Gardenig in state Utah. Tips & Guides

My name is Anna Lindquist, and I’m a personal and professional plant nerd based in the Intermountain West. I’m especially enamored with native plants and am constantly in awe of the magical vignettes created by native plant communities. Though I’ve tried my best to replicate them in gardens, I’ve found that nature always does it best. I moved to Utah two years ago and unfortunately do not currently have space to garden at my rental property, so I have had to rely even more on public lands for my nature fix. Being at the confluence of multiple eco-regions, Utah encompasses a little bit of everything. These photos showcase the beautiful diversity of plants found across the state, from the desert to the high alpine.

As a busy working parent, Tan France loves to shop online—not just because it's convenient, but because it can be easier to find a good sale, too.

How to Grow Five Spot Flowers Nemophila maculata

How to Grow and Care for Sea Thrift Armeria maritima

Since entering horticulture professionally over a decade ago, I’ve noticed a correlation on the Colorado Front Range between wood mulch (also called arborist chips) and water-wise gardens. A beautifully designed garden goes in, with appropriate irrigation and plant palette, and the garden looks great—briefly—before languishing. Plants in these beds never quite take off, or they fail before their natural lifespans are over. I casually refer to this as plant/mulch mismatch, and it’s an issue I see too often, maybe because mulch is anything but exciting to the average homeowner.

In his classic book Mormon Country, author Wallace Stegner noted that nineteenth century Mormons planted rows of Lombardy poplar trees wherever they established settlements in the territory that is now Utah. The trees served as windbreaks and boundary markers, but they were also the flags that marked the advance of Mormon civilization in a hostile territory. In my hometown and lots of other towns all over the United States elm trees served a similar function, marking the spread of middle class residential neighborhoods during the end of the nineteenth and the first third of the twentieth centuries. In the 1960’s almost all of those tall elegant trees fell prey to Dutch Elm Disease, making each municipality a little poorer.

When to Plant Succulents in the Northwest

The Rocky Mountain Region is stretched over 10,000 feet in elevation change and nearly over the full longitude of the Continental United States. Within this massive spread fit more than six biomes, ranging from the grasslands and prairie edges of northern New Mexico to the alpine of Montana. Despite the impressive diversity in soil and climate, many people in the area garden on our region’s namesake: rocks.

Header image: Amid an otherworldly landscape outside of Hanksville, Utah, sits the Mars Desert Research Station. Facilities like these are intended to mimic how people might fare on Mars or the Moon, or on long-term orbital stations. Visual: The Mars Society

In Utah, kids moving through the school cafeteria line at lunchtime can come across the Elliott apple, a yellow-gold fruit with a light blush of red. Discovered in-state and hard to get elsewhere, it’s a uniquely Utah product.

Ashley Dove-Jay, University of Bristol

Header image: Suited up to simulate the conditions of working outside on Mars. Jonathan Clarke (the author, left) with visiting engineer Michael Curtis-Rouse, from UK Space Agency (right). Jonathan Clarke personal collection, Author provided.

Header image: Ella and Nicki at the Mars Desert Research Station. Provided by the author.

Header image: A researcher in a spacesuit on “Mars” outside the Mars Society Desert Research Station in Utah. David Howells/Corbis Historical via Getty Images

Header image: George Frey/EPA

Header image: Mars’ asteroid-sized satellites Deimos and Phobos. Image credit: ESA

Astronauts in space don’t have to worry much about furniture. There’s nowhere to sit down on the International Space Station (ISS), as (a) it’s really impossible to sit down in microgravity and (b) without gravity, you don’t really feel the need to sit down. So the crew just float, tucking their feet into restraints if they need to stay in one place. So although the ISS does have a small dining table, it doesn’t have any chairs, and there are no beds.

Many houses have hot and cold spots, especially in older homes and multilevel living. However, it doesn’t need to be this way, say heating and cooling experts. There are multiple steps you can take to even out the temperatures within your home, and we asked home experts for their best tips.

Interior designer Stephanie Hunt’s seven-bedroom, 10-bathroom Park City, Utah, home is a grown-up, glammed-up, sophisticated version of a funhouse—it’s got so many surprises and delights at every turn. And believe it or not, she got the inspiration for the home on a freezing winter trip to Reykjavík, Iceland. “We were there for a quick weekend trip and I was struck by how the simple barn structures—very close together—looked like one unit. Because we’re art collectors I wondered what it would feel like to have each pod or pavilion, if you will, developed in a simple, honest architectural style, connected by halls and glass elements, with the halls serving sort of in-home art galleries,” she explains.

There are many gardens and monuments dedicated to Peace and they are worth seeking out when you are on your travels.

First, a recap of what Impatiens downy mildew (the fungus-like Plasmopara obducens) looks like:Did your impatiens seem to collapse in 2012? Early signs of infection may have been leaves that looked yellowish, as if the plant needed feeding, or foliage that curled under or seemed to wilt. Sometimes, a white material (the downy mildew) is visible on the undersides of leaves. Eventually, plants may defoliate, drop their flowers, and basically collapse. The fungus loves moist conditions and cool nights in particular. Particularly disturbing: symptoms happened earlier last year than before—as early as June.The disease, which attacks Impatiens walleriana (the species our

Diane, who creates the popular “Bug Bytes” segments on Utah Public Radio’s garden show and serves as the Utah Extension’s Integrated Pest Management Coordinator, joined me on the radio and podcast. It included tactics for preventing and controlling diseases and insect pests of squash—and how a gardener’s toolbox that includes resistant seed varieties, Reemay fabric, kaolin clay, and even a roll of duct tape can help you succeed. (Above, a squash big adult, Anasa tristis; Wikipedia photo by Ilona Loser.)Read along as you listen to the March 16, 2015 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here). (A companion story on growing cucurbits step-by-step, is at this link, to complete the package.)listen/read: squash success, with utah

While I can name my local mammals, birds, amphibians and reptile species, I admit to using the word “bee” a little, shall we say, generically, not even sure I know exactly what a bee is—and isn’t.Dr. Olivia Carril has that covered, and then some. She is a PhD plant biologist who has been studying bees and the flowers they visit for nearly 20 years. Olivia is also co-author with Utah State biology professor Joseph Wilson of “The Bees in Your Backyard,” the new book that

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Across the West, apocalyptic-like hordes of Mormon crickets are swarming towns—causing traffic hazards, emitting a horrible stench, and making people's skin crawl. According to reporting by the Associated Press, tens of thousands of Mormon cricket eggs began to hatch in late May and early June, and for weeks, they have been intensely invading northern Nevada—and bringing mayhem with them.

vitalkaka / Getty Images

Here are some magnificent Trees with Yellow Foliage that can add a depth of color to your garden!