Gardening Gifts A to Z

Amaryllis - An amateur or average gardener will enjoy an Amaryllis kit, and kits are sold everywhere in December. Target is offering Smith and Hawken brand kits, which include a ceramic pot, fo

Gardening by the Moon

(Editors Note: This article was originally published on March 17, 2008. Your questions and comments are welcome, but please be aware that authors of previously published articles may not be able

Garden Art: How Can I Protect and Preserve My Garden Art?

(Editors Note: This article was originally published on November 24, 2007.) Precautionary steps should be taken to protect and preserve your garden art so that it remains beautiful for many year

For the Love of Luffa, or is it Loufah?

(Editors Note: This article was originally published on December 9, 2008. Your comments are welcome, but please be aware that authors of previously published articles may not be able to promptly

Explaining Vegetable Families: Tomatoes, Eggplants, Potatoes and Peppers Are All Nightshades

Tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and eggplants form the backbone of many backyard gardens. These seemingly diverse crops are all members of a single plant family, the nightshades (Solanaceae). Study

Explaining Vegetable Families: Legumes (Peas and Beans)

PapilionaceaeHave you ever heard this term before? I thought not. Thats the current, though obscure, family name for what many readers already know as legumes. The legume family is enormous and

Explaining Vegetable Families: Cucumbers, Squash, Pumpkins and Melons are Cucurbits

Cucumbers, squash, melons, pumpkins: all so essential to our summer dinner tables and our vegetable gardens. All of these are members of the Cucurbitaceae plant family, commonly called "cu

Enjoy garden and nature books, but save some money for the plants

How many gardening references do you really need? How much money can you sink into your garden and nature library and still have enough to spend on seeds or binoculars? I think those are two good

Enjoy an Underwater garden, Right in Your Own Livingroom!!

Can you imagine it? A tropical paradise, lush leaves swaying gently in the breeze...er...current. Thats right, a whole world of plants that are very happy living their entire lives under water. N

Double Digging Basics

(Editors Note: This article was originally published on April 2, 2007. Your comments are welcome, but please be aware that authors of previously published articles may not be able to respond to

Do as I say, not as I do

I love my garden enough to spend almost all my free time looking for new blooms, or watching leaves unfold, smelling the flowers or just dreaming of what to plant next. The one thing I dont do mu

Dear Sheila (2), Groundbreaking time in your new veggie garden

Im so glad you liked my plans for your new vegetable garden. No, I am not so smart! I just spend (waste?) a lot of time playing in dirt, surfing my favorite gardening website, or daydreaming abou

Damage Control: Can This Plant Be Saved?

Before we left, I tried to move most container plants to shade and/or a location where they would receive water from our automated sprinkler system, and most of them did fine. However, a few othe

Cut, pot, repeat: Saving annuals for next years garden

We love annuals for their dependable waves of color. We loathe having to spend the money every spring to reap that benefit. Luckily, some annuals take very well to cutting and rooting. A minor in

Creating your own bonsai pots

Bonsai!!! You will need. Small containers. (I used plastic single serving applesauce containers) Sandpaper. (Fine grit) Clear Drying Glue. (I use Aleenes craft glue)Sand. (I used the cheap play s

Creating Height In The Garden

I love where I live. I love my gardens as well, but they are FLAT!!Over the years I have come up with some reasonably inexpensive and creative ways to add height to my gardens.The photo to the ri

Contain Your Plants - Teach Your Plants to Live In Pots, and Like It

(Editors Note: This article was originally published on April 29, 2008. Your comments are welcome, but please be aware that authors of previously published articles may not be able to promptly r

Container Gardening to The max

I have always loved having driftwood in my gardens, it helps create a more natural feel to the beds. We were walking in the woods one day and there was this beautiful, hollow log. It was up on so

Confessions of a Crude Composter

(Editors Note: This article was originally published on January 17, 2008. Your comments are welcome, but please be aware that authors of previously published articles may not be able to respond t

Compost tea, love it or leave it? You decide

Im going to tell you straight off that the value of compost tea is a subject still debated. On one side are proponents of organic methods, and producers of compost and teas. They describe healt