When we think “decorating,” the kitchen doesn’t usually come top of mind. This week, Remodelista reminds us that the workhorse room deserves some aesthetic attention, too. Below, some ideas for decorative touches in the kitchen:

Table Lamps

Elegant Fruit Bowls

Beautiful Natural Brooms

Paintings

Plus:

• Rock Camp: Old-Meets-New Lake Cabins by an Upstart Maine Architect
• The Modern Menorah and Other Uncommonly Chic Judaica from Via Maris
• 10 Easy Pieces: Modern Shower Fixtures
• Sustainable Shopping: High-Quality, Eco-Friendly Goods from San Francisco
• 5 Expert Tips: How to Clean Your Woolens

Long-blooming salvias are saviors in the autumn garden. So when Gravetye Manor’s head gardener Tom Coward met me in a pair of shorts in October, I might have twigged to the semi-tropical splendor in store for me in Sussex (an hour’s train ride away from London). A second before, I’d stepped out of a 16th-century manor into a low-angled ray of golden sun. Backlit magenta dahlias glowed from the borders and a hot pink haze of salvia surrounded them.

I’d raced to make it to Gravetye before dark, so I barely had dropped my bags and grabbed my notebook before Tom found me blinking, agog, shamefully stumped at the genus level in 40 seconds flat: “What salvia…?”

Here’s a cheat sheet I compiled—with suggestions from both Gravetye and Dyson’s Nursery at the Great Comp Garden in Kent—to help you choose the right Salvia (commonly known as ornamental sage), a warm-climate perennial and a fast-growing annual in colder growing zones, to add color to a late-season border:

Photography by Christin Geall.

Salvia Curviflora

While Tom spoke, I jotted down a list of salvias to plant for late-season color in a border, starting with the cerise wonder I’d swooned over walking out of the manor’s heavy oak door: Salvia curviflora, with a lipstick-perfect trout pout.

A native of Mexico, Salvia curviflora has a dramatically curved flower and is a perennial in USDA zones 8 to 11.

Salvia Leucantha

Commonly known as Mexican bush sage, Salvia Leucantha establishes quickly; a shrub quickly will grow to a height and diameter of 5 feet.

Salvia Confertiflora

In other borders, Salvia confertiflora towered above tall Tagetes (French marigolds) and the crimson Dahlia ‘Dove Grove’. The confertiflora is a tender but spectacular plant, growing to a height of more than 5 feet in a season.

Coward uses salvias to provide late-season interest in the borders. Their rich colors play well with other strong autumn colors: deep yellows, oranges, and pinks. Their forms, from upright sub-shrubs to smaller edging plants, extend their versatility.

Salvia ‘Phyllis’ Fancy’

Named to honor a long-time volunteer at the University of California’s Santa Cruz Arboretum, Salvia ‘Phyllis’ Fancy’ was discovered on the California coast. Probably a cross of Salvia leucantha and Salvia chiapensis, ‘Phyllis Fancy’ flowers are a strong lure for pollinator insects and hummingbirds.

Salvia Involucrata

Growing tips from our recent post Gardening 101: Salvias: “Salvias thrive in arid conditions, appreciating free-draining soil,” writes Kendra.
“With regular deadheading, they can flower from late spring until the first frosts.”

To learn more, I headed to Dyson’s Nursery at the Great Comp Garden in Kent, which specializes in salvias. There, in the hazy mists of autumn, I was struck again at how the singe of salvias cheers.

Salvia ‘Ember’s Wish’

The Salvia genus contains more than  900 species. The species and cultivars of interest to gardeners (for their long-flowering period and color) generally hail from the southern US, Mexico, and through Central America into Brazil. As such, they are generally tender or half-hardy and require winter protection.

Salvia ‘Love and Wishes’

N.B.: See more ideas to extend the flowering season well into autumn:

• Salvia: A Field Guide to Planting, Care, and Design.
• The Ultimate UK Getaway: 1 Hour From London, But a World Away at Gravetye Manor.
• Color Theory: 10 Perfect Plant Combinations for Autumn.

Finally, get more ideas on how to successfully plant, grow, and care for salvia with our Salvia: A Field Guide.

Finally, get more ideas on how to plant, grow, and care for various perennial plants with our Perennials: A Field Guide.

I don’t know why the volume of autumn leaves that fell onto our yard that first fall in our new home was such a surprise. We had moved to a town called Maplewood, after all—not to mention what had drawn us to the area was a noteworthy abundance of “grandfather” trees. When the first leaves fell, my husband and I ushered our kids out the door, eager to introduce them to the invigorating pleasures of raking. Look at us! We are raking leaves from our trees in our yard! We are wearing flannel shirts! And our kids are jumping into leaf piles like good suburban poster children!

Our smugness didn’t last long. Just a few days later, our yard was covered again. And we realized that raking would be an every-weekend chore for the rest of fall. (A leaf-blower was out of the question for my manual-labor sentimentalist of a husband.) By the end of the season, we were searching for every excuse not to rake. Didn’t we hear somewhere that covering your garden with leaves is actually beneficial? Isn’t that what real back-t0-the-land gardeners do? We don’t want to be bourgeois about our landscaping, do we?

Ultimately, fear of sticking out in a neighborhood of tidy lawns kept us raking. But with the prospect of another season of leaves, leaves, leaves ahead, I think it’s time to revisit my burning question: What’s so bad about leaving your leaves where they fall?

Featured photograph by John Merkl for Gardenista.

Q: To rake or not to rake, what do the experts think?

A: “I think a landscaper would say rake, because it looks better and it’s more money in their pocket; a gardener would say rake and use as compost or mulch; and a farmer would say leave them and mow them in place because it’s inefficient to move them around,” says Kenneth Hacker, a farmer and local food preserver with Eastern Mass. Provisions Co. (and Kristina’s big brother!).

He’s not shy about sharing his feelings on the great raking debate: With landscaping, “you pay to remove all the organic matter from your lawn, and then pay to fertilize it with chemicals later.” Instead of clearing your yard of leaves, Kenneth suggests pulverizing dead leaves with a lawn mower and spreading the leaf mulch all over your yard and garden to help incorporate it back in the soil.

