Colors like reds, golden yellows, and cheerful oranges dominate our fall gardens.  These warmer colors are synonymous with fall.  But as summer winds down, many of us aren’t ready to let go of the riot of summer color and give way to fall’s muted reds and golds. Cool colors are a counterpoint to the rusty […]

Let’s look again at the “hell strip”- that patch of your property between the road and the sidewalk. Hell strip plantings take all kinds of abuse but also are in a prime location for viewing. This time we gain inspiration from a darling tourist destination in northeastern Michigan. Germans settled Frankenmuth, MI  in 1845 and […]

I’ve noticed the landscaping outside an office building near me for a few months.  The strip of ornamental grasses between the parking area and the road has consistently looked amazing.  The “hellstrip” – that area that is baked in the sun and surrounded by asphalt – is a tough area for anything to grow.  These […]

Looking for a showy native shrub? It seems that new hydrangea cultivars appear everywhere you look, but this old stand-by is tried and true. Consider Hills-of-Snow smooth hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens ‘Grandiflora’) for your garden. It was discovered growing in the wild in Ohio around 1900 and is native to moist, wooded slopes and stream banks […]