Garden Home Tips from P. Allen Smith

This Week on P. Allen Smith Gardens: I'll Fly Away

Butterflies, bats, bees and birds! In this episode of P. Allen Smith Gardens we’ll learn more about visitors who fly into our gardens. Plus receive a recipe for grapefruit sorbet.

Allen's Journal: Update from the One Acre Vegetable Garden

Here are some updates from the One Acre Vegetable Garden at the Garden Home Retreat: the garden is over flowing with tomatoes, blackberries, squash and other warm season fruits and vegetables; two garden sheds have been built; and we have a few new residents who are helping to keep the bugs at bay.

Grapefruit Sorbet

Viking Chef Chris Green puts the Ruby Red grapefruits from Mission, Texas, to work in this recipe for Grapefruit Sorbet.

What to Plant in your Fall Vegetable Garden

The Summer Solstice has just passed. Now the days are getting shorter and autumn will be here before you know it. It's time to start planning and planting your fall vegetable garden. Here is a list of vegetables that grow well in fall.

Grilled Nectarines with Bleu Cheese and Honey

This appetizer can be made on the grill or in the kitchen. The key is fresh nectarines. In season nectarines are naturally sweet and don't need much preparation. This recipe just makes them a little bit tastier.

Allen's Journal: Herb Wreath

It’s late June and most of my summer planting is complete. I have some idle time before I need to start preparing for fall. Having long been warned about the consequences of idle hands I’ve been keeping myself busy with projects such planting an herb wreath.

Blossom End Rot on Tomatoes

Blossom end rot results in malformed, rotted tomatoes. Learn how you can prevent this disease in this article.

Allen's Journal: Basil Varieties

One of the few good things about rising summer temperatures is that it signals the time to plant basil. Early summer is the perfect time to plant this savory herb because it really loves hot weather. I’ve planted several different varieties this year to compare various flavors and growing habits.

Allen's Journal: 12 Principles of Design

We are starting to work on Season 9 of my half hour show on Public Television, P. Allen Smith's Garden Home. In this season we will go back to the basics and discuss my 12 principles of design and how they are applied at the Garden Home Retreat. To help prepare for taping the show I took some photos in the garden that illustrate each of the principles.

Texas Peach Cobbler

This "cobbler" is actually individual peaches stuffed with pie filling, topped with a pecan crumble.

Allen's Journal: Daylily Hybrids

Right now the daylilies in my garden are putting on quite a show. I'm especially excited about a special group of daylilies growing in a corner of the vegetable garden. They are the results of my efforts over several years to develop my idea of the perfect daylily through cross breeding of a few other varieties. Now that they are beginning to bloom, it's time to look for that butter-yellow, fragrant flower on a tall stem that I've been hoping for.

Plant Profile: Supertunia Bordeaux Petunia

The blooms of Supertunia Bordeaux are a pale lavender-pink etched in dark plum with a dark plum throat. The plant has a cascading form with bright green stems and foliage.

Herb Crafts

Whether you grow them in your garden or buy them at the market, there is a lot that you can do with herbs beyond cooking. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

P. Allen Smith's Bringing the Garden Indoors

Read all about it! My latest book in the Garden Home series is now available wherever books are sold. It is called, Bringing the Garden Indoors and the title says it all. It is packed with ideas for adding the beauty of nature to every room of your home.

The Garden Home Retreat

For several years now I have been touting the idea of the garden home, a place that blurs the lines between indoors and out, expanding our living space into the garden and our garden into our homes. The Garden Home Retreat is my expression of this concept.

About P. Allen Smith

P. Allen Smith is an award-winning garden designer and host of the public television program, P. Allen Smith's Garden Home and the syndicated 30-minute show P. Allen Smith Gardens. He has emerged as America's most recognized and respected garden design expert, providing ideas and inspiration through multiple media venues.