“I would say there is no absolute best way to manage leaves, because it depends how you view them. If it were my lawn and I wanted it to be healthy with the least amount of work or inputs, I’d leave them and chop them in as I mow,” he says.

Q: What are the benefits of leaf mulch?

A: Leaf mulch has many benefits. A leaf blanket helps prevent weeds, keeps soil from drying out, decreases the risk of erosion, and provides shelter for beneficial organisms. In general, “it’s best to minimize the amount of bare soil exposed in your garden,” says Kenneth. Furthermore, ground-up leaves, left to winter in place, likely will eventually compost into nutrients for healthier soil. (See Transforming Leaves from Trash to Treasure for helpful tips on composting leaves.)

Q: Are all leaves beneficial?

A: We have a pine tree on the side of our house, and I’ve always wondered if the needles that fall are OK to leave (they’re so pretty as ground cover). “Pine needles are often mixed in with deciduous leaves and make a good mulching material too because their shape allows for good water infiltration, like straw,” says Kenneth. “I’d say use whatever is available and abundant for mulch, with only a few rare exceptions. Black walnut comes to mind because it is a tree famous for producing a toxin that inhibits the growth of other plants. I wouldn’t use material from those in my garden.”

Q: Is there such a thing as too much leaf mulch?

A: Kenneth says the optimal method is to cover your garden or lawn with the mulch until you can’t see the ground anymore; then add a little more. (Michelle says about an inch of leaf mulch is ideal.) “It would be hard to add too much mulch unless you were starting to pile up too high around the base of a plant, like lettuce, that is susceptible to rot,” he says. “And rain will still penetrate the mulch as long as you don’t have a thick layer of matted leaves.” Which brings me to…

Q: Can you use whole leaves for mulch?

A: Yes, but if you’re using whole leaves to mulch, stick to a thin layer. Rain and air can get through shredded leaves relatively easily, but that’s not the case with a thick layer of un-shredded leaves. In general, best practice is to shred the leaves. “If you leave a fall’s worth of leaves untouched on your lawn, there’s a good chance they’ll still be there in the spring because they were spread out and dry for a long time [not facilitating decomposition], then frozen through the winter,” says Kenneth. “If you kept on mowing over them though, there’s a good chance the pieces will have made their way through the blades of grass to the soil, where they can be digested by soil-inhabiting organisms.”

For more beginner gardening stories, check out:

• Your First Garden: What You Need to Know About Topsoil
• Expert Advice: 7 Tips to Put Your Garden to Bed for the Winter
• The Garden Decoder: What Is a Cool-Season Crop?

“I don’t do frilly,” says curator Diane Schaub. We are standing under the shade of an old magnolia in the English garden, one of three smaller gardens within Central Park’s six-acre Conservatory Garden near the northeast corner of the park.Here are 10 of her perfect color combinations for fall garden beds:

Photography by Marie Viljoen for Gardenista.

Burgundy and Green

Purple, Yellow, and Blue

Purple and Red

Schaub, who earned a diploma from the New York Botanical Garden’s School of Professional Horticulture, has been the Conservatory Garden’s curator for 20 years. And while she does not do frilly, she does do color and texture, breathtakingly well. She has a painter’s eye for composition and an architect’s instinct for structural detail.

Purple and Lilac

Red, Yellow, and Silver

Orange, Yellow, and Lime

Pink, Fuchsia, and Lime

Pale Pink and Sky Blue

Yellow and Blue

Yellow, Lime, and Purple

And if you are a little late, walk north to the French-style garden where the Korean chrysanthemums on display might just blow your mind.

But that is another story.

For more gardens to admire, journey to Scampston Hall by Dutch Master Piet Oudolf and Cape Town for A Study in Green with Franchesca Watson. You can also spend an entire afternoon exploring all our Garden Visits.

It might interest you to know that U.S. Patent No. 286,952 was granted in 1883 to one William J. Moore of Weatherford, Texas for a new and improved wire harvest basket, the manufacture of which involved threading a wire through a top and a bottom hoop to form “an open net-work of reverse diagonally arranged or crossing wires.” If you think this sounds complicated, imagine how labor-intensive it was to make the handles.

Fast-forward to the 21st century for more improvements in the world of woven wire—oblong baskets, conical baskets, clam buckets, and wooden handles. What remains the same, however, is the object’s usefulness. A single wire basket is versatile enough to hold potatoes gathered from the garden or a stack of blankets in a bedroom.

Here are 10 of our favorite modern wire baskets, to gather and store valuables found outdoors or in:

Is storage on your mind? For more indoor-outdoor options, see:

• 10 Easy Pieces: Bushel Baskets
• 10 Easy Pieces: Stepladder Plant Stands
• Tabletop: Mini Galvanized Metal Buckets

Joel and Diane Schatz have photos (circa 1927) of their Mill Valley, California, house that show a garden party in progress under a great canopy of wisteria, with guests in party hats posed against a backdrop of pampered rhododendrons, camellias, and holly. This is not how the place looked the first time the Schatzes saw it 75 years later.

“It was a wreck,” Mr. Schatz recalled the other day. The “lawn” consisted of hard-packed clay covered in cat droppings, the rhododendrons were strangled by overgrown vines, and the redwood house–subdivided into five apartments after World War II–was a mess. The Schatzes took one look and bought the place on the spot.

Photography by Marla Aufmuth.

For more Rehab Diaries, see:

• • The story of a grand garden nearly destroyed by a mudslide, A Survivor: A Grand Seaside Garden in Tiburon.
  • Rehab Diary: Jo Malone’s Fragrance Garden in Brooklyn.
  • A Garden Transformed, in Eugene, OR.

N.B.: This is an update of a post originally published October 15, 2012 as part of our coverage of West Marin and Beyond.

Remodelista armchair-traveled to France this week for a dose of je ne sais quoi flair—and we couldn’t be more pleased with the ideas.

Go askew.

Add softness.

Buy French.

Rely on vintage.

