Wellness Ideas, Tips & Guides

My desk is usually surrounded by vacuums, various spray bottles, and heaps of cleaning tools. At one point, I had 17 vacuums of all types under my roof (many of which are now in new, loving homes). (And this is just a small peek into my life as a cleaning editor.)

All of these varieties are excellent at self-seeding, meaning they drop seeds in your garden before they die. The seeds will germinate on their own the following year, providing beautiful blooms again the same or next year without you having to do much.

Social media serves me a lot of skincare products, A LOT of them. While I’m mostly to blame for clicking on ads that ultimately adjust my algorithmic fate, I usually scroll past most magic potions and am very critical when it comes to actually adding anything to my cart. Personal discernment aside, I’ve definitely done my fair share of experimentation and testing, homing in on the best products and gadgets worth splurging on for better, healthier-looking skin. 

Plants thrive in various conditions in their natural habitat. Some love the occasional misting and won’t mind having wet leaves for some time, as it recreates their native tropical habitat and helps them cope with the dry air indoors.

Coffee wakes you up in the morning and might do the same for your plants! Well, not in the same way, but this quick homemade fertilizer does wonders and is the best way to put coffee dregs to good use!

Last week, a federal judge struck down a Trump Administration decision to take wolves off the endangered species list, restoring federal protection of some gray wolves in the country—meaning they can no longer be hunted.

Without a doubt, there is one pot of flowers that is the most colorful on my patio right now. The surprising news is we just recently potted it despite the hot summer heat we're experiencing. I’m in steamy Alabama, with record humidity, so it’s a soupy, sticky, kind of hot here outdoors. Daily watering of many of my plants in the summer heat is simply is a must.

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If you're into thrift shopping, you may have noticed that, unfortunately, many items come with a musty «thrift store smell» that can be seemingly difficult to erase. However, it turns out that deodorizing your finds is easier than you may have thought.

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I failed to say that the reconfigured rose garden featured yesterday is far from a ‘fait accompli’, and won’t be completed till much later this year or probably into the next. Firstly, I need to do something with the six slabs removed from the central area, the largest of which are 30″ x 18″ and all of them far heavier than they were when the last rose garden layout was established back in 2012. Although they are concrete, they are cast from moulds of real flag stones and there is a pleasing variation between them. We used these extensively when we laid the paved area and many of the paths and, although they were fairly reasonably priced when we first bought them, prices have escalated as we found when planning another project more recently – and hard to source, especially singly. At the moment, I cannot see where we might use them, but I am reluctant to get rid of them and they will need to be stored – which involves moving them… Then there are those nine bags of rubble (already moved down to the front of the house)…fortunately a local friend is happy to take rubble to fill in a boggy area where she stables horses…

Mantises are something of an eccentric in the world of insects. The males can fly, but more often they move slowly among shrubs and flowers. They can be fearsome hunters but usually wait for their prey to find them.

I absolutely love outdoor lanterns—the ambiance they create at night is unmatched in the summer. But, one thing I don’t love about candles is the wax itself. If it leaks out and leaves ugly wax stains on any linens or fabrics, that's annoying enough.

Created by a local craftsman using Eyam stone pitchers, the cambered path winds between beds planted with pollinator friendly, cottage garden favourites, including a froth of tall white Artemisia lactiflora ‘Elfenbein’, crimson Knautia macedonica, silvery Stachys byzantina, white Silene fimbriata and lofty, pale yellow Cephalaria gigantea. These tolerate the exposed location and move beautifully in the wind.

Many annuals and perennials need plenty of sunlight to thrive. Whether you have sunny areas in your front, side, or backyard or a porch, patio, or balcony and want to add more plants that will come back year after year, there are plenty of sun loving perennials to choose from. Many full-sun perennials provide important food sources for bees, butterflies, birds, bats, and moths. While you're enjoying the colorful hues and curious and cool looking blossoms, you'll also get a pollinator show with their frequent visits.

JULIE SOEFER

Summer is at its height which means more bugs, pests, and rodents ruining your fun festivities in the sunshine. Yelp just released data uncovering the top pest problems in the U.S. and it's a lot to unpack.

