Nature Hills Gardening Neighborhood

The ‘Origami Yellow’ Columbine has large flowers that are completely yellow in color and have lovely long spurs. The spectacular colors are superb,especially near the front of beds and borders. Use it individually in small clumps, or massed together in combined groupings to create a stunning explosion of extended color. You can easily grow ‘Origami...

If you choose ‘ White Clips’ Bellflower you can eagerly look forward to a plant that is smothered with lovely white flowers! Blooming in July to September, ‘White Clips’ displays stunning white bell-shaped flowers at the ends of the stems. The Bellflower (Campanula ) ‘White Clips’ will grow in either full sun or partial shade, though some shade is recommended...

Resembling a small, yellow peach, ‘Gold Cot’ Apricot is a large freestone fruit that will keep in the refrigerator for several weeks. It can be used for preserves, drying, desserts, and canning. Apricots contain carotenoids which are antioxidants that help prevent heart disease , reduce "bad cholesterol" levels, and protect against cancer...

The Astrantia is a group of flowers that are also known as masterwort. The Astrantias are both beautiful and unusual, and they come in a variety of colors. The flowers look very much like a star or a firework; their abundant blooms float like little pincushions above rosettes of mid-sized, deeply lobed, bright green leaves. Since the Astrantia is related...

Want to add some brightness to your perennial garden in the spring? Candytuft Tahoe will do just that with its carpet of pure white flower clusters! You will enjoy the dainty flowers of these easy to grow, fast growing, little compact beauties from mid to late spring . During the summer months this plant makes a great groundcover of green summer foliage...

This vigorous growing Willow Scarlet Curls deserves a prominent place in the yard, and it is superb for creating winter interest! Growing 25-30 feet in height, Scarlet Curls is an upright ornamental tree with gnarled, twisted red winter shoots; the older shoots turn a golden brown. It has a low canopy with a typical clearance of 4 feet from the ground...

I have been gardening over 30 years now and I am sold on Lunar Gardening. My garden only gets about 4-6 hours of direct sunlight in the summer due to surrounding trees. I planted my tomato and pepper seeds by the Old Farmers Almanac and they all came up and I got plenty of fruit. Not thinking about it I recently planted spinach seeds that I knew were...

Amsonia Blue Ice will surely become a favorite for any gardener! In late spring, Blue Ice forms clusters of navy blue buds at the ends of each stem that open to periwinkle blue star shaped flowers. The bright green foliage of this erect, clump-forming plant turns a rich shade of yellow in the fall. This creates a new dimension of color for your fall...

True to its name, Violet Black Magic has 1" wide, solid matte black flowers with a tiny bright yellow eye. Growing only to a height of 6 to 8 inches, it is one of the darkest flowers in existence! This viola is an early blooming plant and is usually grown as an annual. It blooms from May to July and again in the cool of fall. Black Magic forms...

Lunar Gardening Common Sense or Lunacy? By Kat Neely Jones of Salem, Oregon. Illustrations by Linda Cook Devona The glossy, dark-green leaves seemed to glow in the afternoon sun. They were large, deeply veined—in fact, perfect. My friend, Karen, shook her head in amazement. “My spinach doesn’t look anything like this. This is, like, super spinach! What...