2019’s Holiday Poem

‘Twas mere days before Christmas, but we hadn’t slowed down We were digging and building, criss-crossing the town. Not just us, oh no no, it’s everyone this year For some reason it seems we’re all missing some cheer. Then into…
‘Twas mere days before Christmas, but we hadn’t slowed down We were digging and building, criss-crossing the town. Not just us, oh no no, it’s everyone this year For some reason it seems we’re all missing some cheer. Then into…
Every backyard garden pond is different, but they all require the same parts to function. The exact size of each component varies depending on the size of the pond but a pump is a pump, a skimmer is a skimmer,…
There’s a lot to love about Culpeper. Our downtown has terrific shops and restaurants and a great little museum. Speaking of the museum, every year they organize a day where families can get up close and personal with preserved dinosaur…
Some hardscape mistakes are minor. The summer picnic equivalent might be putting too little salt in your potato salad. Others are major. Those are the equivalent of using pureed Spam in your cherry pie. Whatever you do, avoid Spam in…
What are those plants? Culpeper County has been working hard to plant Virginia native plants around the county, so I made that a focus of this design. Here’s the plant list: Willow Oak, Quercus phellosSt. Johns Wort, Hypericum spp.Virginia Sweetspire,…
The usual common name for Pieris japonica ‘Mountain Fire’ is Japanese Andromeda, which I will not use. I’ve never heard a homeowner call it “Andromeda”. I’ve heard pieris, I’ve heard japonica – that one’s fun, since there are a gazillion…
When I say “holly” it probably puts a very specific image in your mind: bright green, shiny leaves with lots of jagged edges, and bright red berries too. Compact Inkberry Holly (Ilex glabra ‘Compacta’) is different, with its dark green…
St Johns Wort (Hypericum ‘Hidcote’) is a plant I didn’t use a lot initially. Then we were asked to quote a landscape installation for a client in Great Falls. They had just completed a major addition, and the county required…
I can only assume that there’s a clever link between Sixteen Candles Sweet Pepperbush (Clethra alnifolia ‘Sixteen Candles’) and the Molly Ringwold movie, but I’m an embarrassment to Gen X. I’ve never seen it. Haven’t even caught the movie between…