Gardening from the couch: literally
Faithful readers know that Garden Variety has been on the shelf for a couple of weeks, battling a stubborn respiratory thing.
I took the opportunity of my enforced rest to read my copy of "Gardening for a Lifetime," by Sydney Eddison, who describes the accommodations she made in her (massive) 40-year-old gardens because of age and poor health.
Not what I should have been reading, I think. It made me feel my age and my infirmities all the more.
But she makes some points that I took to heart as I sat on the porch and watched the weeds grow during these three weeks.
Sydney Eddison loved her perennial borders and her favorites were her daylilies. But she realized that perennials that require nearly weekly maintenance, including deadheading and pruning, are simply too much work. Daylilies are worse and more of it, she concluded.
She removed many of her perennials and replaced them with small flowering trees and shrubs that require trimming or pruning twice a year, or less.
Among her criteria, which she called her "standards of good behavior" are:
- A perennial must be truly perennial and return faithfully every year.
- It must be health and exhibit the fortitude to endure dry summers without supplemental watering and cold winters without additional mulching, other than the remains of mulch put down in the spring.
- It must have superior, or at least, good foliage. Good foliage is attractive for most of the season, which means that some browning of old leaves can be expected after flowering, but cutting it down should not be mandatory. Think Sedum "Autumn Joy."
- A well-behaved perennial must maintain a tidy habit -- no flopping or sprawling. It must remain within reasonable bounds -- no overtaking of neighbors or shading them out.
- It must not offer an invitation to predators, pests or diseases.
The 
Susan Harris, who blogs for Homestead Gardens, is 
The Chesapeake Conservation Landscaping Council is sponsoring 
Nobody likes mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are so unpopular that they have an official week devoted to their extermination.
Our friends over at Washington Gardener magazine and blog are hosting a 
I don't know why I get the 
Garden Variety was the guest photographer today on 
Sunday is the day for the 
This weekend is the 10th anniverary of the Hammond-Harwood House Secret Garden Tour in Annapolis.
There are probably as many products for keeping squirrels out of bird feeders as there are for keeping deer out of gardens.
My colleague Dave Rosenthal, who blogs about books over at Read Street, 
Aristolochia Gigantea
