Gardening 101: Mahonia ‘Soft Caress’
Mahonia eurybracteata ‘Soft Caress’ This year I promised myself that I would incorporate more plants that can multitask and require less work and stress. One such plant that I have added to my...
View ArticleBefore & After: A Two-Faced Victorian Garden With a Secret
Seen from the street, a gingerbread Victorian cottage near Melbourne, Australia hides its secret: a streamlined rear extension with a sleekly modern silhouette. The challenge for landscape architect...
View ArticleCurrent Obsessions: Bright Spot
Happy weekend, dear reader! Of note today: a new Paris design salon, a floral tour, a basket-weaving workshop, and more. P.S. Please write back! Fill out our survey to send feedback to our editors and...
View ArticleQuick Takes With: Sanne Hop
Sanne Hop is in “the busting out phase of her life,” Margot wrote when we toured Sanne’s live-work atelier in Amsterdam last month. Sanne’s shared her day-to-day creative life with thousands of...
View ArticleBitter Melon: Like a Cucumber With Attitude
Bitter melons may resemble cucumbers and may be called melons, but they are neither. Certainly, these long green fruits are bitter. Despite that, one bite soon leads to another: I find myself chewing a...
View Article10 Easy Pieces: Outdoor Saunas
I’ve long held the misconception that an excess of outdoor space was a requirement for a personal sauna. Then while visiting a friend’s condo, I was amazed to find a cedar sauna wedged among the...
View ArticleGarden Visit: Le Jardin Plume, a Modern Impressionist Masterpiece in Normandy
For anyone hankering after European formality—only a touch, we’re not talking Versailles—Le Jardin Plume in Upper Normandy is just the ticket. Influenced by more recent movements involving perennials...
View ArticleAsk the Expert: Photographer James Ingram on How to Shoot Gardens Like a Pro
Jason Ingram shoots some of the world’s most beautiful gardens, including those belonging to King Charles III at his private residence, Highgrove near Tetbury in the Cotswolds. He works for garden...
View ArticleThe Editors’ Cut: 12 Next-Level Tool Upgrades for the Garden
Welcome to The Editors’ Cut, our monthly newsletter dedicated to all things beautiful and useful for the garden, patio, porch, and terrace. Raring to get your hands dirty and start planting? We are,...
View ArticleCurrent Obsessions: New Views
On our radar: A spring equinox celebration at Lotusland, Merci’s new shop in Paris, and more. Also, March is Sleep Awareness Month, so may we recommend a good nap? Read on: Gardenista friend and...
View ArticleQuick Takes With: Judy Kameon
“I founded Elysian Landscapes in 1996 with a truck and a shovel, spending as much time in the field as at the drafting table,” says Judy Kameon, a former judge for Gardenista’s Considered Design...
View ArticleShatta: A Taste of the Eastern Mediterranean
Shatta is a vivid, chile-hot condiment—a fermented hot sauce—rooted in the Eastern Mediterranean: Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt. It can be either red or green, and in its simplest iteration...
View ArticleGardening 101: Flowering Currant
Flowering currant is a classic example of a serviceable American plant that, when transported to different continents, takes on a personality that is unrecognizable. In the UK, Ribes sanguineum has an...
View Article‘The New Romantic Garden’: 6 Ideas to Try From Landscape Designer Jo...
Anyone who knows British garden designer Jo Thompson’s work will not be surprised by the title of her book, The New Romantic Garden. Over the decades that Thompson has been working as a designer she,...
View Article5 Favorites: Hummingbird-Approved Plants
The humble hummingbird has always been a pollinator favorite among gardeners, but lately it’s been attracting more (and new) buzz. Katie Tamony, chief marketing officer and trend spotter at Monrovia,...
View Article10 Things Nobody Tells You About Painting the Exterior of Your House
The other day, I came across on Instagram a friend’s amazing before/after of her freshly painted house. The exterior had formerly been a greenish putty color, a not unattractive shade, but as soon as...
View ArticleCurrent Obsessions: Turning Towards Color
Depending on when you’re reading this, spring is at most five days away (but who’s counting?). To bid winter farewell, we’ve been turning our attention to color-infused rooms, Danish-made pigments,...
View ArticleQuick Takes With: Sophia Moreno-Bunge
Before Sophia Moreno-Bunge became a boldfaced name in the floral design world and attracted a clientele that includes goop, the Proper Hotel in Santa Monica, and the most discriminating private patrons...
View ArticleFresh Bay Leaves: Don’t Use Sparingly
If you grow your own herbs, you are aware that (almost) everything has a season (unless you live in Florida, but even then). But if you grow an evergreen bay tree, you will have learned that fresh bay...
View ArticleMartha Just Dropped a Major New Gardening Book
Martha Stewart’s new gardening book Martha Stewart’s Gardening Handbook: The Essential Guide to Designing, Planting, and Growing is everything you would expect. It’s comprehensive and beautiful, and...
