COMMUNITYTABLE.COM

Upcycling Outdoors: Garden Projects from Reclaimed Materials

When I received my copy of Upcycling Outdoors: 20 Creative Garden Projects Made from Reclaimed Materials, a lot of the projects appealed to me. But I have to say that I did think, “guy book.” And the perfect week to review the book would be for Father’s Day weekend.

Upcycling Outdoors is chock full of ingenious repurposing projects using what many people would consider junk—or at the very least, tired items on their way to the trashcan. You’ll find ideas, plans and instructions for a wide variety of clever creations. For instance, did you know it’s possible to make an attractive living wall using gutters? Or how about using an old suitcase and table to create an herb garden planter?

You’ll also learn how to create a firepit from bicycle wheels, make a potting shed out of vintage doors, create a mini-barbecue out of a tool chest and update old outdoor furnishings like picnic tables to give them new life and new purpose.

The author, Max McMurdo, began turning junk into treasures as a child. He occupied himself with projects such as making spaceships out of bottles. After graduating from college, he became a car designer in Cologne, Germany, and in 2003 established his business reestore ltd. The company designs and creates upcycled furniture and accessories from items destined for landfills. That led to his appearing on a variety of television shows presenting product design and repurposing. He recently hosted a National Geographic Channel TV show called Machine Impossible.

In addition to sharing the plans and steps to creating various projects, Upcycling Outdoors discusses various tips to keep in mind when designing items to be used outdoors. For instance, you’ll find advice for creating items that will stand up to the elements. There’s a section on finishes, varnishes and weathering proofing. McMurdo also offers guidance for scavenging for items to use for upcyling.

While many of the items in the book are functional—like a chair repurposed to be a swing—there are also plenty of pretty items. One of my favorites is a dressing table turned into a plant display. Plants cover the top of the dressing table and spill from the open drawers.

If you’ve been storing items that you can’t quite part with, but have lost their luster, Upcycling Outdoors may just give you the ideas and inspiration to take those treasures out, dust them off and get to work creating something masterful.

Julie Bawden-Davis is a garden writer and master gardener, who since 1985 has written for publications such as Organic Gardening, The American Gardener, Wildflower, Better Homes and Gardens and The Los Angeles Times. She is the author of 10 books, including Reader’s Digest Flower Gardening, Fairy Gardening, The Strawberry Story Series, and Indoor Gardening the Organic Way, and is the founder of HealthyHouseplants.com. Her backyard is a Certified Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation.

Project Link

Date: JUNE 15, 2018

Join the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge

A beautiful bee takes advantage of the native wildflowers. (National Wildlife Federation / Jonathan Lavan)

Whenever you see a butterfly flit through your backyard or a bee buzz about, stop and pat yourself on the back. Your garden is helping sustain the world’s pollinators. And that’s a big thing.

It turns out that pollinators—bees, butterflies, birds and bats—are responsible for one out of three bites of the food we eat. According to Cornell University, pollinators contribute a whopping $29 billion to America’s food production.

In order to help sustain our nation’s food supply, National Pollinator Garden Network was formed to inspire home gardeners and organizations to create more pollinator habitats. By this year’s National Pollinator Week, June 18-24, the organization is aiming to register one million bee-friendly gardens.

To date, 700,000 private and public gardens have been signed up all across the U.S. See where the pollinator gardens are located, including in your “neck of the woods,” at this link.

The National Pollinator Garden Network features a partnership between 50 organizations, associations and government agencies, including Pollinator Partnership, National Wildlife Federation, AmericanHort, KidsGardening.org, National Gardening Association, American Public Gardens Association, the National Garden Bureau, American Seed Trade Association and the National Park Service.

If you’re thinking that your garden couldn’t possibly make all that much of a difference for our nation’s food supply, think again, says one of the founders of the network, Mary Phillips, senior director at the National Wildlife Federation.

“The nation’s love of pollinators is paying off,” says Phillips. “Recent research shows that even small gardens can make a big difference for pollinators by increasing diversity of bee species across urban and suburban landscapes.”

According to Phillips, any size garden is helpful to pollinators and eligible to be registered.

“Every habitat of every size counts,” she says. “This includes home and community garden plots, farms, school gardens, golf courses—anywhere pollinators are planted.”

Planting a pollinator garden is easy and fun. To do so, add plants that provide nectar and pollen sources. These include just about any plant that flowers. Plant throughout the growing season, so that you have continuous blooms. You’ll also want to plant in a sunny area that includes windbreaks, so that the bees and butterflies are able to easily dine. And avoid using pesticides, as they quickly kill off all insects, defeating your purpose. Strive for an insect-friendly garden instead.

To register your garden and #beecounted, go to this link. When it asks for the referring organization in the drop-down menu, choose “The Association for Garden Communicators (GWA).” I’m a member and I’m referring you.

Project Link

Date: JUNE 15, 2018

Gardening Complete: Expert Tips for Growing Outdoor Plants

(Shutterstock)

Every gardener’s library could do with a good encyclopedia. A book where you can search for answers to big and small horticultural questions. Like when to prune ornamental grass, how to water your clay soil and what disease is killing off your tomatoes.

Sure, you could look those questions up online. But there’s something more satisfying about flipping through the pages of a big book full of beautiful photos to find the answers to your questions.

Gardening Complete: How to Best Grow Vegetables, Flowers, and Other Outdoor Plants is an up-to-date, thorough encyclopedia of gardening that walks you through the garden and many of its scenarios. In this 376-page book, you’ll find answers to just about any garden question.

In fact, the book covers so much ground that the publishing company, Cool Springs Press, called upon eight garden writers to fill the pages with their horticultural words of wisdom. The authors are Katie Elizer-Peters, Rhonda Fleming Hayes, Charlie Nardozzi, Tara Nolan, Jacqueline Soule, Lynn Steiner, Jessica Walliserand George Weigel.

Each author tackles various garden categories. For instance, you’ll learn what you need to know about weed and pest control from Walliser, how to design your gardens from Weigel and watering, fertilizing and pruning from Soule. Fleming-Hayes offers information on pollinator gardens and Nardozzi tells all about container gardening. Nolan provides a well-conceived chapter on raised beds, including their virtues, as well as tips and plans for making them.

Gardening Complete helps you understand soil, including the merits of getting a soil test and all about mulching and cover crops. If weeds tend to take over your garden, there’s plenty of good info on how to manage them. There’s an excellent chapter on controlling pests and insects and an equally good chapter on controlling diseases. These chapters include plenty of photos showing destruction by pests and diseases so that you can make an accurate diagnosis.

Another fun and informative chapter is the one on harvesting edibles. The photos of produce being harvested make you want to go out to the garden and start planting immediately. There are handy charts that explain when and how to harvest various vegetables, herbs and fruits.

In keeping with today’s views on self-sustaining gardening, there’s a chapter on gardening with native plants and another on water-wise gardening. You’ll learn about installing a gravel garden, reducing turfgrass and planting a bee lawn that attracts these vital pollinators.

The chapter on gardening for the birds and the bees covers a lot of ground. You’ll discover trees that feed caterpillars, flowers that make bird seed and trees and shrubs that produce berries that help sustain these winged creatures. To give birds somewhere to land and perch, there’s also a chapter on vertical gardening.

While Gardening Complete is intended for serious beginning to intermediate gardeners, even veteran gardeners will find many kernels of horticultural wisdom worth remembering. For instance, it used to be that a standard amendment to break up clay soil was sand. It turns out that the combo creates a mixture more like concrete.

The first chapter covers botany for gardeners, including the botanical order and what some of those hard-to-pronounce Latin and Greek names mean. By the time you finish reading the book, you’ll sound and feel like a gardening pro.

Project Link

Date: JUNE 1, 2018

Make Gardening Easy With Container Gardening Complete

(Jessica Walliser)

When I started gardening in containers a couple of decades ago, I remember thinking that I must be cheating in some way. The process was so much easier than in-ground planting, and often so much more rewarding.

I started gardening in containers out of necessity. I’d used up a lot of ground space in my Southern California garden. And then I had a lot of bare concrete that I felt needed plants. (Gardeners generally feel that any blank space—indoors or out—just cries out for a plant.)

So when I read Jessica Walliser’s Container Gardening Complete: Creative Projects for Growing Vegetables and Flowers in Small Spaces, I was happy to see that the author had summed up the beauty and magic of container gardening.

As a matter of fact, ease is one of the top things that Walliser likes about container gardening. “It’s a lot less work,” says the horticulturist and co-host of The Organic Gardeners, an award-winning program on KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh, Penn. “Growing in pots means there’s no weeding and no mulching, two of my least favorite jobs in the garden. Yes, you have to water a lot more often when growing in containers, but that’s certainly not a difficult job… as long as you remember to do it!”

Walliser became inspired to write the book to dig in deeper to the many possibilities of container gardening. “I’ve found that most books about container gardening come at the process primarily from a design standpoint, offering gorgeous photos and plant lists but little info about the nitty-gritty of how to garden in containers and be successful,” says Walliser.

