Hartley Magazine

All the latest news, hints, tips and advice from our experts

In the Big Apple – Gardening with an Urban Twist

Recent years have seen renewed interest in vegetable gardening everywhere, but perhaps nowhere is this more pronounced than inside our larger cities. Despite the challenge of growing in the densely populated confines of city spaces—and subject to the often intense growing conditions within these microclimates, some New York City gardeners appear to embrace their limitations. […]

Growing the Sweet Greens of Winter, by Pam Ruch

You water, you feed, you cajole. But despite your best efforts the limp leaves of red and green relax into their juvenility. You estimate the time it will take your baby lettuce to reach salad size. Five, six, seven weeks! By then your crop will be “wise-beyond-its-weeks lettuce,” battle-weary from encounters with aphids and whitefly, […]

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Companion Plants from the Rain Forest

The first time I tramped a trail in a Costa Rican rain forest, while being buzzed by hummingbirds as thick as mosquitoes in Michigan, I looked at a vine clambering over a nearby tree and realized: Hey, that’s a philodendron. It was the same plant with heart-shaped leaves that can be found in greenhouses, fern […]

A Bird Feeding Quiz – How well do you provide for your avian visitors?

In the colder months, birds bring color and motion to gardens at rest, whether you watch them from a kitchen window or enjoy their antics through the glass of a cozy greenhouse. When I have questions about feeding my winged denizens, I turn to Dan Gleason, owner of Wild Birds Unlimited in Eugene. Dan taught […]