Lessons About Plants & Gardens
Plants & Problems of Wild Gardens
Naturalist Gardening Examples & Plants Where we are on the map. Walter’s climatic diagrams. What our woods look like. Echaw Creek, SC via Coastal Expeditions Inc. Bushhog Borders; Large grasses Erianthus ravennae, Juncus, Mulenbergia capillaris, Panicum, Spartina. Perennials Aster carolinanus, Conoclinium, Crinum bulbispermum, Hibiscus coccinus, Oenothera. Overseeded with clover, Linaria canadensis, Ratibida. Coppiced Shrubs Salix,…
Read MoreKitchen And Pantry In The Yard — A Cooking and Gathering Garden.
Patrick, the client, turned this garden design upside down. The original plan was for a spiffy lap pool. But Patrick loves to cook and he really wanted an outdoor kitchen; not the kind with stainless steel appliances and an keg-erator. But a real outdoor kitchen complete with a pantry full of fruits and veggies. We…
Read MoreSeptember is Still Summer
Late summer here extends into September and October. Plants love it. This is the best time of year for gardens in the south. I like to garden visit now, everything is full and flowing, purple and orange, dripping with the weight of summer growth and buzzing with moths and the energy of life. Here are…
Read MoreTrends in Foodscaping
“Over the past decades, our plant pallet changed in ways other than you might expect. Plant explorers and breeders bring new plants into nurseries. They, as well as garden designers, decorators and all sorts of cultural leaders, become the tastemakers, slowly changing which plants we can get hold of…..One slow, huge change, tracks our shift…
Read MoreONLY Three Seeds Covered this Trellis with Giant Gourds
A few winters ago winter I sketched out the shape of a trellis I dreampt up. I wanted this massive thing to fit in on the farm. I wanted visitors to look at it and wonder if it used to be some sort of agricultural structure. Then I went to the metal yard, built it…
Read MoreYou’ll Smell These Two Plants As You Walk Past
Grow these plants along walkways for fragrance every time you pass by. Brush up against them, step on them or pinch a bit off as you pass. In every garden I make, I use a fragrant plant like this; it never fails to delight. These two are favorites: one thrives in sun, one thrives in…
Read MoreSand Dune Meadow; A Plea for Stewardship in Gardening
Our beautiful barrier islands have been landscaped beyond recognition. Typical “landscapes” seem designed to demonstrate that people can dominate nature. We can. We do. For a moment in time. But in making and keeping up typical landscapes, we’re doing harm to the life on the islands, in the soil and in the water. We can…
Read MorePlants for Deep South Meadows
You know those meadows that you see in magazines? The ones that beckon pick-nickers with knee high whispering grasses and painterly masses of wildflowers? The kind of meadow you might skip through, roll in, take off your shirt and nap with your dog in? In the Deep South, we only have those in calendars and…
Read MoreWelding Projects
I like to imagine what a plant would do if it had a certain type of fence, trellis, tuteur or sculpture to climb. Here’s a slide show (and below some videos) of recent welding projects. [Not a valid template] yt videos:
Read MoreParking Lots Become Parking Gardens
Form might follow function. But too often in designing parking lots, many important functions get ignored. In parking lots, nothing but parking and getting customers in the door seems to matter. Whatever happened to the very important functions of pedestrian safety, rainwater run off, shading cars and providing beauty? And whatever happend to the function…
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