“The approach I took with Container Gardening Complete was a bit different in that I wanted to create one universal place where gardeners could go for absolutely everything they want to know about growing in pots,” continues Walliser. “Yes, there are plenty of gorgeous photos and design ‘recipes,’ but there’s also a ton of practical information on how to grow everything from blueberries and peaches to dwarf herbs and tropical flowers in containers.”

Within the pages of the 272-page book, readers also learn how to overwinter containerized trees and shrubs, how to make their own potting soil, how to pick the right-sized container for each different crop and the specific names of compact fruit, veggie and flower cultivars bred just for pots.

Container gardening also allows you to grow a lot of yummy produce in limited space. Walliser illustrates this on many pages filled with unique ways to grow edibles and ornamentals in a wide variety of containers.

“Gardening in containers is super creative,” says Walliser. “I love to use a diversity of creative containers and plant combos in my garden to add interest and creativity without a lot of fuss. In the book, I feature 20 different projects that will really get the creative juices flowing. We make a concrete alternative called hypertufa, grow beets in a stand made from old CD boxes, raise berries in a galvanized tub, and there’s even a project showing you how to cultivate carnivorous plants in an old casserole dish.”

Experimentation is the name of the game when it comes to gardening in containers. “When you’re gardening in containers, if you mess something up and a plant suffers, it doesn’t negatively impact the overall aesthetics of your garden like it would if the plant was growing in the ground,” notes Walliser.

She also covers the fact that you can really push your climate’s boundaries and grow plants you might not be able to grow in the ground, such as non-hardy tropical plants. Overwintering instructions are included. You’ll also learn how to easily swap out plants, such as annuals, in containers a few times throughout the growing season, so you can experiment with different combinations and plants.

In order to help you experience success when you do experiment with container gardening, Walliser’s book contains handy charts, including ones that list the best ornamentals, herbs, vegetables, fruits and annuals for growing in containers. This is one gardening book that definitely lives up to its name.

Project Link

Date:

8 Medicinal Herbs to Grow in Your Garden

(Bonnie Plants)

On a visit to England a few years ago, I had the pleasure of spending a day at the Chelsea Physic Garden. “Ancient” by American standards, the garden is the oldest botanic garden in London, dating back to 1673.

Located next to the Thames, the four-acre parcel features about 5,000 different medicinal and edible plants, including many herbs. The garden was established way-back-when by the Apothecaries, so that they could grow and harvest medicinal plants. Today, of course, you probably go to a pharmacy for your medicines. It’s still possible to grow your own medicinal herbs for minor ailments. Mint, for instance, makes a great tea that calms the stomach. If nothing else, you can impress visitors with a tour of your medicinal herb garden! “With a trend towards a return to a more natural way of living, medicinal herbs are growing in popularity as gardeners come to recognize the breadth of benefits herbs provide,” says Stan Cope, president of the plant wholesaler Bonnie Plants, which supplies about 40 different herbs to nurseries and garden centers nationwide. A medicinal herb garden is a perfect choice for containers or raised beds. Herbs also make tasty additions to your favorite recipes, attract beneficial insects and are beautiful in their own right. Put herb transplants in your garden now and they’ll be ready to harvest immediately. Herbs actually require regular pruning to grow well. Whenever you harvest herbs, try to take off no more than one-half of the growth each time. This will allow the plant to grow back quickly. Here Cope shares a few herbs that are considered medicinal. (You should always check with your physician regarding the use of any herbs for medical purposes.) Catnip Of course, many cats love catnip. You may be unaware that humans can consume it, too. Catnip tea has been known to relieve headaches, including migraines, balance the digestive system and relieve inflammation. No worries about getting excited after drinking a cup of catnip tea. While the herb gets cats excited, it tends to relax humans. Dill This ancient medicinal herb has been used throughout the centuries for a variety of ailments, including soothing upset stomachs, calming the nerves and promoting sleep. It’s also high in vitamins, including A and C. Lavender

One of the reasons that you’ll often find lavender in sachets is its known soothing effects. Lavender tea calms and relaxes. A poultice made out of the herb has been shown to reduce minor pain and work as an antiseptic. Lemon balm A member of the mint family, this herb has a lemony scent and taste that makes for a great tea. Drinking lemon balm tea can calm the nerves and promote peaceful sleep. Mint Peppermint, spearmint and any of the many flavored mints make a delicious tea in their own right. Mint has also been used for centuries to calm upset stomachs and promote digestion, as well as for tension headaches.

(Bonnie Plants)

Rosemary Known to help boost memory, concentration and even your mood, researchers have studied this herb as a therapy for Alzheimer’s. Rosemary contains two key ingredients that are also considered anti-inflammatory and antioxidant agents—rosemarinic acid and caffeic acid. Sage Sage has been used over the centuries to help sooth sore throats and coughs, as well as help clear congestion. Some believe that tea made from sage helps reduce the length and severity of the common cold. Thyme This powerhouse herb has been found to contain antibacterial propertieseffective in treating acne. Julie Bawden-Davis is a garden writer and master gardener, who since 1985 has written for publications such as Organic Gardening, The American Gardener, Wildflower, Better Homes and Gardens and The Los Angeles Times. She is the author of 10 books, including Reader’s Digest Flower Gardening, Fairy Gardening, The Strawberry Story Series, and Indoor Gardening the Organic Way, and is the founder of HealthyHouseplants.com. Her backyard is a Certified Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation.

Project Link

Date:

Growing Heirloom Flowers

(Candy Scharf)

In many ways, heirloom flowers go hand-in-hand with Mother’s Day. These beauties are the flowers of our mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers, according to Chris McLaughlin, author of the new book, Growing Heirloom Flowers: Bring the Vintage Beauty of Heritage Blooms to Your Modern Garden.

“Heirloom flowers provide a nostalgic connection for every one of us to the gardens of our childhoods,” says McLaughlin. “Mothers are hardwired for nostalgia.” Heirloom flowers provide a gateway of sorts to cherished memories handed down through the generations.

Enjoyed and cultivated for hundreds and even thousands of years, heirloom flowers are “strictly defined as open-pollinated plants,” according to McLaughlin, who is also a master gardener and lives on a flower and fiber farm in Northern California.

(Candy Scharf)

Open-pollinated means such flowers are naturally pollinated by birds, insects, mammals and even the wind. The seeds of open-pollinated plants produce exactly the same plant again and again. Open-pollinated plants earn the heirloom title if they’ve been grown and handed down for at least 50 to 100 years.

Heirloom flowers have also earned the title of passalong plants. That means they’ve been cultivated throughout the generations. Our great-grandmothers, grandmothers and mothers (as well as great-grandfathers, grandfathers and fathers) grew these flowers and passed them along to the next generations.

If someone gives you the seeds for an heirloom flower, it’s possible to harvest and grow those seeds and start the passalong cycle with your family and friends. That means one day your great-granddaughter could be growing the same vintage dahlia, hollyhock, cosmos or statice that you’re growing in your garden today.

Full of captivating pictures, the 160-page book covers everything you need to know to plant, grow and enjoy heirloom flowers in your own garden. Forty heirloom flowers are highlighted in the book. You’ll learn all about each particular blooming beauty, including its history, how the flower became beloved and little known facts. For instance, marigolds are edible, and they make a fabulous botanical dye.

There are also plenty of fun, creative projects outlined on the book’s pages, such as how to make frozen flower ice cubes, recipes for using edible flowers and how to press and frame heirloom flowers.

Other tempting projects include how to make a summer flower crown and put together a tussie mussie bouquet. There are also tips for drying, storing and using heirloom herb favorites, like lavender.

All in all, Growing Heirloom Flowers is a treat for heirloom plant and flower lovers, and of course, mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers and daughters.

Project Link

Date: MAY 11, 2018

Vegetables Love Flowers

(Candy Scharf)

One day a couple of decades ago, my six-year daughter, Sabrina, stood in the middle of the garden with her hands on her hips and proclaimed: “This garden is great, but it’s missing something really important.”

I stopped harvesting tomatoes (one of Sabrina’s favorites), and asked, “What’s missing?”

“Flowers!”

“Are you going to help me plant some?”

“Yes!” (And she did—including seeding many flowers you can’t find in the nursery.)

Maybe if I’d had Lisa Mason Ziegler’s book, Vegetables Love Flowers: Companion Planting for Beauty and Bounty, I wouldn’t have experienced a “lecture” from my 4-foot-tall daughter. Either way, Sabrina and I began planting flowers amongst the veggies, and what do you know. The garden came alive with brilliant blooms and an even more prolific vegetable bounty.

If you want to enjoy an abundance of flowers and vegetables side-by-side in your garden and watch them boost each other’s growth and elevate the beauty of your landscape, this is a great book to get you started.

Vegetables Love Flowers does a marvelous job of taking you down the garden path of the ins and outs of companion planting. You’ll learn the many benefits of planting flowers and veggies together. Ziegler’s introduction shares her journey to becoming a cut-flower farmer after marrying into a vegetable-gardening family. She owns the Gardener’s Workshop, a small market farm in Newport News, Virginia that offers workshops on flower topics.

Says Ziegler, “…flowers are often a casualty of downsizing and practicality, but in fact, flowers more than pull their weight in the garden!” She explains that flowers are ornamental and functional at the same time. For instance, blooms lure pollinators and beneficial insects. This allows Mother Nature to provide pollination, pest control and nutritional systems. The result is a beautiful garden filled with yummy vegetables and fruits and colorful blooms.

