Winter is hard on a yard. Storms, rain, snow, and sub-freezing temperatures all take a toll, and the damage is not always obvious from the kitchen window. A harmless-looking dusting of white frost in the morning can hide unstable footing, lumps, and bumps by afternoon. Those irregularities are frost heaving, and the same freezing ground […]
Starting seeds in February creates robust seedlings ready to plant out once the weather warms. Cool-season greens, herbs, and crops with long growing seasons are the ideal candidates, because they need six to ten weeks of indoor growth before the last frost date. Spring may not have arrived, but the timing window for vegetables, fruits,
Rosemary, Salvia rosmarinus, is a perennial staple of the herb garden, valued for aromatic, pungent, needle-like leaves that hold their flavor in fresh and dried cooking. Most varieties stay evergreen and grow as hardy perennials in USDA zones 8 and 9, with some plants successfully overwintering in zones 6 and 7. Gardeners in colder zones
Apartment balconies, narrow side yards, and compact patios share the same problem: not enough flat ground for the garden you want. Vertical gardening solves it by using the space above the soil line. Vining plants, along with many vegetables, herbs, and flowers, grow well on trellises, shelves, and hanging baskets, which is why the technique
Fast-growing flowers earn their reputation. Gardeners who want color quickly plant them to fill bare spots, brighten containers, and turn a plain yard into a lively one before summer peaks. A handful of species can go from seed to bloom in six to ten weeks, which makes them the fastest route to a colorful garden.
Groundcovers do the unglamorous work of a landscape. They cover bare earth, slow erosion on slopes, lock moisture into the soil, and crowd out weeds that would otherwise take over a bed. Landscapers split the group into two camps: low-growing types that stay between 6 and 12 inches tall, and taller kinds in the 12-
Mulch is one of the highest-value investments in a garden. Spread over soil, it conserves moisture, regulates soil temperature, suppresses weeds, and, when made from organic materials, enriches the soil as it breaks down. The catch is price: bagged mulch from a garden center can cost $40 to $70 per cubic yard, and a large
Few questions come up more often in a vegetable garden than how many potatoes grow from one potato. The honest answer is that a single seed potato typically produces 5 to 10 new potatoes, and the range can stretch well beyond that with the right variety and growing conditions. Working out the factors behind that
Zucchini is one of the most productive vegetables a gardener can grow, and the biggest decision is not the variety, it is where the plant lives. In-ground zucchini produces sturdier plants and heavier yields for less daily effort, while container and raised-bed zucchini fits patios, balconies, and small yards. Each plant needs about 4 square
Grass creeping into a flower bed is one of the most persistent garden problems, and it gets worse the longer it is ignored. Turfgrass rhizomes tunnel under the edge of the bed, while annual weed grasses such as crabgrass and stiltgrass drop thousands of seeds in a single season. The removal methods below protect the
