About Gardening - Submit a Gardening Tip

Submit a Gardening Tip Controlling Snails and Slugs. Share What's Worked in Your Garden and What Hasn't.

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Spring Rose Care

A bit of spring rose care will mean healthier roses throughout the growing season. Although roses may bloom even if gardeners neglect them entirely, they will have fewer problems and more blooms if you do some spring rose pruning and feeding, as outlined below. The efforts you make in caring for your roses in the early spring will mean that many fewer problems to tend to during the growing season.

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Kitchen Herb Gardening

Probably the most popular herbs to grow and use are the culinary herbs. Growing culinary herbs is very similar to growing vegetables. The two most important considerations are to harvest at full flavor and to never use any fertilizer or pesticide on them that isnt labeled for use on edible plants. Here are some more tips for growing flavorful culinary herbs.

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When Do You Prune Clematis? (And Do You Even Have To?)

Pruning can be so confusing. Just when you've figured out when to prune a certain plant, you find out there are exceptions. Clematis are like that. They...

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Scented Herb Garden

Scented herbs brings to mind the pleasant fragrances of lavender, sage and lemon balm. Fragrant herbs plants can be used for potpourri, oils and lotions, cooking or just to enjoy a heady whiff as you work in the garden. Often the fragrance of herbs is in their foliage, so planting your herbs where you will brush by them is an easy way of enjoying a scented herb garden. Here's a list of easy to grow, heavily scented herbs to enjoy.

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How to Edge a Garden

How to Edge a Garden

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Mint

Plants in the mint family are very hardy perennials with vigorous growth habits. Mint, left to its own devices, will spread quickly and become a nuisance. However, it is very popular as a flavorful herb and the plants can be grown easily. Just try to chose a spot where you wont mind the rampant growth or grow it in a confined space.

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Herb Gardening

Herbs are some of the easiest plants to grow and they grow effusively. Most require little maintenance, unless you have the notion of planting a tidy 4-square decorative herb garden. Most herbs are not tidy and the plants are meant for use, not decoration. Herb gardening comes down to what you want to do with the plants you grow - kitchen herbs, herbs for potpourri or dying, even medicinal herbs. Having a designated herb garden makes their care and harvesting more convenient.

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Tools for Weeding

What's the best way to remove weeds from your lawn and garden? That depends on the type of weed and how many of them there are. You can always hand pull weeds, but sometimes you need the help of weeding tools.

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How to Divide Perennials

How to Divide Perennials - Video

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What is Mulch

Mulch is any type of material that is spread or laid over the surface of the soil as a covering. It is used to retain moisture in the soil, suppress weeds, keep the soil cool and make the garden bed look more attractive. Organic mulches also help improve the soils fertility, as they decompose. Here are the pros and cons of various mulch materials.

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Herb Gardening Essentials

An overview of growing and using herbs.

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How to Prepare a Flower Bed

How to Prepare a Flower Bed

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Homemade Compost Bin

Turn a Garbage Can Into a Homemade Compost Bin

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Tomato Blossom Drop

Blossom drop is a common tomato growing problem that can be extremely frustrating to the home gardener. Otherwise healthy looking tomato plants set flower blossoms, only to have them dry up and fall off the plant before a fruit is formed. Blossom drop can be attributed to several causes, most often related to either temperature and / or stress.

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Adding mulch to Your Garden.

Adding mulch to Your Garden

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Weed Control Without Chemicals

Is your idea of weed control getting down on your hands and knees and pulling? There are easier ways and they dont have to be nasty, harsh chemicals. ...

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Garden Design - Color

Color is arguably the most prominent factor in a garden design and often the first one considered. Good garden design involves knowing how to combine colors so that the final product has a cohesive and pleasing effect. Here are some tips to train your eye to see color and for combining color in the garden.

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Long Producing VeggieGarden

You can have a long producing vegetable garden with minimal effort. Keep harvesting in your vegetable garden into the fall and maybe even winter months. A long producing vegetable garden is possible, if you heed some simple, but key gardening rules.

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Plant of the Week: Mint

Mint tends to be either loved or reviled, in the garden. Mint plants grow easily; often too easily. On the plus side, there arent many culinary herbs that...