Chapters full of tip after tip include information on keeping beneficial pollinators like bees and butterflies happy. She also discusses putting out the welcome mat for birds, which she refers to as beneficial predators.

(Candy Scharf)

You’ll discover methods for interplanting your vegetable patch with flowers and tips for how to succession plant and extend your parade of blooms season after season. Her cutting garden section offers planting, growing and harvesting advice, as well as instructions on how to preserve cut flowers and make a beautiful bouquet.

So that you can have the best luck possible when planting various flower favorites, Ziegler includes many pages featuring various flowers. These offer seed starting, growing and harvesting tips.

Vegetables Love Flowers also discusses the basics, including seeding, preparing the soil, mulching and natural pest control. All in all, a complete guide to facilitating the marriage of flowers and vegetables in your garden, so that you can sit back to eat healthy homegrown produce and watch the floral show!

Project Link

Date: MAY 4, 2018

Ed Begley Jr.’s Sustainable Organic Garden

(The Media Hound PR)

Actor and environmentalist Ed Begley Jr. started gardening accidentally back in 1970. At the time, he lived in an apartment in Los Angeles and kept his vegetable scraps in a diaper pail.

“I’d put a lid on the pail so it wouldn’t smell up the apartment. Every few days, I’d get in my little electric car and drive down to the patch of land next to the nearby railroad tracks. There I’d dig a hole and bury the scraps so they could return to the earth. The organic matter would break down into compost and even started growing vegetables like tomatoes.”

In 1979, Begley moved into his first house and started gardening intentionally. “I had a piece of dirt I could call my own, and I’ve had a good garden ever since,” he says.

(Laura Hull)

Begley grows a wide assortment of organic produce in his garden in raised beds, which he amends with his own compost. “There’s nothing like the flavor of fresh vegetables and fruit from your garden, because they’re live,” says Begley. “I currently have broccoli, lettuce, arugula, spinach, onions, artichokes, carrots and asparagus growing. I’ll soon be putting in my summer crops, including tomatoes and corn.”

He also has an assortment of fruit trees, including orange, lemon, avocado, peach, tangerine and olive.

The rest of Begley’s landscape consists of California native drought-tolerant plantings, which are an integral part of his self-sustaining green home. Built by Building Construction Group, the house is LEED Platinum Certified, which means that it’s as sustainable and eco-friendly as you can get.

“In February 2011, Ed and his wife, Rachelle, came to me and my partner, William Hefner, to share their vision of creating a classic 1920s fully solar-powered Mediterranean-looking home with the goal of it also having an integrated garden fed by rainwater all year,” says Scott Harris, co-founder of Building Construction Group. “In April 2011, we started clearing, recycling and repurposing to create one of the most respected and well-known LEED Platinum homes, completed in 2015.”

In order to meet Begley’s wish to feed the garden with rainwater in California’s dry climate, Harris and his team devised a 10,000 gallon red tank for recycling rainwater.

“We have to give Ed full credit for this request,” says Harris. “The engineering feat to make this a reality turned out to be the biggest puzzle piece to solve. For a sense of scale, the tank is nearly 30-feet-long by eight-feet-tall and buried underground!”

Harris and his team learned a great deal while installing the tank. “We discovered that the tank had to be weighted down for the days that it isn’t completely full. Otherwise, if it fills with two much air, it can become like a balloon placed underwater wanting to resurface.”

(Scott Harris)

The tank is constructed in such a manner that it will fill with just two inches of rainfall, which is a boon in a climate prone to drought. Solar-powered pumps distribute water from the tank to the vegetable and fruit gardens.

“When you consider that the local water supply has high levels of chlorine and other toxins needed for processing, rainwater is like found gold for sustaining the Begley garden,” says Harris.

One of Harris’s favorite features of the Begley residence is how the home feels.

“We’ve found that when you respect the environment, the environment doubly respects you. The first thing you notice when you walk into the Begley home is how fresh the air is, because we filtered out standard building materials filled with VOCs (volatile organic compounds) that off-gas harmful toxins. The home is filled with light, but not heat, which is due to the hidden thermal massing and air gap surrounding the structure.”

The simple, sustainable design creates an unforgettable atmosphere, says Harris. “You experience a sense of calm as you walk through the home and into the blooming garden. Or, if you’re lucky, Ed may be there, smiling at you, sharing his favorite recipe and offering samples of his freshly brined olives he harvested just days ago from the rain-tank-fed olive tree.”

Project Link

Date: APRIL 27, 2018

Time to Prep Your Garden for Spring!

(FreeImages.com/Sean Ritchie)

Spring may not quite be in the air yet, depending on where you live, but it truly is just around the garden path. Time to prepare your yard and garden now, so that you can enjoy Mother Nature’s parade of flowers, fruits and veggies when warm weather comes.

“Spring is the time to ensure your lawn and garden is healthy through the summer and fall. To enjoy spending time outside in your thick, green grass and with beautiful flowers or fruits/vegetables, you’ll need to set the stage by removing weeds and other debris and making sure your grass and soil are ready for growing,” says Ashleigh Lemon, research specialist at Scotts Miracle-Gro.

Here are some tips from lawn and garden experts for prepping your garden for spring’s fling.

Prepare your soil

“Pick up a handful of soil and squeeze it,” says Lemon. “If it crumbles easily, you can start preparing your beds. If it sticks together in a clump, it’s still too wet to work in. It’s best to wait another week or two for more winter moisture to evaporate.”

If the soil is dry enough to work with, Lemon says to prepare the beds for flowers and vegetables by removing dead plants and weeds. Then work in compost. You may also want to apply a pre-emergent weed preventer at this time, which will prevent weeds later in the season.

Edge your beds

“Cut a clean edge where planting beds meet the lawn,” says Lemon. “Use a flat-bladed spade or a lawn edger made for this purpose, cutting deeply enough to sever grass roots growing into the bed.”

Rake

“Kick off the growing and mowing season with a quick spring cleaning,” says Phil Dwyer, turfgrass scientist, also at Scotts Miracle-Gro. “Grab a lawn rake to clean out any brown, matted grass areas and dead remnants of annual grassy weeds, like crabgrass, goosegrass and barnyard grass. After you pick up sticks, use a mulching mower to recycle tree leaves, twigs and grass back into the lawn.”

Apply mulch

“As temperatures warm up, it’s time to refresh mulch for the growing season,” says Dwyer. “Shredded mulch provides a polished finish to planting beds and also prevents weeds from taking hold. Add a 2- to 3-inch layer around (but not on top of) your plants and keep a bare area ring between mulch and tree trunks.”

Mow your lawn

“Few people want an overgrown lawn when the weather warms,” says Wayne Archer, technical author at Sears PartsDirect. “Not only does it look unappealing, but the grass can dry out if it gets too tall, and that’ll get in the way of you enjoying walking or sitting on it. Plus, who doesn’t love the look and smell of freshly-cut grass in the spring.”

Before you mow the lawn, tune up your lawnmower, advises Archer. “Servicing your lawnmower includes giving it a good cleaning, replacing fuel with clean, fresh fuel, changing the oil and filter, cleaning or replacing the air filter, changing the spark plugs, checking the tires and sharpening the blades.

“If you have a riding lawn mower, consider that it’s similar to a car,” adds Archer. “Riding lawnmowers need regular service and care if they’re going to last and keep your yard healthy.”

Whatever type of lawnmower you have, if you perform basic maintenance and repair, you can expect the mower to last seven to 10 years.

Mow high

“Double-check your mower deck height and position it to cut grass at the highest possible setting for your grass type,” suggests Dwyer. “The higher you set your mower, the deeper your roots will grow.”

Patch and thicken your lawn

“Repair bare spots in both cool- and warm-season turf,” advises Dwyer. “Timing is crucial for success. Aim for an early spring seeding for cool-season grass and a late spring sowing for warm-season grass. If your lawn is worn and thin, thicken it by overseeding.”

Project Link

Date: APRIL 13, 2018

Kids Garden Month: Enter the Dream Big Contest

(KidsGardening.org)

April is Kids Garden Month. The folks at KidsGardening want to hear from children and teens about their dream gardens. In exchange for sharing their hopes when it comes to Mother Nature’s bounty, the organization is awarding a series of prizes.

Established 35 years ago, KidsGardening is a leading resource for garden-based educators throughout the country. The nonprofit organization is dedicated to helping young people become connected to their food and its origins. This encourages environmental stewardship and improves nutritional attitudes, as well as fosters the social and emotional learning that comes from tending the earth.

“Kids are naturally curious and full of wonder,” says Maree Gaetani, director of strategic initiatives for KidsGardening. “Our organization creates opportunities for them to learn through gardening by providing inspiration, community know-how and resources. Partnering with educators nationwide, we reach more than 90,000 each month with curriculum and lesson plans, grant funding and inspirations to get kids involved in the garden.”

Dream Big Contest Entry Details

The Dream Big Contest is meant to spark the imagination of kids and drive creative expression and community engagement. The contest is open to gardeners from ages 0-18. Entries can be submitted by individuals, or by a group or class.

