Grow Soap: 8 Saponin Rich Plants That Can Be Made Into Soap
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 …
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 …
Some plants are easy. All they need is a bit of sunshine, a sprinkling of compost, and the occasional watering to put out a captivating display of flowers and foliage. …
In the natural world, the decomposition of plant and animal matter into rich and fertile topsoil is a very, very slow process. Somewhere along the way, at least as far …
Apple, cherry, plum, and other fruit trees are always a splendid addition to the edible landscape. Gorgeous in every season, fruit trees put out a mesmerizing display of fragrant blooms …
Operating under the cover of darkness, slugs and snails can do massive damage to garden plants in a very short period of time. Each evening, they leave their cool …
Succession gardening covers an array of planting methods that can double or triple your vegetable yields – all by using the same plot of land in a single growing season. …