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Buddleia, Butterfly Bush

Growing and caring for butterfly bush (Buddleia), a sub-shrub that quickly shoots up 5-6 feet early in the season and then blooms and attracts butterflies to your garden all summer.

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Watering Cans

Watering is an endless task in gardening, but the right watering can make it an easier task. Good balance and a reasonable capacity are key. Here are some watering cans worth a look.

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Saving Tomato Seeds

Many plant seeds can be saved simply by collecting them as they dry. Tomatoes take a bit more work. The tomato seeds are enclosed in a gel like sack that contains growth inhibitors, preventing the seeds from sprouting inside the tomato. The best way to remove this gel covering is to allow the fruits to rot and ferment. In nature this happens when the fruit falls off the plant. For seed savers, we're going to speed up the process.

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Tulipa (Tulip)

Growing Tulips

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Winterberry Holly

Ilex verticillata, Winterberry Holly, or Winterberry is our native, wetland holly that loses it leaves each autumn. This beautiful shrub is all the more showy because its lack of winter leaves makes its berry display all the more showy. After the leaves have turned yellow and have fallen off, you are left with a breathtaking view of thousands of brightly colored berries clinging to every stem. What a joy to have such color in the middle of winter.

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April in the Garden

A regional To Do list of jobs to get done in the garden. Spring in the garden is full of tasks that need doing early, to have a great garden later in the season. Heres a breakdown of what you can get done in the garden in April, throughout the U.S.

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Gardening Question of the Week: Snail and Slug Control in the Garden.

Isn't it fascinating how quickly insects can find your plants? One minute your plant leaves are barely unfurled and the next, they're being eaten. Spring rains, as...

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Designing Herb Gardens

Herbs dont need to be grown in a garden of their own, but a designated herb garden is a luxury for all the senses and working in an herb garden is as much pleasure as it is toil. Whether you want an iconic four-square herb garden, a scented herb border or a few kitchen herbs on the windowsill, here are some tips for creating an herb garden to enjoy.

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Herb Gardening Essentials Herb Gardening Online Course

I find you can often divide gardeners into two camps: those who started gardening by growing herbs and those who think herbs are too fussy or difficult to grow. ...

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Hostas for Sunny Spots

Hostas are called 'shade-tolerant' plants, meaning they will grow in shade or partial shade. But some hostas need a period of full sun to look and perform their best. Although it is not recommended that any hosta be in full sun all the time, many Hostas are more vigorous and display their most vibrant colors if given at least some sun exposure. Here are some tips to help you pick the right hosta for your site.

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Gardening How-To Videos

Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words. To that end, I've compiled all the gardening how-to videos to date, into an easily accessed library. These are...

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Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip'

Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip'

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Koreanspice Viburnum

Koreanspice Viburnum (Viburnum carlesii)

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Using Wood Ash in the Garden

Is wood ash good for garden soil? Will it do more harm than good? That depends on your soil and, of course, on the wood that was burned. Here are some thoughts to consider before you put wood ash on your garden plants.

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Fungus Gnats

Fungus gnats are more than annoying pests flying around your new plant seedlings and cuttings. Fungus gnats can do serious damage to young plants and should be controlled before their population becomes too large. There are effective biological control measures you can take to detect, deter and control fungus gnats around your growing plants.

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Isotoma 'Blue Star Creeper'

Isotoma fluviatilis 'Blue Star Creeper' (Laurentia)

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Espalied Fruit Trees

Small Space Gardening - Espalied Fruit Trees

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FeaturedHydrangeas

Hydrangeas are experiencing a resurgence of interest by both gardeners and breeders. Here are two recent introductions generating a good deal of interest are Hydrangea paniculata 'Limelight' and H. macrophylla Lady in Red.

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Sambucus Black Lace

Phot of Sambucus Black Lace.

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Making Hypertufa

Hypertufa planters are a wonderful way to bring the look of stone into your garden, without the weight. Hypertufa is easy to make yourself at home. Although it can be messy, its also a lot of fun. Here are some basic recipes and some creative suggestions for hypertufa toughs and garden decorations.