Requirements: Submit a photo, song, video, artwork, essay or poem expressing the entrant’s dream garden. Cover topics such as what grows in the dream garden, who visits and why the child loves the garden. If the entrant is too young to write but wants to include words, an adult can caption the entry, although it’s not required.

Entries can be submitted by tagging on social media at hashtag #KidsGardenMonth (KidsGardening.org); email to info@kidsgardening.org or snail mail at KidsGardening, 132 Intervale Rd., Burlington, VT 05401. Worldwide entries are welcome, but only U.S. entries are eligible for prizes. The contest runs until April 30, 2018.

Each week KidsGardening will choose a favorite entry to receive a prize package of kids gardening gear. Those entries will also be eligible for the grand prizes. At the end of the month, KidsGardening will award two grand prize winners. Those will go to an individual and then to a class or group.

The grand prizes are two $250 gift cards to Gardener’s Supply Company, so that the winners can make their dream gardens a reality. Weekly awardees will be announced via social media on Tuesdays: (4/9, 4/16, 4/23, 5/1).

Project Link

Date: APRIL 6, 2018

Feed the Birds with Your Kids

(FreeImages/Ali Taylor)

Looking for a quick and easy activity you can enjoy with your kids that will tap them into the wonders of Mother Nature? Feed the birds.

“Feeding the birds is a great way to get your kids to ditch their devices and go outdoors,” says Elaine Cole, president of Cole’s Wild Bird Products. Cole’s father, Richard Cole, founder of the company and a birding expert, inspired her love of wild birds and feeding them.

“Interacting with nature helps kids in so many ways,” says Cole. “Feeding birds helps them understand science concepts. They also learn how important it is to care for our environment and its creatures.”

An easy and really enjoyable way to teach kids about caring for Mother Nature and her inhabitants is to feed the birds with your kids. Here are some tips for doing so.

Decide on a location for the birdfeeder

Explain to your child that some locations are better than others for birdfeeders. You want to choose a location where the feeder can be seen from indoors so that you can all enjoy watching your feathered friends feast.

It’s also important that the feeder is safe from predators. That means hanging them several feet away from shrubs where predators could hide. It also means placing them in or near trees where birds can take shelter.

Talk about bird nutrition

Talking about bird nutrition is good for your kids and the birds. Explain to them how good nutrition is just as important for birds as it is for them. The proper amount of nutrients will help the birds stay healthy and energized.

Not all wild birds require the same type of food. Some eat bugs, grubs and worms, while others like seeds and berries. When feeding wild birds in your yard, your best bet is to put out a variety of bird foods. These include things like dried meal worms, seeds, like black oil sunflower seeds, nuts and suet, the latter of which provides birds with necessary fats.

Consider types of bird feeders

The feeder you choose will influence the type of birds that visit your garden. There are bowl type bird feeders with an open shape that makes it easy for kids to fill the bowl. This type of design is also handy, because it allows several birds to feed at once.

You’ll also find tube-type birdfeeders that are good if you don’t have a lot of time. You generally don’t have to refill the tube for several days. Such tubes are also pretty to look at—as you can see all of the birdfeed. You could even make your own birdfeeder. Try attaching a teacup to the top of a long pole. The most important thing is that you get out there and feed the birds.

“I got hooked on bird feeding when my dad challenged me to identify as many birds as possible in our bird feeders,” says Cole. “I’ve done the same thing with my kids. My 10-year-old daughter is now journaling about birds in a journal my dad gave her. She loves feeding the birds and identifying them, as well as noting interesting things about them.”

Project Link

Date: MARCH 29, 2018

National Plant a Flower Day

(Freeimages.com/canna w)

It’s National Plant a Flower Day. Time to start thinking about the kinds of flowers you want in your spring garden.

In general, there are five categories of flowers—annuals, perennials, biennials, bulbs and flowering shrubs and vines. A well-balanced flower garden often contains a mixture of these five types of plants.

Annual flowers

The term annual is a bit deceiving. Most annual flowers don’t last a year, as their name suggests, but a season. For instance, snapdragons are a cool weather crop that will last for several months during the cool weather. Petunias, on the other hand, like the heat, so they will grow throughout the spring and summer months.

Annual flowers that you’ll see gracing many gardens include marigold, zinnia, cosmos and lobelia.

Perennial flowers

Here is another deceptive name for flowers. Perennial gives the impression that the flowers will last indefinitely, but many perennial flowers tend to last for just three to five years. There are exceptions, but it’s good to know this if you have a columbine that seems to suddenly die back one day.

Popular perennial flowers include yarrow, alstromeria, allium, aster, begonia, canna, mum, geranium, strawflower (short-lived), bee balm, alyssum, lupine (short-lived) and candytuft.

Biennial flowers

Biennial flowers last for just two growing seasons. One of the most well-known of biennials is foxglove. Keep in mind that if you find a well-established biennial in the nursery, it may have already gone through one growing season. That means when you put the flower in your garden, you’re only going to get one year of growth from it.

Other popular biennial flowers include Canterbury bells, forget-me-not, hollyhock, lunaria, Sweet William and stock.

(Freeimages.com/Dan Champion)

One way to prolong your biennial flowers is to plant them by seed. That way you’ll get two full seasons of growth and blooms. Plant biennials every season and you’ll keep your garden full of blooms.

Bulbs

True bulbs and bulbous plants make up a broad range of flowering beauties. All bulb-like plants grow from swollen underground plant structures that store their own nutrients. That means that tulips, for instance, have everything within them to grow and flower.

If you want bulbs to come back year after year, plant those that naturalize. This refers to bulbs that keep returning. Examples of bulbs that naturalize, depending on your geographic region, include bleeding heart, clivia, oxalis, crocus, gladiola and some iris and narcissus.

Flowering shrubs and vines

Many flowering shrubs and vines grow indefinitely, although there are some that are annual, such as morning glory and moonflower. Some vines are also perennial or biennial. These include black-eyed Susan and perennial sweet pea.

Roses are the queen of flowering shrubs. Other popular flowering shrubs include camellia, azalea, rhododendron, abutilon, forsythia, fuchsia, gardenia, hydrangea, lilac, hibiscus and plumeria. Some vines that last indefinitely include wisteria, bougainvillea, passion vine, honeysuckle, mandevilla and many jasmine.

Project Link

Date: MARCH 12, 2018

Potted and Pruned: Living a Gardening Life

(FreeImages.com/Mats Heyman)

When I read Carol Michel’s book, Potted and Pruned: Living a Gardening Life, I was reminded of a spring evening several years ago. As I walked towards my back door after a marathon day in the garden, I overheard my kids talking about me. They’d been waiting for me to finish gardening so we could eat dinner together.

“She said she’d be in an hour ago,” said my son, Jeremy.

“I knew this was going to happen,” my daughter, Sabrina, replied. “She always does this when she’s in the garden. I’ll be there in a minute really means I’ll be there in an hour.”

“You guys haven’t learned yet?” replied Jeremy’s twin brother, Danny. “I had a snack.”

At that point, I walked in and thanked them for taking dinner out of the oven a few minutes earlier. (Okay, full disclosure. They’d taken the dinner out an hour before. It was night, not evening, and the dinner was cold and had to be reheated.)

Michel does a brilliant job of capturing such fun facts about gardeners–including their warped sense of time in the garden–in her book of gardening essays.

I chuckled when I read her chapter “Time in a Garden.” She begins the chapter with these wise words. “It is true what the philosophers tell us: Time does stand still in a garden. This fact alone shapes how gardeners define time and their definitions are quite different than those used by people outside of the garden… We know from observation that total elapsed time for just a minute in a garden is often as long as 30 minutes outside of the garden.”

Project Link

Date: FEBRUARY 28, 2018

5 Common Houseplant Pests and Organic Controls

(Pixabay / Manfred Richter)

How to Control the 5 Most Common Houseplant Pests

During the long, cold days of winter, houseplant pests often decide to throw a dinner party—and your houseplants are the main course.

If you’re suddenly seeing mealybugs on your pothos and scale on your ficus, you’re not alone. The combination of slow winter growth and soil that dries out slowly after watering invites these pests. Whatever the reason, it’s important to stop their invasion before it gets out of control.

Here are five common houseplant pests and how to control them using organic methods. It’s important to note that the goal is to control—not completely eradicate—them. Accepting their presence as part of indoor gardening makes it easier to manage them to tolerable levels.

1. Fungus Gnats

Fungus gnats look like fruit flies and hover around your face. However, it’s their larvae that damage your plants. Thriving in moist soil, they feed on decaying material and plant roots, which can cause wilting and root rot.

To control fungus gnats:

Use yellow sticky traps to catch adults.
Let the top 1–2 inches of soil dry out to kill larvae.
Increase air circulation around plants.
Repot the plant using fresh soil if necessary.

2. Mealybugs

These pests look like they’re covered in white cotton. They suck sap from leaves and excrete a sticky residue that attracts sooty mold and ants. Mealybugs are tough to remove because they lay eggs beneath their bodies for protection.

Mealybugs often hide in leaf joints and unfurling leaves. Larger infestations spread to stems and both sides of leaves, causing leaf loss and weakening the plant.