Plus:

• Steal This Look: A Modern Farmhouse Dining Room in France
• Kitchen of the Week: A Compact Family Kitchen in Paris
• 10 Easy Pieces: Wall-Mounted Guest Bath Sinks
• ‘Old California’ in a New Update of a 1907 Arts & Crafts-Style House in Los Angeles
• A Ground-Breaking Kitchen with Clever Storage Solutions in London

Why do flowers go in and out of fashion? In the 18th century, German botanist Johann Gottfried Zinn received a shipment of Asteraceae seeds from Mexico that locally had been considered an ugly weed. In Europe their reputation fared better; Carl Linnaeus dubbed them “zinnias” after Zinn, who died young.  Two centuries later, the reliably colorful flowers of Zinnia elegans were so popular in the United States that the introduction of a new variety caused a sensation at flower shows.

Today, however, the crayon colors of common zinnias are more likely to find their way into a farm stand bouquet than your neighbor’s beds of prize heirloom flowers. But not all zinnias are created equal. Our resident florist, Sophia Moreno-Bunge, found some impossibly pretty Zinnia haageana flowers that deserve a spot in any garden:

Photography by Sophia Moreno-Bunge for Gardenista.

After the renowned experimental horticulturalist died in 1926, all of America went into mourning for the man who had given the world the plumcot, the white blackberry, and the blight-resistant potato (created to fight famine in Ireland). Schools were closed in honor of Burbank’s passing,  newspaper editorials bemoaned the loss of a great plant wizard, and his fox terrier lay under his master’s coffin for three days without eating.

The answer, it turned out, was in a rusted iron-bound trunk in which Burbank had squirreled away special seeds he’d collected over the years. A few years later, seedsman David Burpee bought the trunk, opened it, and found zinnia seeds.

For more of Sophia’s floral arrangements, see Florist in Residence: My Two Months at Villa Lena in Tuscany.

For more flowers that deserve a second chance, see:

• Gladiolus: Rethinking a Funeral Flower.
• Carnations: Rethinking a Supermarket Flower.
• Anthuriums: Rethinking a Hotel Lobby Flower.

Finally, get more ideas on how to successfully plant, grow, and care for zinnia with our Zinnia: A Field Guide.

Interested in other annuals for your garden? Get more ideas on how to plant, grow, and care for various annuals with our Annuals: A Field Guide.

Common fig, Ficus carica 

The next plant I plan to buy for myself (and not for a garden client) will definitely be a fig tree. I usually harvest figs from my clients’ trees, and any fruit that goes uneaten I turn into yummy fig jam, but transporting delicate, thin-skinned figs home is a tenuous and messy activity. The solution is simple: it’s time to grow my own.

Native to the Middle East and parts of Asia, figs are one of the oldest known fruits (they were one of the first trees to be cultivated in Egypt) and came to North America by Spanish missionaries in the early sixteenth century. The fruit, to some, represents the womb, and more generally, fertility. (Interestingly, fig flowers hide inside the fruit.) And the expression, “fig leaf,” is used figuratively to describe an object used to cover up something embarrassin—-obviously a Biblical reference to Adam and Eve using fig leaves to cover their nakedness.

More than 700 named cultivars of the common fig exist, and they flourish in areas with a Mediterranean climate, meaning mild winters and hot, dry summers. If you live in USDA Zones 8 to 10, you can grow an attractive fig tree in your garden without needing protection from freezing winter temperatures. If you live outside of those zones, pick hardier cultivars or grow your fig in a large container, top dress with compost, and bring into an unheated garage for the winter.

Relatively fast, fig trees can soar from about 10 to 30 feet tall if planted in the ground. Grown in containers, the tree’s height and width will be much smaller. With many varieties available, and with such a broad range of fruit color, shape, and taste, choosing the best option can be intimidating. I always recommend starting with a variety well-suited to your climate, then go for taste and color second. Also, a reassuring fact is that common fig trees grown in home gardens don’t require another fig for pollination, and because they don’t need an opening for pollinating wasps to enter, they are less vulnerable to rot caused by rainwater or other insects. The best option is to visit your local nursery and see what varieties they carry or what they recommend.

In the right conditions, and on some varieties like San Pedro, your fig tree could produce two times a year.  The first crop, called a “breba” crop (from the Spanish word Breva, meaning ‘early fig’), is the fig produced on last year’s wood and ripens in late May or early June, and a second will be ready to harvest in late September to early November.

While it’s the fruit that is commonly eaten, and well-known to be rich in calcium, B-vitamins, and important minerals, the young mildly fragrant fig leaves are also edible, and they add a nice vanilla flavor to food. The first record of fig leaves being used to wrap food is in third century BC.

Common Varieties for Home Gardens

Brown Turkey: Large, sweet figs with few seeds emerge over a long season.

Purple Genoa (also called Black Spanish or Black Genoa): Large, deep purple figs with sweet red flesh. Great for turning into jam.

Alma: A late season fig, this tree produces rich tasting figs.

Celeste: This moderately sized tree to 15 feet tree produces smaller fruit and earlier than most. This tree is popular in the southeastern United States because it can tolerate heat and cold better.

Mission: Sweet purplish black fruit ripens in summer. This fig was used in historic California Missions and can live a long time.

Pro tip: Make sure you can identify when your fig tree’s fruit is ripe. Some figs when ripe turn brown, while others appear green or gold.  Check daily for ripe fruit and they should be soft to the touch and start to slightly crack.

Cheat Sheet

• Fig trees make great unique shade trees, so consider adding one where you like to hang out in the summer under a cooling tree. Then in the winter, this deciduous tree makes a striking silhouette.
• If you run into the predicament of having too many figs, store them in the fridge or cook up a batch of yummy fig jam.
• Add a fig tree to your edible garden as a focal point or bold leafed backdrop, or to a Mediterranean-themed garden filled with olive trees, lavender, and rosemary.
• In small spaces, fig trees can be espaliered with great success but with more maintenance needed to maintain their shape.

Keep It Alive

• For the most productive fig tree, plant it in a sunny spot, sheltered from winter winds, and grow it in preferably well-draining soil that is not highly acidic.
• Both in-ground and container-grown figs should be watered regularly. If left to dry out completely, your fig tree may sadly loose its leaves and be stressed so much that fruit production could be affected, an even sadder state of affairs.
• Simply prune your fig mainly to control the size or thin to increase sunlight and air circulation, plus remove any suckers that may pop up near the base.
• Figs are generally disease- and insect-resistant. The worst predators are hungry birds. While netting may prove effective, it can also be a deadly bird trap, so I normally don’t net my clients’ fig trees. I’ve also noticed that rats love to snack on figs too, and those that have been tasted get moved into the compost pile.
• Figs appreciate a monthly feeding of liquid seaweed or manure tea during the growing season.

