Chef Ian Rynecki and gardener Diane Burns modestly refer to their creation at Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards as a kitchen garden, but the result of their collaboration is nothing less than the ideal template for farm-to-table cooking. Before making his way to Albemarle County in 2017, Rynecki had climbed a ladder with a basket […]
Starting plants from seed may not be the easiest, or even the most economical, way to supply your garden. It requires investing not only a lot of time, but also money for seeds, potting soil, flats, cell packs, thermometers, those cute little markers, and perhaps heat mats, a cold frame, or small greenhouse. Regardless, the […]
Back in the ’80s, I ran a landscape crew at Albemarle Farm and its later incarnation as John Kluge’s Morven Farm. I kept a well-thumbed, constantly annotated 3×5 spiral notebook with a card for each month’s tasks for the areas we maintained: ornamental displays of shrubs, perennials and annuals; creekside buffers; an allee of willow […]
Each season has its sounds and smells. In the quiet of late winter stinky skunk cabbage entices winged insects hungry for carrion. Spring brings birdsong and sweeter breezes although nature continues the rotting meat theme with the lurid purple hue of paw-paw flowers. As we approach the equinox of June 21, the legendary longest day […]
My circle of acquaintances happily includes many who make their lives in horticulture. Their answers to my idle query, “What is your favorite tool?” ranged from humorous—a professional gardener, 5-gallon bucket and a radio—to the obscure, among them the intriguing swan hoe, an ingenious asparagus knife with scuffle attachment and a number of beloved Japanese […]
What does it mean for a garden to have “good bones”? Like a beautiful woman or a handsome man, it’s what remains when the bloom is gone. Some believe good bones reveal character, or perhaps it’s just a matter of chance. We know it when we see it, however, in gardens as well as faces. […]
The weeping willow and sourwood, gifts for our wedding, died early on. The Austrian pine marking the birth of our grandson, Sean, (replacing the original Japanese paperbark pine accidentally mowed down) seems to be succumbing to some kind of tip die-back 16 years later, and ever since I heard about the depredations of the ambrosia […]
The lure of the long-blooming, low-maintenance garden is perennial in the gardener’s heart. After the rush of early spring has subsided and we are no longer smothered in an eruption of dogwoods, azaleas, peonies, iris and daffodils, thoughts inevitably turn to riding that wave of flowers on to first frost. But we don’t want to […]
When it burst upon the scene five years ago, boxwood blight put a big scare into Virginia nurseries and all who love the iconic shrub, though perhaps some who scorn it for its historical associations and acrid smell would just as soon see the genus in its grave. Much like a sci-fi movie, sticky spores […]
Deck the garden with half a dozen stars to ornament the darkest days of winter. In the pared-down landscape between first and last freezes, when contrasts are sharp, displays of flower, form and color take on a significance lost in the lushness of summer. If you don’t already have these beauties in your lineup, add […]