To control mealybugs:

Spray with isopropyl alcohol or horticultural oil.
Rinse pests off with water after spraying.
Repeat treatment every 2–3 days for two weeks, then as needed.

3. Scale

Scale insects appear as brown, oval bumps on stems and the undersides of leaves. They feed on plant sap and produce a sticky substance that attracts mold. As a result, leaves yellow and fall off, and the plant becomes weakened.

To control scale:

Remove them manually by rubbing them off or rinsing with water.
Apply horticultural oil, alcohol spray, or insecticidal soap.
Repeat treatment every 5–7 days for a month, then as needed.

4. Spider Mites

Spider mites are minuscule pests, visible only with a hand lens. They congregate on the undersides of leaves and produce fine webbing. By sucking plant juices, they cause yellow, spotted leaves that eventually drop. They thrive in hot, dry conditions.

To control spider mites:

Rinse plants thoroughly with water.
Increase humidity around the plant. Learn how to boost humidity.
Use insecticidal soap or horticultural oil. (Only oil kills spider mite eggs.)

5. Thrips

Thrips are small, long-bodied insects with fringed wings that cause silver-colored, serpentine marks on leaves. They also leave tiny black droppings (frass) as they feed.

To control thrips:

Increase humidity, as thrips prefer dry conditions.
Rinse the plant thoroughly with water.
Use blue sticky traps—they’re attracted to blue.
Apply alcohol spray, insecticidal soap, or neem oil.

Julie Bawden-Davis is a garden writer and master gardener who has written for publications such as Organic Gardening, The American Gardener, Better Homes and Gardens, and The Los Angeles Times since 1985.

She is the author of 10 books, including Fairy Gardening, The Strawberry Story Series, and Indoor Gardening the Organic Way. She is also the founder of HealthyHouseplants.com.

Her backyard is a Certified Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation.

Project Link

Date: FEBRUARY 28, 2018

Decorate Your Indoor Garden with Air Plants

(Julie Bawden-Davis)

Looking for an unusual houseplant that is sure to be a conversation starter? Try growing and displaying tillandsias indoors.

Commonly known as air plants, tillandsias are unusual, eye-catching plants that use their root systems to attach themselves to trees and other vertical elements. Air plants comprise the largest genus in the bromeliad (pineapple) family. There are about 550 tillandsias, which are native to a wide variety of climates, from the jungles to arid desert environments.

Tillandsias are epiphytes. That means they take in moisture and nutrients through their leaves, rather than their roots. Because of this, you can mount them on just about anything. This includes attaching them to wood or hanging them from large floor plants. Or you can simply stick them in an empty vase. Whatever you do, the tillandsia’s striking, spiky, architectural leaves make quite a statement in the home.

You’ll find a wide variety of tillandsias to choose from once you start looking. There are plants that grow in a ball-form, while others tend to spread out. Some are green, while others feature gray tones. Many tillandsias flower at some point during the year. The unusual flowers, which come in a wide range of colors, including pink, purple and fuschia, are always a delight to see.

Tillandsias are easy-to-grow plants that adapt to most indoor growing environments. To have luck growing tillandsias in your indoor garden, keep the following tips in mind.

(Julie Bawden-Davis)

Provide adequate lighting

Air plants do best grown in bright, indirect light. Place them in an eastern window or within 2 to 3 feet of a western window. They also do well when grown under artificial lighting. Avoid growing them in dimly lit conditions.

Grow in warm temperatures

Since air plants tend to come from warm climates, they don’t do well when temperatures in your home dip below 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Avoid putting them in drafty areas, such as near open windows or doorways where cold air enters.

Water regularly

Air plants require regular watering. Those with shiny, flatter, green leaves tend to require watering more frequently than those varieties that feature curved, stiff, grayish-green foliage.

Water once to twice a week with warm tap water or rainwater. Avoid using softened water, as that is high in salts and will damage tillandsias.

To water, either mist with a spray bottle or dunk the plant in water. If you have forgotten to water an air plant and it’s particularly dry, let it soak in water for an hour. After soaking tillandsias, shake off excess water.

Fertilize periodically

Feed air plants monthly by spraying or dunking them in a solution that contains orchid or tillandsia fertilizer. Don’t fertilize a dry plant. Soak tillandsias before feeding.

Project Link

Date: FEBRUARY 16, 2018

Chinese Evergreen a Reliable, Decorative Houseplant

(Costa Farms)

If you’re looking for an eye-catching houseplant that does well in a wide range of lighting conditions, try growing Chinese evergreen (Aglaonema). This easy-to-grow plant tolerates just about every indoor condition, says Costa Farm’sgarden expert Justin Hancock. “Chinese evergreen is one of the toughest indoor plants you’ll find, yet it’s also one of the most beautiful.”

You’ll find a wide variety of leaf patterns and colors in Chinese evergreen—from rich green, to green and white, to silver patterns and even red. “When Aglaonemagets enough light, it also blooms with cute, calla-lily-like flowers,” says Hancock.

(Costa Farms)

Young, small Chinese evergreen make great desk and tabletop plants, as well as adding a nice touch to terrariums. As the plant grows, it lends an attractive accent to hard-to-decorate areas of the home, such as room corners. The colorful leaves give you a variety of decorating possibilities in terms of matching the plants to upholstery and the containers in which you plant them.

In addition to being a pretty addition to your décor, Chinese evergreen is one of the top houseplant indoor air-cleaners.

To successfully grow Chinese evergreen in your indoor garden, keep the following growing tips in mind.

Provide proper lighting. Chinese evergreen can grow in bright light but does best in low to medium light. Place the plant too close to a southern or western window and the leaves may scorch. It grows well in an eastern or southern window or other areas of the home that have medium to low lighting.

Water when necessary. Chinese evergreen should stay moist, but not soggy. Water only when the top ½- to 1-inch of soil has dried out.

10-inch-aglaonema-silver-bay-2008-in-mod-pot-large-for-page

(Costa Farms)

Fertilize regularly. Every month, feed Chinese evergreen with an organic houseplant fertilizer. In addition, top-dress the plant every six months with a ½-inch layer of worm compost. Doing this enriches the soil, giving the plant vital micronutrients.

Add humidity. Chinese evergreen require between 50 to 60 percent humidity. You can raise the humidity level around the plant by misting several times a day and/or adding a humidity tray. Grouping plants together also raises the humidity level for all of them.

Watch the temperature. Aglaonema is susceptible to cold and drafty conditions. They prefer to be in rooms that remain around 65 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

Pests. Chinese evergreen is susceptible to mealybugs. If you find these white, cottony bugs on your plants, spray them with isopropyl alcohol and rinse off once the alcohol dries.

Julie Bawden-Davis is a garden writer and master gardener, who since 1985 has written for publications such as Organic Gardening, The American Gardener, Wildflower, Better Homes and Gardens and The Los Angeles Times. She is the author of seven books, including Reader’s Digest Flower Gardening, Fairy Gardening, The Strawberry Story Series, and Indoor Gardening the Organic Way, and is the founder of HealthyHouseplants.com.

Project Link

Date: FEBRUARY 12, 2017

Coming Up Roses: New Floral Introductions

The new Roald Dahl roses from David Austin. (David Austin)

It’s February. When you’re a gardener, right about now the daydreaming begins. Of warm spring days spent in the garden amongst aromatic, colorful flowers. In your mind, bees buzz about; butterflies flutter here and there and hummingbirds make their appearance to dine on blooms.

Of course, in most areas of the country, the garden is still asleep. There’s two or three months to wait for spring’s horticultural concert. You can, though, take a trip down the garden path of your imagination by admiring and maybe ordering some up-and-coming roses from top rose breeders. The following easy-on-the-eyes roses can make a nice addition to your spring garden.

David Austin

For the last 60 years, David Austin has developed a line of award-winning English Roses. The beauties combine the charm and heady fragrances of Old Roses with the wider color range and repeat-flowering habit of modern roses.

Austin’s roses are known for their vigor and reliability. They feature a graceful, shrubby growing habit and are ideal for many gardening situations, including mixed borders and large containers. Many varieties respond well to being trained to climb.

(David Austin)

The new ‘Roald Dahl’ features a delicious tea rose fragrance. The flower is an eye-catching peach color to honor Dahl, the writer of James and the Giant Peach, says Michael Marriott, the company’s technical director and senior rosarian.

In addition to being gorgeous and aromatic, the ‘Roald Dahl’ rose is a strong repeat bloomer and very disease-resistant. Marriott notes that the book was published in 1961, which was the same year that Austin introduced his first English Rose, ‘Constance Spry.’

Also enjoy gazing upon ‘Imogen.’ This rose has soft lemon-yellow flowers featuring frilled petals arranged around a classic button eye. The plant is a free bloomer and grows into a sturdy, upright shrub.

‘Bathsheba’ is a climbing rosebush featuring repeat blooms of large apricot flowers. The blooms have a myrrh fragrance.

Jackson & Perkins

Founded in 1872 by Charles Perkins, Jackson & Perkins is one of the oldest U.S. rose breeders. The company began selling roses before the turn of the century, but it wasn’t until 1901 that they had their first rose success. The rose was hybridized by E. Alvin Miller, who started hybridizing in 1896. His variety, a climber named ‘Dorothy Perkins,’ became one of the most widely planted roses in the world. That success prompted the company to focus solely on roses.