Quick & Easy Fig Jam Recipe

Simmer your chopped figs in water with some lemon juice, sugar to taste and a pinch of salt for roughly 15 minutes. Cool, then store in the fridge for three days.

For more on fruit trees, see:

• 14 Things Nobody Tells You About Indoor Citrus Trees
• Gardening 101: Crabapple Trees
• 5 Favorites: Espaliered Fruit Trees

Back in spring, prepping for the pandemic meant stocking up on toilet paper. This fall? Make sure you order a fire pit in order to extend outdoor entertaining season. Below, our recommendations for some particularly stylish ones. Create an instant bonfire with these versatile wood-burning fire pits and bowls, perfect for the patio or the lawn (but not recommended for use on wood decks or surfaces).

For more on fire pits, see:

• Landscape Design: 10 Tips for Adding a Fire Pit, from Judy Kameon
• 10 Easy Pieces: Smokeless Fire Pits
• Landscaping Ideas: 10 Fire Pits, for an Instant Outdoor Living Room

I still remember the first time I saw roofs made of red clay tiles. I was visiting my grandmother in Santa Monica one hot summer, and I was enchanted by the city’s combination of terra-cotta roofs, stucco bungalows, cracked concrete streets, and tall, skinny palm trees. Santa Monica seemed warm and gracious, and those tile roofs evoked a feeling of permanence and craftsmanship. And in fact, as I’ve since learned, they actually are permanent. With care, a tile roof will last forever.

Besides their longevity, clay roof tiles are also insulating and fireproof. What’s more, they can be reused and recycled. Why don’t we see them everywhere?

What is the history of clay roof tiles?

Clay roof tiles date to the ancient Persian and Mesopotamian cultures. Prized for their ability to withstand the elements and resist rot, they have been used for centuries throughout Europe and Asia. After European settlers brought the craft of tile-making to North America, clay tiles started to appear on the roofs of Jamestown, Roanoke, and St. Augustine. By the mid-1600s, building codes in New York, Boston, and other cities encouraged the use of clay tiles due to their fireproof properties.

How are clay roof tiles made?

Terra-cotta is Italian for “baked earth,” which is a fairly accurate description. Most manufacturers extract clay from a nearby quarry, press it into molds, and fire the tiles at high temperatures. Tiles can be glazed or treated to withstand freezing or excessive heat. Check with your roofing contractor to make sure you’re choosing the right type for your climate.

What colors and styles of clay tiles are available?

Historically, tiles were the color of whatever clay deposit was nearby, ranging from buff to reddish brown. These days there’s a wider variety of colors, but earth tones still predominate. They may be uniform or have a range of color within each tile.

Styles are defined by the shape: rounded, flat, or ridged. The familiar Spanish tile is the rounded “barrel” tile; the flat English style might be mistaken for another material if not for its ruddy hue.

What kind of house looks good with clay tiles?

Americans tend to associate a clay roof with Spanish or Italian stucco architecture. But the wide selection of shapes makes clay tile suitable for many architectural styles. It pairs well with stucco, stone, or brick siding. Flat tiles work particularly well with wood siding, and in both traditional and modern forms.

Note: Slope is an important consideration when planning a clay roof. Typically, clay roofs are only used for roofs sloped from 20 to 50 degrees.

What maintenance does clay roof tile need?

Clay roof tiles are durable and long-lasting–manufacturers often give warranties of anywhere from 50 to 100 years. That means the tiles can last longer than the house they’re covering, but there are issues to keep in mind. For one thing, the material beneath the tiles must be able to support the weight of the clay tiles, and often needs to be waterproof. To last as long as the tiles, flashing should be lead or copper. In a clay tile roof, leaks are generally caused not by broken tiles, but by substandard or incorrectly installed flashing or metal fasteners underneath.

While its insulating properties make it an ideal choice for hot climates, a tile roof can also perform well in snow country, as long as the structure is engineered to support the weight of both clay and snow.

Clay roof tiles never should be walked upon–they can break. Luckily, if a tile does break you can replace it individually. It’s not a complex job, but you should hire a professional to do it. And obviously, the repair will match better if you have extra tiles saved from the installation.

How much does clay roof tile cost?

For a new clay roof, let’s just say that the adage “Buy quality and you only cry once” applies. Professional installation can cost from $12,000 to $25,000, depending on the size and pitch of your roof. Higher-end tiles can push the price to $70,000, plus the cost of extra structural support if needed.

Where can I buy clay roof tiles?

Manufacturers in the US include: Verea Tile (based in Florida); Ludowici Roof Tile (Ohio); MCA (California); Boral Roofing (Georgia) Gladding, McBean (California), and Santafé Tile (Southwest). Spain’s Tejas Borja exports clay tiles all over the world, and has a US distributor in the Northeast Tri-state area.

Another desirable option: reclaimed tiles, often available from roofing installation companies, salvage yards, or through Craigslist. San Francisco-based Cooritalia specializes in Spanish, Italian, and French reclaimed clay roof tile (they also offer new Roman barrel tiles).

Clay Tile Roof Recap

Pros:

• Sustainable–clay is a natural substance and tiles can be reused
• Lasts forever
• Excellent insulator
• Protects against rot and insect damage
• Fireproof

Cons:

• Expensive
• Can break if walked on
• Heavy; can need extra structural support
• Underlying material sometimes needs to be replaced
• Limited aesthetically

Researching roofing material options? See our earlier features:

• Hardscaping 101: Standing Seam Metal Roofs.
• Hardscaping 101: Green Roofs.
• Hardscaping 101: Asphalt Shingles.

For a fun addition to your clay tile roof, Michelle found a Roof Tile for the Birds.

We have a beautiful dogwood in our front yard. Like the other few plants on our property that are actually thriving, this tree was here long before we arrived—and long before I started gardening (or what I like to call, killing plants with my good intentions). Trouble is, an arborist recently told me that our dogwood, which grows sweet white flowers in the spring and turns a gorgeous orangey maroon in the fall, doesn’t have many years left. He suggested I start growing a new tree near the dying dogwood so that when it finally putters out, there will already be a new one taking root to replace it.

