Browse Gardening

Many a gardener dreams of having their own greenhouse. A greenhouse allows you to extend the growing season past when you would normally have to harvest everything from your garden as well as to get a significant head start on the growing season, starting your seedlings while there is still snow on the ground. It allows you to control the growing conditions for your plants, so you can make sure that your plants are healthy and providing you with an optimal yield.

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There are many different kinds of greenhouses. They can be as simple as growing some herbs in a sunny window in your house, to elaborate outdoor designs of all shapes and sizes.- No matter which one you choose, there are some tips to getting the most out of your gardening. - You can find many different tips and advice from an assortment of sources, both online, as well as local nurseries, and lawn and garden centers.

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There are a number of garden accessories that can help make any greenhouse gardening more successful. No one gardener needs them all, but even a couple of well chosen items can raise productivity in your garden.

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An Ulta coupon can save big money on the latest in beauty products. Products include every day beauty and bath items such as cosmetics. For those wanting to stick with a budget, this makes saving easy. Beauty and Beyond for Every Budget Using an Ulta Coupon Ulta coupons can be redeemed for brand name products or a cart total. This can make shopping for brand name beauty products less costly. Products purchased with Ulta coupon codes are the same as retail ones.

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When you are planning to buy a greenhouse, you must also plan for its accessories. Keep in mind that a greenhouse is just a structure in which to conduct year-round gardening, if desired, but it's just that - a structure.- You will need various types of equipment, tools and supplies for its actual operation and, thus, to achieve its optimal use.

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One of the constants in this world is the fact that there are many, many single individuals. Some of them are looking for a long term relationship, and some are simply looking for a causal encounter.- In any case, there are many different types of people, one of which happens to be those suffering from sexually transmitted diseases. - When one thinks of these diseases they typically think of herpes, but HIV is still a serious problem in our society. What is HIV?

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If you live in a part of the country that experiences cold winters but you still want to be able to grow and enjoy fresh garden veggies you are not going to be able to unless you have a cold frame.- Cold frame greenhouses are designed to extend the growing season so that, no matter where you may live you can still enjoy fresh crisp salads right throughout the winter.

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There are a number of different types of aromatherapy that you can use to help yourself relax, unwind, and take a break.- At the end of the day, there is little more that you will want to do to relax, and you will find that the beautiful scents of aromatherapy products will help you to take a load off. Aromatherapy has proven to be one of the most popular types of natural treatments for stress and tension, and many people are benefitting from the wide variety of aromatherapy techniques.

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When you are considering natural healing remedies, you can't forget the plant-based therapy, known as aromatherapy. For those that are searching for natural healing therapies, aromatherapy uses various parts of different flowering plants, trees and shrubs, along with spices and herbs that are known to have medicinal properties.- For many centuries, aromatherapy has been used in many ancient cultures and it is still used today for spa and home treatments that encourage relaxation and meditation.

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Creating a personal garden is not difficult all you need is some basic supplies, equipment and a small amount of land.- It is important to keep in mind that gardening, whether you are working from seedlings or seed, takes time and patience. - This is why it is important to make sure that you take the time to plan out what you want to create, where it is going to be placed and how you are going to take care of handling watering, fertilizing, weeding and making sure that your plants are safe from both bugs and beasts.

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If you are interested in gardening, it is important to learn how to make your own natural compost. Compost is a mixture of various natural or organic types of materials that assists in increasing the nutrients in the soil that is located in your garden, and also works to provide the plants that you are growing with a large amount of nutrients in order to optimize their growth and health.- Most fertilizers on the market today are synthetic and lack the true nutrients discovered in organic compost mixtures.

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Anime and Cartoons: Popular Sunday Morning Comics & Toons The comic strips withi Sunday newspapers have become very popular, and this has led to a lot of them being made into cartoons.- Some of the most popular cartoons that have been made into cartoons are Dennis the Menace, Garfield and Dilbert to name a few. Dennis the Menace Sunday Paper Cartoons

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The Greek culture explained hydroponics as a harvest increase with the use of mineral nutrient solutions, this making it being no solid intermediate for roots.- The difference between hydroponics as well as soil less ethnicity of plants has been nothing but a blur. You could say that soil less ethnicity has a much broader term for hydroponics; the only thing with hydroponics systems is that it needs no mineral nutrients. Hydroponics is a division of soil less background.

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In this highly urbanized world, it is a big challenge to pursue gardening and to find a spot to do it. With high cost of lots, spaces are usually limited only enough for the house. However, this should not put down individuals who would really want to do some gardening in their own backyard and show a little artistry.- There are lots of proven ways that, even in urban areas, can highlight the beauty of local gardening and the best of nature. Wouldn't it be such a delight to see a green and beautiful garden in your neighborhood in the midst of high-rise buildings?

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One of the biggest problems among gardeners is surely the weeding. If you are a gardener, even a beginner, you probably know what I mean. The super-fast growing weeds are constantly hunted by garden owners, especially if the yard is quite big. It usually doesn't matter, if the season is good or bad – weed always grows rapidly without any problems. However, it is known that if you want healthy and attractive garden with well-developed plants, you have to get rid of weed.

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Each of us has a set of things we excel at and another, larger set at which we suck. And while we tend to linger on the things we're bad at, we neglect the fact that we can greatly improve them, if we would only stop whining and saying that we can do it later. Let's show a few quick statistics - 90% of the human population says "I'll do it later" and doesn't do whatever they said they would do at all. And while 7% say "I'll do it later" and simply forget about it, 3% say "I'll do it later" and actually do it.

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We are exposed to chemicals most of the time in our daily activities. Walking on the street, cleaning in your home or just working in the office – chemicals are usually all around you, even without you being aware of them. They are emitted from various objects, for example, the car exhaust in the big city. As you probably know you have almost no control over these chemicals, but at the same time you can't avoid them either. However, you CAN avoid some of them and here in this article I will show you the top 10 toxic you must avoid.

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One of the most disastrous pollutions is probably the chewing gum on your car carpet. It is sticky and very hard to remove. It leaves nasty marks and stains that are near impossible to clean with simple methods. However, if you are thinking that you don't chew gums and you are safe, think again. Sometimes your noisy girlfriend can accidentally drop its gum right on your precious car carpet. In such cases, you have to know the right way to deal with this type of pollution, as well as the right products.

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Window cleaners are many in types and brands, cheap or expensive and even home-made. You have so many choices when it comes to window cleaner that you may even get confused about it. However, this is not all about this cleaning solution. As well as its kinds and brands, it has also many appliances on different products. You can successfully use a window cleaner on glass, jewelry, laptops and countertops. You will be amazed to learn that many surfaces can be treated with window cleaner, instead of numerous special cleaning detergents. Save money and clean smart.

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When is the perfect time to begin thinking about what needs to be done to prepare your garden for spring? The answer: while the snow and ice are starting to melt! Ensuring you properly prepare your garden for spring will guarantee it will thrive all year. Here are the 8 tips:

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The whiskey barrel as a planter has been a tried and true method of achieving a prominent display for your garden. The size of these wooden planters makes them perfect for large shrubs or small trees, or even as an herb garden, ideal for outside the kitchen door. Further, these barrels last for years, even decades, before needing to be replaced.

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Have an old ladder you cannot use laying around the house? Well, do not add it to the dump pile. Bring it back to life as part of your garden. If it is a wooden ladder, treat it with a preservative to prevent it from rotting; if it is a metal ladder, it can be painted any color to match your color scheme. Using ladders in the garden can have a utilitarian effect, as well as adding an enchanting and beguiling ambiance. Ladders can be used as a hanger for potted plants, as a storage stand for gardening tools in the shed, or as a support for your climbing plants.

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Building patios in your backyard for entertainment reasons should be well thought out and designed for usefulness. Space planning according the size of the average group of people you would be entertaining. How you will be entertaining ie, barbecues, pool parties, dinner outside. Planning for things like seating and tables for eating are all important issues when planning for your patio. Type of guests you will be entertaining, children, family, or business.

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All of us want to have a special place where we can go and just relax, when the day is done. In our busy lives today, there is little time to just sit and relax. But, when the long days and warmer temperatures of summer are upon us, we will want to be able to relax and enjoy the fruits of our labors with our family and friends.

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Now that you have all your flower beds cleaned and planted for spring, what do you do? Wait until the flowers bloom? What else do you need to add? The work of preparing the beds and planting the flowers gives most of us a delightful sense of accomplishment. We sit back and look at our gardens and wish the flowers would grow quicker, so we can ‘see’ and enjoy them.

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Tested for perfection, our balls meet all PRO GAME BALL weight and dimensional standards. Looking for an easy way to improve your game? Try our balls performance to give you an extra edge on the Field, on the Court and in the Gym. Best American Footballs - Best Beach Balls - Best Baseballs - Best Basketballs - Best Golf Discs - Best Golf Balls - Best Human Soccer Balls - Best Pickleball Balls - Best Ping Pong Balls - Best Pit Balls - Best Rugby Balls - Best Soccer Balls - Best Softballs - Best Table Tennis Balls - Best Tennis Balls - Best Volleyballs.

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If you are looking to hire furniture removal services for your upcoming move, many advantages come with hiring a furniture removal company. These companies will take care of all furniture lifting and carrying, packing, unpacking, and more if needed! This article details 10 reasons why you should consider hiring professional furniture removal services for your next furniture changeover.

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If the word off-page SEO comes in your mind then I can guarantee that the words like a guest post, directory submission, forum posting, and blog commenting will also come to your mind. As you know Google updates their algorithm almost every day. So, a question you may ask that does all the methods still work? The answer is yes but you will not get that many benefits which you used to get back in the days. Some link building techniques will help you to diversify your links which are shows to Google that you are getting signals from all the possible places and it is a good sign to get rank.r

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The PPC industry has come a long way. It is extremely competitive, especially if you operate in a competitive niche. If you are looking for an efficient and easy way to track money-making ads, you need to give AdSpy a try. It does not matter whether you have any knowledge of the tool or not as this review will provide you with all the information you need to decide if you should use it. What Is AdSpy?

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Destiny 2 is a very popular game but most of the people be afraid to play the game because it’s kind a hard to accomplish the levels. So, we've spent the last 24 hours playing the destiny 2 - and while the game is massive, and everyone's characters are going to play a little differently we found a few techniques that are really going to help you in those early hours.

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Division 2 is a popular 3rd person shooter game that is known for its amazing RPG elements. Massive Entertainment is the company that developed the game and Ubisoft published it. Division 2 carry has become common for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Order the Division 2 carry services to take your gaming experience to the next level. Division 2 Carry/ Boost Features

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When it comes to home décor, people like to think of it as a long term investment that need not change as fast as clothes. But this year, it is the year of new stunning trends setting camp in Home Décor and you will be more than ever in love with them! Green is the new Black!

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It's been over a decade since the release of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade and players are still playing it to this day. This is because there are many aspects that make the game so enjoyable, from exploring new worlds and meeting new friends to the challenge of defeating bosses and finding hidden treasures in dungeons. To help you enjoy your time in Azeroth even more,

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Have you recently started playing Apex Legends and are feeling overwhelmed? Or maybe you’ve been playing for a while now but want to learn more about how to play the game better. Either way, this article is perfect for you! Here we will discuss strategies and tactics that can help any beginner or intermediate player get on their feet quickly. We'll go over character selection, weapons and armor, skills, and more! Choose character Wise:

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We all have decided at one point in time during our careers, what it would be like to have a business of our own.. An organization that profits pay the bills and create an embrace for entrepreneurship and freedom. Working day today for our boss’s it floats in our mind, What can I do that can make money on the side of my regular job whilst producing quality results, that can earn the freedom of running your own business one day. The Answer

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In recent years, maple kitchen cabinets have gained great popularity. They’re favored by homeowners and interior designers alike, largely because of their versatility, durability, and aesthetic appeal. In essence, maple is a versatile and durable hardwood species that can blend in perfectly with a variety of kitchen styles and décors. Maple RTA cabinets are relatively affordable and can be availed with many different types of finishes – including stained, matte, high-gloss, and distressed.

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The detrimental impact of the ongoing pandemic on the global economy has seriously put the prospects of mushrooming growth and development at stake. Businesses are desperately attempting to seek solutions for survival. Moreover, the greater risk of bankruptcy has caused the businesses to look at governments as the last resort for financial assistance. In order to provide financial relief to businesses, many countries have stimulus programs in place, but many of these programs only cover a short time frame and are due to expire soon.

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The best way to uplift the look of your house is by planting some attractive and colorful indoor plants. These days, you can see modern homes well decorated with alluring plant varieties such as a bonsai tree. Apart from its impressive appearance, the bonsai tree holds spiritual importance and spread positive vibes within the house.

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Over the past few years, with the world growing towards digitalization, Social Media Marketing has become a buzz in the marketing industry. Nowadays, it has become so trending and influencing that it tends business owners to believe that without social media marketing, neither they will be able to drive sales nor will be able to survive in this hardcore competition.

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Destiny 2 is one of the most popular games on the market right now. It's a game where you can team up with your friends and get together to take on epic quests and missions that will have you fighting against otherworldly enemies for hours. If you want to get the most out of Destiny 2, then you are going to need some help from a professional player who has leveled up their character past level 20, unlocked all of the cool gear, weapons, and armor in the game, and knows how to play well enough so they don't die every five minutes.

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In this modern era, LED light strips are one of the must-have essentials for home decoration. This flexible circuit board can almost stick anywhere you wish to enhance powerful lighting. Most interior designers like to use these LED strip lights in bedroom which adds a soothing and warm effect to the atmosphere. However, one should always be careful to select the type of LED strip lights that fit their requirements and fulfill the standards of quality.

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Paypal has increasingly become one of the most favorable methods to buy Bitcoin lately, however finding credible exchanges that allow payment with Paypal is still a challenge. The main problem is usually due to Paypal’s chargeback policy. It’s so easy for Paypal users to file a dispute and get their money back after making a purchase, even though the dispute is actually not legit.

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Don't neglect the little corner of your home that your guests will surely see!

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This member of the Nightshade or Solanaceae family is a native specimen in North America. This perennial vine can be found in a wide range of habitats, including thickets, woods, and damp stream banks. Also, it covers a large geographic area that comprises parts of Texas, up to North Dakota, and Eastward into the states of New England. The plant has an attractive appearance with strikingly shaped leaves, purple flowers with yellow anthers, and berries which turn from green to bright red (Niering, p. 804; County, 2013). Myth and Reality

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After purchasing a home, you'll likely want to replace or update your furniture as well. This is the best time to upgrade your decor to something more modern and elegant. The replacement of bed sheets is a simple way to add a modern touch to any bedroom. Although it can be good to have a variety of options to choose from, it may even make it more difficult to make sure that you have the papers appropriate to your needs.

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Playing outdoor sports is a fun and easy way to keep yourself healthy and fit. Fitness experts have proven that playing a game of golf three to four times a week is a healthy and safe way to get exercise.

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Do you want to know how to build a beautiful and sturdy wooden swing set like this below? Do you want to build a similar wooden swing set in your backyard for your kids? Do you think that to build a wooden swing set like this will cost you a lot? Do you want to know how to build a beautiful and sturdy wooden swing set like this below? Do you want to build a similar wooden swing set in your backyard for your kids? Do you think that to build a wooden swing set like this will cost you a lot?

Published · 912 views · Rated 5/5 from 1 votes

If your business has to move money abroad – to finance the import/export of goods, manage a foreign payroll or purchase overseas real estate – taking the time to look into your options for managing such money transfer could save you thousands.

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Research is one of the most important aspects to succeed in detecting. In this section, we will provide you with the information you need to achieve a successful research effort. Many detecting experts know the importance of research, but do not waste the time or energy to conduct a thorough investigation before metal detecting. Many people are frustrated and dissatisfied with this hobby as a direct result of this. Without them, your results will be reduced and bored by detecting metals for the same old depleted sites.

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It is generally impossible to leave the beloved family pet behind when you move, so you need to take them into account when you create your moving checklist. You should know by now that a checklist is a great tool for you to use when you are relocating, and it can help you save time, money, and lower your stress. The same can be said of your pet when you move. The stress will build on them as well as they see the familiar home they have lived in changed into a tower of boxes. Making sure to cover their needs in the checklist can be very helpful in making this transition a smooth one.

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There are so many choices out there when it comes to Popular Ride-On Toys for Kids that someone can easily get overwhelmed by all the options. The selection of ride-on toys available today include, but are not limited to, cars, bikes, electric scooters, kneelers, spinners, character themed, electric, non-electric & push-along. So, in an effort to make what can be a tough decision a little easier, I've created this lens to showcase some of the more popular ride-on toys that are out there.

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If you are facing a move, then you probably realize how much money you are going to have to spend to get everything that you own from one place to another. There is more involved than simply the costs of the moving company or truck rental, you also have to consider the costs involved in packing as well.

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Luxury sheets and linens are often considered sensual. The soft and fine cloth is found in high-end sets and most common bed sheet sizes. Soft and smooth, satin and silk stimulate the senses. They wrap your feelings in their sensory softness. They also make a beautiful gift or a wonderful surprise for yourself, you'll surely fall in love with your satin sheets. It can be tough to find the sheets you're looking for. It's not easy to choose from hundreds of silk and satin bedding products that are found online.

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Of all the places in the country, Sydney is one of the most diverse places to live. Many people find themselves attracted to this area each year, which is why it has earned a place on the list of most sought after destinations in the country. Still, moving to Sydney is like moving to any other city in the country. You need to take care of the immense task of moving before you can begin your new life in this city. Consider the following to help get you started on the right foot. Find a Good Company

Published · 827 views · Rated 5/5 from 1 votes

Five-gallon buckets are much cheaper than pots especially for plants, and they are available at home improvement and hardware stores for less than five dollars. They are great for growing outdoor plants since they are deep and provide plenty of space for developing roots. Try growing plants in buckets this year, and forget about crawling around on the ground to pull weeds. Growing plants in buckets is very easy, and they require very little care beyond the usual watering and feeding. If you think that five-gallon buckets are ugly, they can be painted in a rainbow of colors and textures!

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Academic years are not complete unless they are marked by days and nights of hard work on various assignments. From reports to research papers, a student is entrusted with a huge task of completing numerous assignments throughout his tenure at a college or a university. An assignment carries weightage for the method of its presentation and amount of research that goes into making such assignments.

Published · 981 views · Rated 5/5 from 2 votes

Security companies, whether private or public play a very important role in ensuring safety for people. People are constantly in the search for a reliable security company that will make them feel safe always. There are a number of factors that one needs to consider before hiring a company to provide this service. These factors help to ensure that the best in terms of the service is got and that there will be no further regrets.

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Moving these days is a very complex task that takes lots of time, effort, work, and money. In many cases, especially those where a family or pets are involved, moving is a colossal undertaking that can drain a person in many ways, including mentally, physically, and financially. Many people relate moving to death, as the stress levels associated with the huge change are generally the same.

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I was using a single Din car stereo and planning to shift to a double Din stereo. I bought this amazing car stereo a few years and now it is time to buy a better version. My name is Julia and I am working as a primary school teacher in a small town. I have 1977 Sedan and I love to drive it daily to my job. However, in the past few days, I am facing trouble reversing the car at school’s parking. This 77 version of Sedan features a lower body frame and now I have to buy a new version of a car stereo that supports the rear-view camera.

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There are few things that match the joy of watching children take charge of little projects, and gardening projects are no exception. Set aside a little patch of dirt for your kids to plant seeds and watch things grow. Make sure it is reasonably fertile and in full sun, you don't want to make a starter project so challenging that it generates disillusionment rather than the pride of accomplishment. Stick to annuals. Turn the dirt at a spade's depth early in the spring, to ensure that most of the seeds will germinate.

