Gardening

If this is your first year feeding hummingbirds, first of all, welcome to the club. They’re pretty great, right? But as summer turns to autumn, you’ve likely begun to notice …

September is often an odd month. If you’ve got school-aged children, you go from a noisy house to a silent one. At least, until they start bringing germs home from …

One of the great things about hostas is how low-maintenance they are. Of all the perennials in your garden, hostas are probably the closest thing you’ll find to a set-it-and-forget-it …

Mulching flower beds is a sure sign that warmer weather has arrived each spring. Suddenly, everywhere you look, it’s nothing but flower beds sporting a fresh layer of dark brown …

Agapanthus, often called the “African Lily,” is immediately recognizable with its stunning, spherical clusters of blue or white flowers that bloom on tall stalks above lush, green strap-like leaves. They’re …

When you think of planting perennial flowers, spring might automatically come to mind: birds creating a cacophony of noise, gusty breezes drying out the mud, and the excitement of new …

I don’t grow a garden without mulch. Period. Putting down a protective layer over the bare soil in my garden provides a multitude of benefits. Unfortunately, after three successive seasons …

There are plenty of reasons to love growing determinate tomatoes. As bush-type tomatoes, they are biologically limited to a height of around four feet. They grow until the terminal bud …

Houseplants are wonderful in and of themselves. They provide a lot of beauty and liveliness to our homes and offices.  But what if your houseplants could also provide you with …

Agapanthus is one of the few plants I can think of where the word “regal” is well and truly fitting. You have a plant with a full crown of emerald …

If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about the plants that you grow, what would that be? Predictably, my answer to this question varies with the …

Mint is a nightmare. To the uninitiated, you’re probably scratching your head and thinking, “Really? Mint doesn’t seem so bad. Can’t you make tea with it?” To those of us …

Hoo boy. I get asked this question all the time by Rural Sprout readers. One minute, your tomatoes are doing fine, and then, within a day or two, you have …

When I started writing this article, my first draft was titled The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Gardeners, an obvious riff on the self-help bestselling classic. But the more I …

I love volunteer plants. You know, the ones where you plant it once, and it self-seeds every year after that. I can’t tell you how nice it is not to …

Lavender is one of those plants that nearly everyone has in their landscape or garden. And why not? It’s easy to maintain, the pollinators love it, and its classic scent …

Summer is a time to eat al fresco and have ice cream; and maybe lounge in the hammock. Yes, theoretically I know that. But what do you think happens when …

It’s that weird part of the summer where you know there’s still plenty of warm weather left, but that little voice begins to whisper in the back of your brain …

If you garden long enough, you’ll eventually experience the joy of waging war against a plant you just had to have, only to find out later that it was bent …

When you’re growing vegetables, you rarely want your plants to get sick. We put a lot of work into making sure they don’t. So, it’s usually an upsetting surprise to …

Hostas are great. Everyone loves hostas. You’ve probably got a few yourself. Hostas have a lot going for them. They’re ridiculously easy to care for (basically ignore them). You can …

Lavender is a classic plant prized as both a flower and an herb. It is a classic plant that makes its way into gardens all over the world. Just the …

With summer temperatures climbing higher each year, many gardeners suddenly find it harder to grow tomatoes. Plants that used to burst with fruit come July now seem stuck. Thankfully, an …

Gardeners – and especially those who garden organically – ought to be well-acquainted with nitrogen. As the N in N-P-K, it’s the first nutrient you’ll learn about as a budding …