Aside from the fact that the strategy seems very Machiavellian, with overtones of Sunset Boulevard, the idea of planting a tree is daunting. I have problems growing flowers; how on earth can I succeed at growing a tree?

I consulted with Rowan Blaik, director of living collections at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, for some advice. Here’s what I learned.

N.B.: Featured image via Solitair Nursery, from Shopper’s Diary: Specimen Trees and Special Shrubs from Solitair Nursery in Belgium.

Q: When is the best time to plant a tree or shrub?

A: Blaik says the better question to ask is, When is the worst time to plant them? “There are times of the year that are really bad for planting a new tree or shrub. In the winter, the ground is frozen; in the height of summer, you have to water loads to keep the soil moist enough.” Basically, the weather conditions in those seasons put too much stress on new plants. If the tree is an evergreen, fall and spring (when temperatures and conditions tend to be mild) are optimal. If it’s a deciduous specimen, fall is best; planting deciduous trees in the fall, when they start to slow down anyway, offers a gentler entry for new transplants.

Q: Why are some trees and shrubs so much more expensive than others?

A: There’s a premium on unusual plants, so the rarer a specimen, the more expensive it tends to be. There’s also often a difference in price because of size. Larger trees or shrubs tend to be more expensive, since the buyer doesn’t have to wait as long for them to mature. And last, prices go up for field-grown trees, says Blaik, as opposed to container-grown specimens. Field-grown specimens are usually found balled and burlapped at nurseries; this means the root ball has been dug up and wrapped in burlap. Container-grown specimens, planted and grown in pots, tend to be smaller. You’ll find many of the latter type at mass-market retailers like Home Depot and Lowe’s. Trees are sometimes also available at nurseries in a third form, bare root, but Blaik doesn’t recommend that option for beginners.

Q: How do you know if a tree or shrub is healthy before you buy it?

A: How many times have you seen a wilted plant in a store and wondered when its last watering was? Clearly, not all plants in stores get the treatment they need. Here are some warning signs to look out for, according to Blaik. Are there roots growing out of the pot? Are there weeds on top? Is it lopsided? Are there dead leaves or branches on it? Is there a gap between the root ball and the sides of the container (a sign of under-watering)? If the answer is yes for one or more of these questions, move on and look for a healthier plant. Blaik also recommends asking an employee at the nursery to take the pot off so that you can examine the roots; if they are growing in a spiral, a sign that the pot is too small for the the plant, look for another one.

Q: What are best practices when it comes to planting a tree or shrub?

A: First, prepare the area where you plan to dig the hole for the tree or shrub before you bring it home. Find the spot and clear it of debris and weeds. When you bring the root ball home, submerge the entire thing (container and all) in water for 10 to 30 minutes to ensure it’s well-watered before you plant it, says Blaik. Dig the hole to a depth no deeper than the rootball (so that the top of rootball is even with the ground); the width should be about three to four times wider than the root ball or container. If the ground is really compacted, he recommends tilling the sides and the bottom of the hole—but not too much, he cautions: “If you make it too soft and fluffy, you will think the root ball is planted at the right depth, but it will eventually sink.”

Q: How much water does a young tree or shrub need?

A: “It’s vital that you water newly established plants,” says Blaik, but it has to be the right kind of watering. “Shallow watering will give you shallow roots. Deep watering every now and then is better than lots of superficial watering.” Mold the soil around the base into a little basin so that the water soaks in where it’s needed (and doesn’t dribble off elsewhere). And don’t just turn on the hose and disappear. He recommends hand-watering and paying attention to the soil as you do it. “Water, pause, watch the water disappear, then repeat until the time it takes for the water to soak in gets slower and slower. When the ground is well-saturated, the water will take a while to disappear into the soil.” A fail-proof way to ensure your new tree gets watered well: wrapping the base with a tree gator. Blaik is a big fan of these zippered bags for the summer months. One bag holds up to 15 gallons of water that will gradually seep into the soil around your tree over the course of five to nine hours, thereby ensuring a deep water saturation.

For more beginner gardening stories, see:

• Your First Garden: What You Need to Do in Fall for a Lush Lawn in Spring
• Your First Garden: What You Need to Know Before You Plant Bulbs
• Your First Garden: What You Need to Know About Raking Leaves
• Your First Garden: What You Need to Know About Topsoil

With daylight dwindling, we’re all starting to clock more hours indoors. Fortunately, Remodelista has some fresh ideas for bringing the great outdoors in.

Plus:

• Steal This Look: A New York Kitchen with Old World Charm
• 10 Things Nobody Tells You About Plaster
• 10 Easy Pieces: Remodelista Editors’ Favorite Everyday Wine Glasses
• Tricks of the Trade: 7 Small-Space Storage Tips from Emil Eve Architects
• 10 Storage Ideas to Steal from an Artfully Organized Apartment in New York City

There are many reasons I married my husband: for his salsa recipe, ability to make the modem thing work, and taste in books (if he likes an Alan Furst, so will I). But perhaps his greatest hidden talent is he can make a fire. Yes, I know your husband can make a fire too. But trust me, my husband is the son of a fireplace tool maker. His father owned a factory in the aptly named Pennsylvania town of Sinking Spring, and my husband knows his way around a fireplace tool set like a dentist knows her suction hose, sprayer, and molar probe.

These days, however, my husband’s fire-making skills are obsolete. One of the realities of renovating an old house—at least if you live in my Northern California town—is not being allowed to keep a wood-burning fireplace because of the pollution and health risks associated with woodsmoke. So, goodbye to the romance of the hearth?

No, no, no. I found a happy solution. If you love fires, read on to learn more about environmentally friendly options:

Why can’t I keep my wood-burning fireplace?

There are five stages of fireplace grief, and after the the architect told me the wood-burning fireplace had to go, my first reaction was denial.  Keep your laws off my living room, City of Mill Valley! The city’s rule seemed like one more pushy intrusion into everyday life by a megalomaniacal zoning department. (These are after all the same people who have mandated fluorescent kitchen lighting, inadvertently creating a local underground railroad of gently used ceiling fixtures that make the rounds one step ahead of the inspector’s visit.) 