(Jackson & Perkins)

The new Jackson and Perkins ‘Soaring to Glory’ floribunda rose was hybridized in honor of 70 years of service by the United States Air Force. The bush features buttery-yellow flowers that have a spicy scent. It reaches just over 3 feet in height and width.

To honor the 150^th anniversary of Jackson and Perkins’ sister company, Park Seed, they are introducing the new floribunda, ‘La Park.’ The plant features apricot-peach and pink blooms on the same plant—no two flowers are the same. It grows up to 4 feet high and becomes covered in colorful blooms.

Park Seed was founded back in 1868 in La Park, Pennsylvania by a 15-year-old named George W. Park, who started the company to sell seeds harvested from his backyard.

Anthony Tesselaar Plants

The Flower Carpet Rose from Anthony Tesselaar Plants is known for its ability to grow in just about any growing condition. These easy-to-grow roses thrive in humidity, high heat and even drought once they’re established. They’re also pest- and disease-resistant.

(Tesselaar USA)

The new generation of Flower Carpet Roses is even more free-blooming. You’ll have roses throughout the entire growing season. You’ll find the new generation of Flower Carpet roses in three eye-catching varieties: ‘Scarlet,’ ‘Pink Supreme’ and ‘Amber.’

Weeks Roses

Weeks Roses was founded in 1938 by O.L. and Verona Weeks in Ontario, California, who sold the business in 1985. The company is a top U.S. rose breeder with more than 1,200 acres of production facilities in the San Joaquin Valley.

(Weeks Roses)

New from Weeks’ Roses is the ‘Top Gun Shrub Rose.’ This rose is the first and only variety that’s resistant to Rose Rosette disease. The plant has a rounded, bushy habit and features deep red, long-lasting flowers. In addition to being disease-resistant, it’s easy to grow.

Project Link

Date: FEBRUARY 9, 2018

Watering Your Houseplants with Snow or Rain

(Freeimages.com/Pawel Kornacki)

This winter when it’s snowing or raining outside, collect some liquid from the sky for your houseplants. Rain and snow water is an elixir for indoor plants.

Rain and snow contain a dilute form of nitric acid, which is a natural form of fertilizer. It can make your houseplants greener and healthier. Snow and rain are also on the acidic side, which many indoor plants prefer. If thunder and lightning occur, the rain is even more potent.

Here are some tips for gathering rain and snow water and using it to benefit your houseplants.

Water houseplants with snow

Scoop snow into a bucket and pack it tightly. Bring it indoors and set it in a bathtub or sink to melt. Wait until the water reaches room temperature of 70 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit before using it to water. (Studies have shown that cold water on houseplants leads to root damage and leaf spotting.)

Catching rainwater

Use any vessel available to catch rainwater when it’s coming down. This can include buckets, watering cans with a wide opening, jugs or trashcans. Bring the rainwater indoors and let it reach room temperature before using it for watering.

(Freeimages.com/Bas van den Wijngaard)

You can water orchids with snow. Form the snow into little snowballs and place it on top of the orchid bark away from foliage. The snow will slowly melt and moisten the orchid bark. Be careful not to overwater orchids or any of your houseplants.

Filter snow and rainwater

If there is any visible debris in the snow or rainwater, it’s a good idea to filter it before using. This can help prevent soil borne pests and diseases. Use a fine-meshed strainer to filter the water.

Avoid overwatering houseplants

With the cold, wet weather outside, it’s important not to overwater your houseplants. Indoor plants grow more slowly at this time of year and therefore use less water. Always check a houseplant to make sure it requires wateringbefore doing so. Use a moisture meter or your finger, or pick the plant up to see if it’s dry.

Project Link

Date: JANUARY 30, 2018

The Pallet Book: DIY Garden Projects

(Chris Marshall)

If you do your part when it comes to recycling, you might be inspired by this statistic. According to the U.S. Forest Service, there are two billion pallets in use at any given time in the U.S., and more than 100 million are thrown out each year.

The next time you come across a pallet, think about using it for a cool garden project. But first get yourself a copy of The Pallet Book: DIY Projects for the Home, Garden, and Homestead. Written by home improvement and design author, Chris Peterson, this comprehensive 144-page book gives you step-by-step instructions for a wide variety of ingenious home and garden projects using pallets.

The Pallet Book begins by introducing you to the world of pallets, including the types and sizes. Peterson also touches on where to find pallets. From there you’ll learn how to modify and finish them for specific purposes.

(Chris Marshall)

Pallet planters

In addition to providing a ready growing ground, planters enhance your garden. Indoors, planters are a great place to grow indoor trees. The book gives instructions for making your own planter that takes a minimal amount of cutting and fabrication.

Raised beds

Raised bed gardening is a great way to grow veggies and flowers. Doing so cuts down on weeding. If you make the bed tall enough, it also saves your back from having to lean over.

Using pallets, it’s possible to make an attractive and functional raised bed. Peterson even shows you how to construct a square foot raised bed, which creates a well-organized garden. He also provides instructions for making an elevated raised bed that can be accessed via wheelchair.

So that you have nutrient-rich compost to add to your raised bed, you can also make a compost bin out of pallets. It’s even possible to build yourself a cold frame.

(Chris Marshall)

Accessories and furniture

Pallets make fun signs and decorations. They’re also a great material for making furniture. Peterson shares instructions for creating a wide variety of garden furniture pieces. These include a chaise lounge, patio loveseat, hammock and porch swing.

Once you’ve finished decorating your outdoors with pallets, you can move indoors. Peterson’s book offers instructions for using pallets to make items like a bookshelf, toy bin, spice rack, table, kitchen island and much more.

Project Link

Date: JANUARY 24, 2018

How to Divide Your Houseplants

Dividing-The Houseplant Handbook-resized

(From The Houseplant Handbook by Janet Peace, Hot Tomato Communications)

If you have a houseplant that requires repotting, you might also be able to divide it. Some plants are easy to propagate by dividing their roots. When you do this, you end up with two or more plants from an existing one.

Plants suitable for dividing tend to be ones that grow in clumps or form multiple crowns (growth centers) and have several stems. Here are some houseplants that respond well to dividing.

(Freeimages.com/Mary Ellen Rynes)

African violet

Cast-iron plant (Aspidistra elatior)

Chinese evergreen

Ferns

Fittonia

Never-Never plant (Ctenanthe)

Palm

Peace lily (Spathiphyllum wallisii)

Peacock plant (Goeppertia makoyana)

Piggyback plant (Tolmiea menziesii)

Prayer plant (Maranta leuconeura)

Sansevieria

Spider plant (Chlorphytum comosum)

When to divide a houseplant

A houseplant should be well-established and have enough roots and top growth to support being divided. It’s often a good idea to divide a plant when it’s become pot-bound. At this point it will often readily respond.

To determine if a plant is a good candidate for division, take it out of its pot and inspect the roots. If they’re dense and the roots are intertwined and there is enough top growth to sustain two or more plants, it can be divided.

Steps to dividing a houseplant

1. Take the plant out of the container and shake off the soil. Examine the plant from all sides to see where to cut the roots. All sections should have plenty of roots and healthy growth on top.

2. Next, separate the roots. Sometimes you can do this by gently pulling the roots apart. If the roots are too closely knitted together, use a clean, sharp knife and cut through the roots to separate. Make sure to provide each of the sections with adequate roots and top growth. At this time, also cut out any diseased or dead growth.

3. Transplant divisions immediately. Repot each section in organic, well-draining potting soil. When you are finished repotting, the plant should equal one-third of the plant/pot combination.

4. Keep the plant moist but not soggy as it becomes established. You’ll know that the plant is established when it puts on new growth.

Project Link

Date: JANUARY 12, 2018

Green Your Community with a GRO1000 Grassroots Grant

(Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation)

In an effort to green 1,000 communities, the Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation created the GRO1000 Grassroots Grants award program eight years ago. Now in its final year, the grant program is open for applications until February 19.

Grants of up to $1,500 will be awarded to nonprofit organizations dedicated to greening neighborhoods through community gardens and greenspaces.

The aim of the program, which culminates this year with Scotts Miracle-Gro’s 150^thanniversary, is to award communities helping to bring pollinator habitats, edible gardens and green spaces to neighborhoods across the nation. The program gives priority to greenspaces that significantly benefit youth.

(Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation)

By this spring, the GRO1000 program will have funded the creation or enhancement of 1,000 community greenscapes in every state in the U.S. Since its inception, the GRO1000 program has provided funding assistance to 12.7 million square feet of existing greenspace and 14,400 new garden beds.

Annually, the GRO1000 gardens donate an estimated 560,000 pounds equaling 2.9 million meals of produce. The gardens have also helped connect more than 205,000 youths across America with meaningful encounters and experiences with nature.

“The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation is dedicated to connecting people with the life-enhancing benefits of gardens, gardening and nature,” says Jim King, president and chairman of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation. “It’s been a great honor to improve hundreds of neighborhoods and thousands of lives through the development of these community gardens and greenspaces.”

According to King, the mission of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation is to help create healthier communities, empower the next generation and preserve our planet. The Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization that funds non-profit entities that support its core initiatives in the form of grants, endowments and multi-year capital gifts.

