The Practical Gardener

Missoula, MT - brown hill, green trees - it's summer!

I went to graduate school in Montana. Before that, I’d never been west of Georgia where the grass grows green all summer. I still vividly remember how perplexed I was, upon arriving in Missoula in August,  to see that the grass on the hill behind the campus was brown.

“Aha,” I thought, “they recently had a fire, that must be it.”  Read the rest of this entry →

One groundcover is useful, two or three together and you’re on your way to art before you even worry about other plants.

Lysimachia nummularia 'Aurea' with Saxifraga 'Primuloides' and a hosta (probably 'June')

However, mixing groundcovers is a tricky business. Read the rest of this entry →