Gardening in Litchfield County

Volunteer Plants in the Garden

Sometimes the power of nature is amazing to witness. At the same time, sometimes nature makes you scratch your head. What’s better than when a good plant decides to make an appearance into your garden. The white and blue plants below are volunteers in my garden, They are the Great Blue Lobelia, Lobelia siphilitica, and […]

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Middlebury landscape

Hollies Too Big? Connecticut Landscape Experiment

All too often, landscapers and homeowners rely on hedge trimmers to maintain plant size and height.  The problem with this approach is a very dense, unnatural looking shrub where all the foliage is only at the outer most edges of the plant.  A plant that is so dense is a perfect environment for diseases and

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Landscaping in Connecticut is Never Easy.

I’ve been landscaping in Connecticut for over 25 years.  Even after all these years, I still get nervous whenever I have to dig a trench or I have to get a large tree ball into a landscape.  Why? Because I’ve dug up way too many surprises over the years.   My own property never ceases

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A Connecticut Landscape Designer’s Garden

People I meet all the time always say to me “you must have the most beautiful gardens at your house”.  Well, I’m sure you’ve heard “the shoe-maker’s wife often goes in ragged shoes”.  I can relate!  The fact is my own house is a work in progress and most likely will always be a work

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A Pleasant Surprise at a Litchfield County Nursery

Today was a plant buying day, getting ready for the upcoming annual planting season.  I had heard about a nursery this past winter that I decided to go to and was extremely happy that I did.  Brierwood Nursery in Morris was a great find.  I have been to a lot of nurseries not only in

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Landscape Renovation in Bridgewater, CT

I lot of people can put plants in the ground and a lot of people call themselves landscape designers but that doesn’t mean they are good at what they do.  I had an opportunity to redesign this landscape in Bridgewater, CT.  At the time, the house was only seven years old and when I arrived

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Accessorizing the back patio in a Bridgewater Landscape.

The back patio, a centralized zone for summer entertaining, family meals, fun and relaxation.  No matter the size and shape of your backyard entertaining area, it is important to accessorize the space to not only make it more visually appealing but also comfortable so people want to use the space. If accessorized properly, the back

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A Kent Connecticut Wildflower Meadow.

In October 2009, we were hired to install a two acre wildflower meadow in Kent, CT.  The landscape plan, by the landscape architect, didn’t give any detail as to what his vision was for the meadow.  Not having any experience with large scale meadow establishment, our work at Designing Eden was cut out for us. 

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Almost Spring

What a beautiful weekend. It almost felt like spring and boy I’m excited about that! I potted up over 70 plants on Saturday in 12″ Rootmaker’s to grow on to larger plants for the next couple of years. Fothergilla gardenii and a couple different cultivars of Viburnum were the plants of choice.

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