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Three major factors contribute to the health of your skin: good nutrition and general wellbeing, good conditioning and removing dead cells and impurities. Good nutrition and general well-being

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As a child I used to watch with fascination as my grandfather's hands gently teased apart leaves and flowers and spread them over paper towels to dry in the hot still air of the attic. That attic looked much like an apothecary's shop with dried hot pepper bunches, hanging herbs, long braids of onions and garlic and drying racks of chamomile and lovage intermixing their fragrances in an indescribable but immediately recognizable scent.

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Have you ever wondered what it takes to bring the sophisticated and aristocratic vanilla bean to you? I thought about it many times and figured if I ever had a greenhouse this would be the first plant I'd like to grow, so I wanted to learn more about it and this is what I found out.

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Pruning is a simple and necessary part of keeping a rose healthy, strong and blooming. If you prune the rose wrong, you may not get a lot of flowers the following year, or none at all, but there is no wrong way to prune that will kill an established rose. If anything, if you can live with a couple of years of no flowers, the rose will get a lot of rest and renewed energy for new growth. Why prune roses There are four reasons to prune roses: remove old and diseased canes to make room for more growth, allow air movement, shape the bushes to your liking and encourage blooming.

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Having healthy roses is more about prevention than it is about cure. Give the shrubs plenty of space to prevent moisture from sticking to their leaves, make sure they have at least six, preferably eight hours of full sun a day, plant them in well draining soil with plenty of organic matter and try to water only their roots without touching their leaves. That being said, even after the best of efforts, diseases and pests sometimes get the better of them.

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I gingerly stepped out the door and a blast of cold air threw me back in. It's February. So much for my gardening enthusiasm, I guess I can stick to potpourri and fragrant sachets for now but since late winter is a good time for tree planting, let's talk about fruit trees.

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It is amazing what special status roses have in gardens! A gardener will move a tree, completely restructure a flower bed and change the location of a patio before they decide to touch an established rose. New homeowners who inherit roses plan their entire gardens in ways that feature and complement them.

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The difference between a cream and a salve is that salves always contain beeswax and they are a lot firmer (think lip balm). A salve is a blend of oil and beeswax in proportion of five to one more or less. Salves are often made with infused oils that extract the medicinal qualities of herbs directly into one of the basic ingredients.

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The seeds of your s about home & garden. If you need more information about aquaponic garden is much easier than putting them in the soil. You just have to put them in pots screen and ... this is it! Then you just have to wait for them to start and grow rich. However, there is one aspect that you need to know before placing the seed and the right time when the seeds should be planted.

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If you are looking for a reliable automatic pool water leveler, I will save you some time and money by sharing a few facts about water levelers. Right out of the gate: Stay away from any auto fill device that hooks up to a garden hose! They are constructed mostly of plastic parts that can and will warp or become brittle from the ultraviolet rays of the sun.

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When choosing an automatic pond or pool water leveler, you should first realize that there are over 130 water leveling devices on the market today to pick from. There are five very important features to look for. 1. Most of the mechanical water levelers will eventually stick or jam in the open position, allowing for a continuous flow of water resulting in an overflow. Consequently, it is best to choose a non-mechanical float that is not prone to warp, stick, jam, rust or corrode. The least likely autofills are the electronic type such as the Levelor, Pentair, Savio, Jandy or AquaFill.r

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The pond liner advocates have maligned concrete constructed ponds and waterfalls for years by making spurious claims that concrete will crack and not hold up over time or in cold freezing climates. This article will expose this fallacy for what it really is and explain the facts about the differences between the rubber liners versus concrete and rebar construction.

Published · 4,306 views · Rated 3/5 from 1 votes

You ask, what is a fountain water level controller? It is a device that controls the level of water in a fountain. If you own a fountain or are thinking of getting one in the future or have a friend or family member who owns one, you need to read this article.

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After retiring from 30 years of designing and building well over two thousand waterfalls and fountains I have come to the conclusion that fountains are not everything that they seem or appear to be. Yes, most are elegant, charming, ornate, tranquil, appealing, relaxing, soothing, stress relieving and somewhat enticing. However, there is a darker side to fountain ownership. In this article I will teach you how to turn a fountain nightmare into an aquatic dream come true.

Published · 1,565 views · Rated 3/5 from 2 votes

Disasters always seem to be happening everywhere else but in our own neighborhood. After a while, we actually start to believe it will never happen here and in my lifetime. Case in point, have you prepared for a natural or man-made disaster or at least even thought about it? Through this article, it is my hope to at least plant a seed of urgency within your mind and help you to take that life-preserving step towards preparedness. Avoid the common responses to disaster uttered by thousands of people after it is too late, “Would have, could have, and should have, only if…”

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Once we understand where sickness comes from, we can understand why we are able to get rid of it! God's word clearly reveals that both death and sickness originated with sin and are being spread by Satan. Romans 5:12-21 When Adam sinned, sin entered the entire human race. Adam's sin brought death; so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. And though there was no law to break, since it had not yet been given, they all died anyway-even though they did not disobey an explicit commandment of God, as Adam did.

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Why is there so much talk about pond liners? Which ones are UV protected, or stronger, or last longer? I am by no means an expert on liner technology, nor have I ever used them in my 26 years of designing and building waterfalls. If you're a "liner guy" disciple, I'm sure you're thinking, "Oh no, here he goes." To tell the truth, I have been minding by own business for over two decades, just watching, reading and listening to all the "experts."

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When I started in the waterfall and pond design & construction business in January of 1982, I was asking the same question. I had a slight advantage over most when it came to answering the question, "Which pump do I use?" I came out of the energy conservation field, so I was already savvy about energy consumption topics.

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Before installing a water feature you need to ask yourself several important questions first: What is your budget? How much can you spend on the entire project? You could spend $3,000 on a water feature and find out you still need an additional $1,000-1,500 for plants and amenities, such as a deck, gazebo, walkways, fish or landscape lighting in the pond, waterfall and lawn. Other possible extras are a biological filter, auto-fill for pond, skimmer, back-flushable bio-filter, and more.

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1. Have you thought about A Water Feature?-- Is it true that a water feature will add equity to my home? What about a swimming pool? Doesn't a pond require a lot of upkeep? What is the average cost? Do I need a building permit? Do I have to have fish? ...we travel a lot! According to the American Society of Landscape Architects, Landscape Architects Identify Trends for 2007:

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Many people are still searching the internet for information on how to build a waterfall or koi pond. Unfortunately, there is very little information regarding professional construction. There are thousands of websites involved in marketing pond products to uninformed and unsuspecting customers.

Published · 1,752 views · Rated 5/5 from 1 votes

One of the most challenging aspects of designing ponds and waterfalls is trying to convey my ideas to my client. Coming up with award-winning pond designs or implementing them using adequate skills and experience is not a problem. My challenge is getting my client to see what I see. Drawing and painting are not my forte; it is next to impossible for me to draw a rock, not to mention water. The hardest part for me is drawing perspective.

Published · 1,724 views

1. Liners will eventually leak. Manufacturers have varying warranties, ranging from 15 to 30 years, with a 75-year life expectancy. In reality, it will definitely last as long as the guarantee claims as long as you leave it in the box, and store it in your garage. Once you place it in the ground, nature's forces begin a contest to see which will break its water-tight integrity first. Vying for the title of culprit are gophers, ground squirrels, chipmunks, rats, moles, roots from trees, plants and weeds, sharp rocks, heavy rocks, sharp objects, and moose (if you live in Alaska).

Published · 1,840 views

First of all: know what you want. If you need some ideas, visit the library or your local book store and browse through landscape books, garden and pond magazines. You can also search the web and read and study as much as possible.

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We can't live without it. Water is the very source of life That is why we are so strongly attracted to it. Maybe because we cannot live more than a few days without water, we want to have it close by. Most people would like to live next to it, whether in the form of a stream, river, lake or ocean.

Published · 1,577 views · Rated 4/5 from 1 votes

Which is more versatile, a solar dehydrator or a solar oven? Many solar ovens are sold with the promise that, besides cooking food by the energy of the sun, you can also dehydrate food. I have owned two solar Sun Ovens for almost two years and have cooked every kind of food that I ever cooked in a conventional oven. I discovered that food cooked in a solar oven using the sun's rays tastes better -- moist, not dried out or overcooked if left in for longer than its normal cooking time.

Published · 1,632 views

My wife and I have been living full time in a 40-foot motor home for over three years after we sold our house and donated everything to Disabled American Veterans. It has been a ride on the wild side, and part of that ride has been parking, and not always in a camp ground or RV park. If I am parked where there is no access to plug in for shore power, the generator is needed to supply the oven, toaster, microwave etc., including the need to charge the onboard house batteries. Operating the generator four or five times a day for an hour uses diesel and diesel costs even more than gasoline.r

Published · 2,896 views · Rated 3.3/5 from 3 votes

What is a solar oven? It is an oven that uses the sun's energy to cook, bake, steam or broil all types of food, from pies, bread, cakes and cookies to barbeque, roasting an 18 pound turkey or pot-roast. Anything that can be cooked or baked in a conventional oven can be cooked or baked by the power of the sun in a sun oven in the same amount of time, if it is a cloud-free day. Sun oven/cookers have been around since the 17th century, and are becoming increasing more popular now for several good reasons. o Solar sun ovens use the free renewable energy of the sun.r

Published · 1,349 views

Our environment can have as much impact on our health as food and water. Smoking three to four packs of cigarettes a day can totally negate the healthful benefits of a steady diet consisting of organic vegetables, meats, fish, grains and dairy products. There are not enough vitamins, minerals, proteins or carbohydrates in the world to offset the harmful effects of smoking.

Published · 1,104 views

Half the world's population is dependent upon a wood, coal, bark, charcoal, grass or even dried dung for fuel for cooking their daily meals, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). They also report, as a consequence, that we are now losing a staggering 28,000 acres per day in countries like Africa, Asia, Mexico, Central and South America, and India. Countries such as Haiti and Nepal have less than two percent of their original forests remaining.

Published · 1,306 views

Many people have discovered that solar cooking and baking is more than just a science project or cleaver novelty. Cooking with the sun can be fun, but it can also saves money while decreasing your carbon footprint. Sun ovens use the free unlimited energy of the sun to cook or bake. rather than the normal. Nonrenewable energy resources, such as gas, electric, coal or wood, not only cost money, they all pollute our atmosphere, whereas the sun is free energy and pollution-free.

Published · 1,071 views

Bought any powdered eggs or dehydrated milk lately? Why not? These would be two very useful items on a survivalist’s grocery list, followed by canned meats, flour, wheat, rice, beans, canned cheese and butter, etc. If the answer is no, you are not prepared for survival in an emergency. And if your country experienced a national man-made or natural disaster, you would be one of many wishing that they had purchased not only nonperishable food stuffs but also essential survival items.

Published · 1,374 views

What is a survival kit? It is simply a kit that contains necessary items to help you survive. Primarily food and water would be at the top of the list. You can survive five to six days without food, a flashlight or toilet paper, but try to survive without water. In a natural or man-made disaster, each of us has a somewhat different list of priority or essential items. Included in a woman's list, you may find makeup in the top ten items.

Published · 1,735 views · Rated 5/5 from 1 votes

If you have not heard of solar or sun cooking and baking, you are in for a pleasant surprise. Cooking with the sun has been around for quite some time. The first documented research and successful results of solar cooking or baking was in 1767 by a French-Swiss physicist, Horace de Saussure.

Published · 1,093 views

Whether you sell pond or pool equipment or are in the market for a water leveler for maintaining the level of water in your pool, pond, fountain, hot tub or water garden, here are some important facts that could eventually save you both time and money.

Published · 1,070 views

I saw my first solar oven a year ago. My first reaction was amazement and general disbelief that a box with attached shiny reflectors could capture enough sunshine to develop a cooking temperature of 350 degrees inside the 19 inch square box and maintain it all day long by simply shifting its position to the sun every hour or so. The person demonstrating the cooking power of the sun actually cooked a five pound chicken with potatoes, onions and carrots in just one and a half hours.

Published · 980 views

Raisins are undoubtedly the most common examples of dehydrated food sold and consumed around the world. Other common popular dried fruits are figs, dates, prunes, apricots, bananas, papaya, mango and the crispy, savory banana chips. Even though these foods change appearance in their texture and in some cases color after dehydrating, they remain very flavorful and retain their nutritional value. The most significant change is in size and weight resulting from the removal of water from the food through the application of dry heat in the dehydration process.

Published · 1,515 views

Many pond builders have started out in the water garden industry by building ponds the easy way, by using a rubber liner, biofalls, and a sump pump. Many of these landscapers were not informed of what to expect in terms of durability and the longevity of these building materials. Unfortunately, the manufacturers of the pond liners only warranty this material against factory defects. A few years down the road and a few water features under their belts, and the bad news starts trickling in from perplexed or downright irate customers, complaining of losing water from their ponds.

Published · 2,672 views

I’ve been growing vegetables in my little garden for over ten years, and one may wonder what is the benefit of waiting four whole months to get an eggplant when there is a whole stand of them at the grocery store all the time, even in the middle of winter. What happens is that every year, sometimes in the middle of February I get these packets of seeds. There is nothing going on outside, nothing but bleak cold dreary, and me, indoors, with a little packet of seeds in my hand.

Published · 521 views

A trip to the herb border in mid-summer is pure aromatherapy: the lemon verbena in the picture, for instance, smells so much like citrus it's used instead of lemons to flavor seafood dishes. During a sultry summer afte oon the herb garden is a symphony of scents: the lingering persistence of rosemary, the restorer of memories, the sharpness of mint, refreshing like a tall glass of water, the pungent smell of sage asserting itself from the middle of the border, the pious intensity of holy basil, inspiring wisdom and reverence, the clean scent of lavender.r

Published · 539 views

There must be a hive somewhere in the neighborhood, because bees visit my garden very often, to gather nectar from their favorite flowers. Sedums produce an abundance of it, and their small flowers make an insect's work a little easier. Did you know that a worker bee lives just forty days over the summer and during all this time of collecting nectar it only manages to gather a twelfth of a teaspoon's worth of honey? I feel guilty now, just thinking of all the times honey dripped off the bread.

Published · 522 views

No matter how passionate you are about gardening, there comes a moment when you just want to plant your flower bed and forget it, at least forget about having to tend to it constantly; rest assured there are many plants, both annual and perennials, that would take care of themselves without a lot of fuss. I resisted them, of course, out of a mistaken sense of pride: once you breached the domain of sedums, daylilies, coneflowers and Russian sage, you have become basically unnecessary. Of course I can’t grow the last plant on the list to save my life, but that’s beside the point.

Published · 497 views

Established gardens have a secret gardeners don't learn until they've spent many seasons watching them and caring for them: the group planting graciously indulges one or two species to rule the garden for a season, and those rights change every year, allowing all the plants the opportunity to shine. Perennial borders are collective entities, in which the plants thrive together, as opposed to individually, and they look different from one year to the next because you are looking at different blooming species.

Published · 427 views

Finding good companion planting is even more important when the plants are stuck together in a container. I watched the denizens of assorted pots fight for dominance many a time and more often than not one species brazenly asserts its rights over the sun, water and nutrients and ends up owning the planter by the end of the summer. If you don’t want to end up with a monoculture, here are a few compatible flower combinations.

Published · 540 views

If you only have one rose in your garden, it should be a Damask. Another notable descendant of the old cabbage rose, the Damask is the complete package: exquisite fragrance, spectacular flowers, perpetual bloom, well-behaved growth habit and disease resistance. Whenever fragrance is described as a pure rose scent, it refers to the smell of the damasks, which is sultry and saturated and has hints of garden pinks and cloves. Theirs is the variety used to make the coveted attar of roses.

Published · 469 views · Rated 5/5 from 1 votes

Gardening by the moon is a bit of a contentious subject among farmers and gardeners; some swear by it and find it very useful in their practice while others dismiss it as total hooey. I haven’t tried it yet, so I’m only talking about it in the abstract. The basic tenet behind the practice is that the moon’s gravitational pull helps draw sap upwards during the waxing phase and allows it to pool below ground during the waning phase.

Published · 529 views

When you grow up around gardening activities you're sure to internalize a few old wives tales. Some of them are backed up by science, but most are just taken on faith and passed along from one generation to the next without any reason or explanation. Here are a few. If you want a plant cutting to root successfully and thrive, especially if it is a rose, you have to steal it. If a fruit tree has been barren for a few years in a row, bring an ax early in spring and threaten to cut it down. It will see the error of its ways and bear abundantly come harvest time.

Published · 404 views

Geotropism is an incredibly sophisticated method through which a plant manages to use the same process to make its stems grow up and its roots reach down. If a plant is growing horizontally, instead of vertically, a plant hormone called auxin, which serves to inhibit cellular growth, sinks to the underside of the roots and stems in response to the gravity pull.

Published · 502 views

I felt kind of guilty to see that the grass had gone to seed on my lawn, but then I saw it ripen in a lot of other places and relaxed, it seems the combination of warmth and plentiful rain gave it the oomph to grow wild this year. Because we're used to seeing it in its domesticated form - the ubiquitous neatly manicured green carpet - we tend to forget what grass really looks like when left to its own devices. Its largest specimen, the bamboo, can grow over a hundred feet tall.

Published · 523 views

Tomato plants are tough, their germination rate is spectacular and they will survive anywhere, but getting them to produce requires the right conditions and a little work. First, they need cultivated soil, slightly acidic, that contains a fair amount of organic fertilizer and they have to be watered generously, sometimes twice a day if the weather is hot, especially if they grow in containers. Try to water them at the base to discourage black spot. If they don't get full sun they won't produce at all. I know. I tried.

Published · 470 views

Legend has it that the Knights of Malta where so impressed with this plant, whose four petaled bright red flowers reminded them of their crest, that they brought it home when they returned from the crusades; it has been a cottage garden staple ever since. The plant has many names, some of which sound aristocratic, Jerusalem Cross, Maltese cross, burning love, dusky salmon, flower of Bristol, scarlet lighting, fireball, meadow campion, nonesuch, and if you're partial to red flowers, they don't get any redder than that.

Published · 537 views

Long before the dawn of chemistry herbs held the honor of providing people with a readily available pharmacological treasure, foraged and cataloged by natural healers. Herbs may not be able to cure severe illness, not in their natural form, anyway, but they have the answer to the smaller things that ail you, the occasional headache or stomach upset, the minor scrape, the sleepless night, the anxious mood. When you start researching medicinal plants, you find out most of them are analgesic and antiseptic.r

Published · 393 views

All fruits are suitable for preserves, especially if they come in vibrant colors, but some, like apples, quinces, pears, plums and grapes, are naturally high in pectin and will gel beautifully without additives. Jellies must be firm and transparent like colored glass, in brilliant jewel tones, with no cloudiness or leftover bits of fruit. Quince jelly, a delicacy of the northern countries (quince trees don't thrive in warm climates), is the gold standard for this sugary confection.

Published · 501 views

1. There are well over 130 mechanical water levelers available today, and none of them can be guaranteed not to stick in the closed position. The most common of these are the cheap plastic ball valve usually found in toilet tanks, which are notorious for warping and jamming. There is a more modern version that can have as many as 15 various moving parts that can malfunction, resulting in a continuous flow. Even the more costly brass valves cannot stand up to acidic or corrosive water and over time will corrode and stick.

Published · 911 views

If they could afford it, most people would love a vacation in the Hawaiian Islands or the Caribbean. Those who have been fortunate enough to do so wished they could stay. More homeowners are now spending money on home improvement that they may have saved towards expensive vacations or purchasing a second vacation home. The high cost of living and plummeting property values have made investing in their primary residence much more attractive and economical. This means that they plan to stay in their home for some years to come and make improvements to the inside as well as the outside.r

Published · 1,060 views

When I first started growing vegetables, I worried the veggie plot would look too utilitarian, with its lined up rows and its pedestrian supports. Imagine my surprise when I woke up one morning to a tapestry of egg yolk colored trumpets, larger than my hand, which gleamed in the morning sunlight like a sea of smiles. I don’t like squash that much, but I wouldn’t miss out on its blossoms. So, who are the beauties of the vegetable garden?

