A Pretty Petunia Is Best for Beginner Gardeners
For beginner gardeners, a simple reliable petunia is the best choice to grow for long summer color. Experienced gardeners might argue these zone 9-11 annuals are trite. They’re available at every nursery and hardware store, bursting in bright colors, begging loudly to be taken home. Still, they cheer up a garden like no other flower. I’ve been a professional gardener for over a decade and a half and every year I use them in arrangements, both for myself and clients. What Kind Is Best? Because both commercial businesses and home…
The Best Giant Book Every New Gardener Needs
Yes, it’s February but it’s never too early to dream about the garden for spring. If you’re new to gardening chances are you don’t have a lot of books on the subject. Well, the truth is you don’t need that many but there’s one book I recommend to everyone when starting out. The A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants. Just the other day, I talked about this book with writer/interviewer Erin Popelka for the Must Read Fiction Podcast, where afterward I realized I didn’t do that good of a job in…
How to Grow Amazing Houseplants and an Outstanding Garden in Norway
Tommy Tønsberg gardens in chilly Norway. The former editor-in-chief of Norsk Hagetidend, Norway’s largest gardening magazine, now writes about and grows plants. He also photographs and broadcasts about them. He lives on a property about 30 minutes north of Oslo with his partner Kenneth and three cats, Big Cat, Little Cat and Grey Cat. When not gardening, they propagate herbaceous perennials and some tender plants for their small nursery. I asked him about growing a garden in his Zone 7 climate and the jungle of houseplants inside his house. You…
In a Woodland Border, Plants Struggle in the Sun and Sandy Soil
Along the back fence of my garden I have a tricky spot. A dry woodland border of sun that’s tucked under fir trees. The ravine behind the fence slopes up and the fence intersects where the wild woodland ends and my cultivated area begins. So it’s the edge of a woodland, but sunny, and hot. Very very hot. The soil is sandy and drains instantly. Growing plants there has been difficult. Sandy Acidic Soil in Full Sun Normally, we Northwest gardeners don’t mind soil that’s sandy or acidic. It’s better…
How I Found New Inspiration at a Familiar Nursery
Since I worked for roughly 15 years as a gardener, it's no surprise that a plant nursery figures prominently in The Forgetting Flower. Renia's uncle owns a wholesale nursery in the French countryside. I modeled his nursery, Les Racines, in part on a local nursery I've shopped at for years. Here are a few photos.
