Gardening

Cardboard is certainly a welcome sight in the eye of the gardener. Often free and fairly ubiquitous, cardboard is a biodegradable and earth-friendly material that enriches as it breaks down. …

Lemongrass is a key ingredient in plenty of Asian cuisines and as you will discover as you read on, it is also useful in a wide range of other ways. …

Christmas cactuses are easily one of the most misunderstood houseplants. The poor things have a reputation for never blooming or blooming when they aren’t supposed to. It seems as though …

Garlic is an incredibly useful and versatile ingredient. It is not only a pungent flavour enhancer, it is also excellent for your health. Even before it is harvested, garlic can …

Making a hotbed for winter growing is a great way to extend the growing season. It allows you to grow more, both towards the end of the year and early …

Butterfly bush, also known as buddleja, is well known (as the name suggests) for attracting butterflies. One of its benefits is it can grow very well in many different areas …

Keeping chickens on your homestead gives you far more than just eggs (and potentially meat). Chickens also help to incorporate organic matter by scratching, they eat pests that would otherwise plague …

Being a successful home grower involves understanding how to make the most of each and every crop that you grow. Experienced organic gardeners soon learn that not everything goes according …

Flowering bulbs (and corms and tubers) are early harbingers of spring, providing some much needed color and beauty after a long and dreary winter season. Aside from buoying our spirits, …

When the warmth of summer suddenly comes to a halt, will your garden be ready for cold nights and beautiful, sparkling frosty mornings? Many gardeners know the feeling all too …

There are few fall pleasures as profound as biting into a homegrown apple. However, apple trees cause far more than their fair share of stress for any home growers.   …

When you live in a part of the world with distinct seasons, dutifully checking the weather forecast every day is a semi-annual gardening tradition. Sudden swings in temperature in late …

If you’ve been gardening for any length of time, you know that compost does magical things for your yield. But even the most active compost bin can’t break down all …

Am I the only one that grows herbs and then thinks, “Okay…now what the heck do I do with these?” I mean, for some herbs, it’s obvious. Mint you make …

Compost always amazes me. You take scraps from your kitchen that you’d typically throw away, mix them with microbes and air, and dry scraps from your yard that you’d normally …

Lettuce is one of the easiest crops for any gardener to grow. But getting it right means thinking about which varieties are right for you and your area. If you …

Daffodils are surely one of the cheeriest sights in a spring garden. Most gardeners will no doubt be aware that these are one of the earliest flowers to bloom in …

Broadly defined, invasive plants are non-native species introduced to a particular region where they are able to spread far and wide. Exotic plants from faraway lands may be beautiful but …

Some of my favorite vegetables are the ones that you can munch on straight out of the garden; no cooking required. You know the ones – a warm, sun-ripened tomato, …

Outside of the coldest months, there is always something to do in the garden, whether it be planting, weeding, dealing with pests, saving seeds, drying herbs, amending the soil or …

I’m a fan of walking in the garden every day, especially in the late afternoon when the sun warms the plants so that all manner of herbal and vegetal smells …

Get growing tasty, tiny microgreens for a blast of nutrient-dense flavor. Microgreens, which are sprouted vegetables, grow fast and easy indoors, making them a perfect choice for winter gardening. Sprouted …

Perennials are more than just beautiful and useful landscape plants – they are the future of a sustainable food supply. Likely you have already come to that important realization – …

One of the most pleasurable jobs in any garden is choosing which plants to grow. It can be great fun to seek out new options and explore all the different …