Published · 471 views

If you ever drove by a flower meadow in the middle of summer, you must have realized that plants handle themselves very well without human assistance, as they’ve always done. The gardener is only there to cheer them along. A plant needs three things to thrive: sunlight, water and a proper balance of nutrients. From here on the details of what that means for each species vary wildly.

Published · 602 views

The air has been steadily humid for a month now, cool and humid, it reminds me of foggy mornings in the mountains or tropical places in winter, it’s almost too cool for August, not that I’m complaining, mind you. Every now and then I catch a break between raindrops and get out into the garden to breathe in the wet air that coats the lungs like a balm. Add in the green fragrance of flowers and foliage and you got yourself instant aromatherapy.

Published · 514 views

There are many traditions, myths and folk tales associated with the summer solstice, many of which involve the herbs and plants that bloom around this time and whose medicinal and aromatic properties are said to be enhanced when gathered on the eve or morning of the solstice.

Published · 649 views

There are many traditions, myths and folk tales associated with the summer solstice, many of which involve the herbs and plants that bloom around this time and whose medicinal and aromatic properties are said to be enhanced when gathered on the eve or morning of the solstice.

Published · 503 views

There is a time around the middle of July when the garden looks absolutely resplendent. It feels like every flower is in bloom, competing for attention. The late spring blooms haven’t faded yet and the some of the late summer ones decide to show up early, so there is a surreal mix of seasons that coexist in harmony before my very eyes: delphiniums, lilies, salvias, roses, daisies, bee balms, cone flowers, catmints, lavender, yarrow, spider flowers, black eyed Susans, day lilies, hostas, coral bells, and last, but not least, giant clumps of fragrant garden phlox.

Published · 531 views

One of the myths of gardening is that once you planted a perennial border it is set in stone and it will come back, year after year, exactly the same. That is not true at all, I look through pictures of my garden through the last few seasons and it is almost unrecognizable from one year to the next. Just because a plant is labeled perennial it doesn’t mean it will be there forever. Some, like delphiniums and columbines, only live four or five years, even in ideal conditions, while others, like hostas, garden phlox, hellebores and cone flowers will be with you for decades.

Published · 509 views

With temperatures stubbornly stuck in the eighties and nineties I would have missed the beginning of fall this year but for the garden following its own internal clock: warmth or no warmth, once we passed the fall equinox, everything in the flower and vegetable border went into liquidation mode. The autumn faithfuls, the stonecrops, are putting up a good show with their gradual color change from chartreuse to dark brown but everything else got the message that it’s time to retire for the season and shut down production.

Published · 444 views

The stonecrops are ghostly pale this fall and I'm not used to seeing them like that, normally they turn up rosy hues as soon as the middle of August; it must be the rain, they didn't have enough sunshine to start ripening. Despite the wet weather the fall bloomers are right on time - the prolific plumbago, the delicate morning glory, the tall grasses, the plush panaches of goldenrod.

Published · 471 views

Bath salts. The base of a bath salt is an equal mix of sea salt and baking soda. To this one adds other ingredients as one wishes: dried and powdered herbs, powdered resins, powdered milk, clays and muds, food coloring for effects, and of course essential oils. Go easy on peppermint and cinnamon, they irritate the skin, and citrus oils, which can induce a phototoxic reaction. Store in a pretty jar and replenish as needed. Creams.

Published · 852 views

If you love root division, you’ll be happy to know that it works for bulbs too, via scaling, slicing, scooping and scoring. Scaling is a propagation method that seems almost custom designed for lilies, whose bulbs “bloom” naturally, turning them into tiny clusters that look like artichokes. Scaling lily bulbs is the easiest propagation method available, you just dig them up, tease the scales gently apart and replant them in the desired location.

Published · 522 views

Snow arrived, as promised, and blanketed a rather drab decor with a fresh coat of white. I’m bundled indoors, cozy next to the fireplace and a thick pile of flower catalogs: the summer bulbs are here. What’s featured in the glossy pages? Gladioli, every breed of lily in existence and tuberoses, but the best pictures are of dahlias, the giant kind, which grows the size of a child’s head, in every color imaginable. Their colorful tapestry looks unreal compared to the view out the window, white on white, with white accents.

Published · 512 views

Shade gardening grew on me, literally. I don’t know how fast trees grow, but it’s fast enough and those lovely giants of the vegetal world can cover a lot of territory, both above ground and below. That’s how I ended up with every flavor of shade known to horticulture. In this situation, if you care about flowers at all you become an expert in shade loving perennials really fast. Shade is tricky, you have to charm it.

Published · 554 views

If you want a real cottage garden, don’t tame it, it is supposed to be wild, messy and overgrown, sort of jumbled together without too much focus on height hierarchy and perfect color schemes. Many of its traditional plants are tall, broad and thick and spill over railings, fences, trellises and retaining walls with reckless abandon. Hollyhocks, giant delphiniums, bell flowers, lupines and snakeroot can and frequently do grow taller than six feet.

Published · 472 views

If you want a real cottage garden, don’t tame it, it is supposed to be wild, messy and overgrown, sort of jumbled together without too much focus on height hierarchy and perfect color schemes. Many of its traditional plants are tall, broad and thick and spill over railings, fences, trellises and retaining walls with reckless abandon. Hollyhocks, giant delphiniums, bell flowers, lupines and snakeroot can and frequently do grow taller than six feet.

Published · 497 views

Climbers and ramblers are nature's gift to the land-locked gardener. I don't think there is anything cozier and more delightful than a little corner filled with greenery and flowers tucked away from the world, sheltered between walls covered in rose bunches or hiding behind an old arbor trailed by fragrant vines. There is a hint of enticing wilde ess in this landscape brimming with color and scent, which takes you by surprise and enchants you.

Published · 476 views

The winter arrived, somewhat tentative but for good. Yesterday it snowed with the large and fluffy kind of flakes which form when the air is still warm. At least the garden is ready: the flower beds are mostly cleared of leaves, the bulbs are in the ground, the trellisses and the pots are cleaned and stored. Believe it or not, if the spirit moves you to spend time in the garden despite the cold, you might still find some stuff to do. Winterize Empty and store water hoses, mulch the perennials to give them some extra warmth during winter.

Published · 480 views

Finding good companion planting is even more important when the plants are stuck together in a container. I watched the denizens of assorted pots fight for dominance many a time and more often than not one species brazenly asserts its rights over the sun, water and nutrients and ends up owning the planter by the end of the summer. If you don’t want to end up with a monoculture, here are a few compatible flower combinations.

Published · 448 views

Coniferous and citrus scents are refreshing, restoring and revitalizing. Their smell shakes the doldrums of drab days and brings a little sunshine to your outlook on life. Coniferous scents like pine, cypress and especially balsam fir, are healing and restorative, both for physical ailments, like chest colds and congestion and for emotional ones, like exhaustion, anxiety and feeling worn out. The smell of pine reminds people of the holidays and it is an instant pick me up.

Published · 684 views

Finding good companion planting is even more important when the plants are stuck together in a container. I watched the denizens of assorted pots fight for dominance many a time and more often than not one species brazenly asserts its rights over the sun, water and nutrients and ends up owning the planter by the end of the summer. If you don’t want to end up with a monoculture, here are a few compatible flower combinations.

Published · 466 views

Container gardening sneaks up on you. You start with one potted plant and pretty soon the entire patio or balcony is covered in them, looking almost indistinguishable from the adjacent flower bed. If you have lots of plants in pots, keep them grouped. That way the containers get some protection from drying out and they are easier to water if they are all in one spot.

Published · 577 views

I’ve only seen daffodil gardens in public parks and plant conservatories, gardeners usually grow these lovely spring bulbs in mixed borders, where their fading foliage can be concealed by the fresh growth of the summer perennials after they are done blooming.

Published · 493 views

It’s not summer until the day lilies bloom and they usually do so before the fourth of July in anticipation of the joyous celebration. For a few weeks the whole garden turns blazing orange and after the flowers fade, their foliage slowly dies down to the ground to make room to the late summer bloomers. Not all day lilies bloom all summer, for instance these, a triploid variety called “Kwanso”, do not.

Published · 602 views

Now and then I get a renewed enthusiasm for making my own beauty products and the kitchen turns into a magical apothecary where decadently sweet smelling lotions and potions steam and brew. Sometimes I think making the creams, oils and perfumes is more enjoyable than using them. Not! For a few hours I become the wizard of sparkle and glamor, stirring pots of melted cocoa, shea butter or coconut oil, assessing the concentration of herbal decoctions and taking in the wholesome scent of liquid beeswax. Home-made products smell heavenly even before you add fragrance.

Published · 777 views

Aromatics come in two flavors: kitchen herbs and medicinals. A few herbs cross over from one category to the other, rosemary and lavender would be good examples of that, although using lavender for cooking is a bit of an acquired taste. Almost everybody has grown kitchen herbs on a sunny kitchen sill or in a pot on the patio at some point: parsley and dill, oregano and marjoram,tarragon and chives, basil and sage.r

Published · 609 views

Most herbaceous perennials can be propagated by division: dig up the clump, tease it apart into several sections, making sure they all get a reasonable share of the roots, and replant them. Some root systems are really hard and gnarly, but plants are resilient; you can use a fork or a shovel to pry them apart if you need to, they won't mind. Plant the divisions immediately to avoid transplant stress and water them generously. This helps the plants settle into their new locations and ensures there are no air pockets around their roots.

Published · 453 views

The area I’m really looking forward to this year is the herb garden. I must have just the perfect soil for herbs, because they’re thriving, every one I planted doubled in size. The herb patch concept started as a wheel, but the space allocated has the wrong shape, so it follows the wild and unruly personality of my garden instead and has no definite contours. It sometimes spills into the lawn, but more often than not grass grows into it, to my great chagrin. I’m fastidious about keeping it free of intruders, nobody wants crabgrass in the turkey stuffing.

Published · 500 views

I woke up this morning to a wispy snow flurry, the thin and icy kind that comes about when temperatures drop too low. Eighteen degrees, to be precise. It settled, unsure, in a thin, powdery layer that still lets the ground show through. I almost hesitated to disturb the pristine cover when I went out into the back yard to put seed in the bird feeder. It doesn’t feel cold, though, I don’t know why, just eerily quiet and still, like it is in winter sometimes, as if the thin layer of snow absorbed all the sounds.

Published · 538 views

By the time sedum starts to bloom autumn is not too far behind, and since every year I have the same problem, which is that the fall landscape turns into a sea of mums in every color known to man, I made a list of other perennials to get a little variety during the cooler months. Between the obedient plant, the goldenrod, the Japanese anemones and the asters there should be plenty of flowers for the fall garden. Monkshood has spectacular purple-blue flowers and blooms in the fall, but it is very toxic, so be careful.

Published · 539 views

I don’t think the goal of traveling is to see places and learn things, often you get better images and information from photography catalogs and travel guides. The goal of traveling is to get immersed in the spirit of a place. The longer you stay in Greece, the more it becomes clear to you why this mountainous peninsula swept by winds witnessed the birth of modern civilization. There is a sense which permeates everything that the people of this culture are afraid of nothing, curious about everything and always eager to try something new.

Published · 486 views

I don’t think the goal of traveling is to see places and learn things, often you get better images and information from photography catalogs and travel guides. The goal of traveling is to get immersed in the spirit of a place. The longer you stay in Greece, the more it becomes clear to you why this mountainous peninsula swept by winds witnessed the birth of modern civilization. There is a sense which permeates everything that the people of this culture are afraid of nothing, curious about everything and always eager to try something new.

Published · 399 views

How does one use freezing rain in a sentence without spoiling everyone's mood? I heard it, early in the morning, while it was still dark outside, the sound you can't mistake for anything else other than maybe sandblasting. Ice pellets. Nice! With that the last of the annuals abandoned the fight. The perennials are still trying to put a good face on the end of the season, even as they are, buried in dead foliage, but alas, the fall garden is a mess no matter how you're trying to look at it.

Published · 534 views

The most common harmonies in the garden are derived straight from art color theory: monochrome, complementary, triadic, and analogous. The monochrome scheme is pretty straight forward. Same color, same hue. Everywhere.

Published · 572 views

The one good thing about a cold spring is that the tree bloom lasts long enough to enjoy. The cherries, the dogwoods and the early magnolias covered the whole landscape in pink and white veils for over two weeks, it's very poetic.

Published · 498 views

When you grow up around gardening activities you're sure to internalize a few old wives tales. Some of them are backed up by science, but most are just taken on faith and passed along from one generation to the next without any reason or explanation. Here are a few. If you want a plant cutting to root successfully and thrive, especially if it is a rose, you have to steal it.r

Published · 507 views

After a streak of sunny days, mother nature decided to bring the gloom, and I never pass the opportunity gloom provides to indulge in relaxation and pampering, isn’t this what rainy days were created for? The flower buds are on the brink of opening, but it looks like they decided to wait for the sunshine before doing that. Back to the pampering, what better plant to chose to represent all things indulgent for skin care than the geranium? Well, maybe not this specific variety.

Published · 568 views

Successful winter garden design relies on color and structure. Winter gardens are minimalist, they need good bones to make up for the missing greenery. Strong trees with well defined shapes and interesting bark, artful topiary, even tall pampas grasses or colorful seed heads can provide that structure. What nature doesn’t offer, garden design can. This is a time for its hard features to shine - beautiful flagstone pathways, statuary, stone benches, decorative planters, even an empty arbor gain prominence and impart sober elegance on an otherwise barren landscape.

Published · 520 views

I felt kind of guilty to see that the grass had gone to seed on my lawn, but then I saw it ripen in a lot of other places and relaxed, it seems the combination of warmth and plentiful rain gave it the oomph to grow wild this year. Because we're used to seeing it in its domesticated form - the ubiquitous neatly manicured green carpet - we tend to forget what grass really looks like when left to its own devices. Its largest specimen, the bamboo, can grow over a hundred feet tall.

Published · 666 views · Rated 5/5 from 1 votes

Have you ever had this sinking feeling, when you want to try a plant you’ve never grown before, and you look at the beautiful photos on the seed packet, that there is absolutely no way this botanical wonder will ever grow in your garden? I’m not one to dismiss instinct, it is usually based on a lot of fast logical reasoning and processing of already stored information that goes on in the back of your brain while you’re minding your daily routine, but that doesn’t mean it’s always right. Fortunately for me, it wasn’t this time, because they did sprout, and root, and grow big and strong.

Published · 546 views

You will not believe the level of chaos nature can impose on a reasonably well tended garden in three weeks. It took the plants that long to look scary and me one week to salvage the back yard from the wilde ess. Five foot tall weeds, cracked nutshells, broken branches, vines grown out of control, covering pathways, grabbing onto everything in sight and smothering their defenseless neighbors. And this is the extent of my whining. Seriously, it was offensive.

Published · 648 views · Rated 5/5 from 1 votes

They are tiny, understated and barely a few inches above the ground, but don’t mistake their simple demeanor for meekness, they will take charge of a full area if left to their own devices: crawlers, ramblers and ground covers have the most aggressive spreading habits of the whole plant world. Everybody who has grown bugle weed, lily turf, creeping Jenny or periwinkles knows what I’m talking about.r

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Hellebores are woodland plants, perfect to grow under the canopy of deciduous trees. They prefer alkaline soils - keep them away from pine trees - are adapted to the colder climate zones and are the first flowers in the garden, blooming as early as January during mild winters. They keep their flowers for an amazing four months.

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If you want to create drama in your garden, by all means, pick all white flowers. People don’t usually crave intensity in a cottage garden, which is a care free collection of gregarious annuals and perennials suited to comfort the spirit rather than stir it up. Most of the cottage garden staples do come in white however, and you certainly can get the look if you find it appealing. Here is a list of perennials that will carry the white flower theme through all the seasons.r

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First chlorophyll breaks down and gets reabsorbed, allowing the other pigments to lend their colors to the foliage and turn it copper, red, yellow and orange. The tree sends a chemical called abscisic acid to the terminal buds, which shut down the flow of sap to the leaves, signaling them to break off the branches. After the leaves have fallen, the tree enters dormancy, a period during which it ceases growth, slows down its metabolism and lives off the energy stored in its roots as starch.

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There is something I'm looking forward to this spring: I can't wait to find out if the two roses I started from cuttings last fall took root. It's almost time to start caring for roses, now that the threat of killing freezes is over and before they come out of their dormancy. If you are starting them bare root, they need to be planted sometimes mid-March, depending on your location. For the existing ones wait until forsythia blooms and prune them as follows.

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In the world of plants the word hybrid immediately brings forth a specific image: greenhouses filled with long tables covered in little potted plants, perfectly tended to by a diligent team of professional growers and fed a perfect blend of nutrients to optimize their development.

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Every year when I enjoy the abundant bloom and fragrance of my Miss Kim lilac I count myself lucky for my tendency to procrastinate. I put off pulling what looked like a dead shrub for an entire summer and fall, only to be surprised with blooming branches the following spring. Lilacs are great plants for cold climates and alkaline soils, but they don’t like shade or having their feet wet. A lilac bush flowers on old wood, so if you must prune it, keep in mind that you may lose bloom for up to three years.

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There is something about this flower that fascinates me, I don't know why. I don't seem to be able to grow the classic four petaled variety that inspired the plant's name either, just the five petal one.

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Every spring I plan on planting more annuals and every summer I fall short of the desired effect. At least this year I have an excuse: after clearing up the shrubbery from a large portion of the front yard, the design of a new perennial border became a priority. There seems to be a quiet understanding among the plants that every year a precious few will get to shine while the others considerately fade into the background. It's not something you learn from gardening books, the garden teaches the gardener a thing or two over the years.

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Every spring I plan on planting more annuals and every summer I fall short of the desired effect. At least this year I have an excuse: after clearing up the shrubbery from a large portion of the front yard, the design of a new perennial border became a priority. There seems to be a quiet understanding among the plants that every year a precious few will get to shine while the others considerately fade into the background. It's not something you learn from gardening books, the garden teaches the gardener a thing or two over the years.

Published · 651 views · Rated 5/5 from 1 votes

Everyone is familiar with this weird characteristic of mushrooms: they spring out of the ground ove ight, fully grown, whenever they get a good rain and enough warmth to trigger their development. You go to sleep with a lawn and wake up to a mushroom hatchery.

Published · 485 views

Everyone is familiar with this weird characteristic of mushrooms: they spring out of the ground ove ight, fully grown, whenever they get a good rain and enough warmth to trigger their development. You go to sleep with a lawn and wake up to a mushroom hatchery.

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My beautiful is preparing for winter and there's not much I can do about it so I'm starting next year's planning early. There are never enough annuals or spring bulbs, so those are definitely on the list, especially for the new garde I started early this summer and which, with loving care, I hope will mature into a carpet of bloom.

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As we left the shore and I looked back at the beautiful, surreal landscape of Horseshoe Bay, it felt like all the worries and the cares of the world were also left behind to fade into the distance. The vast, placid waters worked their magic on me too, as they did on so many travelers throughout the centuries. The Pacific draws you in with the irresistible pull of its enormous mass, and makes you feel small and irreplaceable at the same time; its essence breathes peace into your very soul.

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As we left the shore and I looked back at the beautiful, surreal landscape of Horseshoe Bay, it felt like all the worries and the cares of the world were also left behind to fade into the distance. The vast, placid waters worked their magic on me too, as they did on so many travelers throughout the centuries. The Pacific draws you in with the irresistible pull of its enormous mass, and makes you feel small and irreplaceable at the same time; its essence breathes peace into your very soul.

