10 Flower Seeds You Can Direct Sow Outside
Filling your garden with an abundance of gorgeous flowers can be as simple as scattering seeds on the ground in spring. It’s really that easy. Pick a sunny site, amend …
Filling your garden with an abundance of gorgeous flowers can be as simple as scattering seeds on the ground in spring. It’s really that easy. Pick a sunny site, amend …
Ants are among the world’s most successful animals. With more than 13,000 known species to date (and thousands more still to be discovered), ants are found on every landmass except …
Dirt, grease, and grime are no match for the sudsy cleaning action of soap. But a bar of soap is no one-trick pony – it can do all sorts of …
Humans have been bringing plants inside the home for thousands of years. Not only do they clean the air and brighten up a room, they carry all sorts of intangible …
The poinsettia is one of the most popular festive plants to put on display over the holidays – second only to the iconic Christmas Tree! The fiery red and deep …
The basic recipe for making soap has been the same for thousands of years. Combining plant or animal fats with an alkali causes a chemical transformation, a process known as …
Most everyone loves a good strawberry. These sweet-as-can-be, red-fleshed fruits are as sumptuous eaten out of hand as they are prepped into a smorgasbord of yummy recipes. There are hundreds …
Sphagnum mosses are an utterly unique and fascinating genus of bog-dwelling plants. Perhaps you’re most familiar with them in their dried form. The light brown, fibrous, stringy bits are widely …
By now, things are starting to wind down in the garden. There’s a nip in the air and soon you’ll be harvesting your last vegetable and pulling up your spent …
Once dubbed the “elixir of life”, lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) is an ancient herb from the mint family that has been used as a medicine, and as a flavoring for …
Basil is sometimes referred to as “the king of herbs”. And no wonder. Basil is easy to care for and will quickly grow into big, bushy plants that abound in …
The aroma of thyme is pleasant and complex – peppery and a little sweet with woody, earthy, minty and flowery notes. Flavor-wise, it lands somewhere between lavender and rosemary. For …
In the world of horticulture, peat moss possesses many qualities we want in a growing medium. Peat moss has a lightweight and spongy texture. It has the uncanny ability to …
Rhubarb is an easy to grow vegetable that’s right at home in the perennial food garden. Plant it once and it will produce for decades, growing nicely alongside other forever …
Exuding that telltale sweet piny fragrance, rosemary is an easy plant to grow that demands very little from the home gardener. And because a single plant can grow at least …
Nature really is a mad scientist. Take the litchi tomato as a prime example of a smattering of weird and wonderful traits, all in one plant. With its deeply lobed …
Widely cultivated as an herb, spice, and vegetable, parsley (Petroselinum crispum) is so much more than a decorative garnish. Native to the Mediterranean region, its name is derived from Greek …
Native to the Mediterranean, rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) is a woody perennial herb in the mint family. The plant’s genus, ros marinus, is derived from Latin and means “dew of the …
Learning how to propagate your plants is easily one of the most rewarding (and cheap!) ways to multiply your collection. Dividing, grafting, layering, and cutting are among the horticultural skills …
Powdery mildew starts out as small whitish spots or splotches. As it grows and reproduces, the fuzzy patches increase in size and coalesce to completely cover leaves, stems, and buds. …
Frequently relegated to garnish status, parsley is often overlooked as an herbal seasoning. Adding a brightness, freshness, and piquancy to foods, the flat-leaf variety is so flavorful that it can …
Although the gardener grows plants as a source of food and beauty, it’s easy to forget that the plant’s sole purpose in life is to reproduce. Bolting – or going …
Hover flies are truly unsung heroes in the garden. Operating like undercover agents, hover flies are easily mistaken for bees or wasps. When at rest on a flower, it’s nearly …
Just as you might be congratulating yourself on your green thumbedness – after all, your tomato plants are big and healthy and strong – you notice dark lesions on the …