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How to Harden Off Plants

Young, pampered seedlings will need a period to adjust and acclimate to outdoor conditions, prior to planting in the garden. This transition period is called "hardening off". Hardening off plants gradually exposes the tender plants to wind, sun and rain and toughens them up. There are 3 approaches to hardening off plants.

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Sambucus Black Beauty

Photo of Sambucus Black Beauty.

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Container Gardens - Table Top Vegetables

Vegetables can be grown anywhere, in containers.

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Container Gardening - Growing Vegetables in Containers

Gardeners can create vegetable gardens anywhere, using containers.

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Tulips as Cut Flowers

Tulips just don't seem to behave as cut flowers. They bend and bow and contort. How do you deal with tulips in a vase?

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Planting Shrubs - Start Them Off Right

Shrubs are my new fixation, especially those with 3 to 4 seasons of interest. But shrubs can be expensive and you want to make sure you give them every chance...

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Coreopsis, Tickseed

Coreopsis Grandiflora Photo

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Backyard Retreat

Backyard Retreat

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Loosening the Root Ball

Teasing or tickling the roots of a plant refers to loosening pot bound roots. If you place the plant into the ground or into another pot without first loosening the balled up roots, they will continue to grow in a circle, rather than reaching out into the soil, developing and anchoring the plant. It may seem like a harsh thing to do as you are plantin, but as explained here, teasing the roots is just tough love.

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Bypass Pruners

Bypass garden pruners make an easy, clean cut. A professional quality pruner will make pruning easier and cuts cleaner.

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Plant of the Week: Sambucus

Elderberry or Sambucus, old-fashioned shrubs that are getting a lot of new attention because of the dark leaved varieties, like that are currently in nurseries. Some on wrote to...

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Container Gardening - Caladium

Container gardens allow gardeners to experiment with new plants.

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Consider A Cutting Garden

Cutting gardens or cut flower gardens are a great way to bring your garden indoors. Well planned cutting gardens can grow enough flowers to create bouqets for the entire growing season. Cutting gardens can include long flowering annuals, seasonal perennials and colorful foliage. Here are some plant ideas for your cutting garden.

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Container Gardening - Good Garden Design

The basics of good garden design can be used effectively in container gardens.

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Garden Tools

Garden tools can make garden maintenance less of a chore. New gardeners need to stock their garden tool shed with the essentials like, shovels, trowels and rakes

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Papaver nudicaule (Poppies)

Iceland Poppies

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Don't Forget Fragrance

Potted Hyacinth Line the Entryway

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Cabbage & Kale

Cabbage and kale are among the hardiest and most nutritious vegetables a home gardener can grow. They are also very easy to grow, especially for home vegetable gardeners in cooler climates. Beautiful, in shades of pale yellow to wrinkled steel blue and ranging in flavor from sweet and crisp to tangy, cabbage and kale are versatile vegetables and theres a variety suited to almost every garden.

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Zinnias

Zinnias are a gift from Mexico. Their bold, hot-palette colors accent the flower garden, as soon as the temperature warms up. Zinnia flowers are usually deep, brilliant hues that work equally well in flower borders and flower pots.

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Wheelbarrows and Garden Carts

Wheelbarrows and garden carts are absolutely indispensable garden tools. Without a wheelbarrow or garden cart many gardening chores would not be possible. While wheelbarrows and garden carts perform basically the same functions, they each have their pros and cons. Look through the following considerations, check off the features that appeal to you and make a decision of what would work best for you, in your garden.

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Echinacea

Echinacea profile. Echinacea or coneflower is an old fashioned prairie plant. Echinacea are hardy, adaptable and reliable repeat bloomers and are expecially popular with gardeners for good reason.

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Eggplant

Eggplants are sun and heat loving vegetables, in the same family as tomatoes, peppers and potatoes. Eggplant actually does come in a small, white egg-shaped variety. Most Americans have never seen one, so the name seems inappropriate. There is actually a great variety of eggplants, many much easier to grow in the home vegetable garden than the large, oblong, purple varieties we are used to.

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Harvesting Vegetables

There are no precise guidelines as to when to harvest your vegetables, but there are some rules of thumb to guide you. Most vegetables are harvested just before full maturity, for maximum flavor and the most pleasant texture. The following are vegetable harvesting criteria for judging whether your vegetables are ready for picking.

