Garden

• All Saints Garden Tour features 8 colorful Hilton Head Island gardens
  From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 19, All Saints Episcopal Church on Hilton Head Island will present its 25th annual Garden Tour, a potpourri of gardens at eight of the finest gardens in the area. Tickets are $30, and there is a map printed on each ticket.

• A chat with Dr. Richard Porcher about native plants
  Spring garden news is all about new introductions of old favorites; the annuals, perennials and shrubs that have proved popular with gardeners. Many have catchy names, the better to get our attention.

• Lots of wonderful flowers, plants to see during garden tour season
  I love flowers. I love plants that don't flower but have interesting foliage. I love the way some plants form unusual shapes as they grow. Most of all, I love going to flower shows to see nature at its best, biggest, weirdest and most flamboyant.

• Master Gardeners take on weeds
  Here come the Master Gardeners, ready, willing and terrifically able to attack the pesky plants that compete and often win in the ongoing contest of Weeds vs. Natives.

• New garden season brings new reader questions
  What an extraordinary winter we've had. The months of January, February and March set records for warm temperatures; the lowest I recorded was 32 degrees on Jan. 3. Some of last spring and summer's annuals died, but many did not.

• Container gardens easy to maintain and a joy to look at
  Container gardening is hot right now. And why not?

• Gardeners visiting the Lowcountry might have questions about mild weather
  A frequent visitor to the Coastal Lowcountry this February might be confused to find that it appears to be spring already. Shrubs, trees and flowers are flowering a month or more ahead of their usual time.

• February is time to get a jump-start with pruning
  February might be the most important garden month of the year in the Lowcountry.

• Plants get warm welcome indoors when weather cools
  When I awaken at 5 a.m. and see it's 35 degrees outside, I know there's a good chance I'll be spending the day moving plants indoors.

• Land Trust, Audubon Society's preservation efforts continue to grow
  It was a time to celebrate and congratulate those who had worked long and hard to make it happen. On Nov. 7, members of the Hilton Head Island Land Trust and their guests at Fort Howell stood under towering oaks, to see the unveiling of the marker that declared the fort now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

• Container plants help add color
  There are those who would define Beaufort County by the Atlantic Ocean. There are those whose definition might include its many rivers. And there are many who will speak about its magnificent trees.

• Fall herbs serve dual role
  The summer annuals are up and out. You've amended the tired soil with compost that's either self-made or store bought. You are ready, and so are your local garden centers. This week might have found you there, gravitating toward shades of orange as you choose plants to echo colors of Halloween, Thanksgiving and the falling leaves

• Eating well starts in the garden
  What with the upsurge of interest in eating well, coupled with the interest in growing your own vegetables, one can't help but feel kind of smug: We live where we can grow a vast variety of fruits and vegetables, and grow them using little or no chemicals.

• Seasons change and so should things in the garden
  Autumn arrived, and with it the cooler air for which Lowcountry gardeners have been waiting. Time to fling open windows and doors and get to where they want to be: outside in the garden.

• Autumn: Oh, how sweet it is
  When friends come to call in the spring they can't leave until I've walked them down the driveway to see the tall, tree-like native azalea "Florida Flame," flowering in all its golden glory.

• When tragedy strikes, solace can be found in the garden
  Why is it that many memories that are shocking and sad stay in the mind while over time so many happy and loving ones fade away?

• Odd plants add variety to garden
  You are in your garden with a friend, and she asks, "What is that? I've never seen anything like it."

• The hot, dry spell means gardens are in bloom - with bugs
  When local gardeners get together mid-summer, the conversation is going to get around to this summer's lengthy hot, dry spell and its results in the garden.

• As mercury rises, so do some blooms
  The first month of summer 2011 brought no respite from the persistent heat and dry conditions that began in May. By the third week of July the flowers and foliage on some plants in our spring and summer gardens gave notice that they could not go on.

• New garden takes root at Able center
  Hard hats are hot. On a 90-degree day in late June, wearing a hard hat might protect your head but it's death on your hairdo.

• Time to spruce up Port Royal Plantation arboretum
  It was in March of this year that friend Chris Rosenbach told me of a committee formed in Port Royal Plantation on Hilton Head Island to repair and restore the arboretum there to its original, intended state.

• Tour offers something for everyone
  "I may have to move that ginkgo tree. It doesn't look well; I think it's too wet there."

• Plantation entrances still seduce passers-by
  It seems that Hilton Head Island has embraced the concept of the annual contest. Throughout the year, scheduled events celebrating things ranging from barbecue to seafood are held. Such events mostly feature food and are staged outdoors.

• Garden tour blooms with hidden treasures
  Congratulations to the 2011 All Saints Episcopal Church garden team who put together this year's annual tour. Of the six gardens chosen to be shown from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, one is on Hilton Head Island and the others in Bluffton, an easy distance to traverse in fewer than four hours.

• Getting back to our roots
  Where have all the wildflowers gone?