Ask a Master Gardener: For the love of lilacs

Easily recognized by their sweet fragrance and cone-shaped clusters of tiny flowers, the common lilac (Syringa vulgaris) has been a part of America’s gardens for much of our country’s history.

Gently sloping and smooth green landscape can be gorgeous. And flat, well-mown lawns are great for romping on, kicking a ball, picnicking on. And a neat lawn bespeaks an organized life. Why mess with that?

You may have heard talk about rain gardens. Intuitively we can guess what they are: an area that has plants like a garden and collects rain. But what exactly are they and how do they work?

Dogwoods, in the genus Cornus, are among the most versatile native shrubs. With seasonal interest, tolerance of less than perfect conditions and benefits for wildlife, these shrubs are worth considering.

Have you ever heard of the lady in the bath flower? That’s just one of the common names for bleeding hearts (Lamprocapnos spectabilis, formerly Dicentra spectabilis). If you’re wondering where that name comes from, just look at the flower upside down and … (read more)

We’re all familiar with roses (Rosa) — their fragrance, their flowers, their thorns. If you’re thinking about adding a rose (or roses) to your garden this year, it might surprise you to discover that there’s more to your choice than color. Roses come in a … (read more)

If you’re looking for a plant for your garden that will come back year after year, is easy to care for and suitable for a variety of growing conditions, coral bells (Heuchera) just might be the plant for you. It’s also known by the common names alum root … (read more)

Rudbeckia hirta. Solanum lycopersicum. Acer saccharum. Have you ever seen these names on plant tags or seed packets and wondered where they came from? We can thank Carl Linnaeus for taxonomy, the study of categorizing and naming organisms, and binomial no … (read more)

A year ago, I wrote about the new-to-me technique of “no-dig” gardening. While seeking advice online using search terms like “how to not suck at growing vegetables,” I had landed on a bunch of YouTube channels promoting this method.

Winter weather may be on the wane, but it will still be a while before we can get outdoors and work in the soil. Even so, there’s no reason not to enjoy fresh, homegrown herbs.

Choosing seeds and starting your own transplants are among the most empowering ways to garden. Why grow the same vegetable varieties that you can buy at the grocery store when there are so many others to try?

By this time of the year, it may seem like winter will never end. Many of us are eager to start gardening knowing that spring is right around the corner. While we can’t make the calendar pages turn more quickly, we can get ready for the upcoming gardening … (read more)

You may be familiar with its name from the bottle of astringent found in your home medicine cabinet or for sale on pharmacy shelves near rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide. What you may not know is that the leaves, bark and twigs from American witch ha … (read more)

Compost, the dark, crumbly, earthy-smelling material produced by natural decomposers, provides many benefits to gardeners and non-gardeners alike. Converting garden waste, kitchen scraps and various paper items into compost at home reduces the amount of w … (read more)

The Middlebury Garden Club offers its first public program of 2025, “Close to Nature Landscape Design,” on Tuesday, Feb. 11, at the Residence at Otter Creek.