While we want our gardens to be visually attractive, the best landscapes appeal to all five senses. Plant your garden with wonderfully fragrant annual flowers that you can enjoy this growing season, filling your porch or yard with beautiful colors and pleasing scents. 1. Lemon beebalm (Monarda citriodora) The striking pink flowers of lemon beebalm …
Garden Landscaping
Landscaping under any tree can be challenging, thanks to the dense shade cast by the branches and the abundance of thick roots in the soil. But black walnut trees (Juglans nigra) seem to be in a category all their own; nothing will grow anywhere near them! Although landscaping under black walnut trees may feel like …
Living in a climate where landscaping with palm trees is possible offers many opportunities to beautify your home. Palm trees give the feeling of a sunny vacation spot to live in daily. Palm trees are tall, slender trees with a distinctive crown of feathery or fan-like fronds. Their trunk is often smooth and unbranched, with …
Growing your own vegetable garden is getting more and more popular. If you’re new to vegetable gardening, don’t let a backyard vegetable garden design stump you. Traditionally, a vegetable garden is set up in long rows filled with coordinated vegetable plants. However, that’s not the only way to design your garden. More recently, many have …
You’re missing out if you don’t have shrubs around your home. Shrubs can add color, fragrance, and even protection from unwanted attention. Here are 15 ideas for landscaping with shrubs to boost your curb appeal Shrubs can create interesting patterns and designs that please the eye. Picking the right spot for the right shrub can …
While many flowering plants open their blooms during daylight hours and close for the nighttime, others follow the reverse schedule. These evocative night blooming flowers have, in many cases, co-evolved with such nocturnal pollinators as moths and bats and frequently have ornate, often white or otherwise bright-colored flowers giving off a strong perfume. Some blooms …
I recently moved into a new house with a wonderful, fully fenced-in backyard. The downside? Keeping that fence line clean! Grass and other weeds grow up from under the fence and creep into my yard from the neighboring properties. The mower can only get so close, and it’s difficult to string trim along the fence …
While New Jersey has more than 2,000 beautiful native plant species, many of the plants you may be familiar seeing along roadsides, in the woods, and fields are actually invasive species. These aggressively spreading nonnative plants displace native plants and cause harm to local wildlife and entire ecosystems. Some invasive plants are still sold in …
It’s thin and tall and almost never comes out by the root, instead breaking off just below the soil surface and releasing a pungent oniony odor that lingers on your hand—onion grass. Tufts of onion grass grow taller than the rest of the lawn, and strands of it poke up through the mulch in flower …
Arborvitae make excellent privacy screens, borders, and even container plants, but what to plant with them? Just as arborvitae vary in shape, size, and hue, so do companion plants for arborvitae vary greatly. Mix textures and heights to create layers of interest, perhaps planting tall, conical arborvitae in a back row with smaller, rounded shrubs …