13 Herbs And Plants To Add To Your Garden That Help Repel Bugs

There are so many great gardening hacks out there. From using eggshells as fertilizer to creatively sourcing free plants, we all know you can create a stunning outdoor space with plenty of things you can't buy at your standard garden center.

Life, as I like to remind my sons, isn’t always fair. All things are not equal, no matter how much we’d like them to be and some are in fact far better than others, a truth brought home to all of us eventually. Hence the expression “garden-worthy”, that brilliantly concise description used to sum up a particular cultivar or variety’s outstanding qualities.

Whether you’re just getting started on your spring and summer garden or you’ve been planting and pruning all winter, some gardening advice is always welcome. It often feels like the tricks, tips, and hacks for helping your plants thrive are endless—and for every great piece of advice, there are some really bad suggestions out there, too.

Today’s top garden ideas at this year’s BBC Gardeners World Live were logs, corten steel, ponds, coloured garden furniture and more mixing of veg and flowers.

The gardens at Charleston

The garden shed is a part of a home garden that can have multiple purposes. Besides storing gardening tools, it can also be used as a place to relax and enjoy the garden. In case you also want to utilize your garden shed as a place to relax, it’s a good idea to enhance it with some additions, such as adding some garden furniture and installing wood wall panels. The following are 3 tips on how to enhance your garden shed that you can follow to make it better.

Temperatures are expected to be higher than ever this summer, with record-breaking heatwaves already hitting the Southwest United States. You might be prepared with ways to beat the heat, but what about your garden? 

With hot temperatures rising across the country this year, this summer is the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes. These insects look for hot and humid conditions—and they’re likely to find these conditions in more places than usual this year.

Planting annuals in your garden provides continuous blooms throughout the season. Grow them directly in the ground, in raised beds, in pots, or even in hanging baskets to use vertical space. Annuals, unlike perennials, need to be planted each year. Growing annuals allows plenty of opportunity to experiment with what flowers you like and thrive in your geographical area and which blooms you want to have in your landscape year after year.

There’s nothing like a crisp cucumber freshly harvested from your garden, then chilled to perfection. They’re so much better when you grow them yourself! They’re also one of the easiest vegetables to grow from seed. New compact varieties of cucumbers grow well in containers on a deck, patio or balcony, too.

Being out in the garden is a feast for the senses, particularly when you're surrounded by fragrant plants. There's color, texture, the sound of breeze blowing through the trees, and, of course, the scent of a sweet smelling flower wafting through the air.

Feeling a bit down? We’ve scoured the internet for the best plant puns and jokes to uplift your mood like a daisy in the sun! Easy to remember and definitely drought-tolerant, plant these succulent one-liners at your next gardener’s meet-up, and watch the magic sprout!