Before: A great porch makes a canvas for furniture, comfortable cushions and accessories. Looking to breathe new life into your porch or patio? We’ve created four makeovers that show you how to expand your outdoor living space, create a welcoming setting for summer entertaining and add curb appeal — without spending a fortune! Slideshow Colorful cushions and accents transform ho-hum into Wow! See all four makeovers. Start your make…
…nd what went into producing it. So how come I can’t have the right to know what’s in the food I buy in the store? That’s the goal of the Just Label It campaign, which last month submitted a record-breaking 1.1 million signatures to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in favor of labeling genetically engineered (GE) foods. And in polls by ABC, MSNBC, NPR, the Washington Post, Consumer Reports and others, consistently…
…d enclose the space. But, with two chairs and a coffee table, there was no room for the dining table. Time for another patio, the “big project” for 2007. I started the project in the fall. The goal was to create a 150-sq. ft. patio using natural stone that comes from the region. I was lucky enough to get some beautiful stone from across the lake in New York state. The site I chose is in a corner of the yard where I had to take out a d…
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…tes hosts a trailer, brings it in when it is full, and returns with an empty one,” Cline says. Steve Cline sorts plastic pots and cell packs at the Missouri Botanical Garden’s recycling program, where they collect 100,000 to 140,000 pounds of horticultural plastic every year. Cline, former director of the Garden’s Kemper Center for Home Gardening, started the program in 1998. The botanical garden’s Pots to Planks program s…
Though cold winds chill the air and snow blankets much of the U.S., pesticide use remains a hot topic — and not only among gardeners. The most recent comments come from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Council on Environmental Health, whose December 2012 policy statement makes a clear link between pesticide exposure and children’s health problems. Published in Pediatrics, the official journal of the 60,000-member AAP, “Pesticide Ex…
…o freezing a large amount of corn at one time (500 ears!) but fun to see how it was done in most farm kitchens 50 years ago! This second guide is geared to more modest quantities of corn. I usually do two freezing sessions of 100 ears each. That’s about as much as I can take at one time. I should say as much as we can take. It’s a job I couldn’t do solo. The shucking, de-silking, cooking, chilling, cutting and bagging all have to happen within a…
Flat-leaf parsley I used to do much more canning and freezing than I do now. With our household down to just two, we’re cooking smaller meals and don’t need to have as much food around. But there are still quite a few garden crops that I squirrel away in my freezer or pantry, and one of those is parsley. I can chop and freeze a huge basket of fresh-picked parsley in about 15 minutes. With a half-dozen sessions like that throughout the…
…en the earth-friendly ones. At first, I tried neem, a relatively harmless spray that does wonders on aphids and controls blackspot on roses. It worked to control the larvae the first year, but I had to spray frequently (every 10 to 15 days). The second year, I couldn’t keep the larvae under control. My lily crop was hit hard, and I got few blooms. Last year, I decided to resort to a systemic called imidacloprid. The results were instantaneo…
Over the years, I have become a firm believer in the importance of fertilizing plants. One of my favorite pots this season (see plant list below) with two of the three fertilizers that I’m applying and one of my trusty watering cans. Over the years, I have become a firm believer in the importance of fertilizing plants. Now, when there’s a pest problem in my garden, I run for a fertilizer rather than a pest control. In most cases, I…