Last Saturday, while planting pansies and violas for fall and cleaning up my front borders, I began to ponder ten ways to enjoy your garden more. Penny Denim Jump up violas right outside my door. You can grow these from seed. I always get my best ideas in the garden. Don't you? Common buckeye butterfly in my garden. This is the first year I've seen them here. I have three today. Common plantain is one of the host plants. I have loads of it here. First, the bullet points. Plant things where you can see them coming and going.Consider building raised beds.Automate your watering.Grow some plants in containers with irrigation already installed.Grow what you loveSize the garden for the resources you have.Respect Mother Nature.Buy good tools. Grow plants for others. Grow more of the same thing and fewer "collections of one." Plant things where you can see them coming and...

Monarch butterfly on 'Will Rogers' zinnias. A couple of weeks ago, Carol Michel, my podcast cohost, told me about a lecture from the Horticultural Research Institute in their tHRIve - WEB SERIES presented by Dr. Daniel Potter, a recently retired urban landscape entomologist from the University of Kentucky. Sadly, the video is no longer available, but we think the information is important enough to share on the Gardenangelists' podcast, and in our podcast newsletter. Monarch butterfly in flight headed toward zinnias. Now, I'm writing a post about it. Why? Because some of their research should change how we plant milkweed and which ones we choose to grow. Here's a quick recap of what we learned. Plant more milkweed. We need 2 billion more stems of milkweed. Urban and suburban gardens are more important than ever as there are fewer places where native milkweed grows in the wild. Everyone needs to...

As usual, I'm a day late for September Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, but I have good reasons. I had garden coaching clients in Tulsa and Edmond this week. I was also on babysitting duty yesterday, and you know Little Bit comes even before flowers. Garage border and tiered gardens from the side in September. Agastache 'Blue Fortune' looks as tired as I feel. The yellow shrubs in back are 'Ogon' spirea, one of my favorites. Not much change Things haven't changed that much since August GBBD, except the weather is a little more cooperative. It isn't quite as hot--we're only in the 90s now--and the nights are cooler. Each morning when I get up at 6:00 a.m., when it's 66°F, I open the back French doors and listen to the night creatures still singing. The days are growing shorter. I can see a change in the color of the ornamental...

I'm in the middle of an early fall garden rescue. I have six garden problems, 'er weeds, I'm trying to eradicate this fall. While I was traveling, temperatures around the world, including in my own state, soared, and my garden became a tangle of terrible tyrants. The plants you like may die in extreme temperatures, but the weeds march on. The back garden is over 30 years old and is the worst place for these garden problems. Clematis terniflora ripped out from the roots. I need a small spade to dig this one up. Some aggressive plants are true weeds. Others are native adventurers, and some are my own mistakes I planted years ago. Which six garden problems? Let's discuss. Mulberry weed Mulberry weed is the epitome of an aggressive plant. It may look innocent, but mulberry weed is a nightmare. Check out all of those seeds on that stem....