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I couldn’t imagine my garden without the toad lilies, whose blossoms are as close to approximating a tropical orchids as any cold weather plant is ever going to get. Don’t get deceived by their fragile look, they are hardy to zones four through nine and just like their cousins, the spring bulbs, require minimal care. Their flowers show up very late, often after the garden is already covered in a thick layer of fallen leaves.

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I couldn’t imagine my garden without the toad lilies, whose blossoms are as close to approximating a tropical orchids as any cold weather plant is ever going to get. Don’t get deceived by their fragile look, they are hardy to zones four through nine and just like their cousins, the spring bulbs, require minimal care. Their flowers show up very late, often after the garden is already covered in a thick layer of fallen leaves.

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I was walking through the garden trying to assess what is left to do before winter descends upon us for good and I ran into a lovely surprise. My miniature rose decided to brave two killing frosts and a freezing rain and bloom in the middle of November. Contrary to popular belief roses are very resilient plants. The only thing they really can't live without is sunshine, everything else they'll take in stride.

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The old garden roses are a proud tradition among rosarians, because they have a long history. These are the roses cultivated before the creation of the first modern hybrids - the gallicas, the damasks, the albas and the centifolias and the mosses. They have been immortalized in the classic botanical prints of Pierre-Joseph Redouté. The most famous gallica, the Apothecary rose, had become the symbol of the guild, especially in France, where it has graced the signs of apothecary shops since medieval times.

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The familiar jumble of the cottage garden has evolved from a strange mix of prairie and woodland natives. I say strange because dame’s rocket and cone flowers require very different conditions and yet they happily coexist in the sunny border like they were meant to grow together. Their care free blooms fit into the second tier of the sunny border since they are usually three to four foot in height, tall enough to raise their heads above the wild grasses or catch the precious sunshine dappled through rare tree foliage.

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One of the myths of gardening is that once you planted a perennial border it is set in stone and it will come back, year after year, exactly the same. That is not true at all, I look through pictures of my garden through the last few seasons and it is almost unrecognizable from one year to the next. Just because a plant is labeled perennial it doesn’t mean it will be there forever. Some, like delphiniums and columbines, will only live four or five years, even in ideal conditions, while others, like hostas, garden phlox, hellebores and cone flowers will be with you for decades.

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Two autumns ago I started a lot of perennials from divisions: irises, daisies, garden phlox, daylilies, and this is the year for them to start blooming. Of course, this fall I forgot to move the beautiful Pink Sorbet peony, which means it’s going to spend another spring trying to dig itself out from under the rugosa rose, and let me tell you, that’s not an easy feat.

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Some annuals are such reliable self-seeders they can pretty much hold their own with their perennial counterparts. They are usually wild meadow flowers, a little rugged but relentless in the propagation of their species.

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The planters get a little tired and overgrown by the end of the summer, when the ideal combination of colors, heights and textures or their original design gives in to the whims of nature. There is beauty in that disarray, the beauty of the natural hierarchy that establishes itself outside of human intervention. The plant in the picture is a Canadian variety of tuberous begonia called “Illumination”. It put up a spectacular performance last summer but was a little shy this year, like all the other shade lovers. A few things about container care.

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The planters get a little tired and overgrown by the end of the summer, when the ideal combination of colors, heights and textures or their original design gives in to the whims of nature. There is beauty in that disarray, the beauty of the natural hierarchy that establishes itself outside of human intervention. The plant in the picture is a Canadian variety of tuberous begonia called “Illumination”. It put up a spectacular performance last summer but was a little shy this year, like all the other shade lovers. A few things about container care.

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Most vegetables are annual, which makes the gardener’s work to prepare their beds significantly easier. There are no roots to disturb, no bulbs to accidentally dig up.

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Ok, I didn’t actually plant fleabane, but so what! It’s here, it’s blooming and it blends beautifully with the orange daylilies.

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You would think that hostas, like the shade plants with broad foliage that they are, would love nothing more than a rainy summer, right? Partially. They developed luxurious foliage, and yes, the large fragrant ones did bloom, but not as abundantly as they usually do. You are looking at a picture of very early variety here, I guess that’s the one that likes the rain.

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Once the rose enchants you you become a life time devotee. In all fai ess who can deny this blossom anything, I mean anything, really? For what other flower would you suffer through the scratches and the winter protection and the constant fending off of beetles and blackspot and the capricious blooming schedule, if any? I would like to take this opportunity to remind fellow gardeners that tree roses have to be buried and dug up every fall and spring. There are two types of roses: the easy ones and the difficult ones.

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One of the perks of keeping a garden is stumbling upon little joyful moments when time stands still and life flows softly through, peaceful and unhurried. Time slows down so we have enough of it to notice how bright the sunlight looks, reflected in the gold and orange leaves of the maple trees, how the long clouds cross each other in the periwinkle sky, how contours lose their sharpness and how a bronze hue underlies the colors; subtle changes, slow changes, not tethered to our speed at all.

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Somebody who is fated to live a linear life can’t easily grasp the cycles of nature; I’m envious, almost, of the way the garden gets to reshuffle the deck at the end of each year and start fresh in spring, one level up from where it was before. Sometimes this cycle skips like a record with a scratched groove and the plants go back a month or two, to the gardener’s delight. I don’t know what enticed yarrow into its second flush of bloom, but I’m going to enjoy it, even though it looks a little strange in the company of stonecrops and ripe pampas grasses.

Published · 594 views

Somebody who is fated to live a linear life can’t easily grasp the cycles of nature; I’m envious, almost, of the way the garden gets to reshuffle the deck at the end of each year and start fresh in spring, one level up from where it was before. Sometimes this cycle skips like a record with a scratched groove and the plants go back a month or two, to the gardener’s delight. I don’t know what enticed yarrow into its second flush of bloom, but I’m going to enjoy it, even though it looks a little strange in the company of stonecrops and ripe pampas grasses.

Published · 447 views

There is nothing like a gentle facial to cleanse the skin and make it glow and there are plenty of ingredients in the kitchen cupboards for a nourishing face mask. Let’s go over a few classics. Honey - it works by itself as a gentle exfoliator or it can be mixed with other ingredients like quick oats, cream or lemon juice for a moisturizing or astringent treatment, depending on your skin type. Strong chamomile or lavender decocts are classics for facial steam treatments and getting rid of blackheads.

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If you were wondering what happens to your perennials during their winter hibe ation, here goes. At the approach of winter they transform the sugars developed through photosynthesis into starch, which they can store inside their roots long term and use during the winter in the same way hibe ating animals use stored fat.r

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I know this is a task for October and not February, but since the weather turned sour and put the excitement for gardening activities on hold again, I thought I’d put together a list of interesting daffodil varieties to consider next fall. Flower Drift is a double daffodil with pure white petals and a bright coral center, intensely fragrant. My Story is a light pink variety with an ruffled salmon pink middle. Fragrant. Apricot Whirl has a split corona which makes it look more like a day lily than a daffodil, including the pure pink color.

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Both of the rose cuttings I started last fall have rooted, judging by the new growth, but I’m not taking the jars off of them until the weather turns really warm. The roses are usually the first to get attention in my garden, before the spring cleaning or tending to the grass, so let’s talk a little about spring rose care.

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It doesn't really look like spring in the garden until the spring cleaning is done. I rushed through it for a few hours between rains, so I didn't have a chance to pay close attention to the perennials that were already out. The sprucing up attracted a few visitors from the wilde ess - a robin who kept me company for the duration of the cleaning and a couple of bunny rabbits who frolicked through the grass, encouraged by the warm temperatures.r

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The last week of March usually brings warm, almost summer like weather, perfect for the long-awaited spring cleaning. It felt strange this year to find a reliable pattern in the middle of emptiness and uncertainty. I put the favorable weather to good use and finished the garden cleaning hours before the weather turned on me again. The plants had grown significantly unde eath the blanket of winter debris but I'm afraid that I will have to stick with the seasoned perennials this year, at least that's how things look right now.

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Here’s to this year’s crop! I decided to try Independence Day tomatoes, and learned that it has a much lower germination rate than other varieties. Let’s hope they make up for it with taste. The seedlings look sturdy and enthusiastic, and have grown large enough that I don’t have to worry about them anymore. I haven’t fully planned this summer’s vegetable garden yet, but it will be pretty much the same as it is every year: tomatoes, peppers, sweet and hot, eggplants, squashes, beans, and cucumbers, together with an assortment of kitchen herbs.

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Summer is knocking on the door a month early and it brought with it sweltering temperatures more suitable for the middle of July; it arrived so suddenly it gets difficult for us poor humans to adjust. Everything tripled in size in a matter of days, desperately springing into bloom as if not to miss the narrow window of spring that’s closing way ahead of time. The late spring bloomers have to share the stage with the first summer flowers and they eagerly compete for territory while displaying a noisy mix of colors and textures that seems to be put together haphazardly.

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Even though the three basic sun exposures are full sun, part sun and shade, the latter comes in so many variations, all with their own little quirks, that it deserves a full chapter all to itself.

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I’m sitting on the balcony staring at my purple cherry pie plant, which looks happy as a clam basking in the sunshine in the company of butter yellow petunias. I don’t know why I haven’t tried heliotrope before, it’s an old fashioned cottage garden favorite and mine is a cottage garden. Some people describe its fragrance as a combination of cherry pie, hence the name, and vanilla, others say it smells more like grape soda; in my opinion it’s closer to licorice.

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I have become very fond of vintage cottage garden flowers in the last few years, a sentiment which stemmed from the realization that my idea of a cottage garden is significantly different from my grandmother’s. Sure they share some staple plants, without which neither a modern nor a vintage cottage garden would be complete - roses, daisies, delphiniums, hollyhocks, but the list of similarities only goes so far. Eager to experience the gardens of old I did some research and found some gems, which are lovely and fit in the perennial border like they’ve always been there:

Published · 532 views

Every summer I plan to thin the violets and every summer I change my mind at the last minute, and this picture is the reason why. How can I pull these delicate flowers that cover the earth in spring in every shade of blue between aqua and indigo?

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Aromatics come in two flavors: kitchen herbs and medicinals. A few herbs cross over from one category to the other, rosemary and lavender would be good examples of that, although using lavender for cooking is a bit of an acquired taste. Almost everybody has grown kitchen herbs on a sunny kitchen sill or in a pot on the patio at some point: parsley and dill, oregano and marjoram,tarragon and chives, basil and sage.

Published · 451 views

Aromatics come in two flavors: kitchen herbs and medicinals. A few herbs cross over from one category to the other, rosemary and lavender would be good examples of that, although using lavender for cooking is a bit of an acquired taste. Almost everybody has grown kitchen herbs on a sunny kitchen sill or in a pot on the patio at some point: parsley and dill, oregano and marjoram,tarragon and chives, basil and sage.

Published · 497 views

The plants got the message that winter is over. Every year this message comes in secret, in subtle ways that only plants seem to understand, but they all get it simultaneously and come back to life with a speed and enthusiasm that always humbles me, even after so many years of gardening. This moment sometimes coincides with the spring equinox, but oftentimes it doesn't, and you are left scratching your head in disbelief and going back and forth between the calendar date and the trees that refuse to acknowledge it.r

Published · 443 views

The fountain at the center of the garden was a staple of medieval landscape design. Its simple yet powerful symbolism was derived from necessity, but speaks to that part of the soul that envisions water as healing and life giving. Nowhere is a tiny fountain more at home than at the center of a medicinal herb wheel.

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A rose garden at the height of summer is a breathtaking sight. At this time the June roses haven't faded yet and all the repeat bloomers start their flowering season.r

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The winter garden is a haven for the little creatures of the land; it provides them with shelter, food and cozy nooks to hibe ate. The gardener can lend a hand, goodness knows the wildlife can use all the help it can get during the coldest days of the year. Add bird feeders to your backyard and you'll be greatly rewarded by the flock of colorful birds that gather near them on snowy days: finches, cardinals, chickadees, blue jays, titmice and sparrows. Hang up a few suet cakes too, your backyard visitors need the fat calories to keep warm.

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If you have established perennials, they are a readily available source of new plants for your garden.

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Everything looked radiant in the glow of the golden hour, before the sunset dimmed it to violet and blue. This surreal light quality created halos around everything, lighting up the late daffodil blossoms from inside like so many tiny lante s. I stayed outside for as long as I could and took many pictures, I didn’t want to miss this little slice of heaven that opened fleetingly before my eyes. Every day there is a chance for the golden hour, but the actual occurrence of one is quite rare, especially so early in the year.

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Some plants find their way into your heart just because they look so cheerful and innocent. Who doesn't love daisies? They are the embodiment of simple and wholesome, like milk, child giggles or sunshine. The fact that they are easy going and thrive with a minimum of care doesn't hurt either.

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What makes a beautiful perennial garden? There is no recipe or guarantee, but I can list a few things I noticed over the years that all thriving gardens have in common. Work with the land you have

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There is something very sweet and nostalgic about this plant, with which I got acquainted in literary works before we met in real life.

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If you ever watched a time lapse footage of a plant you can’t see the botanical world the same again. Nobody questions the fact that plants are living entities, but since their lives unfold at a speed so much slower than our own, one gets it intellectually, but rarely at gut level.

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Tinctures preserve the active compounds of plants indefinitely, or at least long enough for one to feel that way. A good tincture should last for twenty years if stored in a cool dry place away from the sunlight. Tincture bottles are amber or dark blue on purpose, to keep out ultraviolet light and preserve the quality of the product.

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I always plant tulips. I’ve had beautiful ruffled pink ones, and fringed parrot ones, standard, double, lily flowering, you name it, I’ve tried them. I rarely see any in my garden. They don’t like the soil or the light levels, or something, or maybe they get eaten over the winter, who knows? Fact is I don’t normally see tulips in spring. There are two exceptions to this rule: a beautiful West Point variety, bright yellow, with splendid lily flowering tulips on long, slender stems, and now this.

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There is a whole list of plants I feel like I know well because I encountered them in literary works, but most of which I haven't actually seen until recently: hyssop, heliotrope, verbena, wallflower, camellia, primrose, jasmine, heather, wolfsbane. The list is actually much longer, but I'll stop here. After years of gardening curiosity got the better of me and I started searching for these plants so that I could plant them in my back yard if the climate allows. That's how valerian ended up gracing the herb border.

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Some plants don’t benefit from being started indoors. There are a few reasons for this: their tender foliage has a hard time adjusting to the change of environment, their roots dislike being disturbed or their growth schedule is so accelerated that they outgrow their starting containers too soon. Here are the classics. Cucumbers, melons and squashes. Not only they have to be planted directly outside, but the nets have to be in place and ready for their fast growing foliage and heavy fruit. They like being planted in nests, four or five seeds at the time, not alone.

Published · 417 views

Some plants don’t benefit from being started indoors. There are a few reasons for this: their tender foliage has a hard time adjusting to the change of environment, their roots dislike being disturbed or their growth schedule is so accelerated that they outgrow their starting containers too soon. Here are the classics. Cucumbers, melons and squashes. Not only they have to be planted directly outside, but the nets have to be in place and ready for their fast growing foliage and heavy fruit. They like being planted in nests, four or five seeds at the time, not alone.

Published · 475 views

I have become very fond of vintage cottage garden flowers in the last few years, a sentiment which stemmed from the realization that my idea of a cottage garden is significantly different from my grandmother’s. Sure they share some staple plants, without which neither a modern nor a vintage cottage garden would be complete - roses, daisies, delphiniums, hollyhocks, but the list of similarities only goes so far. Eager to experience the gardens of old I did some research and found some gems, which are lovely and fit in the perennial border like they’ve always been there:

Published · 556 views

I read last year's entry entry for this week and got reminded of how remarkably consistent the weather and garden patterns are: the first snow, the January cold streak, the first bloom. They follow nature's implicit schedule almost to the day. It just dawned on me that I could read up a few weeks in advance and have a fair idea what the weather is going to be like.

Published · 449 views

The wild roses, the species and the rugosas, are what comes to mind when you think rose hips. Their fruits are large, in bright hues of red and bright orange, and their thorny shrubs provide them in abundance. The best known species variety is the dog rose, an ancestor of the old garden roses, still used today as understock for grafting modern varieties because of its vigor and disease resistance. Another, more poetic variety is the Eglantine, with pink flowers and apple scented foliage.

Published · 484 views

The winter arrived, somewhat tentative but for good. Yesterday it snowed with the large and fluffy kind of flakes which form when the air is still warm. At least the garden is ready: the flower beds are mostly cleared of leaves, the bulbs are in the ground, the trellisses and the pots are cleaned and stored. Believe it or not, if the spirit moves you to spend time in the garden despite the cold, you might still find some stuff to do. Winterize Empty and store water hoses, mulch the perennials to give them some extra warmth during winter.

Published · 508 views

Usually the feast of St. John brings the coldest day of the year, but this time arctic weather was delayed for two weeks. I cozy up indoors with a hot cup of herbal tea and dreamy gardening books as the thermometer indicates 8 degrees Fahrenheit outside. No matter how enthusiastic one is about gardening there are limits to the possible and approaching 0F definitely rules out any outdoor activity. Everything is frozen solid, the dirt is harder than rock, I pity the birds and squirrels.

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The temperatures heated up, the tomatoes started performing. Tomato plants don’t mind hot weather and will keep their composure even when more heat sensitive vegetables wilt pitifully, but they will not set fruit if the temperatures are above 85 to 90 degrees during the day or 75 at night. Considering the climate we live in, that’s most of the summer. It also explains why the extra leafy vines suddenly decide to become fruitful mid-September, when their fruit doesn’t really have enough time left to ripen.r

Published · 687 views

I could never resist a hyacinth. I always plant some in the fall, of course, and am sure the squirrels and rabbits really appreciate my efforts, so every year I end up replenishing the fall bulb supply with full grown winter plants, which spend a few weeks of pampered bloom indoors and are then planted in the back yard as soon as the weather allows. A few considerations about growing bulbs, and hyacinths in particular.

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The temperatures heated up, the tomatoes started performing. Tomato plants don’t mind hot weather and will keep their composure even when more heat sensitive vegetables wilt pitifully, but they will not set fruit if the temperatures are above 85 to 90 degrees during the day or 75 at night. Considering the climate we live in, that’s most of the summer. It also explains why the extra leafy vines suddenly decide to become fruitful mid-September, when their fruit doesn’t really have enough time left to ripen.

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So, since I brought it up, a little more information about soil pH. The alkaline soil is quite easy to recognize, it’s usually clay, heavy, and out in the open, away from any large trees and shrubs, whose annual leaf drop helps acidify the soil. It tends to dry out on the surface, but deep down it keeps moisture better than other soil types, and plants who had time to develop a good root system thrive in it. It is usually found in the open plains and arid areas.r

Published · 655 views

There is a time around the middle of July when the garden looks absolutely resplendent. It feels like every flower is in bloom, competing for attention. The late spring blooms haven’t faded yet and the some of the late summer ones decide to show up early, so there is a surreal mix of seasons that coexist in harmony before my very eyes: delphiniums, lilies, salvias, roses, daisies, bee balms, cone flowers, catmints, lavender, yarrow, spider flowers, black eyed Susans, day lilies, hostas, coral bells, and last, but not least, giant clumps of fragrant garden phlox.

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Usually around this time of year I start to panic, look around and wonder where everything went? Where are the flowers, where is the order, how am I ever going to dig myself out of the mountain of debris that becomes the fall garden. This is when I find it useful to revisit pictures from seasons past and wax nostalgic over the dewy roses and the cheerful daffodils and the overabundance of violets. I hold on to the flowers of spring.

Published · 538 views

It seems fitting, now at the end of the year, to make a list of plants that bring luck, you know, just in case. Let’s start with the classics: lavender and roses. No garden should be without them - lavender for luck, roses for love. Honesty and sage attract prosperity to the household. It is said that if sage grows well in your garden, you’ll never lack for anything. Honesty specifically pertains to the increase of money, because of its round seed pods that look like coins.

