CURE FOR EMPTY SPACES IN YOUR GARDEN AND YOUR WINTER BLUES...
Short and Sweet Woodruff
Tag: novels
To Fidget: A Garden in Miniature
The rheumatic, the sufferers from lumbago, and the merely elderly, would all be well advised to try a little experiment in sink or trough gardening...raised to hand-level on four little piers of brick or stone, may provide in this their second life a constant pleasure and interest to those keen gardeners who for one reason … Continue reading To Fidget: A Garden in Miniature
Salvia: A Variety That Should Be Forbidden
The sage is altogether an amiable plant; indeed, its Latin name, Salvia, comes from salvere, to save, or heal, and one of its nicknames is S. slavatrix, which sounds very reassuring....The garden sages are useful for the herbaceous border. I do not mean that half-hardy bedding-out plant beloved of the makers of public gardens, S. … Continue reading Salvia: A Variety That Should Be Forbidden
I Hate Hostas, Don’t I?
It took me years of gardening to appreciate the pale beauty of its leaves and flowers, but now that I have learnt to look at them in the right way I can begin to see what other gardeners meant when they extolled the merits of the Funkia. One has a lot, an endless lot, to … Continue reading I Hate Hostas, Don’t I?
Only the Good Die Young…
The charm of annuals is their light gaiety, as though they must make the most of their brief lives to be frivolous and pleasure-giving. They have no time to be austere or glum. They must be youthful because they have no time to be old. And so their colours are bright, and their foliage airy, … Continue reading Only the Good Die Young…
Ghosts…
The cool weather we endured throughout February and March this year suited its arrangements perfectly, for a warm spell during the early months tends to hurry it up, and then the flowers are liable to damage by their two enemies, frost and wind....Avoid planting in a frost pocket, or in a position where [flowers: in this case … Continue reading Ghosts…
“Go Round Popping The Buds”
Far more satisfactory [than the hibiscus], I find, are the hardy fuchsias...although they will probably be cut to the ground by frost in winter, there is no cause for alarm, for they will spring up again from the base in time to flower generously in midsummer...and in case of extremely hard weather an old sack … Continue reading “Go Round Popping The Buds”
“Magenta is a Nasty Color”
The only nasty color produced by the zinnia is a magenta, and this, alas, is produced only too often. When magenta threatens, I pull it up and throw in on the compost heap, and allow the better colours to have their way. -Vita Sackville-West February 12th, 1950 Yes, magenta does show up all too … Continue reading “Magenta is a Nasty Color”
Friday Snippets: “Smash” Their Stems with a Hammer
Any lilac is 'easy': they need no pruning, though it is most advantageous to cut off the faded flowers, this is really important; they are perfectly hardy; and very long-lived unless they suddenly die back, which sometimes happens....By the way, if you strip all the leaves from cut branches of (lilac) they will last far … Continue reading Friday Snippets: “Smash” Their Stems with a Hammer
Toxic Beauty
It is perhaps too ordinary to appeal to the real connoisseur- a form of snobbishness I always find hard to understand in gardeners... -Vita Sackville-West January 1st, 1950 I've often thought Vita wouldn't approve of my growing pussy toes. After all, they're just an ordinary wildflower. But then I read the above passage. Of course … Continue reading Toxic Beauty
BRIANNE TURCZYNSKI 