Adkins Arboretum | Eastern Shore Gardener

Posts Tagged ‘Adkins Arboretum’

Adkins Spring Nursery Opening

Posted in Uncategorized, Upcoming Events, tagged Adkins Arboretum, Bay-friendly gardening, Chesapeake Gardening & Landscaping on April 23, 2015| Leave a Comment »

I hope some readers of Eastern Shore Gardener will join me at Adkins Arboretum this Friday or Saturday. Adkins is celebrating the opening day for their native plant nursery, and I’ll be there to sign copies of Chesapeake Gardening & Landscaping. There’s little doubt I’ll be buying some plants as well.

I will be signing books on both Friday and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Bring questions, too, and I will do my best to answer them!

Adkins Arboretum is located at 12610 Eve Road, Ridgely, MD 21660
Phone: 410-634-2847

For more on the event see Native Plant Nursery Opening.

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Six Tips

Posted in In the Garden, tagged Adkins Arboretum, Bay-friendly gardening, Chesapeake Gardening & Landscaping, University of North Carolina Press on April 1, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Months ago, the University of North Carolina Press asked me to write two blog posts that relate to Chesapeake Gardening & Landscaping. The first of them was published today, and I wanted to share a link to it here on Eastern Shore Gardener. Six Tips for Creating an Eco-friendly Landscape, outlines the fundamental principles covered in the book that help create a sustainable landscape. Each principle offers many options for implementation. Chapter One presents ten tips for each principle that gardeners can use to move toward a beautiful, sustainable landscape.

Since it looks like spring is really finally here, I am spending the afternoon outdoors cleaning up beds and replenishing the leaf litter on the garden. The simple act of mulching works toward several principles. It is especially important for #4, Manage Water Runoff, but it also is an essential part of principle #6, Garden Wisely, because of all the benefits mulch brings to soil, weed control, and more. I wait until spring to clean up and cut down, because deep leaf litter and stems provide overwintering sites for insects and good hunting grounds for birds. All the stems and other plant parts pulled off the garden in spring go directly to the compost pile, and eventually are returned to the garden to complete the cycle.

If you don’t already have a copy of Chesapeake Gardening & Landscaping, consider coming to one of the events listed in the calendar. Adkins Arboretum has copies available by mail. It is also available from Amazon.

Above: Large-flowered bellwort (Uvularia grandiflora) is finally beginning to emerge from the soil. It brings yellow spring flowers and handsome foliage to the garden.

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Books and Blogging

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Adkins Arboretum, Bay-friendly gardening, Chesapeake Gardening & Landscaping, native plants, Plants for Chesapeake Gardens, University of North Carolina Press on December 11, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I haven’t managed many blog posts in the last year, and I have missed posting about plants and events in my garden. Happily, I have more than a lame excuse for the lapse involving dogs (or parrots) eating my homework.

After months and months of research and writing, plus agonizing photo editing and rounds of review, my book Chesapeake Gardening & Landscaping (CG&L for short) has finally been sent to the printer. It is scheduled for publication March 30, 2015.

Published by The University of North Carolina Press in association with Adkins Arboretum, the book features 293 pages and 317 color photographs. I can’t wait to see it in color. (I have a black-and-white version of the book now.) The cover here is just a tiny taste of what is inside. I hope this book (all sales benefit Adkins Arboretum!) will become a guide for gardeners throughout our region.

You can pre-order Chesapeake Gardening & Landscaping by clicking the cover image on the right side of this blog. Or, to order from the University of North Carolina Press directly, visit http://uncpress.unc.edu/books/11759.html.

Of course, copies also will be available for sale at Adkins once they come from the printer. In addition, I have started booking talks based on the book, and I will be bringing books to all of these events as well. I will announce dates here once they have been finalized.