Mention bougainvillea to almost anyone, and their first images may be of sun-drenched stucco walls festooned in the neon colors of the tropics. From beachside to desert to lush tropics, their exotic vibe proclaims, “I love warm weather!” In the relatively small Nyctaginaceae family, Bougainvillea is likely the best-known member, with Mirabilis (four-o’clock) and Abronia (sand verbena) being runners up. With bougainvilleas, the color is provided by papery bracts that enclose a small white bloom that is the true flower. Flowering occurs in cycles: as a burst of new growth matures, a bloom cycle begins, repeating many times over the course of a long, hot season. Learn the basics of growing bougainvillea here.

You don’t always need a big garden for greens – a space for a medium-sized pot indoors will be more than enough for these edible vines!

Most flowers take months to produce a single bloom, but not those included in this list! Compiled for the eager gardener, these quick blooms emerge within a month after planting their transplants. Start their seeds well in advance and transplant them at the right time to get quick blooms. Let’s explore!

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Today’s boozy vase shares some elements with last week’s although lacks its fullness, containing less than an armful but more than a small posy, although with more time at my disposal it could have become more fulsome than it is. Having achieved my personal challenge of creating a vase with such a large number of blooms, I feel more confident of repeating the exercise and the garden is certainly proving the material to do so.

HomeGoods

If you've always been curious about secondhand shopping and are wondering how to make the most of your first trip to the thrift store, keep reading.

Planning a home’s private outdoor retreat for relaxation and social gatherings involves more than imagining how it will look. Much like interior redesigns, the focus first must be on functionality, and practical logistics like how the space will be used and how many people it should or could accommodate.

Living with a tiny patio, deck, or terrace is a challenge to furnish. While the size and scale of your furniture and planters are critical factors to consider, I found it’s important to look for items that can work double duty, too.

A wormery is a great way of recycling kitchen and small amounts of garden waste, using worms to turn this  material into nutrient-rich natural compost. A sump within the wormery also holds any excess liquid produced during this process and this can be used to feed your plants too. Simply drain it with the tap, every few days, dilute it to a 1:10 ratio of water and you have a nitrogen-heavy liquid feed ready to use. Wormery composting worms are different species to the earthworms you see in your garden, which aren’t suitable, and are known as brandlings, red, manure or tiger worms. They live inside the waste in the wormery bin and thanks to big appetites and a fast metabolism, quickly break down food waste likeegg shells, vegetable peelings and tea bags and turn them into compost for your garden. For help getting started our helpful step-by-step guide explains how to set up a wormery

The Standing Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans had harsh words for the Canadian federal government. At a meeting this week in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the committee presented its new report, which looked at the implementation of Indigenous rights-based fisheries. Its findings suggest that, despite more than two decades since key precedents were set, the fisheries have not been fully implemented. This has led, the committee stated, to confusion, tension and violence. 

Collecting and storing water is only one side of the story. Learning how to use this water effectively is just as important to ensure we make the most of every single drop of this most valuable resource. Naturally us gardeners often have much higher levels of water consumption compared to the average person, and as a result we are possibly the group of people who waste the most water. I know I have certainly been guilty of this in the past!

While college is a major change for students, it’s also a big transition for parents. Parenting from afar can be overwhelming and confusing, but one of the best ways to tackle this is to get prepared and plan ahead.

Orchids are the divas of the floral world. With all needs satisfied, they are utterly stunning! And when they effortlessly bloom out of crystal-clear water-filled jars, you know you’ve cracked the ultimate orchid code–water culture!

The garden as a whole has looked pretty hot in recent weeks, with June’s abundance filling it with glorious colour and lush foliage; the gardener, however, sees it very differently, and will quickly provide a list of its defects, things which a casual visitor might overlook. As simple as the overblown geranium above (probably G ‘Ann Folkard’), perhaps, draping itself over several smaller choice plants in front of it, or a more complex problem like the lack of support given to Rosa ‘Strawberry Hill’ (gearing up for a repeat flush) by its current support, below. Certainly, as I see it, everything is NOT coming up roses, or maybe it is but just not in the right place.

Q: We were planning on using a native hawthorn as a boundary hedge around our country garden. But a friend has warned us off it, saying that there’s a disease spreading throughout Europe that’s killing hawthorn trees and hedges. Should we use something else instead? Kate H, Co Wicklow

Ruggable

If a room is feeling off, there's a chance that if you look down, you'll pinpoint it. Outdated flooring options can make an entire space feel stale or unbalanced.