Hostas are the backbone of the shade garden: tough perennials with lush foliage, easy care, and interest across the season. They thrive in shade, and many varieties grow well in partial to full sun, which makes them a versatile base for a border. Pairing them with the right companions turns a row of leaves into […]
A professionally designed garden rarely comes from buying more plants. It comes from a sequence of decisions: reading the site, setting a structure, choosing materials, and planting with restraint. The same discipline that governs architectural design and building envelope systems applies outdoors, where sun, wind, and water act as loads. Work through the design in
Weeds compete with garden plants for water, nutrients, and light, and pulling them by hand is tiring and often ineffective, especially when the root breaks off below the surface. A well-chosen weeding tool removes the whole plant, root included, in a single motion. Before spending money, it helps to understand how each tool family works,
You do not need a large garden to grow healthy, productive tomatoes. With the right variety, a properly sized container, and a support system that sends the plant upward instead of outward, a balcony, stoop, or narrow patio can yield fresh fruit from midsummer to frost. The same planning discipline that guides choosing small furniture
Growing your own herbs puts fresh sage, rosemary, basil, and chamomile within reach of the kitchen, and a productive herb garden keeps delivering from early spring until the first hard frost. Success starts before the first seed goes in the ground, because the choices you make about location, bed style, and plant groupings determine how
Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) are one of the fastest, most forgiving plants a homeowner can grow. A single seed can produce a bloom 15 feet in the air in one season, and the flowers draw pollinators from midsummer into early fall. Around a new build they deliver instant curb appeal while the rest of the landscape
Creeping juniper (Juniperus horizontalis) is a low-growing evergreen that landscape crews reach for when a slope will not hold turf and bare soil keeps washing away. It spreads 8 to 10 feet wide while staying only 1.5 to 3 feet tall, so it blankets rocky banks, road cuts, and uneven terrain without being pruned into
Mona Lavender is a compact hybrid Plectranthus that pairs glossy, purple-backed leaves with spikes of lavender blooms carried on upright purple stems. Breeders developed it in the 1990s by crossing two South African evergreen species, Plectranthus saccatus and Plectranthus hilliardiae ssp. autrale ’Magwa’, and it has become one of the most dependable flowering houseplants for
St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum) is a versatile perennial shrub that produces delicate yellow flowers through spring and summer, and it copes with conditions that send fussier plants into decline. Also known as goatweed and Klamath weed, it grows in a wide range of soil types and pH levels, flourishes in full sun, tolerates some
Crossandra, better known as the firecracker flower, is a tropical plant from Sri Lanka and southern India that produces clusters of bright orange, pink, or red blooms above glossy green leaves. It grows 1 to 3 feet tall and 1 to 2 feet wide and flowers from spring through fall. Gardeners in warm climates grow
