What are Ornamental Trees? These trees are usually small with special features like interesting bark, showy flowers, or eye-catching foliage. An ornamental also has a pleasing shape and fits easily … [Read More...] about 3 Tips For Landscaping Successfully With Ornamental Trees
Wayback in Ilona Garden Time
I was trying to find some old pages I had written in the online Wayback Machine. Unfortunately, I had deleted them before the old geocities site had been recorded (they only started recording it in 1999). Oh well. I did, however, find the beginnings of my "garden journal" when I was just starting to look into the then-new blogs and blogging. I was looking for something less cumbersome than … [Read more...] about Wayback in Ilona Garden Time
3 Tips For Landscaping Successfully With Ornamental Trees
What are Ornamental Trees? These trees are usually small with special features like interesting bark, showy flowers, or eye-catching foliage. An ornamental also has a pleasing shape and fits easily into modern yards. This may seem like a tall order of outstanding characteristics, but the "ornamental" part of the description means that the trees are selected and bred to deliver in a big … [Read more...] about 3 Tips For Landscaping Successfully With Ornamental Trees
Mid-Ohio Gardening Update
The weather has proved unusual, and here is the impact for my garden; plus some jots about other notable conditions and effects. It has been far wetter than usual, and then there is the inverted effect of our temperatures... June was as miserable as any July-August might have been. The heat and humidity was horrible at the beginning of summer, but what happened in July? Perfect June weather … [Read more...] about Mid-Ohio Gardening Update
All Season Garden Color with Bold Foliage Effects, Masterful Contrasts
Be Bold with Color Foliage color is a fine way to introduce variation in all seasons; so consider the addition of variegated foliage, purple tinted leaves, golden and some of the other types of leaf or needle color. Flowers, combined for bold contrasts or subtle harmonies, are the glory of three of our four seasons. Ways to Introduce Color Into Your Garden Everyone thinks of spring and summer … [Read more...] about All Season Garden Color with Bold Foliage Effects, Masterful Contrasts
Moneysaving Tips for Gardeners
Dirt Cheap Garden Ideas Not everyone can afford a bath size water garden kit, but what about using an old tub that was cast off from a remodeling project? What about old teacups turned into bird feeders? Or signs made out of old lumber, or the newest trend... making stuff out of wooden pallets? In the following sections: learn how to save money in the garden. Dividing your plants will … [Read more...] about Moneysaving Tips for Gardeners
Furnishing Grandma’s Fairy House
Just Moved In? Time to Get Decorating! Being creative is what it's all about- let's make some cute stuff! I hope you enjoy these ideas and they spark your own fun projects. A Place of Enchantment Whether a fairy garden or home, flights of fancy start with the tiny things that make a miniature world come alive in the imagination. Things that make us feel that some fantasy inhabitants come … [Read more...] about Furnishing Grandma’s Fairy House
Garden Logistics
Spring season is always a matter of logistics when you live in a cold climate. In temperate Ohio we go from cold-can't-do-anything conditions to hot-don't-want-to-do-anything weather with only a fleeting spring in between. We can count on two months to get soil prepared and everything planted. Some years there may be some earlier breaks and if we don't mind working very early in the mornings and … [Read more...] about Garden Logistics
In Touch with the Weather
A definite benefit of gardening is being in touch with the weather. It's a necessity, and counters the tendency of a modern life to live in isolation from nature. Of course, mankind has always been in something of a struggle with natural forces; but that is just an explanation for why we complain so much about the weather. (A vestigial sense of our recognition of nature's importance in our … [Read more...] about In Touch with the Weather
Big Things I’m Doing Differently in 2018
Remember "The Beverly Hillbillies"? How about "The Brady Bunch", or "Green Acres", for that matter? They are all TV shows that started out with a theme song that told their stories. For me, it could have been "There once was a woman who homeschooled, With her ten kids, she moved out to the country and found she needed to keep her sanity. She wanted something creative. Something that could … [Read more...] about Big Things I’m Doing Differently in 2018
National Seed Swap Day on Saturday
Swap Seeds For A Better Garden This Year Gardener's have traditionally loved to trade with each other: tips ad advice, seeds and plants, even tools of the trade. It is no surprise that as the seed supplies available from seed companies have been shrinking, that grassroots gardeners have stepped up to organize seed swaps. These are great places to go to let others have some of your abundance … [Read more...] about National Seed Swap Day on Saturday
A Basic Guide To Essential Garden Tools For Beginners
What, When, How To Use Garden Tools Just starting out as a new homeowner? Get the garden tools you need. Tips on which essentials a newbie gardener should buy. Hint: if it decorates a wall, you aren't using it. | What Essential Tools Do I Need to Garden? There are an array of tools in every garden center and hardware store, and some look like they were dreamed up after eating too late at … [Read more...] about A Basic Guide To Essential Garden Tools For Beginners
Observations on an Ohio Spring
We haven't entered springtime officially, but tell the weather that! This has been a most mild winter, and Ohio experienced all time high temperature records for the month of February in 2017. It accelerated a climate phenomenon which, as a gardener, I look for each year. Most everyone know of the "Indian Summer" and "January Thaw" that is experienced - those period of unexpected warmth … [Read more...] about Observations on an Ohio Spring