I love lilies. Hemerocallis or Lilium, daylily or lily---it doesn't matter. If there were a plant I could see myself collecting a bunch of, it would be lilies. Maybe when we have a bigger yard. What I love is that I do absolutely nothing to my lilies or daylilies, and they provide my yard with these exuberant shows every single summer, and (purely by accident) I have some kind of lily blooming from...

Coreopsis 'Early Sunrise' So, it's officially summer. I can't think of a more appropriate plant to feature today than coreopsis 'Early Sunrise.' It just screams "sunshine," doesn't it? I have three large clumps of this in my front garden, and I absolutely love them. Of course, I love anything that grows as well as this plant does. My front garden is in full sun, and I rarely water it. All I have to...

Elementary teachers have an ingenious system for teaching a new skill. They start out the lesson by having their students do a task that it is practically impossible to fail at. It builds confidence, shows them that they know more than they think they do, and gives kids the confidence to try something a little different. For example, when teaching a child how to write the letter A, a teacher will s...

"Profanity is the weapon of the witless." Anonymous "If I cannot swear in heaven I shall not stay there." Mark Twain There has been a bit of discussion in the ol' garden blogosphere following my post about being a potty mouth garden blogger. Susan picked up on it over at Garden Rant and took full credit for the Rant's 4% rating. Then Doug Green picked up on it, and posted about how something like l...

I was reading Marty Hair's article about garden tours last week in the Detroit Free Press, about all of the tours coming up in my area in the next month or so. Part of me is envious of those gardeners who are confident enough to put their gardens on display. I can't imagine dozens of people meandering through my garden, analyzing my plant choices and general overall "togetherness" of my garden. The...