Fine Gardening – Issue 205
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To Hosta, or Not to Hosta? That Is the Question | Letter from the Editor
When I tell people I live on a wooded 5-acre lot with a resident population of deer and that I grow hostas, they assume I’m lying. I’m not. Just because…
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How to Use Hostas in a Garden Design
When my husband and I bought our home in North Vancouver in 1992, I was a novice gardener. Our purchase gave me the enviable opportunity to create a new garden…
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Dig Small Holes Easily With This Serrated Trowel
The Comfort Grip Soil Scoop from Garden Works isn’t just for scooping soil, although it does an admirable job of that when faced with compacted bags of potting mix. It’s…
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This Versatile Mattock Can Break Up the Densest Soil
I affectionately call my mattock the “Mad Axe” because of its incredible strength. It has a sturdy fiberglass handle and a stout steel head with a horizontal adze on one…
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A Lightweight Shovel With Extreme Endurance
One of my favorite shovels is my long-handle round-point floral shovel from Ames. This tool has been with me for well over twenty years. It’s smaller than your standard shovel,…
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Best New Plants: Annuals
Each year we do a feature in our big spring issue introducing folks to a slew of new offerings from plant breeders. But this is not simply a list of…
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Tips About Cleaning, Feeding Birds, Garden Clothes, DIY Plant Labels, and Bleeding Hearts
Winning Tip: Remove those stubborn leaves I still have a “muck rake” (DuraFork) from when I had a horse. I discovered a new use for it when cleaning out my…
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The Best New Heirloom Vegetables
Heirloom vegetables are renowned for many qualities, such as delicious flavors, vibrant colors, and productivity. Many of these characteristics have stood the test of time, delivering hardiness, superior flavor, and…
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Bleeding Hearts for Everyone
Plant lovers have been swooning over bleeding hearts (Dicentra and Lamprocapnos spp. and cvs.) for centuries, and with good reason. Their exquisite heart-shaped flowers, long bloom times, and attractive ferny…
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Best New Plants: Trees and Shrubs
Each year we do a feature in our big spring issue introducing folks to a slew of new offerings from plant breeders. But this is not simply a list of…
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Best New Plants: Herbs and Veggies
Each year we do a feature in our big spring issue introducing folks to a slew of new offerings from plant breeders. But this is not simply a list of…
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Favorite Hostas
At first glance many hostas look similar, with cool-colored leaves and mounded growing habits. Yet this group of plants is incredibly diverse, with some varieties distinguishing themselves as standouts. The…
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How to Use Hostas in Garden Design: Plant IDs
In “How to Use Hostas in Garden Design,” home gardener Delphia Johnstone introduced us to her lush Zone 7b North Vancouver garden. The garden has been three decades in the…
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Plants for the Southwest to Add to Your Shopping List
Whether you're walking through your local garden center, flipping through the pages of your favorite catalog, or scrolling the website of an online retailer, the sheer number of plant choices…
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Plants for the Northwest to Add to Your Shopping List
Whether you're walking through your local garden center, flipping through the pages of your favorite catalog, or scrolling the website of an online retailer, the sheer number of plant choices…
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Plants for the Southern Plains to Add to Your Shopping List
Whether you’re walking through your local garden center, flipping through the pages of your favorite catalog, or scrolling the website of an online retailer, the sheer number of plant choices…
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Plants for the Northern Plains to Add to Your Shopping List
Whether you’re walking through your local garden center, flipping through the pages of your favorite catalog, or scrolling the website of an online retailer, the sheer number of plant choices…
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Oddball Cousins of Bleeding Hearts
If you still have space for more dazzling options, check out these bleeding heart cousins. They are not all readily available in nurseries or by mail order, but they are…
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Plants for Your Region to Add to Your Shopping List
Whether you’re walking through your local garden center, flipping through the pages of your favorite catalog, or scrolling the website of an online retailer, the sheer number of plant choices…
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Turning a Large Property Into a Multifaceted Garden
In 1995, Cindy Lindstedt and her husband, John, moved into a newly built log cabin on 142 acres an hour outside Milwaukee. Since then, the pair has turned much of…
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‘Amethyst Falls’ Ornamental Oregano Is a Near-Perfect Plant
We lean heavily on our own collections of rare and unusual plants for plantings in our gardens, but we happily make exceptions for awesome workhorses such as ‘Amethyst Falls’ ornamental…
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Galactic Pink® Chaste Tree Delivers an Out-of-This-World Performance
It is not often I am smitten by a new shrub its first year in the garden, but when Galactic Pink® chaste tree bloomed for the first time, it was…
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‘Magma’ Heuchera Will Have You Going Gaga for Foliage
Yes, we all want flowers whenever and wherever we can get them, but don’t forget that foliage plants are your stalwart garden workhorses. With this knockout heuchera, you get the…
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How to Identify and Combat Tomato Blights
Each year as spring warms into summer, verdant vegetables hold the attention of many an eager gardener. As growers monitor their tomato plants, they may notice scattered yellow spotting, a…
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Spots on Your Tomatoes? Learning about tomato diseases and blights is half the battle
If you have ever found yourself disappointed by the tomato harvest from your garden, you are not alone. There are around nine bacterial diseases of tomato, nearly two dozen fungal…
Featured Articles
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Care and Feeding Tips to Make Flower Containers Last Longer
With all the care and effort you put into selecting plants that last, you want to do your part to keep them looking their best throughout the seasons. Follow these…
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Six Ways to Improve Your Garden With Containers
If there were a gardening equivalent to the cooking adage “Salt makes everything better,” it would likely be “Pots make everything pop.” Many of us spend precious time and energy…
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The Best New Plants for Your Garden 2022
Each year we do a feature in our big spring issue introducing folks to a slew of new offerings from plant breeders. But this is not simply a list of…
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Designing Long-Lasting Containers
We are all probably familiar with this scenario: You’ve created a beautiful container planting that brings you joy in spring, only to have that joy turn to dismay when the…
Articles
Fine Gardening Magazine
