I went to my favorite nursery to buy plants on probably the worst possible day this spring – the Friday night before Mother’s Day. Nevertheless, I found everything I wanted surprisingly quickly and made my way to the checkout. The place is a little old-school and doesn’t have a scanner or a screen displaying [Continue]
There are many herbs that can help you relax when the holiday shopping, baking, wrapping and planning get to be too much. While it’s too late for this year, three of them are easy to grow and harvest to be ready for next year’s holiday rush. All three can be dried for tea or potpourri [Continue]
Have you noticed a little blue and red “AAS Winner” logo on some of the flower and vegetable photos in mail order nursery catalogs? Have you wondered what that means and how a particular plant earns that designation? AAS stands for All-American Selection. The AAS designation is like the Good Housekeeping Seal of [Continue]
For many people, fresh cut grass, watermelon, sweet corn and birdsong are the smells, tastes and sounds that epitomize the word “summer.” I’d add the sight of zinnias blooming cheerily in my garden to that list. I’ve grown zinnias every year since I planted my first garden over 30 years ago. My mother gave me [Continue]
Marigolds have long held a place in flower beds, so much so that they have almost become overused. Still, they are perfect for formal beds, as they know their bounds and are clean, neat and upright, never sprawling in an ungainly manner or becoming leggy and untidy. Beginning gardeners often turn to marigolds because they [Continue]
The first thing I love about calibrachoa is the way its name rolls up and down: Kal-a-bra-KO-ah. Secondly, its gorgeous! Calibrachoas look like mini-petunias, or petunias without their tattered petticoats. Each plants has hundreds of inch-wide flowers giving rise to its common name, “Million Bells.” It’s an annual plant that comes to us from South [Continue]
The three or four or seven-foot wide strip of grass or weeds between the street and sidewalk is mostly ignored by gardeners. But what an opportunity for gardeners to take on a new challenge! Typically this area, sometimes known as the “hellstrip,” is a hot, dry area subject to dogs doing their business, road salt, [Continue]
Nasturtiums are one of the easiest annuals to grow from seed and once they germinate, they are carefree until frost. The big seeds look like bumpy brown peas, making them a good planting choice for beginning gardeners and children. Soaking the seeds overnight in warm water before planting makes them sprout faster. After all danger [Continue]
About this time last year I took a lackadaisical trip through the leftovers in the garden center at Fleet Farm. No matter how good the care given these plants, it is almost impossible to keep a flower in a tiny plastic pot looking good into July. Everything was pretty sad-looking. Then, the prettiest yellow flower [Continue]
One out of every three bites of food we eat is provided through the work of animal and insect pollinators. The mysterious colony collapse disorder among commercial honeybees, disease and loss of habitat have severely affected pollinators that sustain our food crops and quality of life. Other insects besides bees act as important [Continue]