Gardening With Tony

UNITED STATES—Frost is not as much of a concern here as it is in other climates. It is very rare in some of the coastal climates of Southern California. The potential for freeze damage increases farther inland, farther north, and at higher elevations. Regardless, it is generally tolerable locally. Even if it is necessary to protect a few marginal...

UNITED STATES—Hedges are a complicated topic! Like lawns, they are among the more functional features of a landscape. They can be used to provide privacy within, obscure unwanted views beyond, or merely to separate a large landscape into cozier or more functional spaces. Except for hedges that are grown for spring flowers or autumn color, most hedges are evergreen...

UNITED STATES—All weeds are plants. Not all plants are weeds. Weeds are a specifiable subset of plants. Specifically, weeds are plants that grow wildly where they are undesirable. Similarly, dirt is likely soil, although it could be anything that is dirty. Soil is not merely dirt, though. Dirt is soil or a similar matter, where it is undesirable. Plants...

UNITED STATES—Adding new fruit trees to a garden is reasonably easy. Maintaining them properly as they mature is more of a challenge. Centuries of extensive breeding to enhance production of such trees has increased their reliance on horticultural intervention. Most deciduous fruit trees consequently need specialized dormant pruning during their winter dormancy. Without adequate dormant pruning, most deciduous fruit trees...

UNITED STATES—Autumn does not get cool enough locally to prevent everything from blooming. A few plants can bloom sporadically all year except only during the coolest part of winter. A few plants naturally bloom in autumn. Cool season annuals begin blooming before warm season annuals finish. Flowers can potentially provide plenty of autumn color if necessary. A mild climate...

UNITED STATES—After providing remarkably striking foliage for many years, the biggest and boldest agaves bolt with spectacularly tall floral stalks that support horizontal pads of flowers. These stalks can bloom for months, and stand for months after bloom is finished. Then things get ugly. The foliage around each bloom folds back, desiccates and dies. There is no nice way...

UNITED STATES—Saint Francis is actually the patron saint of animals. Saint Fiacre is the real patron saint of gardening. However, statues of Saint Francis, usually accompanied by birds, and sometimes by a deer, are popular in home gardens. Has anyone ever seen even a single statue of Saint Fiacre? Statues of Snow White are more common; but her only...

UNITED STATES—Mathematically, division is the opposite of multiplication. Horticulturally, they are the same. Digging and splitting overgrown perennials to propagate them is known as 'division' because it divides many rooted stems or rhizomes of one plant into many new plants. Division is a form of propagation; and propagation is commonly known as multiplication. So, we divide plants to multiply...

UNITED STATES—Nothing lasts forever. Spring flowers fade. Summer fruit gets eaten. Fall color falls from the trees and gets raked away. Berries and other small fruits that ripen to provide a bit of color through late autumn get eaten by birds and squirrels through winter. Every type of berry and every season is unique. It is impossible to predict...

UNITED STATES—Modern urban lifestyles are becoming less conducive to gardening all the time. Bigger and taller homes cast larger shadows over smaller garden spaces. The taller fences between these homes do not help. The densely evergreen trees employed to obscure the views of other larger and taller homes also obscure sunlight. Not much sunlight reaches the ground where shorter...