In the coming weeks, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation will announce plans for its milestone 1,000th garden dedication and its continued work to support communities through the development of gardens and greenspaces.

The 2018 GRO1000 Grassroots Grants application is available online now. The deadline for application submission is Friday, February 19, 2018. Grants will be awarded based on youth engagement, community impact, harvest donation and sustainability, among other criteria. Winners of the $500 to $1,500 grants will be announced on the first day of spring, March 20, 2018.

(Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation)

Project Link

Date: JANUARY 5, 2018

Grow Dieffenbachia in Your Indoor Garden

(Julie Bawden-Davis)

If you’re interested in growing a houseplant that takes very little care and can survive neglect common during busy times of the year, treat yourself to a dieffenbachia. This easy-to-grow houseplant also does a good job of cleaning your indoor air.

The eye-catching oval foliage of the dieffenbachia is variegated, which makes it a great decorator plant. The interior of the long, green leaves tend to be splashed with yellow, white or cream-colored dots and markings. The brighter the lighting in your home, the more variegated the leaves will be. Under ideal conditions indoors, dieffenbachia can reach five feet tall with leaves that stretch three feet long.

(Julie Bawden-Davis)

Commonly called dumbcane or Mother-in-law’s tongue, dieffenbachia gets these nicknames from the fact that the plant’s sap contains calcium oxalate. These are tiny crystals similar to fiberglass. When the foliage is consumed, the crystals cut the interior of the throat and can cause intense swelling and pain. Eating the leaves can literally strike you dumb.

If you have young children or pets who like to nibble, dieffenbachia is probably not a good choice for your indoor garden.

To have luck growing dieffenbachia in your indoor garden, keep the following growing tips in mind.

Locate in a warm, humid area of the home

Dieffenbachia is a tropical plant that prefers warm, moist conditions. Place the plant in an area of the home that’s warm and humid, such as a well-lit bathroom. If the plant leaves become edged in brown, the air may be too dry. Relocate the dieffenbachia, or increase the humidity around the plant.

Provide bright light

Dieffenbachia does best in medium light. Adequate light will lead to colorful variegation and quick, healthy growth. On the other hand, dieffenbachia can be grown in low light. In lower lighting, the plant will grow more slowly and tends to have more solid green foliage.

Water correctly

Dieffenbachia is susceptible to root rot caused by soggy soil. An infected plant may appear to be healthy, until the base becomes mushy and the plant falls over.

Only water dieffenbachia when the top one to two inches of soil has dried out. If you’re in doubt about watering, wait another day and check again. When you water, use lukewarm water and soak the soil. Let the pot drain well.

(Julie Bawden-Davis)

Fertilize regularly

Feed dumbcane once every one to two months. Use an organic houseplant fertilizer designed for foliage plants. Dieffenbachia is susceptible to dry leaf tips, which can be caused by high salts found in chemical fertilizers.

Watch for pests

Dieffenbachia can fall victim to scale and mealybugs. Pests usually attack when plants are weakened from being grown in less than ideal conditions—such as inadequate lighting. If you find these pests on dieffenbachia, spray with isopropyl alcohol, insecticidal soap spray or horticultural oil.

Project Link

Date: DECEMBER 22, 2017

Quick and Easy Garden Composting

(Freeimages.com/Mike Berg)

You know that compost is good for your garden. It builds the health of your soil and leads to lush plants and abundant crops. But every time you look into starting a compost pile, you get a bit overwhelmed.

First of all, take a big breath. And then consider this. Composting “just happens” out in nature. Although there’s a lot of science behind how this occurs, the bottom line is that leaves fall from trees and plants, hit the ground and decompose. This process creates compost that nourishes the soil. The soil then nourishes the plants. And then the cycle repeats.

The following method of composting is quick and easy to do. You can set up this system over the winter and have nutrient-rich compost ready come spring or summer, depending on your climate.

Create a compost bin

Get a plastic 32-gallon garbage can with a lid. Drill ¼-inch holes every five inches in the bottom, sides and top of the bin. The holes provide air circulation, which is needed to create compost. Place the bin in a sunny location of the yard. In spring and summer, put the can in a semi-shade location.

If you live in an area that experiences freezing temperatures, put the trashcan up against the house. It will soak up heat from the house that can prevent the contents from freezing. If freezing does occur, no worries. Remember that freezing occurs out in nature and composting still occurs. The process is just slowed down some.

Gather composting ingredients

Although this part can seem a bit confusing, all you need to remember is that you need “green” nitrogen and “brown” carbon sources to create compost. Nitrogen items include scraps from fruits and vegetables and coffee grounds. Carbon sources consist of dried plant debris, including leaves, twigs and sawdust.

Don’t put in meat, pet waste or diseased plants. And keep in mind that the smaller the items, the faster they’ll decompose.

Fill the compost bin

Put carbon and nitrogen ingredients into the trashcan along with a small bag of steer manure. Loaded with “good” bacteria, the steer manure will jumpstart the compost-making process and result in faster composting.

Stir the trash bin contents, add a little water and stir again. You want the mix to be moist but not soggy.

Continue to add to the compost pile as you get more yard waste and kitchen scraps.

(FreeImages.com/Adrian Gtz)

Check bin contents weekly

If the contents of the compost bin appear too dry, add more nitrogen materials and a little water. If things are too wet, add more carbon materials. Too dry conditions will result in very slow composting. Excessively wet conditions will result in anaerobic composting, which is very smelly.

Mix every two weeks

Stir up the contents of the bin with a pitchfork or shovel. This intersperses air within the mix, which creates aerobic conditions that lead to faster composting. Or tighten the trashcan lid and roll the bin around to mix the contents. Be careful of your back when doing so!

Harvest compost

After two to five months, depending on your climate, you’ll have compost, which resembles rich, brown earth. When you remove the compost for use, leave a small amount of finished compost in the trashcan. This will activate the new batch of compost when you put in fresh ingredients.

Use the compost in your garden beds and as an amendment to potting soil. Mix in one-part compost to every two-parts potting soil. Houseplants love a good dose of compost when you repot your indoor garden.

Project Link

Date: DECEMBER 15, 2017

How to Grow Kalanchoe Indoors

(Julie Bawden-Davis)

At this time of year, don’t be surprised if someone gives you a kalanchoe. These succulents sporting colorful flowers are ubiquitous holiday hostess gifts.

In addition to pretty, bright green foliage, kalanchoe produce small, waxy single and double bloom clusters in a wide variety of flower colors, including yellow, red, fuchsia, orange, pink, white and peach. Though they generally don’t make it past New Years, because people don’t know how to care for them, they are fairly easy to grow. Treat kalanchoe right, and you can keep them growing until spring when you can put them outdoors. Keep the following indoor growing tips in mind. Avoid overwatering. Kalanchoe are succulents, so they respond poorly to being overwatered. You’ll quickly lose an overwatered kalanchoe to root rot. You’ll know this has occurred when the soil stays wet, which indicates the roots have died and are no longer taking up water. The base of the plant will also be wobbly. Water kalanchoe when the soil in the pot is on the dry side. The pot will be lightweight. Avoid letting the plant get so dry that the leaves shrivel. Keep in mind that kalanchoe located next to heating ducts will dry out quickly.

Provide bright light. Kalanchoe do best in bright lighting. Sufficient light will keep the plant leaves bright green. Proper lighting will also ensure that the plants continue to bloom for two or three months. Plants that don’t get sufficient light won’t have enough light stores to keep blooming.

(Julie Bawden-Davis)

Place kalanchoe in an unobstructed eastern or southern window. If your home doesn’t have sufficient lighting, consider getting some full-spectrum lights. These come in fluorescent fixtures as well as individual bulbs that can be put in any light fixture. When placing kalanchoe under supplemental lighting, position the bulb within 6 to 12 inches of the top of the plants. Prune off spent flowers. Once kalanchoe blooms have faded, take them off. Leaving the faded spent blooms on the plants can lead to pest infestations, such as from mealybugs. Pests tend to congregate on old or diseased foliage of houseplants. From there they will spread to other foliage and blooms. Fertilize monthly. Feed the kalanchoe from late winter through fall. Use a well-balanced, organic fertilizer designed for houseplants.

(Julie Bawden-Davis)

Place kalanchoe outdoors in late winter to early spring. Put the kalanchoe outside once danger of frost has passed. Acclimate the plant to sunny conditions by starting it in shade and gradually move the plant into the light. Grow the plant otdoors until late fall. At that time, bring it indoors and keep the plant in 14 hours of complete darkness daily—such in a closet. You can put it in the closet in the late afternoon and take it out the next morning. Avoid root rot by keeping the plant on the dry side. Within 2 to 4 weeks of darkness, the kalanchoe will bud up and flower once again. Julie Bawden-Davis is a garden writer and master gardener, who since 1985 has written for publications such as Organic Gardening, The American Gardener, Wildflower, Better Homes and Gardens and The Los Angeles Times. She is the author of 10 books, including Reader’s Digest Flower Gardening, Fairy Gardening, The Strawberry Story Series, and Indoor Gardening the Organic Way, and is the founder of HealthyHouseplants.com. Her backyard is a Certified Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation

Project Link

Date: DECEMBER 8, 2017

Watercolor Your Way to a Flower Garden This Winter

The beginning of December brings a lull for many gardeners. Of course, the holidays are approaching—but this pause runs deeper. Gardeners know a long winter looms ahead. For green thumbs, the memory of spring and summer flowers seems a distant memory. Still, the urge to experience floral beauty often refuses to subside.