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Upcoming Fall Events

Posted in Upcoming Events, tagged Adkins Arboretum, Botanical illustration, gardening events, John James Audubon, Washington College on September 27, 2012| 2 Comments »

It seems like ages since I last posted, but my Chesapeake Gardening & Landscaping book continues to demand all of my time. I did want to write a short post to make sure everyone was aware of a few upcoming events.

Above: Here’s a taste of the pictures that will appear in the book I am working on. I’m thankful to have photographer Neil Soderstrom on the project!

First off is the Sunday, September 30 symposium, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., at Adkins Arboretum with Thomas Rainer and Dan Benarcik. You can read the full details about this event on the Eastern Shore Gardener Calendar page. There’s still room, and it promises to be a great event. I’m signed up, and I hope to see some of you there!

I have been taking botanical illustration from Fran Phaneuf for about a year now, and she has a class starting up (beginners welcome!) on Wednesday mornings in October through River Arts. They don’t have the class listed on the Upcoming Classes page of their website, but if you are interested, send me an e-mail and I can put you in touch with Fran. She is also lecturing in Oxford, Maryland on Thursday, October 4, on “Botanical Art: A Continuing Tradition.” Details are in the calendar.

While this exhibit is slightly out of the realm of gardening, Kohl Gallery at Washington College has an exhibit from October 9 to November30 entitled “In Pursuit of Beauty: John James Audubon and the Golden Age of Bird Illustration.” It promises to be fascinating. Gallery hours are on the calendar.

Finally, also at Washington College in Chestertown, John Beardsley, director of landscape studies at Dumbarton Oaks, is lecturing on ” Art in the Environment – Sketches from the Field” on October 17 at 5:00 p.m. at the Decker Theater. For more details, again, see the calendar!

And now, back to my book!

Happy Gardening! (In my case, this fall the theme should read “Happy Ivy Killing, but more on that in a future post!)

Barbara

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Summertime Color

Posted in In the Garden, tagged Adkins Arboretum, Chesapeake Gardening & Landscaping, Daylily, Hemerocallis, University of North Carolina Press on July 5, 2012| 1 Comment »

I have been derelict in my postings of late, and it’s not just the heat at work. I am hunkered down at my computer working on a really exciting book project. You see, most of my career has been spent writing for publishers who publish nationally, and this book is especially exciting to me because it is focused specifically on gardening in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. I am writing it for Adkins Arboretum and it is going to be published by the University of North Carolina Press. Publication probably isn’t until 2014, but my manuscript and all the photos are due in March of 2013. So, between now and then, I will be pretty tied up.

ABOVE: Hemerocallis ‘Bridgeton High Society’

I’ve also been busy taking pictures of Bay-friendly gardens, since there are quite a few color photos in the book (yeah!). In addition to taking some pictures of my own, I’m also working with a friend and photographer, Neil Soderstrom, to get photographs of some really wonderful gardens for the book. I’m also planning to use this new-found photo library to put together talks on gardening in this region—especially green gardening in this region.

So, while I still intend to post to Eastern Shore Gardener regularly, if there are silences from my end, just know I’m hard at work on Chesapeake Gardening & Landscaping!

ABOVE: Hemerocallis ‘Woodside Perfection’

Summertime Color

Even though Chesapeake Gardening & Landscaping will focus primarily on native plants, I’m posting pictures of daylilies today, since they’re among the brightest things I can see while chained to my computer. Mine have been going strong for at least six weeks despite the heat, and the second flush is just getting started. In my garden rebloomers like ‘Stella de Oro’, ‘Happy Returns’, ‘Rosy Returns’, and ‘Black-eyed Stella’ are first to bloom. By now they are in reblooming mode, but flowers are sporadic since I don’t water much. Midseason daylilies keep the flowers coming strong, and I’ve shared pictures of three standouts that are gorgeous now.

ABOVE: Hemerocallis ‘Conspirator’s Oath’

The meadow is also filled with flowers these days, and I’ll get a post up about that in a week or two! In the meantime, stay cool and happy gardening!

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