Mickey Gast

As a gardener, I’m always on the lookout for more plants. Colorful plants. Boisterous plants. Plants that make you go WOW! But when it comes to hydrangeas, I’m partial to …

As the saying goes, two things in life are certain, though allow me to choose not to list them here. But as a gardener, I’d like to petition to add …

Tell me if this story sounds familiar. You love perennials, so you court them assiduously. In return, they reward your efforts with an abundance of beautiful flowers.  You think your …

Back when I first started gardening and had no idea what a biennial plant meant, I was foolish enough to trust the information on the garden center plant tags without …

My stubborn attempt to overfill my garden with more plants on a shoestring budget continues throughout the rest of fall. Or at least for as long as the weather allows …

With the garden slowing down in anticipation of the winter months and my bulbs firmly in the ground waiting for spring, I’m now turning my attention to propagating ornamental plants …

What if I told you that you could plant something in your garden that’s worth its weight in gold? No, I haven’t yet found the seeds of the mythical money …

The great green wall project (the one I mentioned in this post) continues in my yard. In a nutshell, I’m trying to create a plant divider – between our property …

If you’ve ever thought that cooking and gardening have a few things in common – mainly using “ingredients” and following a “recipe” to create something out of nothing – you’re …

Nowadays, there are so many things we take for granted that make our lives as gardeners easier, compared to even half a decade ago; things such as being able to …

We are elbow-deep in the bulb-planting season and my friends are starting to doubt my honesty when I say “sorry, I can’t this weekend; I’m planting bulbs.” But that’s October …

The thrill I get when browsing online bulb catalogs is the closest feeling I’ll ever get to that of stepping into a candy shop when I was a child. Then, …

An unexpectedly popular plant care series that we ran on Blooming Backyard was the one covering reasons why beloved plants don’t bloom. I say “unexpectedly” not because our readers were …

When I first got the gardening bug, I used to despair over the end of the warm summer season. Fall, in spite of its color and richness, brought a bittersweet …

If there’s ever a plant that embodies the feeling of hopefulness, it’s the tulip. As a history buff, I’m fascinated by how the Dutch Tulip Mania unfolded in the seventeenth …

When I was growing up, my relatives and acquaintances who had a garden grew red tulips. Maybe yellow. Occasionally white. I would spend hours browsing through gardening catalogs that hardly had …

I absolutely love my star jasmine. What’s not to love? It stays green all winter long, blooms for weeks at a time and smells divine. I’ve been letting it take …

When I moved into my current home, I became the accidental step-parent of a majestic Camellia japonica bush. The woman who was moving out estimated the camellia was about seven …

If you prefer more blooms than foliage, a showy display of flowers that lasts for weeks, and a vine that doesn’t destroy the structures that it climbs on, then clematis …

Daylilies (Hemerocallis) have been working hard for our gardens all summer long, putting out stunning displays of blooms day after day. But with the advent of fall, when temperatures start …

Preparing roses for the winter season during fall can be a tedious job, so it’s no wonder that it sometimes becomes the object of procrastination even for experienced gardeners. After …

Over the past decade, the advice on the best time to cut back perennials has been noticeably shifting. Thankfully, our increased awareness of the fact that we need to protect …

Ever since its release in 1988, the children’s book Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert has been one of the favorite means for green-thumbed parents to instill a love of …

Dahlias are the darlings of the flower garden and for good reason. They put out gorgeous boisterous blooms every year, but there sure is a price to pay in exchange …