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Now is a great time to gather free mulch for your garden! Fall leaves (from your own yard or from the whole block), tree trimmings, old newspapers and cardboard boxes, and other reclaimed materials can be used to reduce weeds and enrich your soil.
Tulips! In the Netherlands, they're everybody's favorite flower, the definitive harbinger of Spring. The speculative bubble of Tulip Mania may have burst centuries ago, but Tulipa mania is alive and well in the hearts of gardeners everywhere! With bulbs going on sale now, this is a great time to join in the excitement.
We all know gardeners who pounce on every faded flower, deadheading to keep their garden looking as fresh and colorful as possible. Other gardeners, less dedicated or more distracted, claim the spent flowers add “texture” to their gardens. And some gardeners know the value of allowing seeds to ripen for later collection. To them, those dried stems have a special beauty and excitement after the flowers fade. Seed collecting can be an obsessive hobby, and one that’s not necessarily limited to your own garden…
Are your hot pepper plants out of control? Do you see heaps of beautiful, bright colored chiles at the local farmers’ market and wish you could make something wonderful from them? Have you made all the salsa your freezer can hold, and you’re still looking at a mound of hot peppers waiting for you to do *something* with them? Homemade hot sauce is the answer! It’s fun and easy to make, and it’ll be a big hit at your next party!
As the weather turns chilly, tropical gardeners keep posting photos of beautiful blooms and arching greenery. Zone envy rears its head. If only I could grow gingers, and plumerias, and citrus trees, and… and bananas! Living in temperate zone 6, I saw no way for that to happen without a major move. Then I read a Midwestern DGer’s account of growing dozens of banana plants in his yard, digging them each fall and storing them beneath his house [1]. Visions of tropical splendor started dancing in my head!
Several years ago, a DG friend posted a wonderful recipe for Roasted Tomato Sauce. A lot of tomatoes go into this thick, rich tasting sauce. A little sauce goes a long way, though, and the flavor is pure ambrosia. Let me introduce you to the basic recipe, some variations, and methods of putting up extra sauce...
Pressure canning makes people nervous. The steam, the rattling noise, the fear that the whole thing will blow up and redecorate your kitchen in “marinara red,” all combine to make even experienced home canners reluctant to try their hand at pressure canning. Fear not! Pressure canners are easier and safer to use than you may think.
Fussy Plants: plants that hate “wet feet,” plants that don’t always overwinter in your zone, plants that grow too slowly to compete with their garden neighbors. Before you give up on a fussy plant, try growing it in its own little pocket bed!
Blueberry season has wonderful opportunities for pick-your-own expeditions. Although I could buy these luscious berries at the Saturday farmer’s market, I’ll save a dollar or two per pint by picking my own. For the same money, I’ll get a lot more blueberries for eating, freezing, baking, and jam making. Plus, I’ll be spending some time in one of the prettiest fields around!
After admiring them for years, I’ve started adding irises to my garden. They didn’t look like much the first year or two as they settled in, and I wondered how long I would have to be patient with them. But this spring, some of them began blooming in earnest, and I realized I wanted to grow more and more of these wonderful flowers!
Maybe you blanched at the price of fresh herbs in the produce section this spring, or you were seduced by a bright pot of basil at your local nursery, and you thought, “Hey! This year, I will grow my own herbs!” Now you’ve got leggy basil plants blooming in a big pot, and you’re eyeing the dried herbs in your spice cabinet. It’s not too late! You can still get the most out of your herbs this summer!
The first time somebody told me about girl-leafed violets, I thought they were pulling my leg. But I’ve fallen in love with the look of these ruffled, cupped, light-centered leaves. I’d like to share some of my favorites with you, along with tips for getting them to look their best.
Looking into peat moss alternatives makes sense, from both financial and environmental viewpoints. Coconut coir and rice hulls are two currently popular candidates for “greener” choices. This spring, I’m trying both as additions to my regular potting mix.
Although I’ve grown over a dozen different kinds of mint, I always come back to one variety as my very favorite. Let me introduce you to the many uses of ‘Kentucky Colonel’ spearmint…
Fall planting is the busy gardening season at the world’s largest display of spring blooming bulbs. But what goes on behind the scenes the rest of the year, when the gardens are not open to the public? Let’s peek behind the scenes at the Keukenhof and continue our conversation with one of the gardeners who helps maintain this spectacular garden.
What does it take to plant the world’s largest display of spring blooming bulbs? Let’s peek behind the scenes at the Keukenhof and meet one of the gardeners who helps create this spectacular garden.
Whether you’ve found the Gardening for Wildlife forum or whether you’re running out of excuses your homeowner's association will accept for your brush piles and overgrown flower beds, backyard wildlife habitat certification might be just right for you! Learn more…
My husband had a conference in Amsterdam recently, and as soon as I discovered the Keukenhof would open its season that week I knew I had to make the trip with him. I'd admired the world's most spectacular display of spring flowering bulbs for years in magazines and gardening catalogs and was overjoyed at the thought of seeing the gardens in person.
