On crisp fall mornings, I like to stroll through my little patch of golden flowers and each day I am pleasantly surprised with fresh blooms. Calendula, aka pot marigold, is a flowering herb in the Asteraceae family with showy orange and yellow flowers. It thrives in the cool temperatures of spring and fall. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission....
After coddling my fussy old world roses all summer, I’m more than ready for the easy-going late-season color that these reliable beauties provide. As the summer heat starts to fade, they’re just getting started. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. A little feeding, a bit of deadheading (optional, of course), and you’re usually good to go....
Crossvine is a fast-growing climbing vine that can reach 50 feet tall. In early spring, it produces clusters of showy orange-red, sometimes yellow, trumpet-shaped flowers against a background of four- to six-inch-long glossy leaves. When new leaves appear, they’re a light green color. As they mature and summer progresses, they deepen to a dark green. And then in winter some, but not all, of the leaves turn reddish-purple. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products....
This compact plant does one job for us gardeners, and it does it so well. The varieties in this genus are ideal for small spaces, never exceeding six inches tall. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. Many varieties sport colorful leaves, while others are attractively coated with downy white filaments or have spritely green foliage....
It’s a native plant suited to gardens in USDA Hardiness Zones 4 to 9. Long used in culinary and medicinal applications, its erect stature and spikes of lavender blossoms make a striking statement in the garden. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. Here’s what’s in store: Don’t be deterred by the “short-lived” description....
English, aka common, holly (Ilex aquifolium) is native to Europe, north Africa, and western Asia, and its sprigs are spiny, glossy green or variegated, and full of wreath-ready red berries in winter. It’s got the looks you think of when “The Holly and The Ivy” pours forth from the radio or old-school record player, and has been featured on many a Christmas card and school child’s holiday coloring page. It is the essential holiday holly in England, and some of us gardeners in the States prefer its looks to those of our own American holly, which isn’t quite as bold....
With the Mojave, Great Basin, and western Sonoran Deserts composing its native growing range, this slow-growing evergreen monocot is an iconic desert dweller. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. If your landscape is a perfect candidate for these majestic succulents, I highly suggest planting them to support their continued existence in the face of climate change....
Species in the Kalanchoe genus are both hardy and low-maintenance, but they also take the whole notion of “tough plant” up a couple of notches. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. Not only do these plants thrive with benign neglect, but several types flower regularly, even indoors. Others are known for their foliage....
Large pinks feature feathery flowers in intense shades of burgundy, lilac, pink, scarlet, and white with deeply cut, fringed edges that can be delicate and silky or wildly plumed. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. Flowering vigorously from late spring to midsummer, plants self-seed readily, forming tidy mounds or dense mats that are highly attractive to pollinators like bees and butterflies but resistant to deer....
What? You don’t have a prayer plant collection? What a feat of restraint! While I admittedly lack such restraint, I think it’s a fair trade. Because of my zealousness for this family of flora, I have a group of beautiful Marantaceae plants, and my rattlesnake calatheas are some of my absolute favorites. This is one snake that definitely won’t bite you – but its beguiling foliage might steal your heart!...
One way that you can show your feathered friends you care is by ensuring that they eat well. My flock, at least, is definitely more well-behaved when they are well-fed. I’ve heard other chicken farmers say that feeding their birds greens results in fewer illnesses, likely due to the nutritional content of this food type. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission....
Numerous varieties are able to claim the nickname “garden candy.” They’re naturally full of healthy vitamins and minerals, too. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. That’s what we’re going to discuss here: ways to grow the sweetest-tasting tomatoes, from selecting the best varieties to creating the best growing conditions. Here’s what I’ll cover:...
Sometimes called a long onion, its leaves form a densely packed cylinder at the base, and fan out at the top. The tender cylinder has a succulent, oniony flavor. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. How exactly can you determine when your leeks are ready to pull from the ground, and how should you go about this?...
Home stores, grocery stores, and nurseries sell them by the flat during the summer for gardeners to add some annual color to their beds. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. We have a guide available If you want to learn more about the life cycle of snapdragons. If you’re interested in keeping these beauties around to bloom again next year, even if you don’t live in USDA Hardiness Zones 7 and above, stick around....
Although easy enough to pick up at the grocery store, nothing beats the taste and nutrition of homegrown veggies. And fortunately, green beans are one of the easiest veggies to grow! In cultivation for over 7,000 years, there are a number of amazing varieties to choose from. And here’s the best part: You can also plant them throughout the growing season for repeated harvests. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products....
Just the mere mention of this disease or its common symptoms is enough to send terror coursing through a rose grower’s heart. That’s because this disease is absolutely devastating, turning your shrub into a disfigured, weak little thing before killing it outright. And there is no cure. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission....
Before it had been cleared for construction, it was a beautiful slice of forest. I’d asked the builder to take down as few trees as possible. He took almost all of them, leaving a fringe around the perimeter that was better than nothing but hardly ideal. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. I also decided to plant as many trees as I could....
One leaf or a single offshoot can become a new plant in a matter of days, and this is a simple and inexpensive way to obtain new houseplants to share or keep. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. Here’s what to expect: How to Root Aloe Vera Cuttings Before we start, I have one clarification....
And when it includes an abundant supply of apples for fresh eating and to turn into warm baked goods, that reassurance is especially sweet. But if you want your harvest of homegrown apples to last as long as possible and maintain their delicious flavor and crisp texture, it’s important to keep them in the ideal conditions. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission....
But what about all of the seeds that are left over after carving jack-o’-lanterns and baking cinnamon-scented fall treats? We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. Pumpkin Seed Nutrition Homemade roasted pumpkin seeds make a great snack, as do unsalted store-bought ones. They’re crunchy, flavorful, and offer a surprising amount of nutritional perks....
