Gardening

Every spring, chive blossoms burst into bloom in the herb garden, attracting pollinators and adding a splash of purple to the landscape. But these edible flowers can also be transformed into one of the prettiest homemade vinegars you’ll ever make. Chive blossom vinegar develops a delicate onion flavor and a beautiful rosy color that looks elegant in salad dressings, marinades, and spring…

If there’s one shrub that has quietly reinvented itself over the last few years, it’s the hydrangea. There is a hydrangea for every situation. At Cultivate in Columbus, Ohio—where growers, breeders, and the industry’s biggest brands preview what’s next—hydrangeas aren’t showing up as “more of the same.” They’re emerging as category disrupters: bred for stronger stems, heavier flowering, smaller…

Rewilding has quickly become one of those terms you hear everywhere—at lectures, in garden magazines, on plant tags, and across social media. But as its popularity grows, its meaning often becomes diluted just when clarity matters most. In the video below, I show you how I transformed a client’s suburban landscape—once dominated by pachysandra and azaleas—into a vibrant pollinator garden using a…

Why wait until May to plant your containers? I keep mine going all year long. By early to mid-March, I’m already pulling out winter greens and tucking in cool-season flowers that don’t just tolerate the cold—they thrive in it (see my favorites below  with frost tolerance). When summer containers start to look tired in early fall, I switch them out again for another round of cool-weather plants,…

Breakfast daily, 3 lunches, 4 dinners, 1 Afternoon Tea 4- Star Hotel Accommodations for 12 nights, including London, Wales, and Windsor Full day immersion at the Iconic Chelsea Flower Show (RHS Member’s Day) Explore the idyllic Cotswolds village, Ilmington, visiting private cottage gardens Private winery tour and tasting at White Castle Vineyard in Wales, plus a cider tasting at The Newt, a…

Every spring, I watch the same ritual unfold. Gardeners head to the nursery full of optimism. They load their carts with compost, fertilizer, lime, “plant food,” maybe a bright new bag promising bigger blooms or deeper green lawns. They come home and begin spreading amendments generously, convinced they are giving their plants exactly what they need. An array of fertilizers at the nursery But…

Early spring bird feeding changes almost overnight. All winter the feeders were busy — chickadees arguing, sparrows squabbling, woodpeckers tapping on frozen mornings — and then one day in March, silence. Nothing has gone wrong. Your garden has simply shifted from cafeteria to nursery. Early Spring Bird Feeding: The Winter Transition During winter, birds survive through numbers. They move in…

What to look for in the garden after winter: check plants, soil, wildlife, winter damage, and the first spring tasks after snow melts. Witch Hazel blooming through the snow Weeks of extreme cold, ice, and snow, when I see the first bare ground it feels like a turning point. Most gardeners walk outside and immediately feel the urge to clean up. My garden looks flattened, brown, and honestly a…

Will weeks of sub-zero cold damage hydrangeas, berries, and other garden plants? Understanding winter survival in garden plants is more complicated than temperature alone. The meadow surrounding my beehives How Winter Survival Works in Garden Plants After a stretch of extreme winter weather — nights dropping below 0°F and days stuck in the teens and twenties for weeks, combined with snow cover…

  Cultivated Italy: Gardens, History & Vineyards is a curated 14-day journey from Rome to Venice designed for travelers who want to experience Italy deeply through its gardens, villas, art, and landscapes. The tour includes expert guides, private coach transportation, admissions to more than twenty extraordinary sites, and special experiences such as truffle hunting in Mugello, wine tasting in…

As I write this, a major winter storm is on its way, bringing the familiar mix of snow, ice, and biting cold. For gardeners, these moments always spark the same question: Should I be doing something? The answer is: sometimes yes, often no — and occasionally, absolutely not. Leave the trees alone if they are encased in ice A winter garden is not dormant in the ecological sense. Beneath the frozen…

‘Red Lion’, ‘Apple Blossom’, and ‘Minerva’- a great trio of Amaryllis from Longfield Gardens Great used as a cut flower, Amaryllis ‘Splash’, from Longfield Gardens Christmas indoor plants give us a welcome breath of life during the darkest months of the year—and amaryllis is one of the brightest stars of all. Every winter I buy several new bulbs and try to coax my older ones into reblooming. With…

After months of seed trays under lights, misting, thinning, hardening off, and finally planting out, there comes the best part of all — cutting armfuls of flowers and bringing them inside. This is where seed starting turns into something tangible, generous, and joyful: the cutting garden. The phrase cutting garden can sound a bit elitist. It conjures an image of a prim English lady in a floppy…