Gardening

Far too often, new gardeners give up before they even get started because of the cost. Seedlings, bags of compost, hand tools, fertilizers, it all adds up quickly. But most …

Every year, well before the growing season starts, gardeners everywhere decide to waste their time and money starting seedlings for their garden. These gluttons for punishment never seem to learn …

It’s easy to think that nature will just take its course when you’re planting a tree. After all, forests have been growing for millions of years without human help, right? …

Perhaps the main reason why I love houseplants is because they can make any house feel like a home. Bring a houseplant into a room and it will instantly create …

More than a handful of my gardening friends have expressed envy at my mild subtropical climate. However, gardening in a hot and humid region is fraught with challenges. One of …

Raised beds are the darling of the gardening world – tidy, charming, an entire ecosystem contained in a neat box. They lend a sense of orderliness and control to a …

Starting seeds in the middle of the winter is the best way to satisfy “the green itch.” You can extend a short growing season, enjoy things like tomatoes or peppers …

I write a lot about saving plants, fixing plants and solving plant problems. I love plants and hate waste, so whenever one of my green babes is going through a …

One of my biggest complaints since evolving from growing a garden to homesteading is not having the land to grow more food for my family. While I can grow a …

It’s disappointing to find pests in the garden or that your long-awaited produce is suffering from a disease, but it’s downright crushing when the start of the season is, well, …

Whether you’re new to peperomia or you’re just clicking out of curiosity, there are a few interesting things you need to know about keeping them as a houseplant. Because as …

The growing season is still a couple of months away, but I can’t wait. So why not start right now? There are a number of important gardening chores you need …

If you asked me to think of a smell I associated with plants, my first thoughts would fly to scented garden darlings such as jasmine, honeysuckle and fragrant roses. It …

Creating an ecological garden is a lofty pursuit indeed, but an immensely worthwhile one. With the 12 principles of permaculture to guide us, there are plenty of things we can …

It’s about this time of year that every gardener gets what I refer to as “the green itch.” The holidays have come and gone. Things have gone abruptly quiet, and …

When the dark nights draw in and the winter months begin in earnest, my favorite thing to do is get cozy on the couch and take a well-deserved break. It’s …

Saving seeds from your own garden is a valuable skill that every gardener can easily acquire and learn, even in their first growing season. Storing them, however, is a slightly …

I first ran into the concept of using soil blocks when binging market gardening videos on YouTube. Like most home gardeners, I’d originally been introduced to seed starting in cells …

You’ve taken down and disposed of your Christmas tree. The Christmas cookies are long gone. You’ve vacuumed up the confetti from New Year’s Eve. And your Christmas cactus blooms look …

Yellow leaves on your houseplant are aggravating. Why are you yellow? Are you dying? Have I killed you? Is something else killing you? What’s going on? And have you ever …

It always starts the same way – we buy a small houseplant or start a cutting with plans of tending it into this massive, bushy plant. We picture a hanging …

Wintergreen – Gaultheria procumbens – has been showing up this holiday season in all the stores. With its bright red berries and glossy red and green leaves, it’s a natural …

If you’ve read this article in the past, chances are pretty good you’ve got an amaryllis bulb from the previous holiday season. But what do you do with it now …

The most important thing you can do to get your Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera) to bloom each year is to ensure it goes through a proper dormant phase with shorter days …