15 May
No complaints about the very springy spring we’ve been enjoying here in southeastern Pennsylvania. For the most part, the temperatures and rainfall have been almost exactly average; we even got what I hope is our last frost two nights ago: right around the time of our last frost date. As of this morning, all of the plants that have packed my office, kitchen, and unheated greenhouse for the last few days and nights are finally moving outside for good.
1 May
Finally, the last part of the Annual Events series – good news for those of you who like annuals and even better new for those of you who are getting tired of them by now. This one focuses on annuals and tender perennials with outstanding foliage paired with other terrific foliage or flowering plants.
15 Apr
The only thing predictable about spring weather here is that it’s completely unpredictable. Within the last month, we’ve had some days that we were lucky to get above freezing and other days in the record-breaking mid-80s. Back on March 25, we had snow…
1 Apr
In Annual Events – Part 1, I showed some of my favorite annual-based groupings for summer interest. While I’m waiting for spring to decide it’s really here, I’m thinking even further ahead and reviewing some color-rich combinations for fall. The shot above, of the middle path in the front garden, contains several of my must-have annuals and tender perennials, including ‘Profusion Orange’ zinnias and several selections of sweet potato vine (Ipomoea batatas): ‘Sweet Caroline Light Green’, ‘Sweet Caroline Bronze’, and ‘Sweet Caroline Purple’.
15 Mar
For the most part, March isn’t an exciting time for Hayefield and its environs – color-wise, at least. The first subtle signs of spring in the neighborhood usually appear the the nearby woods.
8 Mar
I’m looking forward to putting together a post for Bloom Day on the 15th, but before then, I need to take care of a bit of blog business relating to my photo use policy. First, I’d like to thank all of you who have left such lovely comments about enjoying my pictures of the gardens at Hayefield. It has been my pleasure to share them with you here, as well as in my many posts over at Gardening Gone Wild, and I’m honored that so many of you find them appealing enough to want to collect them on a Pinterest board, add them to your Tumblr blog, use them in a talk you are giving, or reproduce them elsewhere. Please, though, be aware that there are some things you need to consider before you do that.
1 Mar
Signs of spring are finally starting to appear here in southeastern Pennsylvania. Just yesterday morning, I heard the pre-dawn twitterings of the first woodcocks as they migrate through here in March, and new shoots are popping up even through the soggy soil. Still, it’s going to be a while yet before there’s a lot of color to enjoy outside, so I decided to delve into my photo archives to get some ideas for combinations that I may want to revisit, and I’ve selected a bunch of my favorites in the hopes that they may help to brighten your day too. They cover a range of color themes, but they all have one thing in common: one or more annuals or tender perennials as the stars of the scene. There are a lot of them, so I’ll show just the summer combos here and save the fall and foliage pairings for follow-up posts.
