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- Albemarle Lands: Voyage Through Centuries Series
- I. A Place Like No Other
- II. Water Rules the Land
- III. Estuaries: Cradle of Life
- IV. The Lost Colony
- V. Early Settlement
- VI. Navigating the Waters
- VII. Road to Independence
- VIII. Antebellum Albemarle
- X. A War Between States
- XI. The Mighty Fisheries
- XII. Looking Forward
- XIII. Challenges to Come
- XIV. Voyage Through Centuries (Continuous Text)
- Albemarle Rivers of North Carolina Series
- Camellias in our Garden
- 1. Siting and Planting Camellias
- 2. Pruning and Fertilizing Camellias
- 3. Insects and Diseases of Camellias
- 4.Root Rot Attacks our Camellias after Hurricane Isabel
- 4A. Managing Storm Damage in Gardens with Camellias
- 5. How We Grow Camellias in a Woodland Setting
- 6. Air Layering Camellias
- 7. Wildlife and Camellias
- 8. Choosing Camellias
- 9. Landscaping with Camellias
- 9A. Companions to Camellias
- Garden Strolls
- Gork, A Special Blue Jay
- Great Gardens from Around the World
- Chicago: Botanic Garden
- Chicago: Lurie Garden
- Florence: Boboli Gardens
- France: Giverny
- Galicia: Three Gardens I
- Galicia: Three Gardens II
- Holland: Floriade 2012
- Ireland: Kylemore Abbey
- Ireland: Powerscourt
- Paris: Luxembourg Gardens
- Paris: Musee Rodin, The Garden
- Paris: Promenade Plantee
- Philadelphia: Chanticleer
- Russia: Catherine Park
- Russia: Peterhof
- San Francisco: Botanical Garden
- San Francisco: Japanese Tea Garden
- Honeybee News
- Hurricane Isabel
- Hurricane Katrina: Mississippi
- New York Frolics
- Our Story
- Propagation: Stem Cuttings
- The Romantic Hydrangea
- 1. Hydrangea Arborescens ‘Annabelle’
- 2. Hydrangea paniculata
- 3. Oak Leaf Hydrangea
- 4. The Hydrangea that Climbs
- 5. Why Don’t My Hydrangeas Bloom? Part I
- 6. Why Don’t My Hydrangeas Bloom? Part II
- 7. Why Don’t My Hydrangeas Bloom? Part III
- 8. Putting the Blue in Your Hydrangea Blooms
- 9. Drying Hydrangeas
- White Mountains, NH
- Albemarle Lands: Voyage Through Centuries Series
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Author Archives: aheronsgarden
St. Petersburg II: Heavenly Coffee and Historical Whodunnits
(Go to Peterhof and Catherine Park for pictures and discussion about these gardens.) We were staying at Herzen House on Bolshaya Morskaya. (Remember those names, they have a nice ring, don’t they? and they figure into our Historical Whodunnits.) Herzen House … Continue reading
St. Petersburg I: First Impressions
(Click on Peterhof and Catherine Park for pictures and discussion of these gardens) Dateline October 1, 2013. It was sleeting when we arrived in St. Petersburg. What in the world were we doing here, two garden lovers 90 miles from the Arctic … Continue reading
The Lollapalooza Month
February 2015. We had high hopes of finding February after losing January. One balmy day and we were out whacking down grasses and seedy natives to make way for daffodils, then planning the next attack on a wayward garden. We … Continue reading
The Lost Month
January. Disappeared. Wiped away. That’s why this is being written in February. That’s not to say calendar days didn’t march by, one by one, as prescribed by the physics of the solar system. I’m talking here about garden days. Let … Continue reading
The Blizzard of 2015. . .
. . .And Other Winter Snows We were treated like some kind of heroes. For no particular reason, except that we had weathered the blizzard and come home to talk about it. The weekend before the great storm, fifteen of … Continue reading
Posted in Blizzard, Winter, Winter Gardens
Tagged blizzard, fire in snow, ice formations, winter gardens, winter trees
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Serendipity Twice Around
Fifteen years ago I did a piece for a garden column about three native fall-bloomers that I discovered in the rich remains of a defunct compost pile. The trio tickled me each time I passed them. They seemed to hum … Continue reading
A Pollinator’s Heaven
I wish we could say we were brilliant and actually planned this little bit of heaven. Like everything else in our garden, it simply evolved. It happened this way. Several trees, their structure internally damaged by Hurricane Isabel, had to … Continue reading
Posted in Creating a Garden, fall bloom, Native Plants, Native pollinators, summer bloom, Uncategorized, wildflowers
Tagged boltonia, Cutleaf Coneflower, Daylily, fall bloomers, Hidcote st johnswort, joepye weed, native plants, native pollinators, perilla, salvia guaranitica, shrubby st johnswort, skullcap (scuttelaria), summer bloomers, Swamp Sunflower, Tatarian aster, Turks cap, wildflowers, woodland sunflower
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From Beach Sand to Clay Pots
Our first home and garden was set on top of one of the highest hills on Long Island. It sat in pine barrens more than 100 feet above sea level, and the breeze was lovely. In 25 years we never … Continue reading
Posted in Compost, Creating a Garden, Creating soil, Soil, Uncategorized
Tagged clay, compost, creating soil, loam, sand, sea level rise, topsoil
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Evolution of a Gardener
I was completely brainwashed about pesticides back in the seventies, bought the whole post-war chemical boom as great stuff. Yet, here I was, leading walks and giving talks about the wonders of nature in the woodlands, wetlands and seashores of … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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A Heron's Garden 