Skunk cabbage, bloodroot, and trout lilies are among the first signs of spring and warmer weather ahead. Spring ephemerals and wildflowers must complete part of their life cycles before the tree canopy leafs out, reducing light levels at the forest floor. These plants face many challenges, including unpredictable weather and pollinator availability. Spring wildflowers have
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Are you interested in building stone walls in your garden? This one-day workshop introduces you to basic mortar-free masonry techniques. Start with a classroom introduction to the fundamental steps involved in stacked-stone wall construction, then get some hands-on instruction in setting stones on site. Bring work gloves, safety glasses, a water bottle, and lunch. This
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Disregard traditional design rules and adopt a new approach to garden design. Look to nature for your inspiration. What clues can you take from your landscape to help your site thrive? Learn to evaluate sunlight, moisture, soil and other factors to encourage a successful garden that does not require many inputs in the way of
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Scientific names offer precision and accuracy when identifying plants, but they can also intimidate even the most seasoned gardener. Élan Alford, Mt. Cuba’s conservation scientist, breaks down the various components in a Latin binomial, including why plants are named in this way and what a Latin name can teach us about a plant. This introductory
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Keep your trees and shrubs healthy, attractive, and long-lived using expert pruning techniques. In this hands-on workshop, learn basic pruning principles including how to make the correct cuts, the best times of year to prune various plants, and how to select and use the right tools. Gain the confidence to prune your plants in a
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Take a rare winter walk through Mt. Cuba Center’s gardens and learn the skill of tree identification along the way. Recognize species based on subtle seasonal characteristics and develop observational techniques to assess bark, buds, bud scales, fruit and seed remnants, fallen leaves, and overall tree form. An introduction to key botanical terminology will build
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Keep your trees and shrubs healthy, attractive, and long-lived using expert pruning techniques. In this hands-on workshop, learn basic pruning principles including how to make the correct cuts, the best times of year to prune various plants, and how to select and use the right tools. Gain the confidence to prune your plants in a
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Sharp, well-maintained gardening tools help you get more work done in less time and with less effort. Using professional-grade techniques, learn how to clean and safely sharpen pruning shears, loppers, shovels, spades, and trowels. Get a jump-start on spring now! Bring what tools you need to sharpen and a pair of work gloves. Spend the
MoreShrublands exist all around us, thriving in almost any environmental condition, from the blasted, wind-blown heath, to the private shade of moist forests. These diverse and inspiring ecosystems not only serve as perfect models for our gardens but offer the chance to blow apart conventional garden-making through their intense and challenging beauty. Join the authors
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Gardeners and native plant lovers often see deer as a threat: They eat the plants we try to nurture, and they are a major factor influencing forest ecosystems. But the truth about deer is complicated, and so is the quest to manage their numbers. How did we get here? Explore the many facets of the deer
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