Gardens

Any Atlanta garden enthusiast worth their weight in soil knows about Ryan Gainey. Gainey died in a house fire on his farm in Lexington in 2016, not long after filmmakers Steve Bransford and Cooper Sanchez completed shooting a documentary about his life. The film, The Well-Placed Weed: The Bountiful Life of Ryan Gainey, premieres May 17 at the Plaza Theatre.

As Georgia’s weather starts its spring ascent toward another sweltering summer, it’s time to plant ginger. Here's how to grow it so that it'll be ready for fall pie season.

Writer and author Felicia Feaster is a former HGTV website editor, where she started 11 years ago as the editor-in-chief of a new gardening website called HGTV Gardens. That experience, combined with her own avid gardening, led her to where she is today: the author of The Gothic Garden: The Mystery, Beauty, and Lore of Dark Gardening, which debuted in November. Here, she explains what the concept is and how she wrote the book.

Nothing says spring in Atlanta quite like azaleas. The fragrant blooms, ranging in color from white to pink to fiery orange, first appear in early March, transforming the Southern landscape into a blaze of color. For Atlanta gardeners, the burst of azalea blooms can seem all too quick, leaving behind a humdrum bush of green leaves. But with some thoughtful planting, it’s possible to enjoy azaleas all the way into deep summer.

For Anne Knutson, the highest praise arrived in a snarky blog post loaded with backhanded compliments. Her next-door neighbor, designer Sherry Hart, took mock aim at Knutson in her popular blog, Design Indulgence, after Knutson invited her to stop by and see the results of the prolonged landscaping activity Hart had been hearing through the bushes.

Chip and Janice Wilmot walk through their Lilburn garden, which spans across all sides of their house, pointing out more than 30 different edible varieties: pineapple guava, figs, bee balm, lemon balm, lemon thyme, alpine strawberries, blueberries. The list goes on.

Winter has driven most plants to death or dormancy, but no Deep South freeze is bad enough to kill mint, the kudzu of herbs—and the gardening slack season is as good a time as any to start growing.

The past few decades have seen a rise in the “anti-lawn movement,” which prioritizes native plants that welcome pollinators and work with, rather than against, the natural environment. This cultural shift comes as Atlanta grapples with increased climate challenges.

The amaryllis plant has a superpower: In just a few weeks in a tiny pot of dirt, this giant onion-looking thing sprouts a giant trumpet-shaped flower—in winter.

Days after COVID-19 began canceling Atlanta, I dealt with my own anxiety by spending a full Saturday digging in the dirt: planting shrubs, weeding, top-dressing the soil, potting herbs.