This Week in Gardening

This Week In Gardening (TWIG)

Our seasonal field report. Each week I share what we’re working on in the gardens – what matters now, what’s coming, and how to think about it. This is instructive, practical guidance rooted in real work. Read it, comment on it, ask questions about it. That’s what it’s there for.

Years ago, about this time of year, Florence and I stepped out onto the back patio of her wonderful garden. Florence was my mentor and my friend. I worked with her in her own garden, and in many others, for nearly twenty years. By that spring, we had already shared many seasons together. I h...

May 03, 2026 2026 spring

Staking Peonies [April 26, 2026]

Peony season is upon us. From now through about Mother’s Day, we get the thrilling arrival of these late-spring flowers. I grew up in southern Indiana, where there was a row of old herbaceous peonies down the back hillside, growing at the feet of old-timey bridal wreath spirea. I loved to cut th...

Apr 26, 2026 2026 spring

Watering [April 20, 2026]

WATERING In this middle week of April here in Washington, D.C., we had a bit of a heat wave. The last days have been hot and windy—and that combination will likely bring a quick close to the spring flowering bulb season. Meanwhile, things are growing like mad—or trying to—in these lengthening day...

Apr 20, 2026 2026 spring

WATCH YOUR STEP [April 12, 2026]

It is easy enough to stay out of the tulip beds and spring flowers now that they are up and in bloom, but throughout the garden all kinds of other things are waking up. The first growth of perennials and ferns is just pushing up in our cultivated beds, and bright green lawns are inviting us acros...

Apr 12, 2026 2026 spring

TIME [April 6, 2026]

This week in gardening, we are thinking a lot about time. Someone asked me this week, ‘Aren’t those tulips blooming early?’. My first response was yes — they are an early blooming species, and with some unseasonably warm weather they have kicked off a bit ahead of what I had expected. But th...

Apr 06, 2026 2026 spring

BOXWOOD — SPRING SHEARING AND RENOVATION [March 30, 2026]

One of the biggest pushes of the spring season is boxwood renovation and shearing—especially with English boxwood (Buxus sempervirens ‘Suffruticosa’). True English boxwood puts on one major flush of growth each year, beginning in March and usually fully leafed out by early May. This window is the...

by Michael Ray Anderson — Apr 01, 2026 spring

Oak Leaf Hydrangea - Renovation [March 23, 2026]

There are several categories of hydrangea with one of the main distinctions between being their blooming habit, old wood or new wood. Hydrangea that bloom on old wood set their flowers in the summer and early autumn, hold them through the winter, and bloom the following season. Hydrangea that b...

by Michael Ray Anderson — Apr 01, 2026 spring

Where To Start Your Gardening [March 11, 2026]

WHERE TO START As the spring season begins to charge ahead, the list of “to-do’s” can certainly feel overwhelming. In my own practice, with many gardens in play, I am absolutely feeling the pressure. This week in gardening, I thought it might be interesting to examine a simple question: where t...

by Michael Ray Anderson — Mar 17, 2026 spring

Liriope and Hellebores [March 3, 2026]

Liriope and Hellebores Over the winter, and now at the start of spring, one of our first chores is cutting back liriope and hellebores throughout the gardens. It’s a project we often begin in the occasional warm workable winter days, then turn up the pace as spring starts to arrive. By this time...

by Michael Ray Anderson — Mar 17, 2026 spring

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This Week In Gardening (TWIG)

Our seasonal field report. Each week I share what we’re working on in the gardens – what matters now, what’s coming, and how to think about it. This is instructive, practical guidance rooted in real work. Read it, comment on it, ask questions about it. That’s what it’s there for.

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