Laura Ojeda Melchor

For much of his young life, my son has carefully pre-screened each item of food he puts in his mouth.You might also call this picky

When I moved into my little Alaskan house almost two years ago, it was newly built and knee-deep in a muddy, mostly barren yard.The first thing I did that spring w

What’s round, pear-shaped, or oblong, and often a rich purple color? If you live in the United States, English-speaking Canada, Australia, or New Zealand, you know it as eggplant (Solanum melongena).Or maybe “guinea squash,” if you

Have you always loved the look of ivy climbing a brick or stone wall?While most of us can’t recreate that look at home – and p

If you’ve never grown eggplant before, perhaps you imagine bushy plants with enormous, dark-purple fruits hanging off them.While this is an accurate picture of w

Rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum) grows all over the place up here in Alaska, and no wonder: it’s a supremely cold-hardy plant, although most cultivars thrive best in USDA Hardiness Zones 3-8.Like celery, this plant features a firm petio

Around February of each year, snow is still falling up here in Alaska. Moose are trampling through yards, chomping all bits of soft willow branches and baby birch tree limbs they can find. (Yes, I’m still mad that they ate my birch tree.)While it’s all very charming and beautiful, I

Maybe you decided to cook a new recipe, and after a cursory glance at the ingredients list you picked up some bok choy at the grocery store.But then you got home and realized the recipe ac

With their bright flowers and rich, evergreen leaves, potted azaleas can bring cheer to even the gloomiest of winter seasons.Along with poinsettias, they’re often found at florists’ shops and

Cuban oregano is one of those special plants that adds year-round beauty to your home and flavor to your dishes. Outdoors, it will grow as a perennial only in USDA Hardine

Bright and dainty yet boldly toothed, coreopsis flowers aka tickseed, are a lot prettier than their name suggests.The blooms are so cheerful that t

Because it has so many redeeming qualities, we’re willing to overlook the origin of tickseed’s scientific name, Coreopsis.It comes from a combination of two Greek words

Popcorn is kind of a big deal in my house. Almost every night, as I’m about to fall asleep in my bed, I hear the clanging of a heavy pan on the stove at about 10 p.m.It’s my husband, making his nightly popcorn. He loves it so much that

Kohlrabi is a fascinating and delicious member of my favorite vegetable family: the brassicas.Also known as “German tur

Have you ever grown agapanthus flowers?The blue, purple, white, or bicolored blooms gr

If you think dent corn is just boring, bland maize that farmers grind up for their animals to eat, then I have news for you: it’s so much more than that.Dent corn (Zea mays var.indentata) is what my partner’s ab

Maybe you have a small yard, or a tiny patio garden that you lovingly tend.Or maybe your garden is already ch

Every kid in my tiny elementary school thought I was a strange girl because I kept a jar of sand on my desk.But it wasn’t just any sand. It was sand my dad

If you love the bright splash of color that azaleas can bring to your yard, but don’t have much room in your garden, why not grow them in containers instead?Since these shrubs thrive in a partially sha

Few things make a gardener’s heart drop like leaves turning yellow on a beloved plant. Questions begin racing through your mind: is it a disease? A pest? A lack of water or nutrients?When it comes to bleeding hearts, the answer is perhaps more nuan

With its smooth, purple skin and meaty flavor, eggplant (Solanum melongena) is a tasty and beautiful vegetable to grow.Well, it’s actually a fruit, botani

Maybe you know them as apple pears, papples, or nashi pears, but whatever you call them, the fruits of the Pyrus pyrifolia tree are delicious.Juicy or crunchy (depending on the variety and matu

Shallots aren’t always easy to find in US grocery stores.At least, not for me up here i

One of the most exciting moments of my childhood was the sweet summer’s day when my mom gave me an entire raised bed in her square foot garden.I had helped with th

You’ve heard that it’s important to prune your pear trees. You’ve purchased a pair of pruners and have looked at a few resources but you’re still not quite sure when to carry them outside and start snipping.Maybe you’re nervous, too. How

Wouldn’t it be nice if we all had gardens so big that we could give the cantaloupe their own big old patch to spread their vines?If you do have a garden that large, I am sincerely glad. The tho

Is there anything more autumnal than walking into your garden, the scent of turning leaves in the air, to pick a pumpkin for Halloween?I think not. And that’s why, this year, I decided to grow thre

Is it your dream to grow a pumpkin so big you could crawl inside of it? Then I have good news for you: your dream is completely attainable.All it takes is a dedica

For gardeners who want an easy-to-grow flower that refines their capacity for patience, daffodils are perfect.You plant them before the ground freezes i

One of my favorite summer memories comes from the summer of 2012, when I spent six weeks studying Spanish in Spain with my sister. The school regularly took us on trips to popular and historically significant towns and regions in the country.On one trip to Barcelona from Valencia, we drove past field

There’s nothing more frustrating than watching your beautiful pumpkin plant produce gorgeous flowers but no plump orange gourds. Over and over, they flower with nothing to show for their work.You want them to be ready in time for Hallowee

In the life of a gardener, few things are sadder than nurturing a plant, harvesting the tasty fruit or veggie, eating it… and discovering that it tastes terrible.This happened to me a couple years ago with the carrots I grew

As a kid, I spent a few summers camping along the Columbia River in Maryhill, Washington – Yakama Nation land – where some of the best stone fruits in the world are grown.When I think of summers there, I picture the wide br

Growing a fiddle-leaf fig (Ficus lyrata) can be one of the most rewarding achievements in indoor gardening.With its large, lyre-shaped leaves and t

It’s kind of a miracle that my first-ever delphiniums survived their maiden winter in Alaska.I had purchased them at the Home Depot, plante

If your corn is dying of seedling blight, also called damping off, it’s easy to feel frustrated. But with a bit of knowledge and prevention, you can keep your crop from getting infected. Read more below to learn how.We link to vendors to help