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There is not much going on in the garden after mother nature rained and stormed and puffed the flower beds away. I spent the most part of yesterday cleaning up broken branches as thick as my arm that were strewn about the lawn, blocking access to my favorite spot in the back yard and crushing the vegetable garden. A scene worthy of the end of days, which is now, mercifully gone.

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The shade border rests at the end of summer, when it gets too warm and too dry for its taste. Since last summer was cool and rainy, the plants maintained the exuberant growth of early spring. The hostas were lush and full, the begonias were in full bloom and the toad lilies doubled in size. What to grow in the shade? Flowers. White, if you would, they stand out in low light.

Published · 605 views

The shade border rests at the end of summer, when it gets too warm and too dry for its taste. Since this summer was cool and rainy, the plants maintained the exuberant growth of early spring. The hostas are lush and full, the begonias are in full bloom and the toad lilies have doubled in size. What to grow in the shade? Flowers. White, if you would, they stand out in low light.

Published · 563 views

There must be a hive somewhere in the neighborhood, because bees visit my garden very often, to gather nectar from their favorite flowers. Sedums produce an abundance of it, and their small flowers make an insect's work a little easier. Did you know that a worker bee lives just forty days over the summer and during all this time of collecting nectar it only manages to gather a twelfth of a teaspoon's worth of honey? I feel guilty now, just thinking of all the times honey dripped off the bread.r

Published · 631 views

Have you ever had this sinking feeling, when you want to try a plant you’ve never grown before and you look at the beautiful photos on the seed packet, that there is absolutely no way this botanical wonder will ever grow in your garden? I’m not one to dismiss instinct, it is usually based on a lot of fast logical reasoning and processing of already stored information that goes on in the back of your brain while you’re minding your daily routine, but that doesn’t mean it’s always right. Fortunately for me, it wasn’t this time, because they did sprout, and root, and grow big and strong.

Published · 590 views

Have you ever had this sinking feeling, when you want to try a plant you’ve never grown before, and you look at the beautiful photos on the seed packet, that there is absolutely no way this botanical wonder will ever grow in your garden? I’m not one to dismiss instinct, it is usually based on a lot of fast logical reasoning and processing of already stored information that goes on in the back of your brain while you’re minding your daily routine, but that doesn’t mean it’s always right. Fortunately for me, it wasn’t this time, because they did sprout, and root, and grow big and strong.

Published · 661 views

Black Cohosh has everything a shade gardener can dream of. It grows six to eight feet tall and produces these almost surreal wands of rosy white fuzzy flowers that smell like honey and bloom abundantly against the background of its strikingly dark foliage in full shade from mid-summer to the end of fall. If this is the miracle flower of them all, how come I didn’t plant it sooner? I tried and failed twice, I’m thinking third time’s a charm. It didn’t grow from seed and didn’t survive the winter as a small plant.

Published · 562 views

This is an edible plant, widely used around the Mediterranean Basin to flavor omelets, pasta and risotto. Its young greens make a tasty addition to meals when stewed in a little olive oil, just like chards and spinach. It can be eaten uncooked, but the raw leaves taste bitter because they contain small and harmless amounts of saponins. In Cyprus it has become so popular that in recent years people took to purposefully cultivating and selling bunches of it with the other edible greens.

Published · 720 views

If you love root division you’ll be happy to know that it works for bulbs too, via scaling, slicing, scooping and scoring. Scaling is a propagation method that seems almost custom designed for lilies, whose bulbs “bloom” naturally, turning them into tiny clusters that look like artichokes. Scaling lily bulbs is the easiest propagation method available, you just dig them up, tease the scales gently apart and replant them in the desired location.

Published · 577 views

If you would like to try your hand at serious bulb propagation, a method often used by professional growers, especially for hyacinths, is called scooping, and it is known to produce up to thirty bulblets from a single bulb. Clean and dry a large and healthy hyacinth bulb and scoop out the basal plate, together with the shoot and flower bud at the center. If possible, apply fungicide to discourage the development of mold. Stick the cored bulb upside down, buried about half way in coarse wet sand and keep the container in a warm, dark location, making sure the sand stays moist.

Published · 776 views

Toad lilies are the last flowers of the year, at least in the garden. They start blooming mid-October, to keep company to the already brown seed heads of the sedums, and they stay in bloom until November, braving the first frosts. People tend to associate bulbs with spring, and ignore their potential in the garden during summer and fall. I really miss the Casablanca lilies, I don’t even know if they reached the end of their natural life cycle or succumbed to the unforgiving winter, but they all vanished one year, for no apparent reason.

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Guess which were the first flowers to bloom this year? Spring finally made up its mind, not before one last fluffy snow. Despite this desperate attempt, winter lost its power and the wet blanket swiftly melted to provide the plants with welcome moisture.r

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When you plant bulbs, whether that happens in fall or spring, don’t forget to mix in a good measure of bone meal into the dirt, to help them set in and give them some food for the first year. Other than that, bulbs don’t need a lot of care. Because they are usually sprinkled among other perennials, they benefit from the regular feedings and waterings that happen throughout the summer. Don’t cut off their unsightly yellowing leaves after their bloom is spent, they still need them to feed the roots for the following season.

Published · 613 views

Plants that grow in pots on the window sill like pretty much the same things as the ones cultivated in the garden: a good amount of natural light, sufficient water and a little bit of help in the form of fertilizer every now and then. That being said, indoor plants have their own set of needs that have to be addressed in order to keep them healthy and, fingers crossed, blooming, and they are as follows.

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Since plant foliage usually doesn't come in this hue, even for the namesake plant itself, and this is the first time lavender came out of winter looking alive, I didn't know if it was old growth I should prune or evergreen growth I should leave alone, so I looked up lavender care online. There are conflicting opinions about the correct way to prune a lavender shrub, some say you should prune it after it blooms, to keep the plant bushy and compact, others that it is slow to put out new growth and trimming leafless branches sets it back and doesn't allow it to thrive.

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If you have a sunny slope that is difficult to mow, in a location with well drained, sandy soil, try a chamomile lawn. The delightful apple scent is a reward in itself, and using chamomile as a groundcover offers some advantages, like low mowing, feeding and watering needs, but the plant is definitely not low maintenance.r

Published · 727 views

Where I grew up, roses belonged in the pantry. Between the rose preserves, the rose syrups, and the rose water in pastry dough, the aristocratic flowers doubled up as bona fide cooking ingredients.

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Crop rotation requires a lot more space than is usually available in a backyard, but I can discuss it in concept. It is a natural gardening method that allows the soil to maintain its balance, so it doesn’t get depleted over time due to the repeated cultivation of a crop that makes heavy use of a specific nutrient. Growing crops this way also maintains the general hygiene of the growing medium by controlling weeds, keeping the soil light and airy and discouraging pests and diseases.

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I woke up this morning to a wispy snow flurry, the thin and icy kind that comes about when temperatures drop too low. Eighteen degrees, to be precise. It settled, unsure, in a thin, powdery layer that still lets the ground show through. I almost hesitated to disturb the pristine cover when I went out into the back yard to put seed in the bird feeder. It doesn’t feel cold, though, I don’t know why, just eerily quiet and still, like it is in winter sometimes, as if the thin layer of snow absorbed all the sounds.

Published · 617 views

What an exciting find! I’ve heard about this phenomenon, but it is the first time I got to see it in person. It’s called a fairy circle, or ring, and there is a very simple scientific explanation for why it occurs. The spores of a mushroom extend radially around it and even though the center eventually dies, the offspring propagates, forming a circle, or an arch. That is not to say that the sight of a fairy ring is for the faint of heart, especially since, like most fungi, they have the tendency to pop out of the ground over night after the rain, fully grown and with no warning.

Published · 664 views

If only a little late in the season, here are a few things for the fall gardener’s schedule. I haven’t even started most of mine yet, sadly. Mid-fall is the best time to move, divide or plant spring and summer blooming perennials. Fall perennials can be moved and divided at this time too, if you really feel like you must, but as a rule, this is an activity best left for spring.

Published · 605 views

The best way to describe the September garden is a charming mess. The summer plants don’t know whether it makes sense for them to keep going, and when they do bloom they do so in bursts and spurts that have a jarring effect on the fall landscape, which is of a completely different breed.

Published · 567 views

If you thought February is when the gardener has nothing to do but wait for spring, that would not be correct: February is planting time.

Published · 636 views

As if the garden was aware of the colors that flatter it most, it chose white for its shade blooms, a color that creates drama when set against the darkness of its shadows. Many gardeners, weary of more unsuccessful attempts that they can palate, usually resign themselves to a shade garden without blooms, happy to see at least something alive cover that patch of dried up dirt they couldn’t prevail over.

Published · 679 views

This is so exciting! I have heard so many stories and legends about this flower, but I never actually saw it before. This is Galium Verum, Lady’s Bedstraw, the flower of St. John, a plant so deeply associated with the summer solstice that some even believe it only blooms on the Eve of St. John’s Feast. That part is obviously not true.r

Published · 1,281 views

Because they are so old, irises have become quite heavy with symbolism and legend, so much so that I almost got drowned in the downpour of information that carried me from the gods and goddesses of Antiquity to the budding medicine of the Middle Ages, to the royal house of France, and then back to perfumers and ancient chemists, bouncing about betwee Christianity and magic. Several hours later I abandoned the search that almost gave me a headache.r

Published · 718 views

Garden phlox makes a big impact in the garden, it grows over five foot tall and its clumps get larger as it becomes established. Even one or two of them can brighten up a garden, especially when nothing else is in bloom. This feature is particularly valuable towards the end of summer, when the other perennials tend to fade. Garden phlox starts blooming in early June and will stay in bloom until the first frost. Remember to remove the spent flowers to entice it into producing new ones.

Published · 560 views

I had to give the sage a serious hair cut so that the struggling rose could emerge from under it. When plants thrive, they thrive. I’ve had this clump of sage for two years, and it expanded through all the seasons, including winter, only it knows why! I really don’t know what to do with sage, really, but that is a question for later in the season, when I’ll start harvesting it, for now I’m just looking forward to its bloom, which is about to start any moment now. The scent sage exudes as it dries is surprisingly pleasant, considering the pungent smell of its fresh leaves.

Published · 757 views

The difference between planting and landscape design comes from paying attention to seemingly unimportant details and one of them is texture. Its impact is even greater in the shade, where very few plants bloom. A well balanced shade border will have all of the following: Broad leaved plants, both deciduous and evergreen. If the leaves are variegated and have different indentations, that is even better. A few good examples are hostas, elephant ears, hellebores, rhubarb and chards. Succulents.

Published · 573 views

The difference between planting and landscape design comes from paying attention to seemingly unimportant details and one of them is texture. Its impact is even greater in the shade, where very few plants bloom. A well balanced shade border will have all of the following: Broad leaved plants, both deciduous and evergreen. If the leaves are variegated and have different indentations, that is even better. A few good examples are hostas, elephant ears, hellebores, rhubarb and chards. Succulents.

Published · 596 views

It turns out flower gardening meets the criteria in the definition of art: it is a human activity dedicated to the creation of a physical item principally meant to be appreciated for its beauty and emotional impact.r

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Although I am an enthusiastic advocate of natural gardening, I wasn’t much of a fan of composting until I procrastinated one fall and left a sizable pile of leaves and stems out on a concrete slab, thinking that I would clean it up in spring. When spring arrived, to my surprise, everything but the very top layer had turned to humus. It even smelled like woodland soil and was crawling with earthworms. It is one thing to know things in theory, and another to see them happen under your very eyes.

Published · 662 views

The peonies would have bloomed by now, the buds have been ready to burst for more than a week, but it is so unseasonably cold, weird May weather! Temperatures in the fifties, I almost have to question the wisdom of moving the basil outside, it looks miserable. Peonies are the object lesson for why gardeners benefit from being patient. You don’t get this cascade of blooms from a plant that doesn’t ask anything of you until you put a few years into it. Three, to be specific.r

Published · 723 views

Cleome is a prolific self seeder. I gathered close to half a pound of seeds off of it last summer, and it still managed to populate the flower bed for the following year. It is beautiful, even though its flowers are a lot more subdued this year. Here’s the drawback: the original plants were hybrids. Most of the plant seeds that come in packets from growers are hybrids, and even though the plants they produce may be incredibly eager to propagate, their offspring will not come true from seed.

Published · 562 views

I know gardening wisdom says that most herbs thrive in poor soils, category that always includes clay for some reason, but in my experience that is not true. Many ‘poor soil’ herbs can’t be bothered to last a whole season in clay, not to mention come back the following year. For instance, throughout a whole decade of gardening I haven’t managed to keep thyme alive long enough to witness the end of summer. Chamomile lasts even less. I’ll make a list of plants that thrive in clay with very little effort, sometimes to the point of becoming invasive.r

Published · 640 views

I love watching bees swarm the stonecrops on nice sunny afte oons. If a garden is thriving, the bees will come to visit, but if you want to entice them further, here are a few pointers. Avoid using insecticides, pesticides or harsh fertilizers. Bees like tiny flowers that make it easier for them to collect pollen and nectar, so plant as many of the following as possible to attract them: sedums, catmints, beebalm, lemon balm, goldenrod, lavender, butterfly bush, mint, basil, thyme, rosemary and verbena. If you can, provide a source of fresh water.

Published · 553 views

The day lilies came with the house and they were already established when we moved in, so I didn’t pay much attention to their care. It showed. I used to take day lilies for granted because they are so ubiquitous in public and commercial outdoor spaces people see them as care free.

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INGREDIENTS: (1) bowl of strawberries, (2) pounds of sugar, (3) cups of water, juice from one lemon. Soak the strawberries in ice water for an hour. Change the water a couple of times so that it stays ice cold. Strain them and drain them on a towel. After they are dry, place them in a heavy non-stick pan in alte ating layers with sugar and end with a thick layer of sugar on top. Squeeze the juice from half a lemon on top. Cover the pan with a cheese cloth and let stand over night in a cool place for 10 to 12 hours.

Published · 762 views

I know that Jack in the Pulpit is not the only living thing that changes genders in order to adapt to its circumstances, but I still think it is a cool enough fact to mention. The plant starts out male and if in time it finds its location accommodating and its nutrient supply adequate, it becomes female and produces fruit, beautiful red berries that pepper the forest floor throughout the summer. If over its lifetime it stumbles upon a lean year it will turn male again until conditions improve.

Published · 658 views

The day lilies came with the house and they were already established when we moved in, so I didn’t pay much attention to their care. It showed. I used to take day lilies for granted because they are so ubiquitous in public and commercial outdoor spaces people see them as care free.

Published · 514 views

My Triumphator lilies bloom for only a few days at the height of summer, and I often miss their splendid flowers altogether, busy with other things, but some days the morning garden is blessed with a light that looks simply surreal. That being said, the most common lily varieties are almost as different among themselves as they are from the day lilies and Belladona lilies, and it is important to evaluate your expectations before planting a particular breed.

Published · 695 views

The amount of time I spend contemplating the fresh seedlings in the starting tray would probably irritate an action oriented person. I would likely have some difficulty explaining to that person the wonderment of seeing the first set of leaves emerge, or the excitement of watching the tiny shoots develop from delicate strands barely hanging on to life to healthy plants ready to withstand whatever circumstances bring.r

Published · 637 views

I plant scarlet runner beans for their flowers - all the beauty of sweet peas with none of the high maintenance. Of course they are not fragrant, but nothing in this life is perfect. If you plant them as a crop, and during favorable years they do produce, don’t pick them green, you are not doing yourself or the beans any favors. There are three types of beans, based on their use: snap, shell and dry.

Published · 608 views

If I knew how much I would enjoy purple beans, I would only have planted those to begin with. Besides being an attractive feature in the garden, they taste better and are not stringy at all, which is a blessing. Of course the purple color turns green in the pot, but that's beside the point.r

Published · 669 views

If I knew how much I would enjoy purple beans, I would only have planted those to begin with. Besides being an attractive feature in the garden, they taste better and are not stringy at all, which is a blessing. Of course the purple color turns green in the pot, but that's beside the point.

Published · 636 views

Today I was out in the garden before dawn and I watched the crescent moon fade slowly into daylight as carpets of clouds moved very fast across the sky. Slowly the birds and the moths started to emerge from their nightly hideouts, eager to catch an early meal before the morning rush.

Published · 622 views

If you were wondering what the color mauve looks like, exactly, it's the color of French mallows. We know that because this flower, mauve des bois, gave the color its name.

Published · 640 views

The first time I saw an herb garden in a public park I asked myself what was the point of it? The fact that it occupied a small nook in the middle of the rose garden, at a time when all the roses were in bloom, didn’t help its cause very much. I know better now. Of course, I selected the herbs for my own garden according to their flowering habits, unfair as it may seem; nobody grows herbs for their blooming prowess. The one good thing about herbs is that they pretty much take care of themselves. They weather drought, heat, freezes, they’re the ultimate “set it and forget it plant”.

Published · 572 views

And here I thought that crocuses didn’t like my garden! To be fair, I never tried the yellow ones before, but I also thought the lack of acidity in the soil didn’t agree with them. Apparently I was wrong. I’ll take the opportunity to clear up a few misconceptions about spring bulbs. Shade tolerance

Published · 593 views

I can’t get over how beautiful these flowers are, and am so happy and proud to have them in my garden. Their eerie hooded flowers, decorated with elegant stripes that make them look like custom wrapping paper are, indeed, the packaging, called the spathe. The inflorescence, which contains male and/or female flowers, is the spadix inside it.

Published · 641 views

I know, when you think cooking herb, lemon verbena is not the first plant that comes to mind. A lot of people, especially here, up north, where it is not winter hardy, may not be familiar with this wonderful plant, so I'll do the honors. It has the fragrance and taste of lemon zest, with just a hint of green herb, and it can be used in any recipe that asks for lemon flavor, from meat stews and salads to fish dishes, candy or sophisticated desserts.

Published · 658 views

I plant morning glory every year. Always in the same spot, always the same variety - Heavenly Blue. I forget about it after I plant it, it is slow to start in spring and its foliage gets lost in the jumble when the mid-summer growth takes over the flower beds. Come August, its growth accelerates enthusiastically, especially if summer rains have been plentiful, and it swallows up its supports, clambering eagerly to the highest point it can find, and only there it starts to bloom.

Published · 631 views

Everyone is familiar with this weird characteristic of mushrooms: they spring out of the ground ove ight, fully grown, whenever they get a good rain and enough warmth to trigger their development. You go to sleep with a lawn and wake up to a mushroom hatchery.r

Published · 683 views

Every year I’m looking forward to planting the miniature vegetable garden. I know this defies logic, given the amount of space I have available for it, but if I listened to logic I wouldn’t have ventured into gardening at all.

Published · 604 views · Rated 2/5 from 1 votes

A perennial garden is an aggregate entity, not a discrete collection of plants. There is a surprising amount of inter-dependency that needs to develop between the neighboring plants, an adjustment that takes years and happens mostly underground.

Published · 622 views

A perennial garden is an aggregate entity, not a discrete collection of plants. There is a surprising amount of interdependency that needs to develop between the neighboring plants, an adjustment that takes years and happens mostly underground.

Published · 564 views · Rated 5/5 from 1 votes

Growing a perennial garden presents one with the weird predicament of having to work around the clock without actually planting anything. In a perennial garden, everything revolves around maintenance. Here are a few challenges.

Published · 946 views

Usually by this time I’m already overtaken by cabin fever and dreaming of beautiful summer days, but this year, with the exception of a few days of brutal cold at the beginning of the month, it seems weather forgot winter exists. I hesitate to mention this because I don’t want to jinx it; for sure the second I write the words another freeze from a place that will remain unmentioned is going to be upon us, but so far the temperatures have been in the fifties and sixties, mostly accompanied by rain.