But then I started Googling. It turns out that woodsmoke is a bad thing to breathe. Children can get asthma from it. In fact, dozens of studies link exposure to woodsmoke to a rise in both chronic and acute illnesses in all ages of humans. Citing smoke’s chemical and particulate emissions as major sources of air pollution, many counties ban wood fires on days when air quality is poor. (If you’re caught in my county with a fire on a no-burn day, the fine is $100.)

So, yes, goodbye to the grand chaos of a wood fire, and the crackling sound of it, and the little missiles of burning ember that go flying out from the center, and the lovely smoky smell. Goodbye to the Boy Scouts’ Campfire Building Badge, and to roasted marshmallows, and to husbands’ elaborate fire-starting rituals: the carefully arranged pile of twigs and bits of wedged newspaper that looks like a spooky devil catcher from True Detectives.

When you’re in the thick of a remodel, with a big chimney in the middle of the living room, you stare at it and wonder what to do with it. Leave the hearth sitting empty, a gaping black hole that’s a reminder of yet another cherished ritual that has turned out to be bad for us? Board it up (how will Santa find us)? Or spend $3,000 to convert the fireplace to natural gas?

Option 1: Close off the chimney.

We thought about making the fireplace inoperable. A lot of people do this. You close off the chimney, shut the damper, leave the hearth open, and fill the opening with something decorative.

For instance, there are glass fireplace logs formed by pouring molten glass into casts of real wood (for more information, see Jeff Benroth). These logs are not meant to be heated, but you can add a few strategically placed votive candles for a firelight effect. Or, you can stack a set of white porcelain logs (their lengths range from 12 to 14 inches) in a non-operational fireplace and admire their chalky purity.

Option 2: Board it up.

We considered boarding up our fireplace. After you seal the chimney, you lay a wall of brick inside the fireplace. Cover the brick–with plaster or a grill or a decorative cover. Then treat the mantel like one more piece of furniture in the room: hang a mirror or artwork over it.

Option 3: Convert it to a natural gas-burning fireplace.

Above: A seven-piece [product id="611284"]Berkley Oak Ceramic Fiber[/product]; for more information, see [product id="611284"]Monessen[/product].In the end, we decided to convert our fireplace to burn natural gas because I wanted more than a fond memory of fire; I wanted fire. Minor detail: our remodeling budget did not include $3,000 to convert the fireplace to gas. So we cut back on something else—goodbye, skylight in the back hallway) to find the money.

We ran a gas line from the furnace in the basement all the way up into the living room. We re-bricked the chimney. We installed a vent. We bought a set of ceramic logs. And ceramic embers. And got a set of airtight glass doors.

Bonus: The ceramic logs and embers are a lot of fun to play with. You can stack the wood in different configurations and arrange the embers around the base.

So now we have a fire whenever we want–without ashes to sweep or soot buildup on the mantel or tiny carcinogenic particles of burned wood wafting around in the air. The flames leap and the embers glow and, on some nights, I even will allow myself the filthy indulgence of burning a little Red Cedar Incense ($10 for a box of 50 pieces from Paine’s) to infuse the room with “real fire smell.”

There is one problem, though. To get the natural gas flowing, you must turn a giant scary lever located inconspicuously in the bottom shelf of a bookcase next to the fireplace. But first, you have to light a long match and place it in the fake embers. Then you run over to the bookcase to turn on the gas. If you crank the lever too far, gas rushes into the fireplace and causes a whoosh, and flames leap up as if unleashed from the depths of hell. There is always a fear one or more of the dogs will get singed. On the other hand, if you don’t turn the lever far enough, the lighted match in the fireplace doesn’t catch fire at all, and I worry that a slow steady seepage of invisible gas will claim me as surely as if I were Sylvia Plath.

Luckily, my husband is very good at turning on the gas.

What about you? Would you give up your wood-burning fireplace for health reasons? Tell us about it in the comments section.

N.B.: Read more of Michelle’s Domestic Dispatches.

This is simply one of the most joyful gardens we’ve ever seen. More than 20 years ago, Anna and Allan Joyce (a landscape architect and architect, respectively) decided to build their family home on a half acre in Southwell, England, that came with a derelict walled garden. They had five young children, and their dream was to build a compound that offered surprise and delight at every corner.

The two collaborated on the design and after two years, their “Garden House” was finished: a nearly 5,000-square-foot seven-bedroom house with floating mezzanines, balconies, a conservatory that blurs the line between indoors and out—and a multi-level, multi-use garden that encourages discovery and play.

“I didn’t want the whole garden to be seen from any one place. I wanted it to be intriguing like the house. It is within a beautiful high brick wall, which is a secret in itself. I wanted this secrecy to be reflected in the garden,” Anna tells us. “The garden is a series of rooms formed from yew and box hedging, which gives the garden year-round structure with strategically designed glimpses beyond to the next area. I wanted it to be fun. We had five small children and they liked this playfulness. Their friends, though now in their late twenties, still talk about this element of our garden.”

Now that their children are grown, Anna and Allan are understandably looking to downsize and have listed the property on The Modern House. (See the full listing here.) Below, they give us a tour of their spirited and fun-loving garden.

Photography courtesy of The Modern House, unless otherwise noted.

To see the listing for Anna and Allan’s Garden House, go here.

For more on walled gardens, see:

• Walled Gardens: An Organic and Picturesque Plot at Old-Lands in Wales
• Bayntun Flowers: Florist Polly Nicholson’s Walled Garden in Wiltshire
• Steal This Look: The Spirit of Provence in a Walled Belgian Garden

Leaves are falling. Days are shrinking, nights are stretching. Autumn is not the end of gardening, but a good time to make plans, prepare, and put to bed. And perhaps grow a salad or three.

Read on for 10 fall garden chores to do now.

Photography by Marie Viljoen.

1. Empty fragile pots.

The freeze-thaw cycle in small pots can crack or shatter them. My larger terra cotta pots planted with perennials and shrubs fare better as they remain well frozen, but I do expect a casualty every year.

Store extra potting soil in a bucket that will remain under cover through winter. Tip: If you are squeezed for indoor or shed storage space, leave the container outside and simply lay a square of plastic over the top of the container and secure with a wide rubber band, to keep moisture and snow out.

