Tagged: Garden Design

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...

Beneficial Insects / Conservation / Container Gardens / Evergreen Perennials / Fairy Gardening / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Holiday Plants / Invasive Plants / Poisonous Plants / Tree Care / Wildlife Gardening

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In Defense of Ivy

  Ivy:  Hero or Villain? English ivy, celebrated in hymns and carols, rich in history and tradition, may be among the most hated of ‘imported’ plants for some American gardeners.  Native plant enthusiasts may call ivy a ‘noxious weed.’  And now, thanks to a new state law, HB 1941, which will go into effect in Virginia in January of 2027, horticultural retailers will be required to label ivy as an invasive plant and suggest alternatives whenever it is sold directly...

Deer Resistant Plants / Ferns / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Native Plants / Perennial Care / Plant Literacy / Sustainable Gardening / Taxonomy / Tender Perennials / Tropical Houseplants / Wildlife Gardening / Williamsburg Botanical Garden

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Finding Success with Maidenhair Ferns

  Maidenhair ferns look so delicate and fragile I avoided planting them for the first thirty-odd years of my gardening adventures.  I had no confidence in keeping them alive through a Virginia summer because I expected them to be fussy, requiring far more skillful care than I could offer. Native Northern Maidenhair Ferns When I first toured the Williamsburg Botanical Garden as a newly minted Master Gardener intern in April of 2018, our guide, Dr. Donna Ware, pointed out a...

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...

Container Gardens / Deer Resistant Plants / Fragrant Plants / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Perennial Care / Summer / Sustainable Gardening / Wildlife Gardening

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Peonies for Mothers’ Day

  Flowers for Mothers’ Day We traditionally honor our mothers, grandmothers, and the other important women in our lives with a gift of beautiful flowers at Mothers’ Day each May.  Some may favor an orchid or rose corsage, while others present a bouquet of freshly cut flowers.  And while flowers always make a lovely gift, the life of cut flowers is all too brief.   A Gift That Gives Joy Again and Again One year, when my daughter was still...

Conservation / Ferns / Flowering Shrubs / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Native Trees / Soil Conservation / Spring Flowering Trees / Sustainable Gardening / Wildlife Gardening

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Our Planetary Garden

  A New View of our Earth American soldiers and scientists working at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico took the first images of Earth from space in late October of 1946 when they attached a 35-millimeter movie camera to a confiscated German V-2 missile they were testing.  The missile reached an altitude of 65 miles, just above the limit of ‘outer space,’ before crashing back to earth with the film protected in a steel container. Subsequent missile tests...

Birds / Conservation / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Native Trees / Spring Flowering Trees / Tree Care / Wildlife Gardening

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Flowering Dogwood

  Dogwood trees explode into a profusion of flowers each spring.  They grow wild along the forest edge, in clearings and along highways throughout Virginia, transforming from grey woody skeletons into graceful clouds of pink or white flowers as winter melts into spring each April.   The State Tree of Virginia Flowering dogwood trees are cultivated in neighborhoods, around schools, in old church yards, and in private and public gardens, wherever they can shelter in the afternoon shade of taller...

Beneficial Insects / Birds / Edible Plants / Fragrant Plants / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Larval Host Plants / Native Plants / Perennial Care / Permaculture / Propagation / Wildlife Gardening

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Featured Plants for 2025

  Let’s celebrate some of our more unusual and lesser-known native wildflowers in 2025.  The Virginia Native Plant Society has chosen the Mayapple, Podophyllum peltatum, as its 2025 Wildflower of the Year.  The Perennial Plant Association has also chosen a native wildflower, indigenous to Virginia, as its pick for 2025.   Perennial Plant of the Year for 2025 The 2025 Perennial Plant of the Year is clustered mountain mint, Pycnanthemum muticum, a native wildflower in the mint, or Lamiaceae family.  It...

Food Forest / Foraging / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Larval Host Plants / Native Trees / Ornamental Shrubs / Planting Trees / Spring Flowering Trees / Trees / Wildlife Gardening

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Burst Into Spring with Eastern Redbud

  A Beacon of Spring A blooming redbud tree grabs my attention like no other spring flowering tree.  It just suddenly lights up like a neon beacon glowing brightly in the edge of the wintery forest; transforming from non-descript to gorgeous in the space of a day. Unlike other spring blooming trees which show visibly swelling buds for weeks, while they wait for winter’s cold to pass; clusters of redbud blossoms simply break directly out of its bark, anywhere and...