Published · 582 views

It seems fitting, on Saint Patrick's Day, to make a list of plants that bring luck, you know, just in case. Let’s start with the classics: lavender and roses. No garden should be without them - lavender for luck, roses for love. Honesty and sage attract prosperity to the household. It is said that if sage grows well in your garden, you’ll never lack for anything. Honesty specifically pertains to the increase of money, because of its round seed pods that look like coins.

Published · 613 views

I always have a few pots of herbs on the balcony, which get to bask in the sunshine all summer long. Contrary to my expectations, herbs are not the kind of care free plants that will forgive you if you forget to water them, not even the drought friendly rosemary.

Published · 642 views

Stem, root or leaf cuttings are the nursery standard for the propagation of perennials, especially those whose clumps grow woody with time. The benefit of this method is that the young plants are true clones of their parents.

Published · 600 views

My son had to stay home from school. Since the reason was a tummy ache he was required to rest for the day and not engage in his regular activities, all of which involve some kind of computerized device. After a long drawn discussion about being unfairly deprived of the activities he had been accustomed to guess what he rediscovered? It is fun to roast marshmallows in the fireplace and roasted marshmallows taste very yummy. And at the age of nine you can do it all by yourself because you are so grown up and responsible.

Published · 613 views

Whether rose pruning is best done in the fall or spring is a matter of preference. I usually leave it for spring, for some reaso I feel the plants will fare better over the winter if they keep the growth from the previous year. If you do choose to prune before winter, do so, keeping in mind that you’ll have to go back to them in spring and clean out any canes that had suffered winter damage.

Published · 649 views

Rose geranium essential oil has been a staple ingredient for perfumery and skin care for a very long time. Just like its regular counterpart, the rose oil, it is very useful for mature skin, because it moisturizes it and helps restore its elasticity. There are many benefits associated with the use of geranium oil, from reducing wrinkles to improving complexion color and texture, but its therapeutic properties go further than skin deep, quite literally, to revitalize muscle tone, improve hormonal balance and stimulate cell growth.

Published · 560 views

It is amazing what special status roses have in gardens! A gardener will move a tree, completely restructure a flower bed and change the location of a patio before they decide to touch an established rose. New homeowners who inherit roses plan their entire gardens in ways that feature and complement them.

Published · 663 views

At the most basic level there are three types of soil: sand, loam and clay. Most soils are a combination of the three, in various proportions. Every soil type has qualities and defects. Sandy soils drain very well, they are easily tilled and provide optimal conditions for the development of root vegetables. They are nutrient poor and dry up easily. A variation of this soil is silt, which is the worst of both worlds: it has the small particle size of clay and the looseness of sand, all the defects and none of the qualities. This soil is practically unworkable unless amended.

Published · 661 views

Like so many people, I too stared at the sun for a couple of hours, to watch it turn from a ball of fire into a thin crescent of light. We were not in the total eclipse zone and because of that, sunlight shone through the entire time. I could only see the moon’s shadow through special glasses, but the day did turn darker and colder in the process.

Published · 731 views

The bulbs I plant in the fall sometimes don’t make it through the winter, but the potted bulbs I get from the grocery store in January always do. I finally figured out that happens because bulbs with fully grown foliage usually get planted at the required depth.

Published · 681 views

The rain started right before midnight, with a soft, somewhat tentative thunder announcing it from afar, almost as if it was asking itself whether or not it had the right time. I listened to it for a while, reliving a memory. The sounds, the scents of rain, removed from sight, speak to the soul in the same way your favorite old sweater comforts you, without you even being aware of it, that sweater you can grab from the closet without looking.

Published · 646 views

I sometimes forget how much I love summer rain, even the subdued kind, like the one right now, the kind that lasts for days. The light shifts to green from bouncing off lush wet foliage under a murky sky. There is harmony in the dance of raindrops tapping on the roof, life itself feels softer, more fluid, like its very essence dissolves in the rain. I walked around the garden for a bit, just to watch it delight in the abundance of water pouring from the sky. If the plants were overgrown before, they sure doubled in size now. The squashes took over the walkway again.r

Published · 694 views

The middle of July brought its favorites - the lilies, the phlox, the daisies. I'm not sure whether cone flowers really are supposed to grow five foot tall. There is fierce competition in the sunny border for the land and the light. I can barely make my way through the bee balms and the cosmos, not even the weeds manage to keep up with the perennials' enthusiasm.

Published · 581 views

Even a few climate zones change the landscape completely. The gardener finds himself surrounded by a different world of flowers unknown and enduring greenery. Despite the temporary chill the flora of Alabama maintained its subtropical resilience, attuned to the fact that temperatures close to freezing are fleeting, but zone 9 is forever.

Published · 490 views

If you were wondering what happens to your perennials during their winter hibe ation, here goes. At the approach of winter they transform the sugars developed through photosynthesis into starch, which they can store inside their roots long term and use during the winter in the same way hibe ating animals use stored fat.

Published · 552 views

I'm always in awe of the energy that propels fall bloomers to spring forth flowers, often weeks or days before the first frost. There are so few of them, and understandably so. I'm not talking about the frost tender plants from warmer zones that act as annuals in cold climates, those whose winters were supposed to be mild but had to surrender their natural growing cycles to the whim of the hardhearted northern gardener.r

Published · 642 views

With not even half of the winter behind me I have no choice but to concentrate on the miniature garden on the window sill. Fortunately for me, the indoor plants are generous with their flowers. The African violets, the lovely ruffled cyclamens, the amaryllis, the dark begonia, even the Christmas cactus have started to bloom again.

Published · 478 views

If you have established perennials, they are a readily available source of new plants for your garden.

Published · 632 views

I was browsing through past years’ gardening articles and I got overtaken by this feeling of certainty and permanence. It is extraordinary how consistent nature’s cycles are, almost down to day for the first bloom, the last frost, the unavoidable late freeze. Keeping a gardening journal makes this pattern obvious and somewhat discomforting, this truth that all things green abide by a gigantic cosmic timepiece of uncanny precision.

Published · 573 views

Today I was out in the garden before dawn and I watched the crescent moon fade slowly into daylight as carpets of clouds moved very fast across the sky. Slowly the birds and the moths started to emerge from their nightly hideouts, eager to catch an early meal before the morning rush.

Published · 580 views

Rosemary is the memory herb. This is both a fact and a metaphor: the smell of rosemary improves retention and concentration, and its stems were traditionally offered as tokens of devotion, especially between lovers who were driven apart. I don’t know if it works for memory and concentration, but I became fond of its fragrance, which is both sharp and soothing. For some reason it reminds me of rain, a strange memory association for an herb that thrives in dry soil, on sun baked cliffs.

Published · 627 views

Ok, I know everybody is busy and strolling through your garden at night is not the first thing that comes to mind at the end of the day, but if the spirit moves you to create one, a moon garden can be just as lovely as a bright patch of colorful flowers in the sunlight. As is the case with shade gardens, white flowers perform best in the subdued light of the moon, which casts a silver glow over light colored blossoms and foliage. Even better, find white flowers that bloom at night, fragrant one, if possible, like nicotiana, tuberose, evening stock, primrose and moon flower.

Published · 460 views

I will continue with the love and romance theme, since it’s Valentine’s Day and all, a day when the meanings of cut flowers suddenly rise to prominence, fact made evident by the dire scarcity of red roses around this blessed date. On this day it is impossible to escape the knowledge that the flower of love represents, well, love and passion, but did you know that tree blossoms have symbolism associated with them too?

Published · 694 views

The peonies would have bloomed by now, the buds have been ready to burst for more than a week, but it is so unseasonably cold, weird May weather! Temperatures in the fifties, I almost have to question the wisdom of moving the basil outside, it looks miserable. Peonies are the object lesson for why gardeners benefit from being patient. You don’t get this cascade of blooms from a plant that doesn’t ask anything of you until you put a few years into it. Three, to be specific.

Published · 649 views

If only a little late in the season, here are a few things for the fall gardener’s schedule. I haven’t even started most of mine yet, sadly. Mid-fall is the best time to move, divide or plant spring and summer blooming perennials. Fall perennials can be moved and divided at this time too, if you really feel like you must, but as a rule, this is an activity best left for spring.

Published · 687 views

One of the best things about winter is that one doesn’t feel guilty about indulging in a little pampering. After all, the weather is god-awful, there isn’t a lot of activity in the garden, and dry winter skin gives one every justification for a well needed home spa session.

Published · 585 views

Herbs are not demanding plants, but some rules must be followed when growing them in order to ensure their success. There are two kinds of herbs: those that adapted to the wind swept, sunny and dry cliffs of the Mediterranean shores, like rosemary, basil, thyme, sage, lavender, calendula and savory, which thrive in full sun and dry, limey soils, and those that enjoy shade, like parsley, mint, lemon balm, chives, dill and tarragon, which like a consistently moist soil and not too much sun exposure.r

Published · 662 views

I always plant tulips. I’ve had beautiful ruffled pink ones, and fringed parrot ones, standard, double, lily flowering, you name it, I’ve tried them. I rarely see any in my garden. They don’t like the soil or the light levels, or something, or maybe they get eaten over the winter, who knows? Fact is I don’t normally see tulips in spring. There are two exceptions to this rule: a beautiful West Point variety, bright yellow, with splendid lily flowering tulips on long, slender stems, and a basic variety with short stems and egg shaped red flowers.

Published · 663 views

I worried when I added valerian to the herb wheel that it wasn't going to last very long in my garden. Cats are supposed to be so attracted to this plant they can't rest its scent and chew it into oblivion. Either we don't have enough free roaming cats in the neigborhood or its reputation of being irresistible is exaggerated: other than a slight wilt, due to the latest dry streak, it seems to be fine for now. It bloomed too, and its flower umbrellas are delightfully fragrant.r

Published · 687 views

The blooming violets are such a wonderful surprise, especially after last week’s arctic blast. They are very resilient plants, violets, a feature that delights at the beginning of spring and exasperates in the middle of summer, when they greedily take over the flower beds. They have a lot of competition this year from the much larger plants I added last fall, but they still should have plenty of space to shine, since they fill every nook and crevice when left to their own devices. To this end, they started early.r

Published · 549 views

I got the candy, and the pumpkins, and the scary ghoul costumes, we're all set for trick or treat. The garden path decorated itself in expectation of little guests. Well, technically I was too idle to clean up the fallen leaves, but I recently renewed my committed to a positive outlook on life and refuse to see it that way. I'm trying to ignore the hibe al light, or lack thereof, that puts a chill through the bones for no other reason than a rodent inspired instinct to settle into a cozy tree hollow and stockpile nuts. Ugh, winter.r

Published · 647 views

Every summer I plan to thin the violets and every summer I change my mind at the last minute, and this picture is the reason why. How can I pull these delicate flowers that cover the earth in spring in every shade of blue between aqua and indigo?r

Published · 562 views

If you ever drove by a flower meadow in the middle of summer, you must have realized that plants handle themselves very well without human assistance, as they’ve always done. The gardener is only there to cheer them along. A plant needs three things to thrive: sunlight, water and a proper balance of nutrients. From here on the details of what that means exactly for each species vary wildly.

Published · 526 views

I’ve been growing vegetables in my little garden for over ten years, and one may wonder what is the benefit of waiting four whole months to get an eggplant when there is a whole stand of them at the grocery store all the time, even in the middle of winter. What happens is that every year, sometimes in the middle of February I get these packets of seeds. There is nothing going on outside, nothing but bleak cold dreary, and me, indoors, with a little packet of seeds in my hand.

Published · 546 views

You would think that the white fleshy flowers that have a heavy, almost overbearing fragrance would be the easiest to extract perfume from, but it is the very opposite: lilies, gardenias, lily of the valley, tuberoses, honeysuckle, and jasmine are notoriously difficult to pin down scent wise, as their fragrances are almost universally altered by the extraction process. The old fashioned method of effleurage, which infuses deodorized animal fats with the scent of fresh picked flower petals, yields the best approximation of the actual fragrance.

Published · 543 views

Spring didn't come early this year, the daffodils and hyacinths are still struggling with the cold weather. This comes somewhat as a relief, last year's spring arrived unseasonably early and was followed by a damaging summer of drought.

Published · 725 views

I wasn’t sure if I should go out into the garden and attempt to take pictures, ‘cause what are you gonna find in this climate in the middle of winter, but then I remembered the hellebores. What glorious plants they are, evergreen and blooming in January as if weather is not one of their conce s! I had them in the back yard for a few years and still can’t adjust to the idea of winter bloom, especially since spring seems to make us wait longer and longer each year, or maybe it just feels like that to me, because I loathe the cold season.

Published · 562 views

Working with herbs is an art and small details in the practice of harvesting and preserving them makes the difference between success and failure. Harvesting: Always harvest herbs in the morning, right after the dew has dried up but before the heat makes the plants release their volatile oils. Harvest fresh young leaves free of blemishes from areas away from roads and traffic. If you grow herbs for their flowers, always pick the flowers before they fully open. Never harvest plants on rainy days. Storage:r

Published · 767 views

I once wondered through a park under a shady canopy of green leaves, heavy with flowers and sweet fruit and flocks of colorful singing birds seeking shelter in the glossy foliage. The park extended for an entire city block and its tree branches reached sixty feet up in the air. Twisted trunks dove deep into the ground for nutrients, interweaving their roots to claim territory and support each other from the caprices of wind and water.

Published · 752 views

People ask gardeners all the time why they waste so much time and effort on an activity that at any scale smaller than a farm yields so little benefit? Green thumbs may be blindsided by the question, shrug their shoulders and keep on with the activity they were engaged in, for how can one quantify that feeling of achievement, that inner knowing that one's own hands have helped, even if in a very small way, bring out life from the depths of the earth?

Published · 747 views

I didn't move the gorgeous Raspberry Sorbet peonies last fall and now they are spending another year trying to assert their needs in the midst of the rugosa rose thicket.

Published · 775 views

Here is next year's garden, well, at least part of it, anyway. The seeds will go into labeled little bags and wait for spring. The pepperco look-alikes are four o'clock seeds, the tiny grains spilling from capsules belong to nicotiana, the red fruit is a "Hansa" rose hip and the rest is a mixture of Chinese forget-me-nots and delphiniums. Last but not least, the bean pods are sweet peas.

Published · 659 views

I was walking through the plant nursery trying to decide what to add to the fall garden when a giant blue hyssop literally grabbed on to my sleeve. Its lavender flowers soaked the surroundings in a wildly intoxicating aroma of anise and licorice as I brushed against them, reminding me why hyssop is one of the primary ingredients for chartreuse. The scent of licorice complemented the afte oon sunlight, enticing butterflies and bees and adding spicy accents to the end of summer palette.

Published · 767 views

Imagine an open field of roses extending as far as the eyes can see, an eighty mile long garden. Hundreds of thousands of bushels of rose petals get picked, boiled and distilled, and re-distilled, and purified, until out of one thousand pounds of petals five ounces of precious attar of roses are extracted. A perfume so strong that it is too much for a person to bear undiluted. You can't extract the quintessence of a sunset but you can concentrate scent to its purest form. Every time you take the lid off the little bottle, an eighty mile long rose garden comes out.

Published · 770 views

I often mention that the garden has a will of its own and bends the intent of landscape design to seasonal whimsy. Last year it decided to take on a cool look in white and green right at the end of August when flower beds traditionally boast bright oranges, yellows and fiery reds.

Published · 847 views

Did you know that betony was thought to chase away vengeful ghosts, evil enchantments and bad dreams? I'm not acquainted with its alleged magical properties or even the real medicinal ones (apparently it was a prized healing herb in the ancient herbal medicine collection, supposed to provide relief for headaches and gastrointestinal upset), I just love its graceful purple flowers that float above a thick rosette of oblong leaves whose edges look like they have been decorated with a paper crafts crimper.

Published · 701 views

Ajuga reptans, bugleweed, is a fail proof groundcover for any sun exposure or soil type. I started with its Latin name because I always thought it sounded more patrician and better suited to this plants' sophistication. I love bugleweed, it is a versatile plant which helped me bring back to life several locations with dry shade where few other plants thrive. It tends to get invasive when it has full sun exposure and rich soil.r

Published · 634 views

Ajuga reptans, bugleweed, is a fail proof groundcover for any sun exposure or soil type. I started with its Latin name because I always thought it sounded more patrician and better suited to this plants' sophistication. I love bugleweed, it is a versatile plant which helped me bring back to life several locations with dry shade where few other plants thrive. It tends to get invasive in full sun exposure and rich soils.

Published · 720 views

Bulbs are to gardening what frozen puff pastry is to baking: a versatile ingredient that can be planned into the menu or used as a quick fix for large still undefined settings. You set a mass planting of layered bulbs in the fall and get a work free garden the next year. People usually associate them with spring and miss the wealth of summer and fall flowers they can yield. Here is a list of summer and fall bulbs that shouldn't be missing from any garden:rn- irises that brighten up the flower beds in June with clumps that grow bigger every year.r

Published · 704 views

When you plant bulbs, whether that happens in fall or spring, don’t forget to mix in a good measure of bone meal into the dirt, to help them set in and give them some food for the first year. Other than that, bulbs don’t need a lot of care. Because they are usually sprinkled among other perennials, they benefit from the regular feedings and waterings that happen throughout the summer. Don’t cut off their unsightly yellowing leaves after their bloom is spent, they still need them to feed the roots for the following season.r

Published · 610 views · Rated 4/5 from 1 votes

I got catmint for its pleasant scent, a blend of peppermint and pennyroyal, and its pale lavender flowers, a very refreshing sight on hot summer afte oons. It is one of the coveted perennials that bloom at the end of summer and it requires very little in terms of care.

Published · 748 views

Gardens have personalities, just like people. You can plant your garden, but it will decide what stays and what goes. Mine decided it likes blue flowers. Maybe it is the clay soil that gives the plants the alkaline mix they need, maybe it's the dappled shade that promotes the growth of woodland bulbs, I don't know, but my plants tend to shift to the blue-violet end of the spectrum. Spring is the bluest season of all, covered in violets, grape hyacinths, irises, blue eyed Mary, forget-me-nots, creeping veronicas and bugleweed.

Published · 697 views

I just finished creating a lovely shade garden which features a very welcome addition, "Stained Glass" hostas. These plants have everything the sun-starved gardener could hope for: beautiful and resilient foliage that weathers heat and drought, dramatic colors and large fragrant flowers worthy of flower shows. Almost everybody has a dry shady corner in their yard they would like to ignore, but gnaws slowly on their green thumb pride like a slug on a cabbage leaf. One resigns oneself to keeping it tidy, which turns out to be quite easy, since even weeds won't grow without sun and water.

Published · 739 views

It appears that the regular consumption of cocoa increases blood flow to the brain, thus helping it work faster and stalling neuron degeneration. Just in case we needed more reasons to reach for that chocolate bar. We don't normally think about it, but it takes a lot of effort for said sweet treat to reach the candy isle, chocolate making is a lengthy and complex process.

Published · 755 views

I must start with a confession: I'm not really fond of daylilies. They are ever present in generic plantings, in places that don't really belong to anybody but still need to look presentable. They owe this dubious reputation to the fact that once planted they really require no care. I grew up with daylilies because they were the go to plant for difficult shady spots in my grandfather's garden. Lately I began to realize they are really beautiful plants, they look spectacular in mass plantings and they are happy to fill areas where no other plants would thrive.

Published · 665 views

Between the forty five degree mornings and the eighty degree afte oons, I don't know if I'm coming of going anymore. So much so that I had to look at the calendar to remember it is almost time to plant spring bulbs. Or not. Good gardening practice advises to plant them after October 15, but if it's still warm they get confused and I don't want a garden full of tulips at the end of November. I guess I'll wait a little longer to plant them, I doubt the soil is going to freeze any time soon.r

Published · 633 views

When a cottage garden is well designed it makes you forget the planning that went into creating it and takes over by establishing new hierarchies, thriving on apparent randomness and developing a personality of its own. Roses are very good companions in this environment and blend in flawlessly to add a romantic touch to the eager spikes of veronicas, tall stalks of delphiniums and fresh energy of daisies.

