wildlife Gardening

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Making a Healing Garden

“The art of healing comes from nature, not from the physician.” Paracelsus Creating Sanctuary Sometimes we all need a place to get away from the noise of our daily lives to find some peace.  We want a place to relax, to heal, to reconnect with the natural world, and to dream of a better future for ourselves and our loved ones.  Our outdoor spaces can provide us with peace, healing, sanctuary, sustenance, and inspiration when we design them with these...

Carbon Garden / Deer Resistant Plants / Evergreen Shrubs / Flowering Shrubs / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Ornamental Shrubs / Poisonous Plants

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The Fragrant Gardenia

  Fragrant Gardenia Flowers Fragrance often announces the shift in our seasons, alerting us to look more carefully for what has changed since the day before.  In June, a languid sweetness in the air calls our attention to the first flowers opening on the Gardenia shrub, a fixture in many Southeastern gardens, including residential gardens in coastal Virginia. Pristine, white and elegant, Gardenia flowers tend to fade all too quickly.  Their beauty is ephemeral as they fade first to beige...

Birds / Conservation / Evergreen Shrubs / Evergreen trees / Flowering Shrubs / Garden Design / Heirloom plants / Native Trees / Permaculture / Plant Literacy / Tree Identification / Wildlife Gardening

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Broadleaf Evergreen Trees & Shrubs Every Master Gardener Should Know

Broadleaf Evergreen Trees & Shrubs   Buxus microphylla, Littleleaf Boxwood Buxus sempervirens, Common Boxwood Ilex opaca, American Holly Ilex vomitoria, Yaupon holly Ilex aquifolium, English Holly Ilex cornuta, Chinese Holly Myrica cerifera, Southern Wax Myrtle Myrica pensylvanica, Bayberry Osmanthus heterophyllus, Holly Tea-olive Pyracantha coccinea, Scarlet Firethorn Quercus virginiana, Live Oak   Broadleaf Evergreen Trees & Shrubs with Showy Flowers   Camellia japonica, Japanese Camellia Camellia sasanqua, Sasanqua Camellia Kalmia latifolia, Mountain Laurel Magnolia grandiflora, Southern Magnolia Rhododendron spp. Azaleas and...

Prized Plants at the Olympic Games

Container Gardens / Edible Plants / Evergreen Shrubs / Evergreen trees / Fragrant Plants / Heirloom plants / Herbs / Ornamental Shrubs / Therapeutic Gardening / Trees

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Prized Plants at the Olympic Games

  The Olympic Games, a symbol of international unity and athletic excellence, incorporate plants and flowers into their ceremonies. These botanical elements enhance the visual appeal of the events and carry cultural and historical significance as well. Laurel and Olive in Ancient Greece In ancient Greece, victors of the Olympic Games were awarded olive wreaths, known as kotinos, made from the branches of the olive tree which is sacred to Zeus. This tradition dates back to 776 BCE and symbolizes...

Birds / Carbon Garden / Conservation / Edible Plants / Evergreen Shrubs / Flowering Shrubs / Food Forest / Foraging / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Larval Host Plants / Native Trees / Permaculture / Wildlife Gardening

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Part 2: PNV: Potential Natural (Native) Vegetation

  Appropriate Species for Tiny Forests in Eastern Virginia Tiny forests designed following the Miyawaki method include a wide variety of native trees, shrubs, and ground covers planted randomly and densely, varying the heights of trees to establish a canopy layer, intermediate layers, and a ground cover layer.  Plant as many as 3 to 5 plants per square meter into the prepared soil.  Plants grow quickly, reaching for the light.  A forest that takes a century or more to develop...

Carbon Garden / Edible Plants / Evergreen Perennials / Food Forest / Fragrant Plants / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Herbs / Holiday Plants / Ornamental Shrubs / Pollinators / Wildlife Gardening / Williamsburg Botanical Garden

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Mythical Rosemary

  Mythical Rosemary The woody, green fragrance of rosemary brings happiness.  Rosemary has served as food, fragrance, medicine, as a religious tool, and as a favorite garden plant for millennia. It is considered a sacred and magical herb, associated both with Aphrodite and with Mother Mary.  Rosemary has been planted in monastery, temple, medicinal and royal gardens over many centuries. Known now as Salvia rosmarinus, rather than the Rosmarinus officinalis we all learned, rosemary has one of the longest cultural...

boxwood / Carbon Garden / Evergreen Shrubs / Flowering Shrubs / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Hedge / Hedgerow / Heirloom plants / Native Trees / Ornamental Shrubs / Wildlife Gardening

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Hedges and Hedgerows Part 2: Making Good Choices

  Planting Reliable Shrubs in Tough Conditions Home builders and contract landscapers rely on tried-and-true shrubs that they expect to out-live their warranty.  That doesn’t mean that they are planting the most beautiful shrubs in new neighborhoods, or even the most appropriate ones for the site. They certainly don’t try to replace the sorts of native shrubs that might have grown on the site before it was razed for construction.  But they choose reliable shrubs that they expect prospective buyers...

Birds / boxwood / Carbon Garden / climate change / Conservation / Edible Plants / Evergreen Shrubs / Evergreen trees / Flowering Shrubs / Food Forest / Foraging / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Hedge / Hedgerow / Heirloom plants / Native Trees / Ornamental Shrubs / Wildlife Gardening

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 Hedges and Hedgerows for a Healthier and More Peaceful Life, Part 1

  The Living Fence Gardening is the art of domesticating the wild, of creating living geometry within our landscapes.  Order, symmetry, lines, and boundaries please the eye and soothe the spirit.  We are inclined to organize and define our spaces by dividing them up into smaller pieces we can manage, to protect them within walls and behind gates.  We contain what is ours, setting aside sacred space, our own ‘paradise,’ from the wider world.  We exclude the unwanted wildness living...

Carbon Garden / Colonial Williamsburg Arboretum / Conservation / Evergreen Shrubs / Food Forest / Foraging / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Larval Host Plants / Native Trees

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Yaupon, A Native American Tea

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, By any other word would smell as sweet.” William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet v. Q2 1599     What is in a name?  How does naming a thing affect its destiny and how later generations will view it?  The story of how a popular native holly came by its name, and how that name destroyed a promising Colonial American industry, demonstrates that names have incredible power to shape the future....