Pineapple lily (Eucomis) is a flower bulb, but it is neither a pineapple nor a true lily. Its flower stalk carries dozens of tiny star-shaped blooms that open in a cylindrical raceme from the bottom up, capped by a little crown of leafy bracts that looks like the feathers on a cap. That pineapple-shaped flower […]
Red mulberry (Morus rubra) is a large native North American tree prized for sweet berries and broad summer shade. It has become an uncommon sight in the wild and in the nursery trade because the invasive white mulberry out-competes it and hybridizes with it, diluting the native gene pool. With rich soil, full sun, and
Flowering tobacco (Nicotiana alata) fills the summer border with clusters of trumpet-shaped blooms and a fragrance that peaks at dusk. The fast-growing ornamental is native to southern Brazil, northern Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Colombia, and its fuzzy, sticky foliage gives the plant a soft texture from a distance. Gardeners who already manage azalea care will
Straw bale gardening, sometimes called bale gardening or hay bale gardening, uses ordinary farmer’s straw as the growing medium instead of soil. A conditioned bale becomes a self-contained raised bed: the straw holds moisture, drains freely, and breaks down slowly through the season, releasing nutrients to the plants rooted in it. The setup takes about
Contorted filbert (Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’) is the woody shrub behind the common name Harry Lauder’s walking stick. Its gnarly, twisted branches rise in corkscrew patterns, and the rounded, serrated leaves are green and slightly hairy through the growing season. The branch structure is the main event: bare and dramatic in winter, then dressed with yellow
Chamomile is one of the easiest herbs to grow and one of the most pleasant to harvest. The daisy-like flowers can be used fresh or dried for tea, and both types of chamomile, German and Roman, are harvested the same way. Timing matters: flowers picked at the right stage keep their apple-like aroma, while flowers
Eggplant rewards patience, but only up to a point. Leave the fruit on the plant a few days too long and the skin turns dull, the flesh grows seedy, and the flavor turns bitter. Pick it too early and the fruit never develops the creamy texture that makes the crop worth growing. The ripe window
Social media loves a water-saving hack, and one of the newest claims making the rounds is that the water left over from boiling pasta should go to your plants instead of down the drain. The logic sounds reasonable: the water picked up starch and minerals from the pasta, so pouring it on the garden returns
Fungus gnats cluster around houseplants and garden beds in warm weather, and the adults are more than a nuisance: they hover around faces, land in drinks, and lay eggs in moist soil where the larvae feed on roots. A popular household remedy is fabric softener dryer sheets, and the trick has real chemistry behind it.
Slugs and snails chew through garden plants gradually, and by the time the damage is obvious the population is often well established. Catching the problem early starts with the eggs, which sit in clusters under pots, inside compost piles, and just below the soil surface. A homeowner who can spot those clusters removes hundreds of
