The Delaware Gazette

Indigenous plants: Native American technique

Before becom­ing a Mas­ter Gar­dener, I had not ever really given much thought to whether or not a plant was a “native” species. How­ever through the asso­ci­a­tion, I have met sev­eral gar­den­ers who are strong advo­cates in pre­serv­ing the cul­ti­va­tion of our native land­scape and the plants that define it. The more I learned the more fas­ci­nated I became. Through learn­ing about native plants, I have also become enam­ored and mys­ti­fied by how Native Amer­i­cans prop­a­gated and cared for these native species. In fact, many com­mon prac­tices still employed in the gar­den today are actu­ally meth­ods started by Native Americans.

Easy-to-grow mint

Some plants are just oh-so-satisfying to grow. They per­form effort­lessly with lit­tle care and grow in just about any spot they are placed. No, I am not writ­ing about dan­de­lions ­but about one of my very favorite herbs, mint. On this first Sat­ur­day in May, mint is a timely topic. As you prob­a­bly know today is the Ken­tucky Derby; and the offi­cial (since 1938) cock­tail of the Derby is the mint julep. Mint is incred­i­bly easy to grow, fun to use and no herb gar­den is com­plete with­out it. The mint fam­ily, Lami­aceae or Labi­atae, is richly diverse and includes most favorite herbs: basil, rose­mary, sage, laven­der, mar­jo­ram, oregano and of course, mint.

Lilac sentimentality

Amy Lowell’s love song to lilacs appeals to our sen­ti­men­tal side. But who isn’t sen­ti­men­tal about lilacs? Do they not melt our hearts and fill our mem­o­ries with April’s first bloom and waft­ing sweet aroma? Don’t they make you think about lemon­ade and freshly baked cook­ies on grandma’s porch? For me, lilacs were a con­stant on my child­ishly con­structed May Altar where my friends and I would light can­dles and prac­tice devotions.

Herb of the year: Rose

How do you cap­ture the essence of the world’s most famous flower? Hav­ing it named the herb of the year seems like such a small cel­e­bra­tion. The Herb Soci­ety of Amer­i­can fea­tures a dif­fer­ent herb each year to bring to the forefront.

Wildlife garden

Whether we like it or not, devel­op­ment has been and will con­tinue to be the Amer­i­can way. Farm­lands and wooded areas are plowed under to make room for sub­ur­ban homes and shop­ping cen­ters. Such devel­op­ment has enabled many to achieve the Amer­i­can dream but for wildlife, it has been the Amer­i­can nightmare.

Parsley: More than a garnish

Pars­ley is one of the most ver­sa­tile and pop­u­lar herbs today. There is a rea­son why about every restau­rant uses it on their plates. It’s not just that it’s pretty or that it adds color, but it’s full of Vit­a­min A, C, E foli­ate, fiber, iron and min­er­als. Used as a breath fresh­ener, palate cleanser and diges­tive, it can’t be beat.

The Beauty of an English garden

In gar­den design, there is no phi­los­o­phy more com­monly admired, desired, or repli­cated than the Eng­lish Gar­den. The very thought of the phrase con­jures images of lush, man­i­cured, and serene vis­tas brim­ming with beau­ti­ful plants in har­mony. The Eng­lish gar­den essen­tially is a com­bi­na­tion of staunchly sym­met­ri­cal French gar­dens and naturally-arranged Chi­nese gar­dens. The Eng­lish phi­los­o­phy relies on the jux­ta­po­si­tion of these two beau­ti­ful styles. Another key­stone of the Eng­lish gar­den is the incor­po­ra­tion of man­made struc­tures set among pas­toral land­scapes. What makes an Eng­lish gar­den my favorite is how eas­ily these prin­ci­ples can be uti­lized in any gar­den, no mat­ter how big or small. To best under­stand the Eng­lish gar­den, it helps to know a bit about its origins.

Spring brings wealth of color choices for your garden

For those of us who love the gar­den, this is undoubt­edly the most excit­ing time of the year. Our land­scape under­goes a mag­nif­i­cent trans­for­ma­tion seem­ingly in the blink of an eye. Yel­low and dull lawns turn rich and emer­ald overnight. End­less expanses of grey begin to break with brave flashes of green buds. Bulbs like daf­fodil, hyacinth, and tulip sur­prise and delight us all in for­got­ten cor­ners. Fruit and orna­men­tal flow­er­ing trees look like float­ing clouds of white, pink, and yel­low. And my per­sonal favorite icon of the spring gar­den, for­sythia ignites in a vivid yel­low demand­ing atten­tion from even the most dis­in­ter­ested passerby. It seems hard to believe that regard­less of how harsh, or in this year’s case ­mild, the pre­vi­ous win­ter was, spring can always be counted on for a mes­mer­iz­ing spec­ta­cle. One of my favorite aspects of the wealth of color that spring gives us is the abil­ity to arrange plants of all dif­fer­ent vari­ety together based on color.

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