July/August 2024

Garden Gate

The Illustrated Guide to Home Gardening and Design

Garden Gate1 min read
Garden Gate
EXECUTIVE EDITOR Kristin Beane Sullivan EXECUTIVE ART DIRECTOR Eric Flynn SENIOR EDITOR Sherri Ribbey TEST GARDEN MANAGER/ASSOCIATE EDITOR Jennifer HowellASSOCIATE EDITOR Marisa ReyesDIGITAL MEDIA MANAGER Katie MeyerASSOCIATE ART DIRECTORS Carrie
Garden Gate1 min read
Garden Gate Online
Nothing adds to a home’s charm like a windowbox full of foliage and blooms! Find planting plans online. Gardengatemagazine.com/articles/container-gardening/ GardenGateMagazine.com Follow our instructions to create this good-looking and versat
Garden Gate3 min read
Reader Tips
Tammy Troglin, GA “Water your hanging baskets until they drip” is the usual advice gardeners get. However, it can create a messy puddle underneath. That’s why Tammy sought a handy sidekick: a disposable shower cap. She puts the shower cap on the out
Garden Gate1 min read
How To Spot A Drought-tolerant Plant
Light colors reflect heat and light. Fat leaves help store moisture. A small surface area means less evaporation. Hairs shade the tops of leaves and raise humidity on the undersides. Extra coating holds in moisture.
Garden Gate4 min read
Dynamic Duos
The right plant pairings can transform your outdoor space into a living masterpiece. But figuring out what works well together and which plants to choose can be a challenge. Not to worry! Here are four fantastic combos that will keep your garden full
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Creating Gardens for Conversation
As a plant geek, I have a garden filled with cool horticultural specimens, arranged more like a display to look at than a garden to actually live in. But I’ve gained a new perspective after talking with landscape architect Lynn Kuhn. In her book, Con
Garden Gate9 min read
Grow a Colorful Shade Garden
There’s so much to love about gardening in the shade. Weed seeds don’t germinate as well, so there are fewer to pull, and the sun isn’t as intense, so you can easily relax. Though the temperature is the same in sun or shade, it can feel 10 to 15 degr
Garden Gate2 min read
Which Annual Vine Is Right For You?
Morning glory vines can cover a 6-foot-tall trellis in a mere six weeks — perfect when you need fast color. Lush foliage is loaded with beautiful flowers that open early in the morning but wither by midday. They’ll last a bit longer in afternoon shad
Garden Gate9 min read
Daylily
When it comes to daylilies, it’s all about the flowers. Big, small, single, double, plain or patterned, this perennial has scads of choices for gardens in full sun to part shade. And while some varieties bloom just once in summer, others rebloom into
Garden Gate5 min read
No-Spray Bug Solutions
Is there anything worse than seeing a crop of cabbage devoured by cabbage loopers? Or your roses and fruit trees skeletonized by Japanese beetles? Even when you do all the right things to grow strong, healthy plants, sometimes insect pests invade and
Garden Gate7 min read
A Garden for Exploring
In 1998, Bonnie Duma and her husband, John, purchased a ¾-acre lot in Lenexa, Kansas. After the house was built, Bonnie turned her attention outdoors. The yard was a blank slate, offering Bonnie the opportunity to bring her garden dreams to life. Ins
Garden Gate2 min read
Harvest Helper
When I first started vegetable gardening, I was caught up in the process of seeing tiny seeds transform into flourishing plants. It was impossible not to feel a sense of wonder as I watched my garden produce a vibrant tapestry of fruit in shades of g
Garden Gate4 min read
4 Garden Goofs
What might seem like a small garden decision can have effects that linger for years. In hopes that you can avoid making the same mistakes, here are four of my garden goofs and how I’ve fixed them. Can you relate? A friend gave me a half dozen floweri
Garden Gate1 min read
Weed Watch
Cyperus esculentis The shiny yellow-green leaves of this perennial, also known as nut grass, grow 12 to 32 inches tall. Golden yellow to brown spikelets are arranged in clusters of small bottlebrushes and appear from early to late summer. When you p
Garden Gate5 min read
Design Challenge
Hot, dry summers are challenging enough, but add reflected heat from a driveway and you have an even tougher spot for a garden. When rain is scarce in the height of summer, watering every day still might not be enough to keep plants that aren’t suite
Garden Gate3 min read
Q & A
Q Does putting a penny in a birdbath really prevent algae? Pete Olivera, VT A It can help. Copper releases ions that reduce the formation of algae in water. You’ll need seven to 12 pennies minted before 1982; pennies minted after that are mostly z
Garden Gate2 min read
Garden Essentials
This handy hose bib attachment makes it easy to get water without having to find the end of the hose or unscrew it from the faucet. Simply turn the dial to the shower setting to rinse your hands or fill a bucket, all while leaving your hose connected
Garden Gate3 min read
Bring The Warmth Of The Sahara To Your Garden
It’s hard to describe Sahara gloriosa daisy’s flower color, since every plant is a bit different. Even the blossoms themselves change as they age. Their velvety, chocolate brown centers are surrounded by petals of copper, rusty red, caramel or gold t
Garden Gate4 min read
Lessons From An Art Teacher
You can take the art teacher out of the classroom, but you can’t take the art teacher out of the garden. Just ask Karen Watson-Newlin. After teaching K–12 art for 34 years, she couldn’t help but apply the lessons she taught her students to the sprawl
Garden Gate2 min read
Salad With A Side Of Slug
Intellectually, I know that gardening comes with its fair share of bugs, pests and creepy crawlies. But knowing this and encountering such creatures in my lunch are two very different things. The first spring I grew lettuce and spinach in my raised b
Garden Gate1 min read
From The Editor
This summer, I’m aiming for a “good enough” garden. Some years are like that. With a construction project, a busy summer of travel and other responsibilities on my plate, the garden isn’t getting much attention. Some years I’ve been able to pull all

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