It pains me to see customers spending hundreds of dollars on new plants and simultaneously refusing to spend a few more on a bag or two of compost and a box of starter fertilizer. These two items are not unnecessary “add-ons” that the retailer is just trying to add to the sale, they are critical components of a successful transplanting process - or as I like to refer to them as “plant insurance”. Unless you have phenomenal soil, you should always add compost and starter fertilizers when you are planting new plants. Here is why…
a few gems to brighten up the fall garden
It always amazes me that no matter how many times I visit the garden center, I always seem to find something that looks interesting and is calling to me to take it home and add it to the landscape. You would think that I would run out of space eventually, but the reality is that any gardener worth his/her salt can always find a spot for a new introduction. Here are a few that caught my eye this week as I toured the nursery looking for treasures…
Speaking as a self-proclaimed “plantaholic” who likes just about all things with foliage, fronds, or needles, one plant I started to salivate over in the 1990’s was Crape Myrtle (Lagerstroemia sp.). For us in northern latitudes, these mythical plants were uncommon and were perceived as…