Author Archives: Jeff Cox

Tip of the Week: Dress Up a Hanging Basket

June 30, 2009 | Jeff Cox | 0

Here’s an easy way to make a hanging basket look more lush and colorful. When you’re done, you won’t see the pot at all.

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Planting Around Rocks

March 31, 2009 | Jeff Cox | 0

If you have a group of rocks as a landscape feature in your yard, you can show it off with appropriate plantings. Here are some ideas for what to plant, plus tips for planting near the rocks.

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Growing Blueberries

March 17, 2009 | Jeff Cox | 0

To grow your own crop of blueberries, all it takes is an acid soil rich in organic matter, a sunny spot, and one or two inches of water a week during the growing season.

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Plan Ahead for Early Tomatoes

January 6, 2009 | Jeff Cox | 0

To harvest tomatoes well before your neighbors do, plan ahead! You’ll need to start tomato seeds in February and then follow a few easy steps.

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Tip of the Week: Swim in Spinach this Spring

September 2, 2008 | Jeff Cox | 0

There is nothing like a leafy, green spinach salad fresh from the garden. Jumpstart your spring spinach yield this fall with this tip from author Jeff Cox.

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Living in a clearing in the woods for 12 years gave me an enormous appreciation for nature’s tenacity. If I skipped even one year of keeping down woody scrub, small trees, rough grasses, and greenbrier as tough as nylon cord, they came creeping back into my two-acre meadow-the vanguard of a wholesale takeover that would soon return the meadow to oak, poplar, beech, hornbeam, and black birch forest. . . .

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Trailing Plants

May 1, 2007 | Jeff Cox | 0

These plants have an excellent trailing habit, making them good for walls and hanging baskets.

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Perennials for Wet Sites

May 1, 2007 | Jeff Cox | 0

Use a wet or boggy patch of ground to grow these choice perennials.

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Northwest: Star Magnolia

May 1, 2007 | Jeff Cox | 0

Oh, the blessed climate of California, where frost rarely if ever threatens the magnolia blossoms.

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Fall Cleanup

October 18, 2006 | Jeff Cox | 0

Nature saves her biggest show for last. Late in the year, the world seems to take a deep, cold breath and hold it. In the stillness of glittery October sunlight, the trees and shrubs flame. A walk down a country lane becomes an awe-inspiring extravaganza of color. And then . . . wham! All those beautiful leaves fall off and cover your lawn and gardens with a mess. . . .

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