Laura Ojeda Melchor

Agapanthus, aka lily of the Nile, provides a glorious display of color in borders and beds.The blooms grow off a central stalk that ends in

Back when I first started gardening, I thought leaving a pumpkin vine to grow every which way was the only way to keep it alive and well.Turns out, this isn’t necessaril

The first spring I spent in Alaska, I got a strong hankering for fresh basil. I craved sandwiches on ciabatta bread with mozzarella cheese, fresh tomato slices, and aromatic basil leaves.Nothing could taste more like summer, and when you live in Al

The first time I saw a persimmon, I thought it was a tomato that I was expected to eat raw and whole. It’s not, of course – it’s much better.Or at least it’s much better for

Nearly 10 years ago, I had the pleasure of visiting Zermatt, Switzerland, a charming alpine town at the base of the Matterhorn.My traveling companions and I took a train up the mount

There’s a house on my street with a large Japanese tree lilac (Syringa reticulata) growing in the middle of the yard.It produces the most beautiful clusters of fragrant, cream-co

I’ll admit it: as a kid, walking past the soldierly rows of celery in my mom’s garden made me shudder.Celery was the stringy offender in the otherwise pleasant garden vegeta

Bok choy is a member of one of my favorite vegetable families, the brassica family. It calls three of the most popular vegetables its own: broccoli, brussels sprouts, and cauliflower. Oh, and don’t forget cabbage!See? I can’t get enough of the

Corn gets a bad rap these days. It’s in everything from breakfast cereal to dog food to skin care products, so how can it be healthy?Well, my friends, it is.

The first year I moved to Alaska, I threw some sweet corn seeds down in my flower bed halfway through the summer, gave them some water, and blew them a kiss goodbye.Okay, not really (the kiss part). The seeds germinated and the seedlings grew a few inches – and

Here’s one of the most important lessons I learned this summer:Broccoli and rhubarb are not good companion plants

Have you ever dreamed of planting and caring for your own hydrangeas with their glorious clusters of color and vibrant leaves?These old-fashioned yet utterly stylish p

Whenever I see a bright cluster of agapanthus, I think of sunshine, warmth, and tropical locales.But these members of the amaryllis family

When I was a kid, my dad built my sister and me a zipline running from a spruce tree to a playhouse in our garden.I loved the zipline, but my favorite part wa

Few things are more thrilling than bringing home the beginnings of your own little informal orchard.But you might be wondering where exactl

Cantaloupe is like candy in melon form.For some reason, watermelon gets all the summertime hype. Some

If there was ever a piece of art that accidentally manifested itself as a vegetable, it would be Romanesco broccoli.It’s always tucked next to the broccoli and cauliflower at the grocery store, and ev

There’s nothing more frustrating than planting corn and imagining juicy homegrown ears to roast on the grill, only to watch your seedlings get sick and die.But seedlings are tender things, and I know how

If you’ve ever smelled something oniony in your yard and seen hollow-stemmed, grasslike herbs growing there, you might be dealing with wild chives (Allium schoenoprasum).But what are wild chives, exactly? Will they sp

Pumpkins are such friendly looking gourds, aren’t they?It’s hard not to smile when you see them ador

Few flowers are better suited to a wildflower garden than coreopsis, also known as “tickseed.”Native to North America, coreops

When our little Alaskan house was being built, I begged the builder to tell the land-clearers not to cut down any trees they didn’t have to remove.But they clearly didn’t care about a y

It’s finally time.You’ve nurtured your celery

There is truly no scent more comforting to me than that of crushed garlic cloves sauteing in olive oil.You can always tell when someone close to you ha

It’s cute, really, for me to look back on the little bamboo hoops I erected for my pumpkin plants earlier this summer.I’d never grown the Cucurbits before, an

Do you want to grow one of the most famous houseplants in the world, often photographed sitting on the marble mantel across the room from a certain important desk in a certain office of national significance?Then Plectranthus verticillatus, otherwise known as Swedish ivy or Swedish begonia, is the plant for you.

Broccoli is the one vegetable I have loved my entire life. As a kid, I ate it raw. Now I adore it lightly sautéed with teriyaki chicken so that it turns bright green, slightly tender, and soaks in the sauce for a delicious flair.But the best way to enjoy this n

To me, pumpkins are the paragon of autumn, my favorite season. So this last winter, I decided to grow a few varieties indoors in early spring for a summer transplant into the garden.But the gourds began to flower while th

With regrets to all the lettuce lovers out there, I must proclaim that there is no better base for a salad than freshly grown arugula.I planted the leafy green in

I grew up enjoying snowy winters every year in Montana, so when I moved to southern California for college, I missed the snow. A lot.But then came graduate school in Vermont, where not only