In the early spring, it’s such a delight to come upon a garden that bursts with daffodils, scilla and crocuses. Yet it always amazes me how many front yards are still mostly bare and brown, with just a few shoots poking up. Without a bulb layer, you miss a whole season of color. Bulbs are […]

Brent Heath of Brent and Becky’s Bulbs makes this claim with a certain pride: “It’s always safe to walk in our greenhouses.” Most owners of commercial establishments can’t say that. Routine chemical spraying or fumigation of indoor growing spaces means workers are forbidden to enter the area for specific times—from hours to days. But not […]

It’s time to bring in the bounty we’ve grown outdoors and take stock of the season. In that spirit, I’m looking at the most successful new varieties I tried this season—the majority featuring compact, space-saving qualifications. One of the limiting factors in my gardening space is that I’m compelled to locate plants that deer eat […]

Green-fingered educators at the Fusion Academy are teaching their children core subjects like English alongside long-term life skills such as healthy living through gardening. The school set up an edible garden project to reinforce students' practical skills and help them develop appropriate eating habits. During the summer students planted vegetable patches, which included three raised […]

Home gardeners and farmers look to the past and see their future at the National Heirloom Exposition. Heirloom vegetables —those open-pollinated varieties older than 50 years—have long been treasured by gardeners and farmers alike for their wide-ranging flavors, extended harvest times, and often odd-lot looks. This September, the niche horticultural pursuits of organic practices, seed […]

As the air turns crisp and winter casts a shadow on these early fall days, who can ignore the fact that everyday becomes shorter too? Will there be enough light on winter’s shortest days for your indoor plants? Although the quantity of solar radiation the earth receives just outside the atmosphere is nearly constant,  the […]

I’ve been bustling around the garden for the last few weeks, getting all the  tender plants in out of the cold. Tropical plants, such as all our common houseplants, need to move indoors by the time nighttime temperatures are consistently in the low 50s, weeks before the first frost would kill them outright. This is […]

I recently attended a three-day plant-o-rama—a garden study weekend sponsored by the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon. Each morning, all 500-plus of us (some from as far away as England) gathered at the University of Portland to listen to horticultural stars like designer Nan Sinton, landscape architect Bernard Trainor, and edibles expert Jack Staub. Afternoons […]

It’s everywhere in the news—baby-boomers are aging. And coincidentally, there’s an increase in products that help aging bodies cope with gardening tasks. There are the scooters, like the “Deluxe Tractor Scoot,” which enables gardeners to work from a seated position, and “Gardener’s Kneelers,” which flips over to become a bench– both offered by Gardener’s Supply. […]

One of the most satisfying things about a garden is that it makes you part of the entire cycle of nature, from seed to sprout to flower to fruit to compost. That’s especially true if you save seeds from your plants at the end of summer to replant the next year. There’s nothing quite like […]

Residents of Needham, Massachusetts, are being taught how to properly cultivate their own produce by instructors, greenhouse enthusiasts might be interested to hear. Every Tuesday morning and Thursday evening classes take place to teach people about the intricacies of gardening and benefits of veg. An instructor at the site Jeane Gerber, who told NeedhamPatch that […]