Garden Gate November/December 2020

I don’t know how many times I said or wrote, “Thank goodness it’s spring!” when our lives were upended earlier this year. I appreciated the stability of the garden’s rhythms in the unpredictability. Many of us have always loved to garden, but we suddenly had more time to devote to it. Were your beds tidier than ever? Did you start a quarantine project? Did the typical midsummer ambivalence never arrive? Me too, on all counts. As we head toward the end of the year, I often forget about my garden for a month or two, but it’s just not happening this year. And judging by my communications with many of you, you’re in the same boat. In fact, we’ve gathered a gallery of our readers’ quarantine projects (and a few of…

Deer-resistant border plan Don’t give up! Try this pretty combination of plants that deer usually won’t eat. GardenGateMagazine.com/articles/ garden-plans/ Winter dream garden A garden can still be beautiful in winter. Here are design ideas and plants that can keep the color coming all year. GardenGateMagazine.com/articles/flower-plants/ How to Make Evergreen Wreaths and Other Holiday Projects Decorate your home with greenery and dried flowers from your own garden. Jennifer Howell has made thousands of wreaths and will show you her secrets. GardenGateSeminars.com DESIGN: Stacie Crooks, www.crooksgardendesign.com (Winter dream garden) ILLUSTRATION: Carlie Hamilton…

If you have many different hose nozzles to suit a variety of needs, try John’s hack: Keep all of the nozzles in one place by hanging them on a piece of chain using “S” hooks. It saves space and makes it easy to swap nozzles out when needed. John Prebstle, IL Ring them out Eva Woodring, TN The excitement of a new plant emerging in spring can be quickly followed by puzzlement—wait, is that a weed? To remind herself and her family members where her perennials (especially those that are hard to recognize as they emerge) are planted, Eva cut up her older tomato cages into individual segments. Each segment has a round circle top and some legs that she inserts around a plant in fall as a reminder for spring. It’s also helpful…

Yellow warbler Setophaga petechia What it looks like In mid- to late spring it’s easy to spot this bright little bird darting around in a tall hedge or willow tree. Males are bright yellow with chestnut striping on the belly. Females are a softer yellow with no belly markings. Neither male nor female have any markings on their round head, making their black eyes and straight, thin beak stand out. They are slightly larger than an American goldfinch, and they lay gray eggs with brown spots in cup-shaped nests. You can hear their familiar song “sweetsweet-sweet-I’m-so-sweet” in spring. Where to find it You’ll find yellow warblers in most of North America. They overwinter in Central America and then migrate to breed anywhere north of New Mexico, Texas and Alabama all the way to…

The garden season is winding down, and your head might be spinning in review of this year’s greatest garden hits—and misses. While it’s fresh in your mind, take some time to gather some bold solutions for those less-than-satisfactory spaces in your garden so that next year’s display can be better, and maybe even bigger. Without expanding the square footage of your garden, make some sizeable improvements by growing plants with huge, irrepressibly beautiful flowers. WHAT’S THE TRICK? Sure, there might be some reasons why you’ve avoided growing big flowers in the past. Large, heavy blooms can droop and flop, requiring staking to keep them upright. This isn’t always the case, however. In fact, you’ll find some wonderful examples in the following combinations of plants whose big blooms don’t need any extra…

It starts with the desire for a fresh look inside your home. You rearrange furniture, declutter and then you spot it: An empty space on your shelf. An idea to thrill every gardener lights your eyes—I could put a houseplant there! But how does this story end for you? We all have places in our houses that would look better with more plants, but sometimes it’s hard to imagine how to make it work. Or maybe the plants you have tried just don’t survive. Danae Horst has experienced it all, and she’s here to help you incorporate houseplants into your home with equal parts practicality and style. After growing up with a “crazy plant lady” mom in a home where she could connect with nature indoors every day, it was discouraging to…