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Gardening Question of the Week How To Get Lily of the Valley to Bloom in Warm Climates.

Bob asked: My all time favorite flower is Lily of the Valley. I live in San Jose, which is part of the San Francisco Bay Area. Despite much effort I...

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Is Loosening the Roots Before Planting a Waste of Time and Energy?

In a recent issue of Organic Gardening magazine, they quoted researchers from the University of Florida as saying that loosening the roots of pot bound transplants of annuals was an...

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Fall Perennial Pruning

It can be nice to leave some perennials standing for winter interest. But many perennial plants dont survive rough weather well. Many plants have recurrent problems with pests and diseases, which will over winter in their fallen foliage and surface in the spring. The following list of perennial flowers survive and thrive better if pruned or cut down in the fall.

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Growing Kale

Growing kale is an easy and very rewarding crop for the home gardener. This cooking green is as beautiful to look at as it is tasty to eat and it attracts very few pests or problems. The secret to growing great kale is cool temperatures and plenty of water. Heres how to have your best crop ever.

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Hydrangea 'Limelight'

Hydrangea 'Limelight'

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Dividing Bearded Iris

Bearded Iris are tall, elegant additions to the flower border, but they are also relatively high maintenance. You can help cut down on the incidence of soft rot and borer damage through regular division of the iris rhizomes, every 2-3 years. This will also keep bearded iris performing and blooming at its best. Dividing iris isn't hard. Start by carefully digging and lifting the rhizomes, as shown here.

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Creating a Stone Walkway

The path to your garden should be inviting. The best paths make you slow down and look about you as you walk. What better way to accomplish this...

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Fragrant Abelia

Fragrant Abelia

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Ajuga (Bugleweed)

Ajuga is a fast growing groundcover that can take over, if you're not careful. However, when it is in bloom in the spring, there's nothing to top it. If you have the space to let it roam, it's well worth growing.

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Narcissis (Daffodils)

Narcissis (Daffodils)

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Garden Structure in B & W

A great way to see the bones and structure of your garden is to view it in black & white, without the distraction of colorful flowers and foliage.

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Asparagus Feature

Asparagus is one of the few perennial vegetable crops for the home garden. Plant it once and it keeps on gorwing. There is some up front work to be done, before you can enjoy the harvest, but a well-established asparagus bed can produce for decades. Heres how to grow great asparagus.

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#8 - Liatris spicata 'Kobold'

Liatris spicata (Gay Feather, Dense Blazing Star) 'Kobold'

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Time to Plant Peas?

St Patricks Day means more than green beer and bagels to gardeners. It means its time to plant your peas. Although a time honored tradition, for many...

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Cactus & Euphorbia

Euphorbia plants are good choices for dry areas. Their foliage looks good all season and the flowers are as succulent as the leaves.

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Planting Bulbs in a Lawn

Planting bulbs to naturalize in your lawn is an easy way to put on a great display of spring color. However while planting the bulbs is easy, there are a few things to consider when planning and caring for bulbs planted in a lawn.

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April in the Garden

A regional To Do list of jobs to get done in the garden. Spring in the garden is full of tasks that need doing early, to have a great garden later in the season. Heres a breakdown of what you can get done in the garden in April, throughout the U.S.

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Flower and Garden Shows

Just when we need it most, horticultural societies across the country provide us with a breath of spring in the form of flower and garden shows. Whichever you attend, you can expect garden landscape displays, competitions, a vendor area, seminars by garden experts and floral displays. Here is a listing of some of the most popular spring flower and garden shows.

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Lilies - Keeping Your Easter Lily Blooming and Planting a Garden of these Fragrant Charmers

Easter season means potted lily season. All lilies are beautiful, but the simple purity of the white Easter Lily is captivating. Choose a lily plant that will bloom...

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Wine & Roses Weigela

Wine & Roses Weigela (Weigela florida 'Alexandra')

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Jazz it Up at the Philadelphia Flower Show

The Philadelphia Flower Show, the largest indoor flower show in the world, just ended and our Guide to Philly, John Fischer, got there early to give us a glimpse of...

