Steve Aitken
Steve Aitken is the former editor at large at Fine Gardening magazine.
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DesignTwo Approaches to Foundation Plantings
Almost every house has a foundation planting, something that should help the large, man-made structure somehow blend with the natural landscape it was dropped into. More often than not, the…
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DesignMake the Garden an Experience
We have all had them: instances in a garden when we just stop. And the words that jump to the front of our minds include “wow,” or “yes,” or “oh…
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DesignA Naturalistic Garden Is Better for the Environment and Requires Less Work
Many gardens elicit a “Geez, how did they do this?” response. It is not because of massive hardscape or Versailles-level precision; rather, it is more of the sense that these…
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DesignThomas Rainer and Piet Oudolf on Naturalistic Gardens
Once we understand some of the concepts of naturalistic design, questions of a more practical nature tend to pop up. We reached out to landscape architect Thomas Rainer and garden…
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DesignPlants for a Layered-Style Garden
As you design with a layered approach, it helps to have a sense of what your options are. Here are some examples of the types of plants that can create…
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DesignPlants for a Matrix-Style Garden
When you garden with a matrix-style design, different plants can play different roles in the landscape. Here are some ideas to get your designs going. Planting plan details Matrix…
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How-To2 Smart Ways to Water Your Garden
If you’ve ever struggled through a dry summer with a hose in one hand and a watering can in the other, desperately trying to keep up so that your plants…
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DesignSeed-Starting Gadgets
Starting your own seeds is a great way to get a lot of plants for little money. But from sowing tiny seeds to prying seedlings out of flimsy plastic trays,…
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How-ToHow and When to Prune Bigleaf Hydrangeas
Almost everybody is enchanted by the large, mophead blooms of bigleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla and cvs., Zones 4–9). And it seems that almost everybody who grows these flowering shrubs has…
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DesignA Garden Design Expert on Ground Covers, Lower Maintenance, and “Mean-Spirited” Garden Steps
If you had a few minutes to talk with an award-winning garden designer, what would you ask? Our editor at large, Steve Aitken, was fortunate enough to get some time…
Fine Gardening Magazine
