Idaho - Fine Gardening

  • Blue Shadow Fothergilla, Color Guard Yucca and Wedding Gown Bigleaf Hydrangea
    Design

    The Best House Foundation Plants for Your Region

    When it comes to choosing foundation plants for your home, it’s important to pick species that not only enhance your landscape but also thrive in your specific climate. That’s why…

  • How-To

    4 Tips for Getting the Garden Through Drought Sustainably

    On a recent hike in the foothills just southeast of my house, I couldn’t help but notice crisped, curling leaves on big flower cinquefoil (Drymocallis fissa) and the drought-tolerant mountain…

  • Design

    Tips for Designing a Meadow Lawn

    I’ve designed, installed, and continue to manage two meadow lawns to date. Through these gardens, as well as my own study in nature and research in references, I’ve learned a…

  • apple flea beetles
    Article

    How to Manage Flea Beetles: The Cutest Pests You’ve Never Heard Of

    Late spring sees me watching and waiting, breath not quite bated—and certainly not baited—to find out my fate for the season with one garden critter in particular: the flea beetle.…

  • Design

    Guidelines for Building a Rock Garden

    Last fall, this column featured Showy Native Plants for Rocky Soils. Not included in that plant palette were rock gardens. While similar in that the plants for such spaces require…

  • Five Petal Cliffbush
    Article

    Plants That Take Sun and Shade for the Mountain West

      1. Creeping Oregon Grape Name: Mahonia repens syn. Berberis repens Zones: 5–8 Size: 1 to 2 feet tall and 3 to 4 feet wide Conditions: Full sun to full…

  • How-To

    Tomatoes for Mountain West Gardeners

    Despite working predominantly in ornamental—especially naturalistic—horticulture, I hold an “interdisciplinary minor in organic agriculture” from Colorado State University. Early in my career I worked primarily in food crops, and before…

  • Design

    Great Native Plants for Western Gardens

    In his article Weaving Vignettes Together, horticulturalist Dan Johnson gives us a look into his home garden in Denver, where he uses repeated plant groupings and consistent hardscaping to unify…

  • large garden bed full of warm-season ornamental grasses
    Design

    3 Warm-Season Ornamental Grasses That Excel in the Mountain West

    My career in ornamental horticulture has led to the development of a working theory: Ornamental grasses are an acquired taste for most gardeners. This theory grew from personal experience (my…

  • garden bed with gravel mulch
    How-To

    How to Pick the Best Mulch for Your Mountain West Garden Beds

    Since entering horticulture professionally over a decade ago, I’ve noticed a correlation on the Colorado Front Range between wood mulch (also called arborist chips) and water-wise gardens. A beautifully designed…