Last weekend, my friend and I were at Home Depot picking up bags of Quikrete. He was helping me reinstall my clothesline after a tornado went through my yard in …

I could spend hours at my local garden store. I find it infinitely relaxing to look at what plants they have in store and imagine the possibilities, the layouts, the …

Determinate tomatoes are the scrappy, short guys of the tomato world. These compact, bushy varieties have been bred to grow to a certain height, set all their fruit within a …

There comes a moment every spring when my garden threatens to run away from me. One minute, everything is barely waking up, and then I blink, and I’ve got a …

There’s nothing quite like the taste of the first strawberry picked straight from the vine. Reaching under those scratchy leaves to pick a ruby-red berry, warmed by the sun. With …

One of my plant-buying pet peeves is when plants come with labels that do more harm than good. Most of the time, it’s just confusing or incomplete information. (Such as …

If you’re tired of flavorless mesclun mixes that spoil the day after you bring them home from the store, you’ll want to keep reading. Even if, like me, you’re a …

I love gardening. But I like sitting on the porch admiring my garden a whole heck of a lot more, especially when the mercury starts to climb. As summer cranks …

If asked to sum up zucchini in one word, I would say “prolific.” It seems as though once it takes off, it doesn’t stop until that first frost at the …

I have two indoor cats whose favorite TV show is watching the bird feeders right outside the dining room window. I don’t know who enjoys watching the birds more, me …

Creating new garden beds doesn’t require you to dig up the turf and turn over the soil. That is, most certainly, the hardest way to do it. Cutting out the …

I’ve been eating mini cucumbers from the grocery store all winter long. But I ate my very first homegrown cucumber of the season the other day, and it stopped me …

We humans have been growing food for a hot minute. Roughly 10,000 – 12,000 years, depending on who you ask, but who’s counting? We’ve gotten pretty good at it, too. …

Don’t get me wrong, part of the appeal of Russian sage is the gorgeous color of the stems and leaves. That silvery green looks as though it belongs to another …

In “You’ve Got Mail,” Meg Ryan’s character notes that daisies are the friendliest flower. Ahem, really, Meg? How could you have discounted the sunflower so easily? It’s okay; we’ll forgive …

For far too many of us, the only time we’ve ever seen our orchid in bloom was when it first came home with us. We bought an orchid, or one …

I was thinking recently about gardening expectations. About how, if certain plants don’t do so well one year, I’m ok with that. But when other plants fail to meet my …

Aside from daffodils, rhubarb is my favorite “spring is really happening” marker. When I start seeing rhubarb at the farmer’s markets, I know winter is well and truly over. (Except …

If you’ve been gardening for more than, oh, fifteen minutes, you’ve probably got a leaning tower of plastic nursery pots somewhere. You know the ones — those ubiquitous black or …

Whether you purchased tomato seedlings from a nursery or grew them from a seed yourself, the moment of truth comes when you plant them out in the garden. Will they …

Adding seaweed to your garden isn’t anything new. The practice of using seaweed in the garden has been around for centuries. Use what you’ve got, right? Naturally, humans living near …

There’s just something about spring that makes a gardener’s heart beat a little faster. Those first warm days, the gentle buzz of bumblebees, the sun warming the soil. It’s the …

Spring is in full glorious bloom in my garden which can only mean two things: Well, maybe a couple of months before we get full hydrangea blooms. But all the …

Wood chip mulch is an attractive ground cover that enhances the health of your soil and the plants you grow. For many gardeners, carpeting the landscape with organic mulches becomes …