Buy Seeds to Help Besieged Ukrainians
Sunflowers are Ukraine's national flower and an international symbol for peacRisto Kokkonen/Unsplash. Last month Baker Creek Seeds arranged to donate profits from their seed sales to an agency sending aid to Ukrainians displaced by the attacks from Russia.
Read full story6 Ways You Can Garden Smarter to Hedge Against Rising Food Costs
Just planting a few easy-to-grow edibles can lead to real savings on your grocery bill—if you plant wisely. You can stretch your food budget with these smart gardening moves.Image by TheDigitalWay from Pixabay.
Read full storyBaker Creek Seeds Steps Up to Send Aid to Ukrainians Displaced by Putin’s War
Baker Creek Seeds, a company that works to maintain heirloom plant varieties from around the world, is doing something really great. From February 25th through midnight February 27th, they will be donating 100% of ALL seed sales to World Help to provide humanitarian aid for Ukrainians displaced by war.
Read full story5 Vegetables You Can Grow on Your Balcony
Bok choy is an easy crop to grow in a container on a balcony or patio.Photo by Sarah Chai from Pexels. The truth is you don’t need a patch of open ground to plant an edible garden. If you plant varieties bred for container-growing, you can reap the rewards with no garden ground at all. There are plenty of vegetables you can grow in containers on your balcony or patio and still reap a bountiful harvest. But let's make it easy and start with just five favorites.
Read full storyTake Your Garden to the Next Level with the Help of a Garden Journal
When some people hear the words “garden journal,” they think of very literary, pastoral writing about a very perfect garden. There’s nothing wrong with that kind of thing, but that’s not what I’m talking about here.
Read full storyToss Your Day Planner. Use a Goal Planner to Achieve Your Dreams.
Goal Planner pagesPhoto by @ikigloo at Unsplash.com. For years, picking out a new day planner has been one of my favorite end-of-year rituals. I love wading through the many planner designs and themes, trying to find the one that will give me the brightest outlook and the most motivation to make the best use of my time. I’ve had some gorgeous planners over the years that filled my weeks and months with beautiful nature photography, creative artwork, and inspiring quotes.
Read full storySonoma Valley Botanical Garden Gets a New Name and a New Focus
Kate Rabuck, Curator of Education & Exhibitions, and Scot Medbury, Director, with the Sonoma Botanical Garden’s new signage (Courtesy of Sonoma Botanical Garden) Spring is bringing more than new growth to the Quarryhill Botanical Garden, located in Glen Ellen, California. It’s also bringing the garden a new name and a new mission.
Read full storyDon't Be Slow to Control Snails and Slugs in Your Garden
In the next few months many gardeners will have to wage a battle in earnest against snails and slugs. The combination of moist conditions from late winter and spring rains and lots of tender, green growth is irresistible to them and they will slowly but determinedly make their slimy way through your garden, munching as they go.
Read full storyYour Cat Wants You to Grow Catnip--and Not Just So He Can Get High
The fact that cats love catnip is not news. It has long been known that catnip contains an organic compound called nepetalactol, an iridoid that is known to attract felines and trigger pleasure receptors in the feline brain.
Read full storyIf You're Thinking About Jumping the Line to Get a COVID Vaccination, Read This First
Every day it seems there are new stories popping up about people (usually wealthy or at least well off, usually white) gaming the system in whatever way they can manage to get their COVID vaccination before they were due to.
Read full storyYour Cat Wants You to Build Him a Catio
My Maine Coon cat, Henry, is sending me a message. He spends most of the day sitting on a shelf staring out the laundry room window into the back yard. Whenever I open the front door, he is suddenly right there, considering whether there is an opportunity for him to sneak out for a little outdoor escapade. And he nibbles at or otherwise molests all my indoor plants.
Read full storyHow to Squeeze an Entire Fruit Orchard into Your Tiny Garden
You don’t need to have acres of land to have a successful fruit orchard. By selecting the right varieties, utilizing space-saving planting techniques, and employing simple garden practices, you can grow numerous types of fruit in a relatively small garden and keep your fruit bowl overflowing with home-grown fresh produce.
Read full storyTreat Pest and Disease Problems Early with a Dormant Tree Spray
Leaf curl. Fireblight. Rust. Aphids. Mites. If you’ve had a serious problem with these or other diseases or pests on any of your deciduous fruit trees, the best remedy is often to spray the tree while it is in its dormant state.
Read full storySetting Up a Potting Bench That Makes Gardening Easier
Whether you call it a potting bench, propagation area, or transplant table, a gardener needs a dedicated space to perform all those tasks—sowing seeds, planting containers, cleaning tools, and much more—that require a clear, flat surface and easy access to your tools and supplies. It doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive, but it does need to be well thought out and properly stocked.
Read full storyGarden Dreams Bloom Bright in the Winter
I’m a big fan of New Year’s Day, or anything for that matter that promises to turn the page on the past and focus only on what’s ahead. Nowhere is that more appropriate and more welcome than in the garden, for each year’s garden is a wholly different garden. The successes or failures we’ve had in the past may not apply the next year because each year brings a unique combination of weather, plants, pests—even soil can change from one year to the next.
Read full storyWhat’s the Best Tomato to Grow in Your Garden?
If you want to grow truly delicious tomatoes this summer, the first step is the most crucial to your success: picking the best variety for your climate and growing conditions. Make the wrong choice and you’ll get fruit that is smaller and blander than you were hoping for. Make the right choice and you can have a bounty of fruits that are ripe, juicy, and full of flavor.
Read full storySeed Starting Made Easy
Growing most plants from seed is easy as long as you provide the basics that all plants require—soil, heat, light, and water—and then avoid a few common pitfalls. 1. Begin by purchasing a commercial seed-starting medium or mixing your own blend. Whichever you way you decide to go, you need the medium to be sterile and fast-draining. I often use a good-quality potting soil (as opposed to a seed-starting mix) that I lighten by adding perlite to improve the drainage. I avoid using seed-starting media that is primarily made of peat, especially those tablet-like peat plugs. Peat has a weird relationship with water—it repels it and repels it, then it sucks it up like crazy and won’t let go of it. Either way, that’s no way to treat tender roots of new seedlings.
Read full storyBare-Root Roses Provide Unlimited Beauty at Bargain Prices
If your garden dreams include a lush and colorful rose garden, the best time to plan and plant it is in the winter months when bare-root roses are available in local and mail-order nurseries.
Read full storyBrighten Your Life by Growing a Citrus Tree
Citrus trees are one of my favorite choices for almost any garden. They are evergreen, prolific, and relatively low maintenance. And they just make a garden look sunnier!. In climates where frosts do not occur, citrus (Citrus spp.) can be planted at any time. Elsewhere, plant trees in early spring.
Read full story'Tis the Season of Seed Catalogs and Garden Dreams
Winter days are a great time to spend poring over seed catalogs and placing orders for those heirloom flowers and vegetables that aren’t easy to come by in six-packs or 4-inch pots in the spring. Nothing can inspire grand garden dreams quite so perfectly than the glossy, four-color pages of a good seed catalog. They make it easy to believe that anyone can successfully grow anything, from the most common garden varieties to the rarest and, of course, fussiest of plants.
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