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Junk on the Trunk
Here’s a few pics I’ve taken recently of some cool-looking tree trunks. The first was taken at Green Spring Gardens in Annandale, VA, one of my favorite garden haunts. They have a few mature crape...
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National Christmas Tree Mysteriously Disfigured!
The 2011 National Christmas Tree needs a prune. http://www.wjla.com I saw this posted on a local news blog last week and was kind of intrigued. The picture clearly shows an odd bump at the top of the...
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Decorating Your Decapitated Crape Myrtle This Holiday Season: An Illustrated...
‘Tis the season for making boxwood wreaths, garlands of fresh pine, and of course donning the mangled remains of your professionally landscaped front yard with holiday fairy lights and other whimsical...
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American Holly, American Beech, American Graffiti
The gorgeous American Beech (Fagus grandifolia) has long been a favorite canvas for young couples in love and other graffiti artists. My favorite nearby park is filled with beeches, tulip poplars, red...
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Life and Limb
You really could not pay me enough to do this kind of work: That was the view from my back deck a couple of days ago, as crews removed two stately, gigantic white oaks from the lot of my neighbor to...
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Black Walnut Society Officially Unveiled
Do you garden under a Black Walnut tree? Have you searched the internet seeking lists of species that grow under Black Walnuts only to discover that the lists are sometimes contradictory, or that...
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New Home Found for Tiny Acer griseum
Check out the little cutie I stumbled upon at Green Spring Gardens’ plant shop a few days ago: What you’re looking at here, my friends, is a baby Paperbark Maple (Acer griseum) which (in case you’ve...
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It’s the Most Walnutty Time of the Year
Isn’t the weedy Hellebore bed with wire fencing just super classy? It’s my patented “Postmodern Retro Tacky” design aesthetic. No, those aren’t dirty tennis balls. Those are just a few dozen of the...
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David Culp’s Layered Garden Includes Black Walnuts!
More good news for those of us living with Juglans nigra! In his new book The Layered Garden, David Culp describes several genera that he has grown with success beneath these anti-social trees,...
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The Optimism of Tiny Trees
I have a vivid memory of eating a Red Delicious apple when I was seven years old and, afterward, regarding the dark seeds embedded in the core. I asked my dad if I planted one of the seeds would we...
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Care for a Black Walnut?
I’ve got plenty. And plenty still to come: This is a nifty nut collector made by the folks at Garden Weasel. What a treat to discover a yard device that requires no engine and makes no noise, that is...
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Black Walnut Inspiration
For when you get demoralized thinking about all the things you can’t grow under your black walnut, take heart. This venerable black walnut tree, located at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, VA,...
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Toxic Relationships
Very few can survive, let alone thrive, living in the vicinity of a toxic individual. Many will succumb instantly, unable to co-exist even for a short time in a toxic environment. Others make a go of...
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Corona Garden Diary 3/22/20: Two Views on the Ornamental Cherry
Here in northern VA, the cherry blossoms are at their splendid best. Down at the Tidal Basin, at least some tourists are showing up to view the iconic Yoshino cherries (check the Bloom Cam to monitor...
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Corona Garden Diary 5/2: Loss
Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature’s delight. – Marcus Aurelius I’ve lost another Japanese maple. This is the third. I’m sure you’re not too busy to listen to my tragic history with...
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