Maureen Gilmer, The Miami Herald

Maureen Gilmer

The Miami Herald

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Recent:
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Past:
  • The Miami Herald
  • New Jersey Herald
  • Idaho Statesman
  • TriCityHerald
  • The Ledger-Enquirer
  • Lexington Herald-Leader

Past articles by Maureen:

Yardsmart: How to maintain privacy in your backyard through planting

You can't sunbathe nude when neighbors look down onto your patio or backyard. They can watch every move you make, and you don't want to see them either. Your neighbor's rotting camper or junk cars may not suit your garden style. The knee-jerk solution is to plant a closely spaced row of Italian cypress or other cigar-shaped evergreens. It may be a wasted effort because they are slow growers,… → Read More

Yardsmart: How to maintain privacy in your backyard through planting

You can't sunbathe nude when neighbors look down onto your patio or backyard. They can watch every move you make, and you don't want to see them either. Your neighbor's rotting camper or junk cars may not suit your garden style. The knee-jerk solution is to plant a closely spaced row of Italian cypress or other cigar-shaped evergreens. It may be a wasted effort because they are slow growers,… → Read More

Yardsmart: How to salvage shade structures

In the desert, shade can be hard to come by. Trees for shade demand water throughout their entire lives, so growing for shade becomes difficult and costly. It also takes a lifetime to achieve. In the Southwest's extremely dry climate, Native Americans built shade arbors to allow outdoor activity on unshaded sites. They used what was available: found wood, natural dead limbs, palm fronds, reeds… → Read More

Lantana gives hummingbird- and butterfly-attracting perpetual color

No matter how hot it is where you live, lantana can take it and keeps on blooming. In fact, it does even better in blast furnace conditions. → Read More

Yardsmart: Lantana gives hummingbird- and butterfly-attracting perpetual color for hot and dry

To see lantana in all its glory, visit Palm Springs on an average 110-degree summer's day. Mounds of them in public landscaping are still intense when the mercury nudges 120. This tells you that no matter how hot it is where you live, lantana can take it and keeps on blooming. In fact, it does even better in blast furnace conditions. → Read More

Yardsmart: Here's why irrigation matters

Drought has changed roots of our older trees and shrubs. Many of them grew up under spray irrigation and more generous rainfall. Still others were formerly in lawns. The root system reflects this with widespread surface feeders. When we are forced to transition to drip irrigation with individual emitters, only roots close to the emitters will flourish. Elsewhere, the roots in dry ground die… → Read More

Yardsmart: Colorful lion's tail lures beneficial wildlife, fills in landscapes

Africans named this native shrub after the tassel of a lion's tail. Inspired by orange flowers held on tall stalks, the regularly spaced whorls inspired the tribal name. The association was later continued in the botanical name, Leonotis leonurus. → Read More

Yardsmart: Firecrackers explode the drought-tolerant garden

When water is precious and it's hot as hell, you need firecrackers to brighten the patio. With blossoms as vivid as old fashioned coral bells and the dangling habit of a fuchsia, it's hard to believe the curious species thrives in the low desert heat. That means no matter where you live, it won't be too hot or dry to make firecrackers explode from pots on the patio or to flesh out hell zones on… → Read More

Yardsmart: With contractors, inquire before you hire

When everyone starts relandscaping for drought, the crooks come out to play. Such widespread demand makes the good contractors impossible to get, so the field becomes populated with a lot of fly-by-night "landscapers." What you don't know about this situation if you've never hired a landscaper before could come back to haunt you. So here are some tips important for everyone who hires someone to… → Read More

Yardsmart: Why you might encounter more wildlife after fires

Twenty years ago, a single wildfire burned away 10,000 acres on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada. The animals, reptiles and insects incinerated cannot be calculated. Those fast enough such as the fox could outrun the flames to safer ground. Even when they survive the fire, that is only the first part of the disaster. The second half of the equation is what happens after widespread habitat… → Read More

Yardsmart: 3 common mulching problems

There is no single panacea to the ravages of drought. The most popular practice for water conservation that protects existing gardens is to mulch. It's adding a layer of organic material around each plant to reduce surface soil evaporation rates. That layer also shades the soil so it and the roots remain cool on the hottest days. Mulches also prevent pernicious grasses and weeds from sprouting… → Read More

Yardsmart: Bleeding heart is ideal native perennial for shade in dry gardens

They crouched at the toe of a north-facing cliff, all hearts and flowers in a mass of pink. It flew by so fast I was unable to look closely, so I parked and hiked back to the rock face. Fine land slide material had built up over many years in one spot, just inches at the toe. In this well-drained, relatively infertile mineral soil grew the Pacific bleeding heart (Dicentra formosa). It was my… → Read More

Yardsmart: How to resolve conflicts in the succulent garden

Arid zone plants stab their neighbors to death. It's an adaptation to limited water by using sharp weapons to tell others to back off. It's also a consequence of growth and time and distance between plants. Small succulents and cacti you planted a while ago may be much larger and touching each other in some places. If it's the wrong place, you have conflict. → Read More

Yardsmart: How to make your own drier Japanese style garden

The Japanese style garden abhors decor because it's based entirely on nature. There is one exception that changed everything: the tea ceremony. The ritualized drink is the root of the tea garden, which is laid out for the experience of visitors to the tea house. They typically enter the front gate and walk up landscaped pathways to the tea house within the garden. On the way there will be a… → Read More

Yardsmart: This spring, take a new approach to bulbs

This spring, as you observe all the beautiful Dutch bulbs in bloom, think about their place in your garden. Are they just bold masses that hit you right between the eyes, or are they integrated with other plants to create a magical blend of textures and colors. → Read More

Yardsmart: This spring, take a new approach to bulbs

It's not how many tulips you have, but where you put them. It's not the rarity of the variety, but what you plant with it. It's not the colors you choose, but what they mean in a landscape. This spring, as you observe all the beautiful Dutch bulbs in bloom, think about their place in your garden. Are they just bold masses that hit you right between the eyes, or are they integrated with other… → Read More

Yardsmart: Create a colorful dry garden

Big flower action may not appeal to nitzy perfect designers with their squares and straight lines and monocultures and perfectly raked gravel. These designs offer little in terms of color, life and animation. While modern architecture is coveted for magazine spreads, their landscapes are still devoid of the things that touch women on a primal level. → Read More

Yardsmart: Standing disks in your garden

The tradition of carved jade disks called a bi began in China before the invention of writing. Dating back to Neolithic times, it's believed they represent the heavens. Later as the culture changed, so did the meaning and the value of the more contemporary jade bi. There are similar shapes in the local design vernacular of other cultures too. Old world and New, East and West, these flat circular… → Read More

How to start your first garden (while saving money)

Eschew the raised beds and try gardening the old-fashioned way — planting in level ground → Read More

Yardsmart: How to choose the right wisteria for your garden

When the East gave the West her first wisteria vines, they tricked us out of our flowers. Plant hunters were given seeds of Wisteria sinensis, not plants, to take back to France and England. The sharers failed to explain these incredible vines share a wide variation in flowering age. Most flower from 8 to 12 years after germination. Others, however, can take up to 20 years to make their first… → Read More