The efforts of several plant breeders over the past decade have inundated the market with scores of new varieties. The result: improved flower size and color, new foliage colors, patterns and leaf shapes. Caramel Heuchera is a runner-up for the 2010 Perennial Plant of the Year award. A trio of coral bells holds the corner of a shady Pennsylvania garden. Heucheras, commonly known as coral bells, have long been staples…
…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…
Like many who lost tomato plants to late blight last year, I’m wondering: How can I make sure it doesn’t happen again this year? Plant a diversity of tomato varieties to reduce the possibility of disease. Like many gardeners who lost their tomato crop to late blight last year, I’m wondering: How can I make sure it doesn’t happen again this year? Unfortunately, there’s no silver bullet. The most important thin…
Though it will be several months yet before I can start planting, I’ll soon be making my seed list for the coming year. Golden sweet peas, growing on our pea fences. Our display gardens here in Burlington, Vermont, are asleep beneath a thick blanket of snow. Though it will be several months yet before I can start planting, I’ll soon be making my seed list for the coming year. As always, last year’s vegetable garden ha…
We keep coming up with new ways to use our Grow Bags. Sarah, our display garden manager, wanted to try growing melons in the Potato Bag. Melons love heat, and she thought the black fabric of the bag would warm the soil. July 13: A melon ripens in the Potato Grow Bag. We keep coming up with new ways to use our Grow Bags. Sarah, our display garden manager, wanted to try growing melons in the Potato Bag. Melons love heat, and she thought t…
Coneflowers, black-eyed susans and bee balm are all relatively drought tolerant, once they’re established. Gardens and landscapes nationwide are facing the one-two punch of record-breaking heat and drought. Although there’s nothing you can do to change the weather, there are a few things you can do to help your plants survive this challenge. Some of the effects of drought are obvious: brown lawns, crispy leaves, smaller flowers an…
Can a concept grown in Vermont take root in Costa Rica? Our founder, Will Raap, has found that the answer is yes, with some modifications. To produce crops at Finca Lagunita in Costa Rica, farmers have to employ special techniques, such as iguana fencing. -Will Raap Founder and Chairman, Gardener’s Supply See all blog posts…
Wow! The largest tuber weighed in at 4 lbs., 7 oz. Do you grow sweet potatoes? Until this year, my answer would have been “no”. As heat-loving plants with a long growing season, they didn’t seem well-suited to my zone 4 garden. This year, we tried growing sweet potatoes in the Potato Grow Bags. The result has been a sweet success. The largest tuber weighed in at 4 lbs., 7 oz. Total harvest from the two Potato Grow Bags was 19…
…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…
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…