Thinking about getting a dehydrator for the bumper crop of tomatoes you hope to have this summer? But how much do you need to spend? Which dehydrator is right for you? And once you have it, what can you do with it?
At a recent craft show, I noticed a lot of pottery vendors selling “Ichi ban” vases and bowls with built in “frogs" for flower arranging. No, these frogs weren’t little green amphibians, they were sets of little metal spines to hold flower stems upright. If you love bringing in a few blooms, a frog could be your new best friend!
Garden labels help you keep track of seedlings under lights and in winter sowing containers. They’re also invaluable for helping you remember what you planted where when plants are dormant as well as for keeping track of special cultivars. But they are worthless if you can’t read them…
Why start pepper plants from seed? In addition to the three colors of bell peppers and choice of jalapeno or cayenne offered at your local box store, you’ll find an enormous range of choices available from seed. Whether you love the hottest of the hotties or the biggest sweeties, you can grow an assortment perfectly tailored to your tastes and your garden.
Winter is citrus season, and fresh oranges are a great way to perk up winter salads. Citrus supremes combine with simple dressings for salads that are more pleasure than duty to eat…
Trailing African violets aren’t any trickier to grow than their single-crowned counterparts, but grooming them can be a challenge. Is yours refusing to branch out? Growing into a dense tangle? I’ve got some tips on getting your trailer to shape up.
Groundhog’s Day marks the start of my winter sowing season, and this year columbines are again at the top of my list. A “must” in any cottage garden, columbines also make a wonderful companion plant for tall bearded irises. And they’re a snap to winter sow!
I’ll never forget the first trailing African violet I saw, cascading from its pot down over the edge of the sales counter at the Carousel of Violets in Winston-Salem. I had no clue that African violets grew in such a fashion, and I’ve been entranced by trailers ever since.
Petunias have long been a mainstay of window boxes and flower borders. Somewhere along the line, many gardeners began seeing them as boring and mundane. More exotic flowers demanded our attention. But with their reliable sturdiness and the new hybrid varieties now available, petunias deserve another look…
We all know potatoes (and maybe carrots) belong in stew (especially rabbit stew). But many of us are confounded when facing any of the “other” common root vegetables, such as turnips, parsnips, or rutabaga. If you’ve only eaten these vegetables mashed, then you haven’t really eaten them. They are superb roasted, and they are the foundation for fabulous winter soups and stews.
Last winter, I had planned to host a “Midwinter Tea Party & Seed Swap” at my home, but circumstances changed, and I had to simplify my arrangements. Instead, the Mid-Atlantic Gardening Forum found themselves invited to gather at a local restaurant for a “Chinese Tea Party & Seed Swap,” and it was a great success! I hope the tips and suggestions from our event will inspire you to put together a similar gathering in your area.
Many of us have decorated a Christmas tree or two or many more. And some of us have been more adventuresome, putting twinkle lights on a lemon tree or hanging small ornaments on a philodendron. But why not decorate your houseplants for every day? Your special plants deserve a little “bling!”
Hanging baskets are one of the easiest ways to have plants inside your home. They don’t take up floor space, and you can put them out of reach of kids and pets. But how do you achieve lushly planted baskets without breaking the bank? Pass-along plants! Many common varieties of houseplants root readily from cuttings and make ideal hanging basket subjects.
Does a friend have an African violet you’ve admired for years? Would you like to swap African violet varieties with other enthusiasts? Propagating from leaf cuttings is the way to get new African violets that are just like the parent plants. There’s nothing tricky about it, but it does take patience as you wait for the leaves to root and produce little plantlets.
Imagine my surprise a few years back to discover that the cinnamon I’d been sprinkling on toast and cookies for years wasn’t the real deal! Both cinnamons are derived from tree bark, but “true cinnamon” or Ceylon Cinnamon is a different species than the cinnamon most of us know in the U.S. I’m glad I found out about the real deal cinnamon, as it’s another wonderful choice for baking and cooking!
With all the sales and “free turkey!” promotions, it probably didn’t take much to convince you to have turkey as the centerpiece of your Thanksgiving dinner. Domestic turkeys have become such a common holiday purchase that we don’t stop to consider that they weren’t always so easy to obtain…
Many people know the story of how Benjamin Franklin wanted the wild turkey and not the bald eagle to be the US national symbol. But it may surprise you to learn this “reclusive” woodland bird may soon be moving in on your suburban back yard…
As we watched houses going up in our new development, one thing that struck us was how many homes had big front porches. We took this as a good sign of neighbors who wanted to gather and talk, to enjoy a chat over a cup of coffee while the kids played together on the cul-de-sac. I was thinking about coffee the other day, and conversation, and how communities evolve. It seems to me we’ve built a community here on DG that’s every bit as vital and friendly as any geographically based neighborhood…
Whether you embark on the adventure of distilling your own essential oils from your garden or purchase essential oils to use for this project, handmade scented soaps make beautiful, thoughtful gifts.
