Elizabeth Licata

Jan 1, 2025 | gardenrant.com | Elizabeth Licata

This year, instead of gardening resolutions, which I never have and wouldn’t keep if I did, I have a list of gardening wishes. They are also unlikely – if not utterly impossible – to become reality, but there’s less guilt, this way. It’s definitely an aspirational time. Though I never plant seeds, I am getting those catalogs, as well as catalogs for summer bulbs and annuals. Old-fashioned annuals are a big weakness of mine.

Nov 12, 2024 | gardenrant.com | Elizabeth Licata

I actually enjoy my garden at this time. I look around and feel a sense of accomplishment. There is nothing more for me to do here. The bulbs are in the ground, in garage pots or in root cellar pots. Everything that needs to be covered is covered – now it’s  just a Japanese maple in a tree stump and another in a big pot. I used to heap bags of leaves around my old-fashioned macrophylla hydrangeas, but now I find I’m just breaking branches more than anything else. Winters just aren’t what they were.

Oct 15, 2024 | gardenrant.com | Elizabeth Licata

Time spent just sitting in the garden is not only enjoyable, it’s part of the work. It’s productive. And this is the time of year when my hours of goofing off pay their dividends. Because I’m not just sitting there lost in admiration of what I’ve accomplished. Far from it. I’m thinking about how I can possibly continue to put this garden on public tours without making major improvements. That is where the sitting and staring comes in. I target micro-areas where a few changes would do some good.

Sep 25, 2024 | gardenrant.com | Elizabeth Licata

What does “overgrown” even mean when discussing a purposely cultivated outdoor space? I understand when things are aggressive, but that’s different. My friend Kathy calls this “plants that like to romp.”I like romping. I may also like overgrown. Gardeners in my local Facebook group are now voicing concerns that their gardens are “overgrown.” Are the plants too tall? Too many leaves or flowers? Are they attacking the house? It all sounds like too much success to me.

Aug 27, 2024 | gardenrant.com | Elizabeth Licata

Is it possible to get sick of hydrangeas? Apparently not. If, like me, you can withstand a 4-day garden tour in the Pacific Northwest followed – two weeks later – by a six-day get-away in Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard, in which every private garden and every piece of public landscaping was dominated by billows of this shrub, you’re immune. You may even be addicted.