Published · 701 views

The country garden relies on scent just as much as it does on color and texture. Gertrude Jekyll popularized this garden design, praising the care free style of cottage perennials.

Published · 640 views

Have you noticed how many beautiful ground covers fall into the creepy category: creeping phlox, creeping veronicas, creeping Jenny? These plants usually spread by runners, hence their name, and once adjusted to their location they will keep running indefinitely, growing more substantial with the passing of time. They are the ultimate tough spot savers, thriving in areas usually lost for hope, they are the unbroken, the untamed, the survivors. Let's talk about creepy crawlies.

Published · 720 views

On a list of gardening mistakes that expands as I advance in experience and wisdom I have to place my lack of knowledge about the behavior of the cyclamen plants. After I threw away perfectly good tubers more times tha I care to recount I found out that cyclamens only grow leaves in the fall, bloom in winter and then go dormant. The only reason this beautiful flower made it is because my daughter gave it to me as a gift and I went to great lengths to keep it "alive" which basically means I forced it out of its hibe ation during the spring and summer.

Published · 684 views

A shaded corner isn't usually the gardener's dream, but the challenge of creating abundance in an otherwise barren and uninspiring spot is impossible to resist. Fear not, eager green thumbs, for the effort you put forth into finding out what would grow in less than ideal conditions brings with it the prize of a relaxing nook for the sweltering summer days.r

Published · 654 views

The beginning of fall usually saddens me, but not this year, I don't know why, for some reason even the cold rain, the wispy fog and the chilly mornings feel soft, like an embrace. The garden doesn't look sad either, it doesn't don the scraggly, despair driven appearance that usually accompanies the end of summer, it rather looks mature, self reliant, a landscape that endures.

Published · 559 views

Let me share a few things about this plant, some learned, some experienced. The learned facts first. French mallow originated in Europe and is as almost as old as written history. Some varieties are used as edible leafy vegetables and feature in traditional dishes from around the shores of the Mediterranean. The French name of this plant, mauve de bois, was chosen by William Perkin (the inventor of the first synthetic dye) around the mid-nineteenth century to define the specific purple hue which is the only color these wild flowers come in.

Published · 1,105 views

I don't know how many people grew up with fruit compote as a staple of their diet. My grandparents made it throughout the summer to preserve fruit for the cold months. My grandmother's apricot compote was so good I still dream about it on occasion.

Published · 790 views

The new light shade flower beds are quickly coming to life with plants from all over the yard, a constant reminder that a perennial patch is the gift that keeps on giving. My garden of hellebores is actually happening.

Published · 746 views

After a few years of gardening I realized how much I take hostas for granted. They are ever present in the shade and will grow where no plant has grown before. Their relative worth of thriving in the shade tends to underscore their absolute value as ornamental plants, but hostas can hold their own with the rest of the perennials in terms of bloom quality, fragrance, foliage and easy maintenance.

Published · 753 views

I always thought of goldenrod as a dyer's plant and was surprised to learn that it has medicinal properties. Its Latin name, Solidago, literally means "to make whole", and puts goldenrod squarely in the wound healing category. It has other medicinal properties, too, mostly related to improving the kidney and circulatory functions. Apparently it is edible, but I wouldn't know about that and will refrain from testing this hypothesis on my long suffering stomach.r

Published · 612 views

Squashes must be the most imaginative outcome of vegetable production. They start out a modest, vaguely round fruit and end up a mannerist commentary on surface topology. Fruits elongate and bubble at the end like hot glass, expanding curvilinear folds and dimples painted every shade of green, yellow, gold, crimson and purple, alone or in harmony.

Published · 667 views

Every year the generous tomato plants bless us with an overabundance of fruit that doesn't have the chance to ripen before the first frost. Tomatoes take their sweet time to figure out how to bear more and more fruit and their best and most abundant yield goes so far into the fall they don't have time to finish it. For any of the tomatoes that started ripening even slightly, just keeping them on a countertop in your kitchen for a few days will turn them into salad fare. They may not be as tasty as the ones that ripen on a vine, but will still be juicy and delicious.

Published · 628 views

You don't know how spoiled you are as a gardener until you grow a hellebore. Up here in the northern states we are not used to seeing flowers in January, maybe some evergreen foliage under a somber sky. Most of the trees are gray and leafless and the usual sights of the garden are tired dried stems of decorative grasses left to over-winter for cold season interest. In the middle of this landscape the hellebores look like they are pasted from another picture, one with lush gardens basking in warm humid air that smells like humus and mushrooms.

Published · 735 views

You look at this modest spice and find it hard to believe than all through Antiquity and the Middle Ages it was more valuable than gold. Pepper was the first of the exotic spices to reach the Mediterranean Basin and the search for it opened up travelling routes that became legendary and fired people's imagination for almost a thousand years - the Silk road, the Incense route, the travel around the Cape of Good Hope.

Published · 812 views

Between the apple green of the unripe flowers and the velvety chocolate brown of the dried seed heads sedum touches every shade of from blush pink to burgundy. Somewhere mid-way it reaches this hue intensity and contributes a significant portion of the fall garden color. Like with many standard landscaping plants the excessive use of sedum in public spaces and the no-man's lands along freeways and between parking lots tends to undermine its great qualities, so I'm going to do it justice and reiterate them here.

Published · 696 views

Aah, the queen of fragrance, Polianthes tuberosa, a joy to gardeners and perfumers alike, probably the most fragrant flower ever. Its heady perfume is sultry and intense, a single flower stem can saturate a room with fragrance. Tuberosa is a hot climate bulb, and much like show chrysanthemums and long stem roses it is easier to get it as a cut flower than to enjoy it in your garden. Growing these in a pot on the balcony is an extra special indulgence for a northern gardener.

Published · 695 views

Harvesting the rain doesn’t stop at installing rain barrels, it involves the entire garden and its principal goal is to keep the water from running off the plot onto paved areas, only to eventually end up in the storm drains.r

Published · 576 views

Hepatica has been considered a medicinal plant in the past, but this is one of the cases where scientific reasoning needs to override lore: the plant belongs to the Ranunculaceae family, just like the buttercup, and contains the same toxic compounds, albeit in much smaller doses. Hepatica is poisonous in large quantities. It is occasionally used in homeopathy, but this is definitely not something safe to do at home.

Published · 762 views

As nature's shop closes, the home spice jars are finally put to good use. All the dried mint that hung in bunches in the kitchen all summer, the rose petals from June's bloom, the lavender kernels, the gentle chamomile, the dried aromatic herbs. It is time for scent in the diminished light, time to simmer clove oil on the stove, time to bake apples and dry fruit. The harvest of fall always requires vanilla, cinnamon and cloves.

Published · 1,508 views

Just in case you got bored adding hot peppers to chili and stew I found some delightful dessert recipes to brighten your palate. We're all familiar with hot pepper jelly but have you heard of strawberry jalapeno poppers? They are not as you'd expect, jalapeno peppers stuffed with strawberry jam, but hollowed strawberries filled with cream cheese and hot pepper paste. Check out this recipe if you like trying new things.

Published · 712 views

So, you have your heart set on creating a wildflower meadow and those packages of mixed seeds beckon you from the stands, irresistibly. You picture wild flowers and the thought of perpetual, zero maintenance beauty springs to mind. Wild flower meadows are not low maintenance, at least not for the first five or six years, while they are getting established. First of all, a wildflower meadow is not the same as a wildflower garden. Tall grass is an integral part of what makes it thrive as a whole and not something that can be easily accommodated on a small residential lot.

Published · 774 views

Harvesting the rain doesn’t stop at installing rain barrels, it involves the entire garden and its principal goal is to keep the water from running off the plot onto paved areas, only to eventually end up in the storm drains.r

Published · 668 views

Not sure what to do with your harvest? This is a traditional recipe from the Balkans that is usually made in large quantities to keep over the winter. The small batch below is for sampling, to test whether you would like to try it on a larger scale. It is served cold as a dip or as a sandwich spread. Ingredients:rn- 1 lb of tomatoes - 2 large eggplants - 4 bell peppers, the more colorful the better - 1 medium onion - 2 tablespoons of olive oil - 1 hot pepper - bay leaves, pepperco s, hot pepper flakes, salt and pepper

Published · 946 views

My lovely itinerant snapdragons! Anticipating their next location is one of my favorite gardening activities. I am not sure why this particular plant likes to change its location, but it does so with a fluid path of movement devoid of the randomness of tomatoes or nicotiana in its slow travel through the garden.

Published · 639 views

Isn't this beautiful? Few annuals are easier to grow than marigolds, a quality that makes them so ubiquitous one tends to overlook their genuine charm. All a marigold needs is sunshine, everything else it will do for itself. Of course, because I planted mine in the vegetable patch, they were blessed with an extra helping of fertilizer and water and that made them extra enthusiastic.

Published · 716 views

Sometimes you just need the right lighting to really appreciate colorful foliage, although this little purple beauty won't go unnoticed through the summer when it competes for interest with the daisies and the crane's bills. Another near miss in the battle with the mighty hellebores (I swear, they are bent on garden domination if left to their own devices), these exotic looking coral bells seem very happy in their new location in dappled shade.

Published · 726 views

Whether you grow lemon verbena as a medicinal or an aromatic plant, it gets plenty of uses, from flavoring fish and fruit salads, as a replacement or in addition to lemon zest, to pleasant calming brews. For those who love to exercise, it is particularly effective in reducing muscle and joint damage after strenuous physical activity without undoing any of its benefits. Lemon verbena is a powerful antioxidant, but be careful when you use it, because it may make you sleepy.

Published · 762 views

Talk about unbounded, here is to the endlessly growing morning glory, swirling around supports and draping over hardscape, deceptively strong with its springy vines weaving an intricately detailed and highly redundant veil the color of the sky. The braided loops that clamber trees shy away from the extremes of the weather, saving their huge trumpet shaped cerulean flowers for just the crisp bright morning.

Published · 659 views

People ask gardeners all the time why they waste so much time and effort on a pursuit that at any scale smaller than a farm yields so little benefit? Green thumbs may be blindsided by the question, shrug their shoulders and keep on with the activity they were engaged in, for how can one quantify that feeling of achievement, that inner knowing that one's own hands have helped, even if in a very small way, bring out life from the depths of the earth?

Published · 620 views

If I knew how much I would enjoy purple beans, I would only have planted those to begin with. Besides being an attractive feature in the garden, they taste better and are not stringy at all, which is a blessing. Of course the purple color turns green in the pot, but that's beside the point.

Published · 697 views

Speaking of wonders of the plant world, how amazing is it that a Pennsylvania Smartweed, a plant that only thrives in boggy sites, decided to pick the drought summer of them all to beautify my garden. Graceful and delicate, it keeps good company to the broad leaved nicotiana that undoubtedly protected its roots from the scorching heat.

Published · 648 views

Stinging nettles are quite amazing plants, full of qualities both medicinal and nutritional, but who cares when their blistering touch burns like judgment and brings you to tears?

Published · 647 views

I plant morning glory every year. Always in the same spot, always the same variety – Heavenly Blue. I forget about it after I plant it, it is slow to start in spring and its foliage gets lost in the jumble when the mid-summer growth takes over the flower beds. Come August, its growth accelerates enthusiastically, especially if summer rains have been plentiful, and it swallows up its supports, clambering eagerly to the highest point it can find, and only there it starts to bloom.

Published · 681 views

I plant morning glory every year. Always in the same spot, always the same variety - Heavenly Blue. I forget about it after I plant it, it is slow to start in spring and its foliage gets lost in the jumble when the mid-summer growth takes over the flower beds. Come August, its growth accelerates enthusiastically, especially if summer rains have been plentiful, and it swallows up its supports, clambering eagerly to the highest point it can find, and only there it starts to bloom.r

Published · 597 views

The quintessence of romantic imagery, the Bourbon rose! There is an unspoken consensus among rosarians that roses are the crowning glory of botanical creation. No other plant was capable of achieving this status and no one ever will, even though many classic perennials, such as peonies, clematis and chrysanthemums have their fair share of fans.

Published · 621 views

Speaking of purple plant pigments, the ones in opal basil are responsible for turning aromatic vinegar a beautiful shade of rose, I always look forward to preparing some during the summer. For all of us who enjoy this lovely herb it will come as a shock that the Greeks believed it to be driving men to madness. It is associated with the basilisk and folk tales say one needs to curse and rant when planting it, in order for it to grow, because it is an herb of hatred and anger, born of the scorpion's poison.

Published · 628 views

I honestly can't warm up to this plant; I appreciate its warm and golden chenille panaches at the beginning of fall but loathe its unbelievably depressing wet hay appearance in spring. It looks pretty for exactly three days, right before the velvety seed heads open, and then it turns into fluff in the wind and oddly sticks out of the snow, purportedly to provide winter interest in the garden for the next six months.

Published · 632 views

The most important characteristic of perennial flower beds is tough soil. Their residents, once established, don't take kindly to being disturbed, and as much as you try to dig around their roots, the dirt tends to get much harder than it would in an annual border. This is both a good thing, because many plants really thrive with more weight on their roots, and a bad thing, because heavy soil tends to drain poorly and make weeds harder to pull. If you are a plant propagation enthusiast, mulching is not an option because it can be very damaging to young seedlings.

Published · 655 views

I can't figure out the precise point when a fast spreading plant becomes a ground cover. Some, like ivy, periwinkle and the beautiful blue flowering plumbago, are quite obvious, others, like lily of the valley and sweet violets, take you by surprise, starting with a shy little clump in spring and filling the garden with their prolific progeny in one season. I guess if we define as perennial ground cover any plant that fills up all the space it occupies, we can expand the list to include daylilies, beebalms, tickseed, irises, raspberry thickets and strawberry patches.

Published · 673 views

Long before the dawn of synthetic dyes, the world of textiles was enchanting us with warm brick reds, stunning fuchsias, royal purples, electric blues, moss greens and bright yellows. The art of fiber, yarn and fabric dyeing has hundreds of years of history, much of which was abandoned since chemical processing provided a much easier way to mass produce textile coloring and patterns. Plant based dyeing is a cross between cooking and painting: there are hundreds of recipes and plant combinations that will allow one to obtain virtually any color and at any intensity.

Published · 674 views

If you are a dedicated green thumb, all you do after winter begins is sit around and wait for it to be over. Two long months of dreary weather later, the sight of spring catalogs gracing your mailbox is a hopeful sign of better days to come. Some people go by the buds on the trees, others by the first crocuses, I go by the arrival of spring catalogs. Be happy and joyful, my fellow gardeners, I already have six of them, spring is nigh!r

Published · 603 views

Pumpkin pie lovers are spoiled beyond reason between the end of November and the end of the year. There are infinite variations of the delicious desert, all nutmeg, clove and cinnamon, vanilla and brown sugar. I'd like to share my grandmother's recipe, which comes in strudel form. It is one of those food items that gets passed on from generation to generation and adds to the meaningfulness of shared holiday meals.

Published · 894 views

Most suburban dwellers don't have the space and the sun exposure required to grow pumpkins, the big round fruit has a sprawling growth habit and an unruly disposition that doesn't endear it to its tamer vegetable companions. If you still want to grow pumpkins, here is how: pumpkins appreciate humus rich soils that hold water well but don't get soggy, a good amount of organic fertilizer, warmth and plenty of sunshine.

Published · 652 views

If you haven't grown eggplant before you probably don't know that the flowers boast the same unusual color as their glossy fruit. Eggplant flowers are the most beautiful of all bushy vegetables, deep lavender with a bright yellow middle.

Published · 803 views

When you start looking into its qualities, rosemary can be quite intimidating, it seems to be good for everything: it makes hair grow strong and shiny, rejuvenates skin, boosts memory and concentration, sharpens eyesight, thins the blood and helps lower the risk of cancer. This impressive resume is due to the fact that rosemary is rich in iron, calcium, phosphorus, vitamins A, C and B6, folate, and some other plant specific compounds that act synergistically.

Published · 596 views

I am absolutely fascinated by this plant. I don't know what it is about it, its name, its relative scarcity, the unusual way the blossoms are aligned along the stems, unlike any flower I've ever seen. I waited a long time to get it, hesitating over mail-in orders and proper planting times, not knowing how it behaves in larger plantings, daydreaming about what it would look like in my garden.

Published · 676 views

If you thought starting plants indoors worked for seed alone, think again. You can give your summer bulbs a good start by planting them inside in a pot four to six weeks before the last frost and transplanting them outdoors when weather permits. Tuberous begonias, callas and caladiums will especially benefit from this and they can be left in the pot outside too. Plant them in a good medium with peat moss and perlite in a warm and bright spot but not direct sunlight and keep them well watered until it's time to move them outdoors.

Published · 563 views

Summer garden maintenance usually goes unnoticed, masked by the fervent activity of the plants themselves at the peak of their vegetative cycle. Because this is the season when a lot of the perennials rush to bloom, you don’t notice any glitches in the life of the garden unless you happen to fall behind on any of the following activities, in which case the charming haven of renewal immediately turns into an unkempt abandoned wasteland:r

Published · 625 views · Rated 5/5 from 1 votes

Even though the three basic sun exposures are full sun, part sun and shade, the last one comes in so many variations, all with their own little quirks, that it deserves a full chapter all to itself.r

Published · 643 views

What is good weather? That is a very good question for a gardener. Some places are blessed with conditions that make plants thrive despite complete lack of interest or effort. People who for years tried unsuccessfully to grow a garden watch with incredulous envy out of their car windows the never ending wild meadows just exploding with colorful fragrant blooms.

Published · 669 views

Since the beginning of my gardening journey I wished for a fragrance garden, so I planted the well known scented flowers like sweet peas, lilies, and carnations. The garden surprises you, though, because that heavenly scent, that fragrance that fills the air and seems to originate nowhere doesn't usually come from these plants. Have you ever wondered around your flower patch trying to trace a delightful fragrance and had trouble finding its source? Some of the perfume masters come as a surprise, others are quite obvious.

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Just a few rules that will make your food preservation safe and successful: 1.Processing Temperatures. Foods suited for canning are divided into acidic (<4.6 PH) - basically all fruits, tomatoes, sauerkraut and all acid added products (pickles) and non-acidic (4.6PH or more) - vegetables, meats, fish and mixed sauces. Acidic canned products need to be boiled (212F degrees) and non-acidic canned products need to be pressure canned (240F degrees or more) to ensure the botulinum spore is destroyed.

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The fountain at the center of the garden was a staple of medieval landscape design. Its simple yet powerful symbolism was derived from necessity, but speaks to that part of the soul that envisions water as healing and life giving. Nowhere is a tiny fountain more at home than at the center of a medicinal herb wheel.r

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The summer is officially over, both in the garden and on the calendar, we just passed he point when the day becomes shorter than the night. The light shifted, a soft but impossible to miss change that always precedes the beginning of fall. As usual at the end of September I'm excited to welcome the stars of the fall garden, the toad lilies. I can't get over how understated and sophisticated these flowers are, both at the same time, you have to get really close to capture the charm of their northern orchid countenance.r

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You have to get really close to appreciate toad lilies' blossoms which are small but unbelievably detailed. I don't think there is a flower in this part of the world that so closely approximates orchids. They are hardy to zone 5 and bloom in the shade, the last flowers to bloom in the garden after the trees have shed their leaves, the sedums have gone to seed and even the all suffering calendulas succumbed to the cold.

