Category: Plants

Forget “spring cleaning”: If you’re a gardener, you know that the real cleaning happens in the fall. This is when you trim the trees, cut […]

It’s mid-August, which means between harvest and cultivation, gardeners also need to think about the transition to fall. This includes two important stages: fertilizing with […]

My point in gardening is that you should stop planting zinnias—everyone’s garden favorite—and plant coneflowers instead. While I love zinnias as much as the next […]

Summer is approaching and hopefully your garden is overflowing. While tomatoes and peppers make it easy to see their ripeness, some crops are more secretive. […]

You might think that the sun is a gardener’s best friend, but I always welcome a day or two of cloudy weather and rain during […]

All the flowers you scatter in your garden have a certain life cycle. There are annual plants that will last only one season and die […]

You’ll have to give up the nasturtiums: these low-lying, fast-growing, jewel-colored flower vines have everything they need. They self-seed like crazy, returning year after year […]

Everyone’s backyard is different, so the tools you need may vary from garden to garden. Perhaps you have a lot of concrete and you might […]

August is a turning point in the garden. It’s too late to try to fix what went wrong – you just need to leave what […]

Fellow starters: the end is near. Like you, I’m looking forward to putting away the seed trays, heat mats and seed domes for the long […]

Garlic is something of a garden anomaly. It’s planted in the fall and then hung until mid-summer and harvested in time to give you a […]

You’re probably still waiting for your corn to be ready to harvest and your pumpkins to turn orange, but now is the time to start […]

I’m a leader, so when I see a problem, I want to fix it—immediately. The problem with gardening is that it can cause you to […]

Every summer I am left to sympathize with the many reports of people who go on holiday, leave their garden in the hands of someone […]

“You must spend so much time in your garden” is the phrase I hear most often from pedestrians passing by my house. But while it […]

Plants are simple: they start with a seed, then grow stems, leaves and stems. Flowers form, but then the plants begin to produce seeds. At […]

By my count, there are four types of grasses: tender grasses that produce seeds, die at the end of the season and need to be […]

Right now, you should put away the margaritas and sunscreen (for a moment) and think about fall planting. While there are plenty of vegetables to […]

By definition, perennial flowers come back on their own, year after year. Annual flowers usually do not do this and only last for a season. […]

Coffee is so ingrained in modern culture that people produce about 15 million tons of used coffee grounds every year. So people spent years trying […]

Every summer I grow beds of annual cut flowers: sunflower, poet’s flower, zinnia, rootstock. I gradually added more and more perennials to my beds so […]

There are so many things kids can enjoy about gardening: digging, picking, identifying color, texture and flavor. If you have a small area of ​​your […]

July is one of my favorite months in gardening because it feels like a pause. All your vegetables are planted and will soon begin to […]

July is a great time to restart the seeding station in your home. At this point, all the summer plants are already in the garden, […]

I’ve written before about how important trellises are in your garden layout to create height and divide space; trellis transforms a garden from flat to […]

This summer, I encourage you to ditch the expensive and cheap pine trellises found at big box stores. They are never big enough, rot after […]

Every year my stone fruit trees produce a comforting amount of cherries, plums and peaches. But by the time I have to harvest, 90% of […]

It is truly luxurious to have a garden that already has sprinklers and drip irrigation, but this is not the case for most people who […]

When everything in nature works out as it should, plants produce flowers, then bees and other pollinators fly in to grab the pollen from those […]

Most of us don’t live on farms with acres of land to spread crops around, but instead have a few boxes, flower pots, or a […]

The end of June means “summer” everywhere across America, and for most of us, summer gardens are already in full swing. In fact, most farmers […]

One of the best ways to define a garden space is with a path. Before considering hardscape options like concrete or stone, consider a few […]

Plants come in two varieties: annuals, which survive for a season, and perennials, which must return year after year. Many of the plants in your […]

I’ve built raised beds out of railroad ties or cedar fencing, 2x4s, bricks, and even some nice wicker lattice. But when I got serious about […]

Tomatoes are a popular addition to vegetable gardens, but they can be a real problem. From the moment your tomato seeds germinate to the day […]

Although humans don’t eat houseplants and rarely eat shrubs or ground cover, your pets probably do. That’s why you need to be very, very sure […]

Early summer marks the start of planting season, something you’ll soon see at the farmers’ market and likely in your own garden. As the seasons […]

Six years ago I bought some fig trees for fun. Every year the trees get bigger and produce a few figs, which I really like, […]

With gardening season in full swing and in some places the weather is getting so hot that your plants will wilt if you don’t water […]

June is a turning point month in gardening: all the seedlings you’ve been growing all spring have finally left the nest and are heading into […]