Pruning Trees and Roses
Historically speaking, tree pruning is a relatively recent phenomenon, developed as a necessity when trees began to be planted in close proximity to where people lived, worked, or congregated. It’s j...
Category Archives: Gardening Practices
Gardeners are Partners in Creation
“Gardening is cheaper than therapy and you get tomatoes too.” If you dabble in the dirt, you may have come across these words of wisdom at one time or another. There is nothing like working in a gar...
Growing Plants Under Glass
Nathaniel Ward was an Englishman who loved to observe the behavior of insects and was fond of enclosing them in glass jars. Once, he forgot about one of his jars and, when he noticed it again, a fern...
Flamboyant Tree, Floating Row Cover
During the recent heat wave, something curious happened. A tree that had every reason to burn or at least get mildly singed emerged unscathed. But first let’s mention some horticultural favorites th...
Wisteria, Soil pH, Soil Testing
My more than 20 year old Wisteria longissima ‘Alba’ hasn’t grown in over 10 years. An arborist and numerous others have given advice but nothing works. I’ve replaced the soil, enlarged th...
Low Maintenance Garden: an Oxymoron
A walk in the forest is most enjoyable yet, when you get hungry, you long for the presence of a peach or a plum or an apple tree among the pines. You realize that forest trees are a wonderful gift, ...
Getting Ready for Spring
Spring can turn the most casual observer of plants into a suddenly enthusiastic novice gardener. Blinding displays of flowers are everywhere. Who can resist them? Just take a look at Lampranthus p...
Gardening Without Work
According to a certain popular legend that is found in a wide range of cultural traditions, the difference between heaven and hell has nothing to do with angels singing in one place and fire and brim...
The History of Fruit Tree Grafting
No one knows when grafting of plants began. Initially, grafting was thought to be an extension of vegetative or clonal propagation by cuttings. Just as softwood (shoot) or hardwood cuttings, detach...
Biological Control of Snails and Rodents in the Garden
Two weeks ago, I wrote about the European brown garden snail and the damage it does to our plants. I received some noteworthy emails in response. “I was born and grew up in Southern California,” Pat...
