The Better Homes & Gardens Test Garden ® ponder on a quarter - century of valuate the good plants for your garden .
Tall greenish arborvitaes bear lookout around the grounds of the picture - perfectBetter Homes & Gardens Test Garden ® , keeping watch over the half - Akko distance full of coloured plants and horticulture brainchild . The bordering tree diagram also dull the sounds of dealings along the western gateway to business district Des Moines , making the Test Garden an urban oasis side by side to theBetter Homes & Gardens(BHG ) editorial offices . It ’s hard to believe that this beautiful garden , which turns 25 this yr , now thrives where an auto mending shop class and a dry sporting once endure .
Carson Downing
Credit:Carson Downing
According to former BHG garden editor Mark Kane , “ The estimate reach me one twenty-four hour period that our powder magazine had a intellectual nourishment section and aTest Kitchen where recipes were developedand tested for our readers , ” says Kane . “ I purpose the idea of creating an on - site test garden that could also serve as a photo studio apartment . ”
Kane create the Test Garden plan that launched the undertaking . He also hired Sandra Gerdes off from the gardens of Disney World to manage the new Test Garden . Shortly after Gerdes arrived , Kane turn over her “ pages of blueprints and said ‘ Here ya go . ’ ” Gerdes laugh , recalling that day . “ And we made a garden . ”
That ’s a bit of an understatement . The quad turn into the sensational collector’s item it is today , complete with22 decided garden areasthat mimic various weather condition and characteristic of the typical home garden . A curl way of life weave through a assortment of landscape and out-of-door “ rooms ” fence a cardinal courtyard complete with seat area and custom - made outpouring .
In addition to well - launch trees and shrub , including rose and bloom crabapple trees , the Test Garden is scatter with newly introduced plants . There is a vegetable and herb garden and a shades - of - green hosta garden . There are perennial and annual galore , providing gloss through the seasons . Container gardens flaunt grasses , striking leafage , and colourful flower .
“ Our first and world-class mission is to try out plants for our readers , ” says Gerdes . “ We require to help them have good gardens . ”
Greg Scheidemann
Our first and foremost mission is to try out flora for our readers , ” say Gerdes . “ We want to help them have better gardens .
Sandra Gerdes
That missionary post has n’t alter in 25 years . However , garden trend , methods , plants , and goals of home gardenershave acquire over the class . The Test Garden has evolved as well .
“ We are always look for good garden performers , ” Gerdes say . “ If it ’s a sun plant life , it better do well in the Dominicus . If it ’s a new variety , we look for disease resistance because we want to reduce the environmental impact of chemical . If it has peak , we test to see if it is long - blooming . Or is it fragrant ? "
“ We work with plant life breeder , nurseries , and the whole immature industriousness to get the latest and greatest intro to prove before they hit the retail market place . We want to find the most garden - worthy plant to share with our readers . ”
ForBetter Homes & Gardens , the Test Garden is a post of information gathering as well as inhalation , saysStephen Orr , editor in head of BHG . In addition to portion out what ’s young in the plant realm , Gerdes works with editor and photographers to ensure they are provide brainchild and tips and sit in on story provision meetings for all content chopine .
“ Sandra keeps us up to date on what ’s trending in commercial gardening , and also we do our own tests , ” Orr enunciate . “ We did a page a few year ago on whichtypes of hostascan best withstand clout , for example . ”
Better Homes & Gardens
In edict to keep up to escort on plants and gardening trend , the BHG Test Garden is forever changing . “ It ’s the evolution of a know matter , ” Gerdes state . “ thing grow . Things die . Things get pull up out and supervene upon . We ’ve lose plants and trees to violent storm equipment casualty or disease . We pull off bed and plant the new vegetables and herbs for stories . We do what we can to aid our readers make unspoiled gardens . "
Like Gerdes , Doug Jimerson , a former BHG editor , has watched trends come and go over the past 25 years . Jimerson test plants on his farm near Des Moines before the Test Garden was created . He ’s noticed many positive change home gardeners are follow : garden organically without herbicides or pesticides ; landscape withnative plants;gardening for pollinators(bees , butterflies , bat , and razz ) in mind ; and raise bed andcontainer horticulture . And , he says , plant companies are constantly recrudesce better plant diverseness with home gardeners in mind .
Marty Baldwin
“ They want to insure gardeners have a more successful outcome , ” Jimerson says . “ You might not see the dispute when you look at a plant in your local house store , but behind every new variety there ’s been years of research to make that plant work best for you . So , a redgeraniummay look a lot like the one you bought the year before , but the new model may bloom longer and total and be more disease resistant . ”
Jane Miller Kurns , who once served as deputy garden editor forBetter Homes & Gardens , also has watched the garden evolve . “ In 25 years , the garden has inspire unnumbered features on the pages of magazine , enjoy by loyal reader who have come to get word that horticulture never depart out of style , ” says Kurns .
“ The best part of having the BHG Test Garden on site was its proximity . I get it on having the ability to step out of my post any time of sidereal day to chequer on the advancement of that time of year ’s projects , whether it was a container garden story or a plant profile story , ” she say . “ Flowers do n’t always blossom on pool cue , so keep an oculus on them day by day help us be more self-generated with picture taking schedules . It always seemed as if Sandra had waved a magic sceptre over the garden to make the lighting perfect . Perhaps she larn that trick from her daylight at Disney . ”
Credit:Marty Baldwin
Credit:Better Homes & Gardens
