Category: gardening

How to Regrow Your Favorite Herbs and Save Lots of Money

It’s so easy to get food – just go to the store, find what you want, come back home, prepare it, eat it, and repeat. But what if you just had to go to your windowsill? Although many fruits and vegetables won’t fully grow on your windowsill, many of your favorite herbs can easily be…


Vegetable Garden Seed Question

Q: Can you suggest a way to buy good vegetable seeds? I can’t afford to get a lot of plants, so I buy seeds. There are several brands at each store, and I don’t know which will grow best for me. I always seem to have low success rates because of disease problems. A: Plant…


How to Plant a Pet-Safe Garden

Q: I live in the country, and my cat sometimes ventures off my deck on nice days. I am planning a garden and want to choose plants that won’t poison my cat if he nibbles them. What do you suggest? A: I’m sure your cat will thank you if you plant some catnip, cat mint,…


The Best Vegetable Seed Catalog Companies for Gardeners

Q: I saw an article that you wrote that said there were garden vegetable seed catalogs available at the Direct Gardening Association website. I can’t find that site. Can you help? A: Well, that group ended last year during the pandemic. So, to help you out, here are my favorite vegetable seed catalog companies. Jere…


Tips for Starting Your First Organic Vegetable Garden

The basics for success in any garden are sun, soil, and water. Most vegetables and fruit thrive with 6-8 hours of direct sun each day. Since sunlight is required for photosynthesis—the way plants make food–make sure the plants are exposed to as much as possible. Soil that drains quickly and is nutrient rich is critical,…


Planting Annuals: Tips for a Beautiful Flower Bed

Question: We have several bare areas where we want to plant something. We might be moving this summer, but maybe not until next year, so we don’t want to spend a lot. We have not had good luck with the packs of annual flowers in the past. How do we make annuals work? Answer: Annual…


Received Potted Flowers as a Gift? Here’s How to Keep Them Alive

By now, you surely know that Valentine’s Day was last week. If you didn’t give flowers and you need to make up for it, you may want to give an entire plant. Or maybe you did get a plant and want to know how to keep it alive. Several potted flowering plants are commonly given…


Growing Vegetables From Table Scraps

Science fair season is coming up. Many kids want to work with plants. One set of experiments that’s common is trying to grow seeds in a variety of media, such as water, milk, and cola. The seeds will sprout in all of those conditions, but they won’t grow well as a plant in all of…


Meet the Winners of the 2022 Green Thumb Awards

Winners of the 2022 Green Thumb Awards were chosen by an independent panel of National Garden Bureau (NGB) members who are garden writers, breeders, retailers, brokers, and growers. The winners are selected based on their uniqueness, technological innovation, ability to solve a gardening problem or provide a gardening opportunity, and potential appeal to gardeners. The…


Award-Winning Vegetables You Should Plant in Your Garden in 2022

Last week, we looked at the flowers that won the 2022 All-America Selections awards, and this week, we look at the eight new vegetable winners. The AAS is an independent, nonprofit organization that tests new plants. They have about 80 test gardens from Alaska and Canada to California and Florida. They also have almost 200…