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Ways to Make Gardening Easier

Gardening easier means you can garden more. Use these smart gardening tips to make your gardening chores and maintenance less time and labor consuming and make your time in the garden more enjoyable.

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Consider A Cutting Garden

Cutting gardens or cut flower gardens are a great way to bring your garden indoors. Well planned cutting gardens can grow enough flowers to create bouqets for the entire growing season. Cutting gardens can include long flowering annuals, seasonal perennials and colorful foliage. Here are some ideas.

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Butterfly Gardening

Gardens for butterflies should provide more than nectar. Butterflies like to bask on garden rocks, drink in bird baths and take shelter in shrubs and ornamental grasses.

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Flower of the Week: Primrose

Whats so prim about primroses? They may have a British pedigree, but theyre as unpretentious as the woodland gardens they grow in. Primroses are extremely easy to grow...

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No Fruit on Your Fruit Tree?

There are many reasons fruit trees can take years to begin bearing fruit. Home fruit growers need to make sure their fruit trees are given the right care and growing conditions.gardening fruit apple trees home backyard orchard not setting fruiting gardens

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Aquilegia (Columbine)

How to grow and care for Columbine (Aquilegia) in your garden.

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Bedding Plant Award Winner: Salvia farinacea 'Evolution'

The best bedding plants offer great color for long periods in the garden and help extend the garden season.

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Plants for Bees

Every garden needs pollinators and bees are among the best. Without them there would be limited flowers and even fewer fruits and vegetables. To attract bees and other pollinators to your gardens you need to select flowers and plants that are high in nectar and pollen and plant so that they are obvious and available to the insects. Here are some tips for luring bees to your garden and lists of good plant choices for bees.

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Butterfly Gardening

A true butterfly garden is not just designed to attract adult butterflies, but also to afford a place for them to hibernate and lay eggs and for the larva, or caterpillars, to feed. Different species of butterflies have different preferences in plants.

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Helleborus (Hellebores)

How to Grow Hellebores

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Garden Focal Points

The purpose of a garden focal point is to bring the garden into focus. What may start out as just a grouping of plants is given definition by a focal point. Viewers instantly know where to bring their attention. We'll demonstrate some techniques in the following photos, but placing a focal point, like garden design in general, is largely a matter of trial and error. The more you do it, the better trained your eye will become.

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Heuchera (Coral Bells)

Heuchera (Coral Bells)

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Gardening Question of the Week How To Get Rid of Poison Ivy Near Vegetables?

Howard emailed me what would appear to be a very straight forward question: "What can I use to eliminate poison ivy near a vegetable garden?". We all know...

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No Fruit on Your Fruit Tree?

Few gardening disappointments are as great as not getting any fruit on your fruit trees. By the time you notice there's nothing there, it's too late to do anything...

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Edible Flowers

Edible flowers aren't a new phenomonon, but garnishes of fresh flowers tend to intimidate diners. No one is really sure if the flowers are there for decoration or to be eaten. It's hard to find edible flowers to purchase, but quite easy to grow most of them in your garden. Since flowers are best when eaten soon after harvest, growing your own edible flowers makes even more sense. Here are some tips.

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Photo of Unidentified Rose

Photo of Unidentified Rose

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Messenger for Plants

The plant health activator, Messenger, is neither a pesticide nor a fertilizer, although it has many advantages of both. Messenger fools a plant into thinking it is being attacked by a fungus, triggering the plant's defense mechanisms. It is environmentally friendly and non-toxic. Messenger shows great promise in helping gardeners to grow better plants and in cutting down on the need for fertilizers and pesticides.

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Why do tomatoes crack

A common tomato growing problem is fruit that cracks or splits open as the tomato ripens. How can you prevent future tomatoes from cracking and is the cracked fruit still edible?

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Moss - Shade Plant or Eye Sore?

Its that time of year again, when I start to get questions from homeowners about how to remove moss. The usual answer it is improve drainage, provide more sunlight...

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Hemerocallis (Day Lily)

Hemerocallis (Day Lily)

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#1 - Buddleia(Butterfly Bush)

Buddleia (Butterfly Bush)

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Staking Perennials

Many perennial flowers need to be staked or supported as they grow, to keep from flopping. Staking should be done before the plant is full grown and before it sets flower buds. Early spring plant staking will provide a more natural look and not disturb flower production or growing roots.

