Andy Brand of Broken Arrow Nursery is in a position any gardener would envy: He can get his hands on even the rarest plants that haven't come to market yet. So when there is no barrier to access, what does a plant-mad gardener fall in love with? Epimedium, for one (he has 150 kinds!). Oh: and weeds. Learn why on both counts. (Broken Arrow will be at my Aug. 16 garden Open Day selling rare plants. More below.)

Do you crave a landscape that welcomes birds and butterflies? Plan to attend acclaimed designer Larry Weaner's lecture, "Spring Wildflowers: A Closer Look," just down the road from my Saturday, August 16, Garden Conservancy Open Day and plant sale. (That's my patio garden and beyond around show time, seen from indoors.) Get the details.

august chores: spot cleaning, fall planning

The Japanese beetles are subsiding, or at least focusing their energies to activities other than chewing leaves, but the rabbits? No such luck. I'm tempted to list my top August 2014 chore as, "Trap rabbits," but that would make for one very frustrating month. Instead, I'm doing what amounts to a headstart on fall cleanup, and planning for fall-planting opportunities. Like this.