My garden journaL
Anchored & Aimless
This is my garden journal—a place to explore garden design, maintenance, challenges, and upgrades through backyard experiments and deep dives into what’s working well in other people’s gardens. Join me for weekly Garden Notes—small observations, lessons learned, and ideas worth trying..
Chapter One
Design
Design is where I look at the everyday artists at work—the suburban gardens, public walkways that stop you mid-stride. They may be planted by homeowners, gardeners, or landscapers, but what interests me is the eye behind them: how color, texture, shape, and placement come together to make an ordinary space memorable.
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The Beauty of Red and Purple: 4 Garden Design Principles
Read →: The Beauty of Red and Purple: 4 Garden Design PrinciplesI keep noticing this garden in town. It is not subtle in color at all. Rows of pink begonias line the edges of the garden beds. Burgundy foliage appears in shrubs and small trees. Purple rose-of-Sharon bushes are strategically placed along the sides of the yard. Yet the reds, magentas, and purples that repeat throughout the property are not overwhelming. The bright colors bring energy to the space. Whoever designed this garden knew what to repeat, what to vary, when to stop, and what to leave alone. Richness & Restraint The most obvious feature of the garden is its red-purple color […]
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When Solutions Become Problems: Course Correction in Gardens and Policies
Read →: When Solutions Become Problems: Course Correction in Gardens and PoliciesPhoto by David Trinks on Unsplash The beautiful blooms on my bigleaf hydrangeas this year were the direct result of my not doing something stupid. More precisely, they were the result of my not repeating the mistake I made several seasons ago. This year, I listened to the experiences of others, read the established guidelines, and took a more strategic approach to pruning. Instead of hacking away at every branch, I carefully removed only the dead wood that had no blooms. The result of that course change was a set of shrubs covered with large blue flowers. Spoiler alert: my course […]
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When Wildlife Won’t Behave
Read →: When Wildlife Won’t BehaveI planted a young kousa dogwood in my front yard after admiring a row of blooming ones near a parking lot in Berkeley Heights. The white bracts looked proper and sweet—it was the sort of ornamental tree that would soften my small suburban lawn without overwhelming it. Illustration generated with ChatGPT. The spot looked right: part sun, dappled shade, decent soil, and I had a place where I could see it from the bay window of my home. I watered the tree, watched it settle in, and imagined the future version—a round little tree, maybe ten feet tall, covered in white […]
Chapter Two
Maintenance
The regular work that keeps a garden going—watering, pruning, cleaning up, watching what struggles, noticing what comes back, and figuring out what needs attention next.
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The Beauty of Red and Purple: 4 Garden Design Principles
Read →: The Beauty of Red and Purple: 4 Garden Design PrinciplesI keep noticing this garden in town. It is not subtle in color at all. Rows of pink begonias line the edges of the garden beds. Burgundy foliage appears in shrubs and small trees. Purple rose-of-Sharon bushes are strategically placed along the sides of the yard. Yet the reds, magentas, and purples that repeat throughout the property are not overwhelming. The bright colors bring energy to the space. Whoever designed this garden knew what to repeat, what to vary, when to stop, and what to leave alone. Richness & Restraint The most obvious feature of the garden is its red-purple color […]
Chapter Three
Challenges
Challenges is where I look at what happens when the garden doesn’t cooperate—what went wrong, what I tried, what worked, what didn’t, and what I’m still figuring out along the way.
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The Beauty of Red and Purple: 4 Garden Design Principles
Read →: The Beauty of Red and Purple: 4 Garden Design PrinciplesI keep noticing this garden in town. It is not subtle in color at all. Rows of pink begonias line the edges of the garden beds. Burgundy foliage appears in shrubs and small trees. Purple rose-of-Sharon bushes are strategically placed along the sides of the yard. Yet the reds, magentas, and purples that repeat throughout the property are not overwhelming. The bright colors bring energy to the space. Whoever designed this garden knew what to repeat, what to vary, when to stop, and what to leave alone. Richness & Restraint The most obvious feature of the garden is its red-purple color […]
Chapter Four
Upgrades
Upgrades is where I look at the changes that can make a garden work better—new beds, tools, storage, lighting improvements. Which of these are and are not making enough of a difference to justify the effort.
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The Beauty of Red and Purple: 4 Garden Design Principles
Read →: The Beauty of Red and Purple: 4 Garden Design PrinciplesI keep noticing this garden in town. It is not subtle in color at all. Rows of pink begonias line the edges of the garden beds. Burgundy foliage appears in shrubs and small trees. Purple rose-of-Sharon bushes are strategically placed along the sides of the yard. Yet the reds, magentas, and purples that repeat throughout the property are not overwhelming. The bright colors bring energy to the space. Whoever designed this garden knew what to repeat, what to vary, when to stop, and what to leave alone. Richness & Restraint The most obvious feature of the garden is its red-purple color […]
About
This is my garden journal—a place to explore garden design, maintenance, challenges, and upgrades through backyard experiments and deep dives into what’s working well in other people’s gardens. I’m not displaying manicured perfection—just taking an honest look at what grows, what doesn’t, and what I learn along the way.
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