Recent damage from Hurricane Idalia – which hit Florida’s Big Bend region and parts of Georgia on Aug. 30 – reminds us that we are only now at the high point of hurricane season, which runs June 1 through Nov. 30.
September is not the moment to think about the winter – there is time enough for that – but for laying spring’s groundwork.
Adding to all the wet weather woes this summer is the presence of fungi, which can take several forms.
This season, some hydrangea bushes are fat and sassy with blooms; others, not so much. By the way, the acid content of the soil determines the color. More acidic soil yields blue hydrangeas; more alkaline, pink.
Pretty and pretty deadly: The spotted lanternfly is a seductive plague on plants like grapevines and the U.S. agricultural economy.
Ah-choo! This is a particularly bad allergy season. But it doesn’t mean you have to give up being in – and working in – the garden.
The arrival of the New York Botanical Garden’s exhibit “Gardens & Works by Ebony G. Patterson” is a reminder that art and the garden have been having a conversation for centuries
When it comes to gardening, there “May” be no busier month than the fifth one on the calendar, even though there is still a chance of frost in our area.
Our recent taste of summer in April had people not only donning tank tops, shorts and flip-flops but heading to the garden with even greater alacrity to tackle those spring chores.
As we gear up for the season of reseeding and planting, now is also the time to ensure that all the equipment we need is in order.
Winter 2023 exited the same way it came in – brilliant and cold. And while the hard season was not without its challenges.
It’s the heart of winter, yet gardening enthusiasts are already noticing something unusual: Green shoots sprouting from the ground. But what is normally an exciting moment in late March has raised alarm bells in February and even back in January.
The Morano Group is pleased to announce that Bedford Quarry House, one of our landscaping and hardscaping clients, has won a prestigious Residential Design Award from the American Institute of Architects, New York.
Now is the perfect time to become an indoor-plant parent, if you haven’t already joined those who took to the beauties as a distracting hobby during the pandemic, contributing to a multibillion-dollar global industry that will only grow.
The new year brings not only New Year’s resolutions but also plans, including plans for the garden. Though in some ways January – and winter in general – seems to stretch before us like a vast, icy plain, for gardening enthusiasts it remains one of the busiest of months. Now is the time to get out on good days, walk your garden and see what needs attention.
The latest Hatfield and McCoy-style standoff involves homeowners who are enthralled to the so-called “splendor in the grass” and those who have let their lawns go au naturel in an effort to aid the environment (…)
It’s no accident that the Morano Group’s logo is a tree. Trees anchor any garden, just as the author of the Book of Genesis made the fateful Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil central to the Garden of Eden.
For many of us in the Northeast, November may be if not the cruelest month, then certainly the most challenging.
With temperatures blazing, swimming pools are increasingly inviting – particularly to those thinking of installing one on their property. But building a pool is not without its challenges – financially and environmentally.
As with real estate, outdoor plant survival depends on location, location, location. Some plants like hydrangeas and New Guinea impatiens do well in shade with just a little vitamin D from Mr. Sun in the morning. Watch them in afternoon sun, however, as they may start to droop and need water to perk up. (Ferns and hostas also do nicely in shade.)
“Water, water everywhere”: Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s observation in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” might as well on e have applied to our area. Everywhere sprinkler systems have irrigated the lawns that thread Westchester and Fairfield counties’ fabled verdure. But that has become a less frequent occurrence.
As any landscape designer will tell you, a garden is not just about grass, mulch, flowers, bushes and trees. Landscaping is also about hardscapes (walkways, patios and terraces). These not only offset your garden; they give you the secure space and footing with which to enjoy it. Pavers can be set close together with concrete joints or spaced apart, with grass peeking through for a checkerboard effect. They can be stone (bluestone, limestone, granite), brick and concrete (precast and poured-in-place).
Even if you don’t have a green thumb or a house and garden, you can still enjoy a “garden” of your own with potted plants in a window box or on a patio, terrace, balcony or deck. As with plants you might place in the ground, the key here is, as they say in real estate, location, location, location.
The medical profession has always stressed that importance. A recent study from the American College of Cardiology, which followed more than 90,000 people for 28 years, found that about a half-teaspoon of olive oil a day lowers the risk of dying from cancer as well as from cardiovascular, neurodegenerative and respiratory diseases. (Of course, those who used olive oil were more likely to be nonsmokers who ate fruits and vegetables and stayed active.)
Experts across several industries are pointing to a “perfect storm” of factors contributing to a grass-seed shortage that began last year and continues into this one. Start with Covid-19 – everyone’s favorite culprit – which found house-bound homeowners yearning for greener pastures and vying with landscapers, private clubs and public businesses last year for seed that was in short supply due to high heat, drought and wildfires in Oregon and southern Washington state, the prime growing areas.
As with the human struggle against Covid, the plant world’s fight against the boxwood blight has been all over the place and marked by fits and starts. It is currently incurable but it is treatable. However, fungicides are expensive, require repeated application, and may harm the environment.
The Morano Group LLC is going green.
As we reported earlier on our blog, the group – which includes Morano Landscape in Mamaroneck, Ridgeway Garden Center in White Plains, and Weaver Gardens in Larchmont –will begin using an electric, lithium battery-operated fleet of mowers and blowers on March 15.
“The Orchid Show” has returned to the New York Botanical Garden – the same thing only different. You may remember that “Jeff Leatham’s Kaleidoscope” had just opened in 2020 when it was cut short by Covid. Now the floral designer – artistic director of the Four Seasons Hotel George V, Paris, who has studios at the Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia at Comcast Center and the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills – has totally reimagined his kaleidoscopic theme, capitalizing on the idea that orchids are epiphytes or air plants.
With the unveiling of the controversial sculpture of Diana, Princess of Wales, on what would’ve been her 60th birthday (July 1), it’s time to reconsider the role of sculpture and other ornaments in the garden. Created by Ian Rank-Broadley, the slightly larger-than-life-size statue depicts…
While November sees no letup in garden chores, our subject this month is the gutters that serve as arteries around the house, allowing the flow of rainwater from the roof to wick away from the structure, keeping it free of precipitation and mold. Just as clogged arteries are bad for the body…