2. Save leaves.

3. Order spring and summer bulbs.

4. Lift and store tender or vulnerable bulbs.

Put the bulbs in small plastic bags with a little peat moss or sawdust to absorb moisture in a dark, cold basement, or in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator. Do not seal the bags, or too much moisture will collect and cause rot. Before sliding the drawer back in place, lay a piece of brown paper or a black trash bag over the bulbs, to keep out light. Check on them once a month and add fresh peat moss or sawdust if you see condensation on the inside of the bag.

5. Plant garlic.

6. Sow cool-weather greens.

Mâche (lamb’s lettuce) germinates when temperatures dip into the 50s, and overwinters well (my most lush crop was harvested in early spring, after a snowy winter). Mustards, spinach and fava beans (for their leaves only) also thrive with cold nights. Parsnips can overwinter to be pulled next spring. (See The Garden Decoder: What Is a ‘Cool-Season Crop’?.)

7. Green manure.

8. Don’t deadhead.

9. Save seeds.

10. Test and amend your soil.

To raise my garden’s pH, I have added many pounds of crushed oyster shell as well as all the egg shells my friends and I can collect. Store dry egg shells in tall containers, stomping them down occasionally with a long handled wooden spoon, to make more space. Pulverize in a food processor and dig into your garden soil.

For more ways to get your garden ready for winter, see Expert Advice: 7 Tips to Put Your Garden to Bed from Tim Callis.

Pomegranate, Punica granatum

Who else feels like wearing a white toga and donning a laurel leaf crown while munching on a pomegranate? (Just me? Oh, well.) Let me explain. The pomegranate goes back to ancient Middle East civilizations and was well-known in the Biblical period. Once this historic plant made its way to Greece, it became one of the first foods to be cultivated, much like the fig. The pomegranate then traveled through China and India, and then on to the Mediterranean where it thrived in the dry, hot climate. Spanish missionaries later brought pomegranates to the New World, and as the missions popped up along California, so did pomegranates.

Despite being both historic and a superfruit, this resilient plant isn’t grown by many home gardeners—but maybe after learning more, they’ll want to reconsider.

From a 3-foot shrub (in the dwarf variety) to a towering 20-foot-tall and -wide tree, pomegranates symbolize prosperity and abundance due to their many, many seeds, but they do require a bit of patience as they can take two to three years before beginning to fruit and then five to seven months for fruit to mature. But once your tree is up and running, it is an easy plant to take care of. To start, pomegranates are both self- and cross-pollinated (mainly by bees), so you only need one tree to get fruit, though you can boost production by planting more pollen-heavy flowers in your garden to lure the helpful workers.

Pomegranates thrive in USDA growing zones 8 to 10, but if you don’t live where there are long, dry, hot summers (which is what the plant sadistically likes), then you can appreciate the pomegranate as an interesting large shrub with tube-shaped, bright red-orange summer flowers that turn into hard, not so tasty, but definitely ornamental globes. Plus, in the fall the leaves turn a pleasing fall-inspired yellow before dropping off. For coastal, cooler climate gardens where summers are mild, consider growing an early maturing type, like Golden Globe.

Did you know that eating pomegranates on Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) is a tradition for some? It’s said to contain 613 seeds which corresponds with the 613 commandments of the Torah. Actually, seed counts can vary from 165 to 1370, but with an average of 613. And in some Greek villages, brides have been known to hurl pomegranates through the door so hard that they burst open upon crashing to the floor. Purportedly the ritual supports a happy marriage and many children.

When choosing a pomegranate variety, it’s smart to consider what you want to use them for as some varieties have soft jewel-like seeds and other contain hard seeds. Do you want to juice the fruit, or do you want to eat them fresh (which means you should look for a softer seed variety)?

If a large pomegranate isn’t in your cards, then consider the dwarf and dense pomegranate ‘Nana’. But be aware that the fruit will not be tasty, so grow this smaller-sized shrub more as a 3-foot ornamental than an edible shrub. This variety is excellent in containers and good for bonsai.

A sample of varieties to grow in your garden:

Wonderful: A popular, long-lived, and improved variety with a fountain-like habit and large, purple-red fruit with a deliciously tangy flavor. Also good for making juice and cold hardy to zone 8.

Eversweet: As the name implies, this variety is very sweet and, a bonus, virtually seedless. Red skinned with clear, non-stain producing juice.  Grows to a 10-foot arching shrub or can be trained as a tree or espalier. This variety is known for having showy flowers with a long blooming season and extended crops. Cold hardy to zone 8.

Cheat Sheet

• Normally a large deciduous shrub but also works well pruned into a small tree or an espalier.
• Add one to your fruit orchard and devour all the powerful antioxidants contained in the fruit.
• Popular for turning into bonai forms.
• Perfect for adding to Mediterranean style gardens, paired with fig, citrus, and olive trees.
• Pomegranates will darken their red color at room temperature, and their juicy and slightly tangy fruit can be used in many dishes, especially mixed into salads where they resembles tasty blushing pearls and add a tart crunch.

Keep It Alive

• Plant in a hot, sunny spot to produce the best fruit, at least 6 hours.
• Not as finicky as other fruit trees, pomegranates prefer well-draining loamy soil but will tolerate clay or sandy soils too. They also surprisingly handle salty soil like a champ.
• In the fall, feed your plant with a good supply of nitrogen to support both flower and foliage growth. Also, like other fruit trees, an application of epsom salt helps produce sweeter fruit. Add 1 Tablespoon per square foot of tree.
• Will tolerate drought but expect diminished fruit production. To optimize flavor, keep your plant well watered during the growing season and into fall.
• Harvest before maturity in October and make sure you do this before the fall rains as this can split the fruit. Pro tip: Harvest when color peaks out and when tapped they make a metallic sound.
• Prune in late winter before the buds break but after the last frosty day.  Also prune out any suckers or wayward branches throughout the growing season. Be careful because the branches are armed with unfriendly spines or thorns (it is considered a berry bush, afterall.)
• Yes, you can try to grow your own pomegranate by saving the seeds. Dry your seeds out first for a few days and then in the spring plant your seeds in a seed starting mix and germinate indoors.

More from our plant guides:

• Gardening 101: Common Fig
• Gardening 101: Lemon Tree
• Gardening 101: Crabapple Trees

Like most things in your garden, tools need a little loving care to keep them happy. Here are a few easy tips for cleaning and caring for your pruners.