View ArticleGardening 101: Everything You Need to Know About Growing Plants in Raised Beds
Don’t let bad soil stop you from planting an edible garden. The solution? Raised garden beds. An effective and easy solution for less-than-ideal soil conditions, raised beds increase yield and reduce...
View ArticleThe Dirty Dozen: 12 Invasive Plants to Avoid (and What to Grow Instead)
This is part of a series with Perfect Earth Project, a nonprofit dedicated to ecological gardening, on how you can be more sustainable in your landscapes at home. Last month we talked with Evelyn...
View ArticleNew & Noteworthy: Muuto Has a New Outdoor Lounge Furniture Collection
It’s that time of year, when furniture companies roll out their newest spring and summer outdoor pieces. One collection in particular has us thinking of upgrading our own patio lounge furniture: the...
View ArticleCurrent Obsessions: Printemps
Happy weekend, dear reader. Ahead these first days of spring: a ceramics sale, a garden that embraces wear, a Paris opening, and more. Read on: Cate Blanchett, we 100 percent agree. Planning your...
View ArticleQuick Takes With: Martha Stewart
If this introduction really necessary? If you’ve ever read any of her magazines, or watched her television shows, or viewed the much-discussed Netflix documentary about her life, or follow her on...
View ArticleBeet Hummus with Tulips: A Petal Party Platter for Spring
Spring calls for vibrant food and parties (even for one) that celebrate the return of buds and petals and the leafing-out of trees. Enter vividly celebratory beet hummus, on a petal platter reeling...
View ArticleGrow a Community: 10 Ways to Create Connections Through Gardening
Every gardener knows that spending time tending a garden can be a balm for turbulent times. Putting your hands in the earth and watching life unfurl is therapeutic. But gardening can be more than a...
View ArticleSpring Gardening: 5 Common Shrubs to Prune Right Now (and 5 Not to Prune)
As the weather warms and gardeners look forward to getting their hands dirty, now’s a good time to review what can and should be done in the garden in spring. Nature has its own schedule and sometimes...
View ArticleRethinking Mugwort: There Is a Lot to Love About This Demonized Herb
The name “mugwort” in the US is a signifier for “invasive,” but when grown purposefully, the aromatic section of the Artemisia genus has much to recommend it. Some species are native in regions of the...
View ArticleMaintenance 101: How to Care for Wood Outdoor Furniture
Soon it will be time to drag the outdoor furniture from hibernation or, if you live in sunnier climes, add it to your spring cleaning list to get ready for dining al fresco. Don’t know where to start?...
View ArticleCurrent Obsessions: Design Cleanse
With the weekend upon us and April within our grasp, we’re turning our attention towards these great springy goings-on: New Yorkers, don’t miss Tulip Day this Sunday, March 30, at Union Square. Show up...
View ArticleQuick Takes With: Benjamin Vogt
There’s good reason that the Prairie Up newsletter landed on our list of favorite garden newsletters. Not only is its creator, Benjamin Vogt, a passionate advocate for ecology-based gardening...
View ArticleDurian Ice Cream: A Tropical Treat Starring the Famously Divisive Fruit
Have you ever eaten a durian? If you have, or if you have met one and hurried on by, you might be conjuring up the huge, spiky fruit’s famous smell—or perfume—right now. I can only say, hand on heart,...
View ArticleNew & Noteworthy: Little Greene’s Exterior Paints
If painting the exterior of your home is on your spring or summer to-do list, we have some exciting news for you: British paint company, Little Greene (which has a dedicated U.S. website as well as a...
View Article10 Easy Pieces: Cold Plunge Tubs
The purported benefits of cold water immersion therapy are many and include improved immune function, sleep, circulation, metabolism, recovery, inflammation, and mental health. Which explains why more...
View ArticleRequired Reading: ‘Emily Thompson Flowers’ Captures the Florist’s Wild Artistry
Emily Thompson Flowers, the debut book from the New York-based florist, was never going to be like any other flower book, because Thompson is quite unlike any other florist. As Shane Connolly points...
View ArticleThe Editors’ Cut: 11 Finds for the Romantic Cottage Garden
Welcome to The Editors’ Cut, our monthly newsletter dedicated to all things beautiful and useful for the garden, patio, porch, and terrace. Currently, we’re smitten with the dreamy, lush landscapes in...
View ArticleCurrent Obsessions: Signs of Spring
In need of a pick-me-up? We’ve been counting hopeful harbingers this week, among them: exuberant flower arrangements. Eleven ways to create a romantic outdoor space. A potager-to-table restaurant in...
View ArticleQuick Takes With: Jo Thompson
British garden designer Jo Thompson swears that this year will be her last RHS Chelsea Flower Show. “I keep saying this to everybody–absolutely, this is the last one,” she laughs. With nine main avenue...
View ArticleTrees With White Flowers: 14 Favorites for Cold Climates
Trees with white flowers have a way of lifting and lightening a garden’s mood—as well as soothing the mood of the gardener. In the evenings, their glimmering nocturnal presence is a comfort, and by day...
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