Basil has taken a huge hit over the last few years from a downy mildew, which can quickly decimate a crop in the farmers’ fields, growers’ greenhouses and our gardens. Downy ...
Lilac trees extend the fragrant season
At garden centers, on garden tours, over dinner and in emails, people are asking about a tree with fragrant white flowers. It’s a Japanese lilac tree (Syringa reticulata), a ...
Trees and shrubs to consider for your landscape
If I could only have one perennial for certain situations, such as shade or sun…that’s what we talked about in last week’s column. This week, we’ll look at a few shrubs and ...
If I could only have one perennial for these spots
I get asked a lot of the time what my favorite flower is and my response is “whatever is blooming.” But what if you could only have one of something, what would your choices be? ...
High season for garden tours
Put on your walking shoes, slather on some sunscreen, grab an umbrella and a hat and head outdoors, for this is the season of garden tours. Most of the tours benefit the ...
Onions for the flower garden
Every spring, I’m always a bit surprised by the ornamental onions that pop up amid the oakleaf hydrangea in the front garden. For weeks, I’m under the spell of daffodils, ...
Bird friendly environment as easy as a bird bath
All over Indianapolis, birds are nesting, laying eggs, keeping them warm, hatching babies, keeping them warm and nourished until they take flight. That’s a lot of work, but ...
Don’t get tangled up with the wrong vine
The basic design elements of planting a container are pretty simple: thriller, filler and spiller. The thriller is the focal point of the pot, usually the tallest plant. Fillers ...
Saving the lives of warm-season plants
I’ve been saving lives the last couple of weeks…the lives of basil, peppers, tomatoes, rosemary, impatiens and geraniums (Pelargonium), to name a few. That’s because people want ...
Kids gardening: Good for vitamin N
We hear a lot about vitamin deficiencies, and kids are not immune, frequently coming up short on their vitamin N for nature. One way to bolster their vitamin N is to get kids ...