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Us hopeful rosarians have to admit that roses are not just another pretty flower. There is something very special and noble about them, the older they are the more rare and valued their flowers and often the more persnickety they get. Here are some cultivars to test your rosarian mettle. Plant only if you are willing to dedicate a lot of time to these cherished heirlooms: -Souvenir de la Malmaison, a delightfully fragrant bourbon, feeling very at home in warmer climates, not so fond of winter. Susceptible to black spot, needs winter protection.r

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Tuberose oil is a staple scent for perfumery, obtained through chemical extraction by means of concretes and absolutes, and it is one of the most expensive natural fragrances available to perfumers. Because of the flower's patrician demeanor and its expensive essence I always thought the tuberoses were difficult plants that require extreme amounts of care and pampering, but no, they are sturdy and gritty and like most summer bulbs they need virtually no care.

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Growing a thriving garden is as much a result of the things you do as it is of the things you don’t do. Here is a list of what NOT to do in order to have a thriving garden. These are all things I learned from personal experience, and they set me back a few years: 1. Planting roses in the shade. 2. Hard pruning roses that should not be pruned. 3. Forgetting that the dirt will be impoverished if the nutrients are not replenished with natural fertilizers. Feed, rotate crops or both.

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Today was one of those rainy summer days when lighting is diminished and one derives a sense of well being from hearing the rolling boom of the far away thunder as rain raps heavily on the roof. I had picked herbs before the rain started, large bunches of herbs, opal basil and bee balm and parsley and flowering mint, and hung them to dry in the kitchen. The whole house was filled with a spicy aroma dominated by notes of basil and accented with mint.

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Every year the generous tomato plants bless us with an overabundance of fruit that doesn't have the chance to ripen before the first frost. Tomatoes take their sweet time to figure out how to bear more and more fruit and their best and most abundant yield goes so far into the fall they don't have time to finish it. For any of the tomatoes that started ripening even slightly, just keeping them on a counter in your kitchen for a few days will turn them into salad fare. They may not be as tasty as the ones that ripen on a vine, but will still be juicy and delicious.

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Getting from the aromatic plant in the garden to the home made health or beauty product involves a couple of preliminary steps - preserving the herbs for long term storage and transferring their active ingredients into a medium easy to work with, usually oil.

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Being vague in gardening often yields hilarious results. I will apply myself to relea ing horticulture basics next season, and heed the experts' advice to be specific about what I'm planning to plant. Here are a few lessons I learned this year. Paying attention to the correct Latin designation of Saint John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum) makes the difference between getting the familiar medicinal plant and getting a gangly bog native (Hypericum pyramidatum) that keeps its flowers open for all of five minutes.

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For the less romantically inclined among us, who don't get misty eyed over nature's autumnal carnival of color but would like to know why the leaves turn, here is the full prose version of it.

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I looked far and wide for signs of spring, which is a testimony to my undying optimism, and there is nothing, nothing, I tell you! Not even a little shivering primrose, or a tentative daffodil, just nothing on ice with a side of leafless trees. As it very well should be, what self-respecting plant would consider sprouting in single digit temperatures? In view of the seasonal gloom, I turn my attention to decadent, unabashed pampering: moisturizing oils, nourishing face and hair masks, nail treatments, the world is my spa.r

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Creating themes with annuals is almost like painting, you can create infinite variations of color, contrasting and analogous harmonies, focal points and diffusion hues. The rules are the same as those of basic color theory, with the difference that the components of your art piece are alive. If you plan the garden well at the beginning of the year you will be able to carry the color theme successfully through the seasons, the flowers will change but the harmony will remain the same. There are three fundamental color palettes: monochrome, analogous and contrasting.

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A resilient weed, native to the Northern Hemisphere, yarrow grows wild in open fields and along the sides of the roads, and had only recently acquired the privilege of being cultivated in flower gardens. Don't judge this humble herb to be ordinary, Achillea millefolium is a well documented medicinal plant, astringent, anti inflammatory and tonic, but above all it has a special gift: it is a hemostatic.

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A resilient weed, native to the northern hemisphere, yarrow grows wild in open fields and along the sides of the roads, and had only recently gained the privilege to be cultivated in flower gardens. Don't judge this humble herb to be ordinary, Achillea millefolium is a well documented medicinal plant, astringent, anti inflammatory and tonic, but above all it has a special gift: it is a hemostatic agent.r

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Unfortunately these days, lots of metal garden furniture retailers choose to sell mass produced patio sets of inferior quality. You can get them cheaply, but you might end up with a table and chairs that look poor and wobbly from the beginning. While many people wouldn’t dream of this kind of thing inside their homes, they’re not as fussy when it comes to their outdoor spaces.

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The chances are you’ll be entertaining guests over the Xmas period. This means you’ve got the perfect excuse to have a splurge on some new décor and accessories. After all, the house has to look its best so it’s ready to receive relatives, friends and neighbours. Wrought iron furniture and home accessories are a fantastic way to give your rooms a traditional Dickens Christmas feel. Here’s how to create the look. Deck the Halls

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Here’s how to create a customised wrought iron table with an individually designed mosaic top, perfect for a Mediterranean inspired dining room or patio. The Base

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We each spend over 120 days in bed each year. This makes choosing the right bed one of the most important decisions you can make for your wellbeing. The average lifespan of a bed is usually 8-10 years, a bed can deteriorate by as much as 70% in this time, depending on use and how well it's looked after. If you have been having difficulty sleeping, tossing, turning and waking up frequently or aches in your back, shoulders or neck, it could be time for a new bed. Size Matters

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If you’re looking for a dining room table and chairs that’s solid and sturdy with a multitude of design and colour options, then you need look no further than wrought iron. This article discusses why a wrought iron table and chairs will grace any dining room. Durability

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Unlike the highly decorative metal or wrought iron mirrors available today, ancient manufactured mirrors were simply pieces of polished stone. Examples of obsidian mirrors found in modern-day Turkey have been dated to around 6000 BC. Prior to this, the first mirrors used by primitive people were most likely pools or vessels of dark, still water. Since ancient times, mirrors were said to have magical powers, including the power to foretell the future and considered devices of the gods. In fact, the humble mirror is probably the focus of more superstitions than any other object.

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Many people bring their plants indoors for winter, in the conservatory, kitchen or dining room. As well as protecting your plants, you can display them in decorative plant stands and holders to brighten your day and enhance your living space throughout the dull, grey winter. Exotic Tastes

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Wrought iron furniture, accessories and accents can complement so many interior design styles from rustic Mediterranean to contemporary chic. It is a very versatile material, the chameleon of interior decorating. It can be natural and earthy in an old world Tuscan design, romantic and elegant in a Victorian Art Nouveau inspired room or bold and avant-garde in a modern living space.

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Buying 1. Before you buy a metal patio set, make sure you accurately measure your designated space beforehand. You’ll want about 90cm (3ft) of space around the table to accommodate chairs and people. This will allow people to walk around the table even when others are seated.

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If in years gone by, metal beds were thought of as bulky, cold, reminding us perhaps of hospitals or military dormitories, things have changed with the rise in popularity of minimalistic, contemporary furniture. What you’d want for your bedroom is a heaven for comfort, peace and relaxation, and nowadays, metal beds can be whatever you want them to be; delicate, elegant, sophisticated or completely unique.

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Wrought iron furniture is extremely versatile and looks great in virtually any setting, lending itself to whatever your existing décor dictates. For those who are looking at a new design or re-model here’s why iron furniture, structures and accessories will grace any style of landscape design from contemporary to Oriental. Cottage

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During the late 1700s, a fad for Oriental tea houses or pavilions swept Western Europe. This craze led to the very invention of what we know today as a gazebo. The 1800s saw us move away from more traditional materials such as wood towards metal and wrought iron due to their elegance and durability. This resulted in the creation of the iron gazebo.

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Fen Shui can be quite complex, encompassing sophisticated Chinese philosophical ideas, ancient traditions and cultural beliefs. According to Wu Xing theory, the structure of the cosmos mirrors 5 phases. Each phase has a complex series of associations with different aspects of nature and the elements. The perfect home and garden must incorporate the 5 Chinese elements of water, fire, wood, earth and metal. To demonstrate how to successfully feature an element in your home, here’s a guide to metal furniture, accessories, décor and colour. Balance

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Wrought iron furniture has a lengthy history, dating back to Roman times. In 17th Century Britain, William and Mary; lovers of French baroque style wrought iron, employed a skilled craftsman to create exquisite iron art on demand. The style then swiftly swept the nation, in gates, railings and then furniture. This love affair continued throughout the Victorian era to present day.

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Iron gazebo, pagoda, pavilion, arbour, kiosk, belvedere, cabana or pergola? Deciding on a garden structure can be confusing. Many people say they’d like a pergola but what they really want is an arbour. Are they the same thing? - Strictly speaking - No. What is an arbour anyway? – Is it a trellis, an archway or just a type of pergola? This article reveals all, packed with hints and tips to help you choose the right metal structure for your garden. The addition of a covered garden structure is done for many reasons; here are just a few:

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You work hard to keep your lawn looking green, lush and vibrant. As hard as you work, occasionally you still find yourself face to face with dandelions that won’t die, or grubs that just won’t go away. You’ve tried everything to get rid of them. Nothing seems to work. It’s frustrating when you put your time and effort into maintaining your lawn, and still find yourself up against weeds, insects, and lawn disease. There is hope. Here are 3 of the most common lawn problems – weeds, diseases and insects – and a few ways to fix them. Weeds Are One of the Most Common Lawn Problem

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Composting is by far the best way to nourish your plants. If you take care of the soil by adding humus rich compost you will start many beneficial processes:nn * breaking down organic matte * creation of humusn * release of food when your plants are ready to feedn * the absorption ...

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A Buddhist Christmas may sound like a contradiction, but only if you focus on the differences and not the underlying theme. I know many Buddhist monks who celebrate the spirit of Christmas, I am one of them.

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That's right, Gardening in Western New York (WNY) just got a little more interesting with the arrival of Serene Gardens. The Western New York based Japanese themed Garden Center, Interior, and Landscape company Grand Island Serene Gardens (http://www.serene-gardens.com) is pleased to announce that it has recently unveiled their new website that represents their ongoing commitment to Japanese art, culture, nature and style. The website and online webstore comes just prior to their store front’s grand opening.

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You have a few Japanese Garden Design Options... but don’t waste your time and money with the free designs advertised. There is no such thing as a free Japanese landscaping design that is worth having! To most people this may seem like common sense, but on the other hand I have seen many advertisements for these type of plans. I recommend anyone who is seriously interested in having a Japanese garden in their backyard to avoid such schemes. Similarly, many of the Do-It-Yourself in one weekend advertisements and books are also going to be very misleading.

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Japanese incense is said to relax you and help create a serene atmosphere. Some people use it as part of a ritual and others use it to add a little ambiance to their surroundings. With such a variety of fragrances, there is definitely a perfect one out there for you. It also makes the perfect unique gift for someone else.

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Japanese Pottery can be both rustic and elegant, defining your style as both natural and sophisticated. Pottery from Echizen is some of the greatest quality pottery in Japan. Echizen is the old name for Fukui prefecture, which is just north of Kyoto on the Japan Sea. Fukui has established a pottery village that gathers various potters to live there and create there.

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A meditation garden, sometimes called a contemplation garden, is a fairly new concept. Of course gardens and meditation has been around for centuries, but the combination of the two as a specific serene spot you can create yourself is more of a modern concept.

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Whether you're starting seeds indoors or starting seeds outdoors it is of particular importance to obtain seeds from a trustworthy and reliable supplier. In the 2003 movie, Second Hand Lions, a film by Tim McCanlies, starring Haley Joel Osment, Robert Duvall and Michael Caine, there is a funny scene where the two rich uncles are scammed with variety vegetable seeds. It turned out that every seed packet contained corn seed.

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The first step in starting seeds indoors is to make allies. In this context, the first ally you may consider recruiting is your spouse. Next set of allies is your children or whomever also lives in your home. This is because your activity, (which may be exploiting personal interest to combat stark winter boredom), may encroach upon someone's else space. Unless you have space that cannot be assailed this step is of vital importance. Otherwise, your sprouts and you might become subjects of dire consequences.

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When it comes to starting seeds indoors there's a special charm in some of the junk that gets enlisted to the task. Some of that junk may remain immortal due to the immense character of the moment. Like the coffee can my grandmother planted an orange seed in.

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Why talk about water in starting seeds when everyone knows you must water seeds? Water is something everyone has a tendency to take for granted. It is the last item on the suspect list, but one of the first ingredients introduced into your growing scheme. Have you ever changed water for your goldfish with tap water? Did your goldfish become a croaker? I mean, did you find your goldfish, eyes bulging, lips puckered out but not moving, floating upside down in its bowl? Chances are you suspected your goldfish was intolerant of something in the tap water, and if you did, you were correct!r

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Is there a relationship between starting seeds indoors and mental health? I would affirm that all aspects of gardening promotes a sense of mental well-being, relieves stress and empowers an individual's self-esteem. There are few activities that reward your efforts so generously.

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Are you new to vegetable growing? Not sure where to start, but want to save money and the planet? Grow your own vegetables. It can be nice to think big but when it comes to trying something new, baby steps are best. Start small, either a small section of garden or purpose built vegetable patch, or even large pots or half wine barrels. You can expand the area for growing vegetables when you have gained some confidence.

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What are Earth Energies? According to the dictionary Earth is the planet or world we live on, ground, soil, or to connect electrically with earth. Energy is vigour, force, activity, source(s) of power. Energy exists as potential or kinetic and is measured in various units, such as ergs, joules, or foot-pounds. In Newtonian science the first law of Thermodynamics states that energy is never created or destroyed but is only transferred or transformed.

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50% Less Cooking without hitting the fast food button! Don't you just cringe when some clever kitchen type tells you what you could be doing with the leftovers in the fridge, when it's plainly obvious the leftovers will stay there until they walk out by themselves! More often than not, saving money with leftovers, although a great idea, takes a lot of time in preparation and relies on many other ingredients being available. So... Design your own leftovers!

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Wouldn't it be great to avoid the weekly supermarket shopping nightmare from time to time? Think of all the petrol, cash and not least of all, the STRESS! An added bonus of avoiding supermarket shopping is that you aren't tempted to buy 'two for the price of one' family packs of chocolate, snacks and other bad-for-you-munchies! So, putting aside all the negative stuff you don't need anyway, let's move on to the positive approach of growing your own groceries...even if you live in an apartment, have never grown a plant before, or have a small family budget.

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Of course it's very possible to grow a bunch of healthy kids, especially if you can find the child in you as well. Being a kid can be great fun, and there's no reason why we can't run around and play kids games until we are grandparents and beyond. As soon as the sun is shining get outside in the fresh air... especially if you live in a climate that has very short summers ( talking UK here!). Make the most of the sunlight. As long as you protect your skin from harmful rays, sunlight is the best form of vitamin D - and doesn't it make you feel good!

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Although growing your own fruit and veg is the best thing you can possibly do for yourself and your family, there is a magical world beyond the simple veggies we can grow in the garden. Some of the most annoying plants in fact have some amazing benefits. Weeds and wild plants:

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There are a number of vitamins and minerals we need on a daily basis to keep us healthy. Strictly speaking we should be able to get all we need from nature, but when you see those irrsistable bottles and jars of 'extra vitamin supplements, it's almost criminal not to give them a try. However, it seems that a) most of them get left in the back of a cupboard or b) we didn't actually need them in the first place. Sometimes both a and b apply!

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I’ve just recently taken to switching off my computer during the day. No, I’m not ill, I just needed a change. So determined am I to succeed at my inte et biz, that I totally switched off. Now, this may seem weird to all you cybe uts out there, but I haven’t left the throng. I’m just taking on a different angle. When the computer’s buzzing ( and they do - listen ) and you’re flying around cyber space forgetting where you came in, you are positioning yourself in a different world, and it can be stressful, to say the least.

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'How Can I Lose Weight' was Googled 9 million times last month... phew! Have you ever wondered why some folk never put on weight and others spend their whole life trying to lose it? There are a few mythical answers to this very popular question: - willpower - metabolism - glands (??)rn- various other medical conditions - time - money - lifestyle ..... ah, now this one may not be so mythical! In fact, how we life our lives in general has a lot to do with how our bodies respond. This wonderful biological miracle we live in responds directly to how we treat it.

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Okay I know it's July but they say Christmas comes earlier every year, and this year, as usual, most of us will be wondering how to get through the long shopping expeditions as well as stressing over the bank balance. Not necessary! Give friends and family potted herbs to grow in the kitchen or plant outside. the following Spring. Herbs are always welcome as they are practical and attractive in the house as well as in the garden. Earn loads of Brownie points in the kitchen by adding fresh mint leaves to new potatoes!

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The common or garden boiled potato has slid out of fashion in recent years for various reasons. One contributing factor is the ever increasing number of tasty potato-style snacks available, making boiled spuds seem flavourless and boring. Of course another problem has been all the fad diets over the last generation or two, often convincing us that potatoes are full of calories, or belong to the dreaded ‘carb’ family and should be avoided at all costs.

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One drug that’s causing world-wide health problems, even fatalities in some cases, isn’t a class A – heroine or crack or any of the other designer drugs on the market. In fact this drug is and always will be legal, and no, it isn’t alcohol or nicotine. This drug, that generations have been addicted to, which is now manifesting itself in over a million new sufferers of diabetic conditions every year is sugar.

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We all know that exercise is good for you, but what if you have creaky bones and the body doesn't work the way you want it too! It is so frustrating to want to be out in the fresh air, be able to take care of your yard yourself and not be able to do either one the way you used to do it, but there are ways to work around some of the problems. Sometimes you have to compensate for the aches and pains or the lack of manipulation and strength; then hire or ask someone else to do the rest. You owe it to yourself.

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One of the pleasurable spin-offs in organic gardening is finding alte ative ways of coming up with the same, if not rnbetter, end result..... Household throwaways can be valuable to the alte ate enthusiast. Here are ten recyclable ideas to make gardening a little less hard on the pocket!

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Clothes and skin cream are far removed from potting out your begonias, or digging a trench for a line of potatoes. But the clothes you wear are important for your protection in the garden. Here are six simple but effective solutions to various gardening hazards... 1. Starting from the top, you need to protect your head. Body heat escapes through the head and in cold weather rna warm hat should be worn. Knit yourself a 'gardening crazy' hat or buy a simple woollen hat on the high street.

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Don't force yourself out of the most profitable hobby in the universe because you think it's too hard to learn ...It isn't! Gardening is fast becoming the world's number one hobby, and with all the latest 'alte ative' information we have to hand, gardening as a natural science is fun to learn ...Don't force yourself out of the most profitable hobby in the universe because you think it's too hard to learn ...It isn't!

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The most important step to having a healthy body is to eat healthy food. What better way than to grow your own diet in a pot. Many fruits, vegetables, herbs and edible flowers can be grown in pots on a balcony or a patio and some can even be grown successfully on a windowsill. Use decorative and imaginative containers for your plants. As long as they are well-drained and deep enough to accommodate the roots of your plants, almost anything goes! The following nine fruits, veggies and herbs represent good sources of all the healthy vitamins you can grow yourself.

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If all the grow your own thing is getting a bit overwhelming, or you don't have time or the resources to grow all the crops your family needs to survive, opt for the best options and just grow your own superfoods! There are so many fruits and vegetables we can grow that are packed full of the good stuff...

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When the leaves begin to fall will you bag them and have them hauled to the landfill? Then will you buy compost or topsoil to add to garden beds? Why not use those leaves yourself and make your own compost? There are many methods to compost. See if there are one or more ways that will work for you. Compost provides many benefits to the soil. Compost is fantastic for soil improvement - adding organic matter, nutrients, and microorganisms to your soil. Additionally compost can be used as a mulch to keep soil cool, slowing water loss, and preventing weeds.

Published · 1,693 views · Rated 5/5 from 1 votes