Lindsay Sheehan

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. …