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What is Mulch

Mulch is any type of material that is spread or laid over the surface of the soil as a covering. It is used to retain moisture in the soil, suppress weeds, keep the soil cool and make the garden bed look more attractive. Organic mulches also help improve the soils fertility, as they decompose. Here are the pros and cons of various mulch materials.

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Coreopsis, Tickseed

Coreopsis Grandiflora Photo

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Cactus & Euphorbia

Euphorbia plants are good choices for dry areas. Their foliage looks good all season and the flowers are as succulent as the leaves.

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Lettuce

Salad greens are easy to grow and there are literally hundreds of varieties. That pale green head you see at the grocery store is just the tip of the iceberg. From curly to oak leafed, here's a look at growing and choosing the best lettuce.

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Gardening Websites

Gardening online is one of the best tools a gardener has. Here is a list of 10 information packed garden diagnostic web sites to answer all your gardening questions.

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Outdoor Houseplants

It is possible to pot up some of your favorite garden plants and bring them indoors as houseplants. Many tropical and tender perennials are capable of growing well in the house, if given the right growing conditions. Growing these plants as houseplants requires good light and humidity. If you’re home has what it takes, here’s a list of potential houseplants that may be growing in your garden.

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True Geraniums

The term geranium is confusing. The first geranium most gardeners encounter is not a geranium at all, but Pelargonium, a relative of the perennial geranium. True or hardy or perennial geraniums belong to the genus Geranium. You will sometimes see them referred to as cranesbill geraniums, because their seed pods do somewhat resemble a cranes bill. The flowers, in shades of white, pink, magenta, purples and blues, are long blooming. As you see here, geraniums are easy care.

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The Sunny Perennial Border

Free Garden Design - Sunny Border

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Front Yard Gardens

If there is one place that small space gardening should be more widely practiced, it is in front yards. We have surrendered the front of our homes to foundation plantings of overly pruned evergreens and uninspiring dots of geraniums. It is intimidating to experiment in full view of every passer-by, but the pay off is great and I think youll find most people, neighbors included, will be delighted.

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Companion Planting Vegetables

Companion Planing in the Vegetable Garden

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Echinacea

Echinacea profile. Echinacea or coneflower is an old fashioned prairie plant. Echinacea are hardy, adaptable and reliable repeat bloomers and are expecially popular with gardeners for good reason.

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My Monet Weigela

My Monet Weigela (Weigela florida 'Verweig')

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Easy Care Perennials

There is such a thing as an easy care, low maintenance perennial plant. It may vary from climate to climate and season to season, but there are many wonderful perennial plants that can be labeled low maintenance, providing undemanding easy care interest and bloom in the perennial border.

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Lettuce - One Cool Vegetable

What other vegetable do you always eat fresh and uncooked? Theres a whole world of salad greens out there and they are very easy to grow and even easier to...

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Garden Spring Cleaning

Spring is the busiest time of year in the garden. There are so many garden chores to be done before your plants start growing in earnest. When to start spring garden cleaning and which tasks to conquer first depend on when spring comes to your garden. But here is a check list of spring cleaning tasks to plan for in your garden clean-up.

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#10 - Peach-leaved Bellflower

Peach Leaved Bellflower

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Scotch Moss

Sagina subulata Aurea (Scotch Moss)

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Buddleia, Butterfly Bush

Growing and caring for butterfly bush (Buddleia), a sub-shrub that quickly shoots up 5-6 feet early in the season and then blooms and attracts butterflies to your garden all summer.

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Soil pH

Gardeners are often told that a key to growing great plants is to check the soil's pH. What is meant by soil pH and why should it matter so much in the garden? Here's why...

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Garden Maintenance

Flower gardens require constant maintenance to look their best. Common garden chores like pruning, pinching and deadheading are easy to master, as show here in this step-by-step photo tutorial.