It’s too early yet for garden catalogues featuring next year’s new plant introductions. So we gardeners occupy ourselves with houseplants and forcing bulbs indoors. While these pursuits certainly feed our appetite for green, they may not offer as much color as we’d like. This year I have a solution for the craving for flowers and their brilliant colors. Let me introduce you to Kristy Rice’s watercoloring books. Kristy’s Winter Cutting Garden and Kristy’s Fall Cutting Garden each feature 25 botanical illustrations waiting for you to paint them. She’s also done books for spring and summer, if you wish to step out of season. In the winter watercoloring book, you can paint an amaryllis, winter berries, a teapot overflowing with flowers and a cardinal resting on poinsettias. The fall gardening book is chock full of even more blooming beauties, including dahlias, asters, wisteria, clematis and morning glory.

(Julie Bawden-Davis)

Rice is an artist, whose first love is painting. She’s a celebrity invitation designer and stylist, whose company, Monumental Designs, specializes in hand-painted wedding stationary.

According to Rice, the watercolor paper that features each ready-to-paint illustration is specially designed to be weighty enough to soak up water, yet lightweight enough to be flexible. You can pull each page out to paint, or keep your botanical works of art in the book. When you sit down to paint, Rice suggests using light pressure with your paintbrush. She says the paper will warp some while the paint is wet, but things will smooth out when it dries. If it doesn’t, simply put the dry painting under a heavy book for a day or so.

Sometimes it’s necessary to stop painting in an area when you see pilling, as this is an indication that the page is too wet. Let it dry out some before revisiting with more paint, if you wish to darken things up. Rice suggests reading the painting tips for each page included at the beginning of the book. She writes a little about the subject and then gives advice, such as color choice, highlighting and layering. In addition to tips, she shares tidbits about what it’s like to be an artist. Most importantly, Rice hopes that you lose yourself in the moment when you paint. She promises that doing so will positively change the way you feel and the way you see the world. I suspect you’ll soon be seeing a lot more flowers in your winter garden dreams. Julie Bawden-Davis is a garden writer and master gardener, who since 1985 has written for publications such as Organic Gardening, The American Gardener, Wildflower, Better Homes and Gardens and The Los Angeles Times. She is the author of 10 books, including Reader’s Digest Flower Gardening, Fairy Gardening, The Strawberry Story Series, and Indoor Gardening the Organic Way, and is the founder of HealthyHouseplants.com. Her backyard is a Certified Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation.

Project Link

Date: DECEMBER 3, 2017

7 Fun Gifts for Gardeners

(White Flower Farm)

If you’re not a gardener, but looking for a holiday gift for a green thumb, the many horticultural products may overwhelm you. How to know what a gardener truly wants? Is it soil? Fertilizer? Plants? Tools? Nifty gadgets? Usually, all of the above.

For gardeners shopping for other gardeners, it goes something like this: one pair of pruners for you, one pair of pruners for me; one gorgeous amaryllis bulb for you, another for me.…

Either way, the following gift guide will help narrow down the choices for you. Happy garden gift giving!

Amaryllis ‘Cherry Nymph’

Growing amaryllis indoors is a treat. The bulbs are ready to burst forth with gorgeous, really big blooms. Amaryllis ‘Cherry Nymph’ produces an enormous flower in a brilliant deep red hue. The blooms light up the house for six to eight weeks. The ‘Cherry Nymph’ comes with potting medium and a glass vase.

Barebones™ Garden Scissors

A good pair of all-purpose garden scissors is one of the most important tools a gardener owns. The Barebones™ Garden Scissors have a large, comfortable, ambidextrous grip. They’re great for gathering, harvesting, deadheading and even pruning roses.

(Gardeners Supply Company)

As scissors go, they’re also pretty to look at. The insets are made of bamboo and the heat-treated stainless steel blades feature a blackened finish. The blades can be sharpened when needed.

Burpee’s Canvas Ornaments

If you’ve never seen vintage catalog covers from Burpee, you’re in for a treat. The seed company founded in 1876, dug into their treasure chest and created these canvas ornaments adorned with heirloom catalog covers. Each 3” x 4” ornament comes in a gift box.

(Burpee)

Farmington Wreath

Every gardener dreams of making a wreath out of cuttings from the garden. And every once in a while, gardeners do pull off achieving that dream. More often than not, though, the cuttings gathered during fall cleanup end up in the compost pile.

(White Flower Farm)

Many gardeners will welcome this elegant 22-inch in diameter wreath. It’s made of lemon leaves and arranged with sprigs of millet, eucalyptus, pine cones and Sudan grass. The wreath is designed for indoor use.

Italian Herb Jar Kit

This handy herb jar trio allows the avid gardener and cook to enjoy fresh basil, parsley and oregano right in the kitchen. The brightly colored self-watering jars grow the herbs from seed. All the gift recipient has to do is fill the jars with water and the provided wicks; add plant food and seeds and wait for harvest.

(Wayside Gardens)

Renee’s Garden Cookbook/Seed Collection

With this boxed gift set you get the Renee’s Garden Cookbook and your choice of a seed collection. Choose from the Container Herb Garden, Rainbow Kitchen Garden or Container Vegetable Garden.

(Renee’s Garden)

The 156-page cookbook includes recipes designed to be made from the bounty of the home garden. You can also take a quick trip to the grocery store for the necessary ingredients. The author of the cookbook is Renee Shepherd, who has been in the seed business for decades. All of the recipes are tested with produce from her gardens.

Tool Maintenance Kit

Veteran gardeners know that good tools require maintenance. This invaluable tool care kit features everything a gardener needs to keep tools in good shape.

(White Flower Farm)

The tool kit has linseed oil, which prevents wooden handles from drying out and is good to use when cleaning blades. There’s also a wire brush for removing dirt and a silicon-carbide whetstone used to keep a sharp edge on tool blades. All contents fit into an attractive 11” x 6” storage box.

Project Link

Date: NOVEMBER 27, 2017

Grow Indoor Veggies, Herbs and Flowers with AeroGarden

(AeroGarden)

If you want a guaranteed method of growing produce and even flowers indoors—try an AeroGarden. This state-of-the-art growing system makes it easy to enjoy homegrown salad greens, cherry tomatoes, herbs and even flowers.

To use the AeroGarden, you simply insert seed pods into these hydroponic gardens and watch them sprout and grow into healthy, robust plants. You can use the AeroGarden to grow just about anything at any time of the year. The LED lighting simulates sunlight. A water reservoir and easy-to-follow nutrient feeding regimen ensures the plants stay healthy and produce well.

(AeroGarden )

“Many people are intimidated by indoor gardening, but the Aerogarden demystifies the experience,” says Paul Rabaut, marketing director for AeroGarden and an avid indoor gardener. “This hydroponic growing method provides a foolproof way to enjoy a lush indoor garden.”

Besides being surrounded by dozens of AeroGardens in the office, Rabaut has two AeroGardens at home. He enjoys growing herbs and veggies for cooking in one and in the other flowers to add a splash of color to his interior.

(AeroGarden )

The AeroGarden consists of a water reservoir and pump, as well as a LED lighting system. Some models include a Wi-Fi system that comes with an app that you use to get instructions on plant care, such as when and how to feed plants and prune and pollinate them.

The AeroGarden dates back to 2002 when two gardening enthusiasts created the revolutionary hydroponic system. In 2006, they launched the growing system and received positive reviews. In 2013, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company became an equity investor. Today, the AeroGarden is sold online and in brick-and-mortar stores throughout the U.S and several countries.

You can choose from a wide variety of AeroGardens, from large “farm” models that can grow an abundance of produce and flowers, to small kitchen countertop units that grow three plants at once. There’s even a kid’s model featuring pizza herbs. The units come in several colors, including silver, red, white and black.

One of the reasons the AeroGarden is so successful is the lighting system. Today’s models feature long-lasting LED lights that cost just pennies a day to operate.

“Indoor gardeners often have difficulty growing vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers indoors because of a lack of proper lighting,” says Rabaut. “A sunny window doesn’t deliver the same amount of light that you find outdoors, but the AeroGarden LED lighting simulates daylight. The systems are also set up to provide just the right amount of lighting, depending on what you’re growing.”

(AeroGarden )

The AeroGarden system offers 50 pods featuring a wide variety of non-GMO seeds so you can enjoy growing plants like basil, rosemary, bell pepper, hot pepper, cherry tomato, salad greens, kale, Asian herbs, tea herbs, lavender and flowers like petunia, celosia and zinnia. They also carry empty seed pods where you can plant your own seeds and a 31-pod seed starter kit.

“There’s really no limit to what you can grow indoors in an AeroGarden,” says Rabaut. “I encourage indoor gardeners to experiment. You’re likely to be surprised at what sprouts up for you.”

Project Link

Date: NOVEMBER 17, 2017