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Gardening Advice
If you are searching for the right flowering tree or shrub to add pizzazz to your landscape, check out these three groups of plants—magnolia, dogwood, and viburnum—and you will not be disappointed.I. Magnolia TreesThere are more than 100 species in the genus Magnolia, some native to North America and others from Asia. They are often thought of as a southern plant, but there are…
The apple harvest is in full swing! Have you visited an apple orchard yet? Tasted that fresh cider? If you’re interested in growing your own apples, here are some tips on how to start a (small) orchard! Every year we are blessed with more apples than we can eat. I make lots of applesauce and apple crisp and freeze bags of peeled and spiced apples to plunk into pie crusts all…
Growing your own salad greens will put a world of fresh ingredients at your fingertips. Whether you are a gourmet salad lover who likes to experiment with interesting greens or someone who just wants to have your own homegrown lettuce, your choices are only limited by the seeds you can find and the space you have.Types of Salad GreensWe always think of spinach and lettuce as the main…
Winter is a great time for experimenting. Since I was feeling starved for green, growing goodness to eat last month, I gave microgreens a try. I have been a longtime sprout-lover, so I grew some of those too, just to see which I liked better.While doing a seed inventory, I found we had lots of extra lettuce, kale, and dill seeds, which I added to a mesclun mixture of arugula, mizuna, tatsoi,…
By now, many of you have heard of Marie Kondo’s book called The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. The Japanese art of decluttering and organizing can be put to good use in the garden as well.It doesn’t mean planting in straight rows or keeping the hedges rigidly trimmed. Most of us have a mental image of the landscape we’d like to have.Look around your yard and make note of what…
If, like me, you are a big fan of snap peas, you have noticed that over the years the quality of that classic ‘Sugar Snap’ has been deteriorating. Fortunately, these unique and favorite ‘Sugar Snap’ peas are back!
Back in 1979, ‘Sugar Snap’ was an All-America Selections National Gold Medal Winner. But over time, instead of producing true to type, as many as one-third of the plants…
In autumn, have you ever noticed all the seeds scattering? Plants are launching their offspring into the world! But since plants aren’t mobile, how do they spread their seeds? Discover the amazing ways seeds disperse and plants grow.If you are a seed collector, you probably have noticed the many ways Mother Nature disperses seeds to ensure a new generation of plants.Falling Fall…
Cold and flu season is here, and if you find yourself under the weather, a steaming hot cup of fresh ginger tea might be just the thing to make you feel better. If you love ginger, try growing your own!Ginger is reputed to have antiviral properties, is good for settling an upset stomach, and improves circulation. Fresh ginger (Zingiber officinale) definitely has more zing than the pre…
I normally don’t go in for a lot of frou-frou but I love to make a braid of onions every fall. They are not only a pretty way to display your hard-won harvest but I find it is a practical way to store them as well. They get good air circulation to last longer—and it is easy to see the size onion you want and to clip or pull it from the braid.I let the harvested onions dry on a wire rack for…
As summer winds down, caterpillars seem to be everywhere—munching milkweed, hiding among tomato leaves, or spinning webs in trees. Some will become butterflies, while others will turn into moths. Look closer and meet some interesting garden caterpillars, with tips for identifying them, understanding what they eat, and knowing which ones to leave undisturbed.All butterflies and moths have…
When gardeners aren’t talking about the weather they are talking about bugs. This year in my garden there seems not to be so much damage from slugs and cutworms as there is from beetles.This should not come as a surprise since beetles are the most common insect in my neck of the woods.Most beetles are good bugs; they eat other insects and are an important link in the food chain for…
Aquaponics is a gardening method that leverages the symbiotic relationship between fish and plants. The two grow together with the plants naturally filtering water for the fish and the fish providing an organic food source for the plants. Learn more about this farming method that has made its way into home gardening.What is Aquaponics?Simply put, aquaponics is a combination of…