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Sedum spurium 'John Creech'

Sedum spurium 'John Creech'

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Tomato Blossom Drop

Blossom drop is a common tomato growing problem that can be extremely frustrating to the home gardener. Otherwise healthy looking tomato plants set flower blossoms, only to have them dry up and fall off the plant before a fruit is formed. Blossom drop can be attributed to several causes, most often related to either temperature and / or stress.

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Does This Look Familiar?Black Spot on Roses

Roses used to mean black spot. There was no getting around it without a lot of spraying and maintenance. Is there an easier way? Well, growing resistant...

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Spring Cleaning the Garden

I start my spring house cleaning in January so (hopefully) Ill be done before the weather warms up in spring. The dust bunnies will wait, but spring pruning will...

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Spring Flowering Shrubs

Even though I enjoy every minute I spend working in the garden, I have great appreciation for plants that don't require constant attention. I talk a lot about my...

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Gardening Question of the Week How Do You Keep Cats Off Your Houseplants?

This question comes up all the time. mmcdannells wrote: What are your ideas to keep my kids cats off my plants? They have yet to go to the...

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Hostas for Sunny Spots

Hostas are called 'shade-tolerant' plants, meaning they will grow in shade or partial shade. But some hostas need a period of full sun to look and perform their best. Although it is not recommended that any hosta be in full sun all the time, many Hostas are more vigorous and display their most vibrant colors if given at least some sun exposure. Here are some tips to help you pick the right hosta for your site.

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Growing Kale

Growing kale is an easy and very rewarding crop for the home gardener. This cooking green is as beautiful to look at as it is tasty to eat and it attracts very few pests or problems. The secret to growing great kale is cool temperatures and plenty of water. Heres how to have your best crop ever.

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How Much Soil Amendment Does Your Garden Need?

Work in 4 inches of organic matter. Top dress with 2-3 inches of manure. OK how many bags or pounds will it take to cover my garden...

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Using Wood Ash in the Garden

Is wood ash good for garden soil? Will it do more harm than good? That depends on your soil and, of course, on the wood that was burned. Here are some thoughts to consider before you put wood ash on your garden plants.

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Cineraria 'Stellata'

Cineraria 'Stellata'

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Rudbeckia (Black-Eyed Susan)

Rudbeckia (Black-Eyed Susan)

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Does a Desperate Housewife Have Time to Worry About Gardening?

What do a Desperate Housewife, a Hero, Wild Hogs and a little Nip/Tuck have to do with gardening? Stars from each of these (and more) are putting autographed gardening...

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Clematis

How to Grow and Prune Clematis

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Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip'

Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip'

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Spring Flowering Shrubs

Even though I enjoy every minute I spend working in the garden, I have great appreciation for plants that don't require contsant attention. I talk a lot about my...

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Sagina subulata (Irish Moss)

Sagina subulata (Irish Moss)

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Growing Spinach

Leafy vegetables always taste better fresh from the garden. Spinach, like lettuce, grows best in the cool weather of spring and fall. Spinach also grows extremely quickly, which means you dont have to wait long to enjoy it, but youll also have to keep planting new spinach to extend the harvest. Getting spinach to grow is easy. Keeping your spinach growing takes some finesse. Tips for growing spinach in the home garden.

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#1 - Peony 'Alma Hansen'

Peony 'Alma Hansen'

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What is a Perennial Plant

Perennial gardening is very popular because growing plants that live more than one garden season lets your garden design evolve. But perennials don't live forever and not every perennial flower will survive your winter.

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Container Gardening - Good Garden Design

The basics of good garden design can be used effectively in container gardens.

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March in the GardenRegional Gardening Tips

Right about now, many of us are wondering if spring will ever come. I can smell the first whiffs of springtime mud and I'm fighting the urge to shovel...

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Purple Foliage Plants

Foliage has taken center stage in the garden. Purple foliage not only provides color all season, it blends well and highlights other colors in the garden. There seems to be a never ending stream of new purple plants for sale. Here are the top choices of plantsman Tim Wood, resident horticulturist for Spring Meadow Nursery.purple foliage plants, purple plants, plants with purple or red leaves,

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Flower and Garden Shows

The choice of spring flower and garden shows continues. Whichever you attend, you can expect garden landscape displays, competitions, a vendor area, seminars by garden experts and floral displays.

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