Category: How-To Projects

The system developed by my brother Geoffrey allows him to water his favorite ficas tree from anywhere in the world. First he logs onto the web page he set up to monitor all of the controls in the process. Then he looks at his moisture sensor to see if he needs to water his plant. If the plant needs water he turns on the video camera so he can watch the water going into the pot. Then he turns on…

  I got the idea for my living ornaments from a magazine called "State-By-State Gardening," whose author, Lisa Eldred Steinkopf, filled her glass balls with air plants and shiny bling. She bought Christmas floral picks at a craft store and cut them apart so she had a collection of tiny sequined balls, miniature lights, jingle bells and more. For mine I chose to keep it simple. I used a couple of air plants, plus some artificial berries and dried flowers…

We first published this article in 2013, and we have been republishing it every year since! A problem with paperwhites, as with many bulbs planted in pots, is that they grow quite tall and all of their weight is at the top. This information is reprinted from the about.com website. I have tried it and it works. Researchers in the Flowerbulb Research Program at Cornell University have come up with an unusual solution to this top heavy problem: Alcohol. When paperwhite…

  Thanksgiving feels like a less commercial holiday to me. In the spirit of keeping it that way I like to make table decorations with natural items found right outside my door. If you have a pair of scissors and a few craft items it's easy to create a beautiful, natural looking table that celebrates Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving Placecards Create placecards with the following items: woven bags and kraft paper tags (I purchased mine at Michaels); a piece of Oasis foam;…

  Garden designer and writer Rochelle Greayer grew up in Colorado, but spent time at the family ranch in Montana where her grandmother grew “hedges and hedges of peonies,” as she remembers it. They were a dark burgundy and adapted well to the zone 3 climate. When Rochelle and her husband moved to Massachusetts years later, she wanted her grandmother’s peonies to be one of the cornerstones of her garden. She divided and carried the bare root plants across country…

  Michelle Lam’s happiest childhood memories are of sitting in fruit trees eating fruit on her parents’ farm in Hong Kong. Those memories bubbled to the surface when she and her husband and daughter Lily moved to Dutchess County, NY, to ‘put down roots,’ says Michelle. The previous owners of the 7 1/2-acre property they fell in love with had “lots of animals and the soil was great,” says Michelle. Also, the house sits on a hill facing south, so…

Pruner Maintenance: Anne Cleves Symmes, horticulturist and garden educator at Beatrix Farrand's celebrated Bellefield Garden in Hyde Park, NY, demonstrated how she keeps her pruners sharp and well oiled each Spring. First she uses the scouring pad side of a discarded kitchen sponge to rub off gummy buildup on the blades. You can also use a piece of wire wool for this. To sharpen your pruner she recommends a diamond blade, or you can use a sharpening stone or whetstone.  Swipe the diamond blade or stone…

If you received a free package of three Hyacinth bulbs, they are ready to be potted up indoors as soon as you get them. This is because they have spent the winter in a cool warehouse in Pennsylvania. (For other Spring blooming bulbs, you need to put them in a cool, refrigerated location for 6-8 weeks before potting them up indoors.) Follow these instructions for forcing your bulbs to bloom this Spring indoors: Fill a pot (6" diameter or more) with potting…

Katie Rose Hillegas and her husband Jay Erickson have created a 4-acre meadow garden at their home in Pawling, NY.  I spoke with Jay about their garden, which is now in its third year, and what they learned that could be helpful to others. Here’s his story. “I’ve always been a fan of meadows,” says Jay. His earliest memories of meadows include grassland plants in the Rockies where he spent summers as a boy, and early spring bluebell woodland gardens…

REPRINTED If you live in a cold climate (Zone 6 and colder) you need to dig up your dahlia tubers before the ground freezes, and store them for the winter if you want them to live. More and more people are discovering the beauty of growing dahlias and many of us are learning this Fall ritual. I received a dahlia plant from my friend Kathy Scherer last Spring. Kathy and her husband have built a beautiful garden in Pawling which…