Photography by Erin Boyle for Gardenista.

For a roundup of our favorite pruners, see 10 Easy Pieces: Garden Pruners.

Boiled Linseed Oil is $25 for 32 ounces from Solvent Free Paint.

Wondering how to put those pruners to good use? See Gardening 101: How to Prune a Rose Bush. For more on tool maintenance, see 5 Favorites: Tool Sharpeners.

See more clipping and pruning at Boxwood: A Field Guide to Planting, Care & Design and our curated design guide to Shrubs 101, including Yew, Rosemary, and Privet. Read more about shrub care:

• English Boxwood: Is It Worth It?
• Gardening 101: Boxwood
• The English Gardener: Just a Little Off the Sides, Please

The perennial question: Which is better? Living in a bustling city or the tranquil country? Remodelista found evidence to support both sides this week.

In the Country

In the City

A Bit of Both

Plus:

• Dark Horse Coffee Automat in Toronto, Designed by Mjölk
• 10 Easy Pieces: Simple Wood Coffee Tables
• Shopper’s Diary: Suay’s Ethically Made Home Goods from Los Angeles
• Domestic Science: How to Wash a Down Comforter
• Steal This Look: A DIY Scandi-Style Mudroom by Jenny Komenda

The yearbook at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, is called The Ivy, named after the ivy-covered buildings on the quadrangle. When I arrived there for my junior year, the fustian towers had been recently stripped of their evergreen vines; a pity since they must have been built with ivy in mind. College gothic is nothing without ivy.

Although ivy continues to be treated with hostility, a study carried out between Oxford University and English Heritage in 2010 found that Hedera helix provides a thermal covering for walls and can be useful in protecting old buildings. The host needs to be strong, and the ivy kept in check but otherwise, complete removal is no longer urgently advised (to say nothing of its benefits to wildlife for food and shelter). If you are planting ivy, though, we suggest that you choose one of the more interesting varieties.

Photography by Britt Willoughby Dyer for Gardenista.

Hedera helix ‘Tripod’

Choose exaggeratedly long and pointed-leaf ivy, as seen in Irish hedgerows or German fairytales. They draw attention from a frankly not very beautiful wall, while moving in unpredictable directions. Hedera helix ‘Tripod’ is not a thug.

Ivy lives symbiotically with trees in sheltered conditions, like a hedgerow or woodland. It has its roots planted firmly in the ground and is not a parasite. Aesthetically, a dark blob blurring the lines of a good deciduous tree might not be your cup of tea, however. Overgrown ivy in a canopy is unhelpful in winter, adding to wind resistance and the possibility of the tree coming down. A balanced approach is needed; cut woody monsters at the stem, while making amends by planting controllable ivy over doorways and along sturdy walls. There are hundreds to choose from, many slow-growing.

Ivy’s benefits for wildlife outweigh its drawbacks in a garden. As pollinators begin to run out of food in autumn and early winter, the sputnik flowers of mature ivy are rich in pollen and nectar. On a warm day, ivy seems to buzz, a magnet for the ivy bee and more. Later, dark berries with a high fat content are beneficial to thrushes and blackbirds, who don’t join in with the smaller birds on hanging feeders. The “mess” of leaves provides excellent cover for invertebrates, some of which are eaten by birds. Ivy feeds specific and rare creatures such as golden hoverfly, holly blue butterfly, and swallow-tailed moth.

For the benefits of shaggy gardens, see Can We Please Be Less Fanatically Tidy?

Hedera helix ‘Carolina Crinkle’

Hedera helix ‘Tussie Mussie’

Ivy ‘Tussie Mussie’ looks as though it belongs in an Edwardian glasshouse. It benefits from being displayed as a specimen, on a columnar support, rather than being expected to cover a vertical flat plane.

Hedera helix ‘Golden Curl’

Hedera algeriensis ‘Gloire de Marengo’

Algerian ivy has more restrained coloring and a good arrow-heart shape; it would form an elegant backdrop in an urban garden. It holds an Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society and is fairly vigorous, reaching a height of about 10 feet.

Hedera helix ‘Parsley Crested’

Hedera maroccana ‘Spanish Canary’

Ivy is useful in containers when young. At this stage it is pliable, with fresh green growth, becoming mature and woody on reaching its full height or destination (it is at this stage that it gets into gear to flower as well). Hedera maroccana ‘Spanish Canary’ can be grown in a conservatory or outdoors with frost protection. Dangling or climbing, it is dramatic.

Ivy is an excellent houseplant, the best air purifier among the evergreens. A small version of the ivy shown here, with a confusingly similar name, is Hedera canariensis ‘Spanish Canary’.

Hedera colchica ‘Sulphur Heart’

Quick to cover walls or ground, self-clinging Persian ivy needs careful consideration before planting, as it will keep going up to about 16 feet.

Hedera helix ‘Smithii’

Hedera pastuchovii ‘Ann Ala’

Collected by botanist Roy Lancaster near the Caspian Sea and named after his guide, this dagger-shaped ivy is quite vigorous at 13 feet. Its unusual leaves would complement the textures of other evergreens such as ferns or pines.

Hedera helix ‘Saint Agnes’

Ivy is the plant favored by Bacchus, god of wine; it was invested with the power of preventing drunkenness. As a wreath, it adorned the heads of Romans who had attained intellectual or sporting prowess. All the more reason, surely, to bring it back to the college campus.

See more tips for growing and caring for ivies in Ivy: A Field Guide and more about our other favorite Vines & Climbers in Jasmine 101, Creeping Fig: A Field Guide, and Bougainvillea 101. For more ways to use vines and climbers in your garden, see:

• Alternatives to Ivy: Vertical Growers
• Gardening in Paradise: 10 Ideas to Steal from Key West
• The Ivy League: An Artist’s Welding Workshop Covered in Vines in Upstate NY

Finally, get more ideas on how to plant, grow, and care for various vines and climbers with our Vines & Climbers: A Field Guide.

Additionally, get more ideas on how to successfully plant, grow, and care for ivy with our Ivy: A Field Guide.

Finally, get more ideas on how to plant, grow, and care for various ground cover plants with our Ground Covers: A Field Guide.