Lessons About Plants & Gardens
Build Your Soil & Soul with Late Summer Cover Crops
Once I considered writing a book called Farm, Yard, Garden. The premise would be that farming and horticulture are based on the same science but used for different goals. What a mistake that would have been. Big agriculture and my farm, yard, or garden have almost nothing in common. Being a part of, a…
Read MoreConnections Between Plants and People
A Story by Summer Intern Iris Moore Every person has their own story and plants are no different. As living things, I find plants to be very personal. If I get a plant from someone, I think of it as an extension of them and their relationship with me. Hearing stories from people has helped…
Read MoreFarm Days; Garden Lunch & Learn
We’re happy to offer group tours in the summer of 2022. Click here to email inquiry. Group size limited to 15- 30 people with covid safe protocols. Arrive around 9 a.m. for a tour of our specialty nursery, and an introduction to the other aspects of the design business. We’ll walk the fields, hang out…
Read MoreEryngium pandanifolium Needs a Better Name & It Oughta Mention Tree Frogs
Like the best of “exclamation point” plants, giant eryngium adds evergreen structure to a garden. But like, drought-tolerant plants, the leaves look stiff and foreboding to some people. One garden client used to constantly tell me to leave my ‘pokey and prickly’ plants out of her designs! Some of those things can be hell to…
Read MoreSyllabub! Home Grown Ginger in a Bubble Cocktail
Syllabub is an old-school Southern desert. When I was little, the center of neighbors’ Christmas party was a huge bucket and real, antique syllabub pump. What’s more fun than making bubbles inside? Syllabub making makes a party. Elaborate contraptions for blowing bubbles into sweetened cream and whiskey become the center of attention and…
Read MoreIs a pot of peculiar bulbs the adult version of sea monkeys?
Did you dream of a tiny kingdom of Sea Monkeys? I did. Or were you the Living Magic Rock kid? Both? Me too. Are you now ready for the grown-up version? We put together a box of peculiar bulbs with quirky, enticing traits. They all fit in a pot. Planting them, watching them grow will…
Read MoreVirus Prevention on a Lily Farm. It’s a Community Thing.
Imagine endless rows of fields of corn on a modern farm. Now let the rows turn into endless pink flowers. Sounds pretty right? On our little farm, which specializes in one type of lily, we could grow that way. But like the small farms that sustained and built this country, here, diversity is key. Diversity…
Read MoreAxis Point A Story of Garden Design from Concept to Installation by Sam Thorp Engler
It all started with a new house and an empty yard. A clean slate if you will. A canvas that would soon prove to introduce a dream garden that ultimately ties this lonely brick home into a fluent mixture of architecture and landscape. A mid century-modern masterpiece. I have had the pleasure of working on…
Read MorePlectranthus fruticosus ‘Purple Martin’
Neon purple flowers for late summer through fall. I named this plant for horticulturist Jim Martin and of course for my favorite birds.
Read MoreA Mist of Tiny Leaves and All the Greens of Spring
Call it acid green or April-fresh or lime-jello-fake-green. This time of year spring greens catch my eye and soul to remind me that the life force is too strong to contain. Ryegrass or dandelion leaves, those dreaded yellow-green catkins pushing out pollen, that powerful color fades as spring turns into summer. Heat makes most leaves…
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