an easy annual poppy, papaver somniferum

Would you like to find out how to grow garlic?  It’s such an easy crop to grow!

I am often asked to recommend plants for problematic garden areas during my call-in radio program or after public-speaking engagements. As a result, over the years I have developed a list of my top picks for sunny and shady gardens depending on whether the soil is dense, heavy, and clay-based, or lean, sandy, and quick-draining. Fortunately, I have experience gardening with both soil types, and so I know that each presents its own challenges and opportunities. Here are a few options for perennials, trees, and shrubs that can survive and even thrive in the trickiest soil conditions.

With so many of us stuck at home and not being able to get to the craft stores, I thought I'd share a quick tutorial for making a ladybug mosaic using a sponge ball and left over mosaics. If you don't have a sponge ball,a roundish rock or polystyrene ball will work to.

Think before you allow poppies to proliferate. Poppies rob a lot of goodness from your soil.

1. Sunflowers. One of the most rewarding plants to grow from seed is the sunflower. You can sow seed in March – May. April is a great time. For best results. Try sowing seed in 3 inch pots. Protect from slugs and keep well watered. After a few weeks the seedlings can be planted out. Sunflowers will need staking. But part of the fun is seeing them grow so rapidly. – Growing Sunflowers

Cyclamen are easy and rewarding houseplants to look after as long as you control the watering.

Some orchids are temperamental but this Phalaelenopsis has give unstinting blooms for eight months on the trot without any trouble. Growing on one stem which branched into three side shoots there were upto 20 flowers on the Orchid at anyone time. The variety must be resilient as we gave it no special treatment but these Phalaelenopsis or Moth Orchids are one of the easier Orchids to grow.

Poppies are easy to grow, sometimes too easy  because they self sow all over my garden and despite the delicate petals I thought of them as weeds. So much so that I forgot to photograph any earlier this year but now have captured some pictures of perfectly purple poppies.

Need an easy update for your backyard? Painting concrete pavers will add some pizzaz to your outdoor space! A few supplies are all that’s needed to create this fun project.

Memories made at summer soirees should last forever, but the cleanup obviously shouldn't. Event planners Celia Duncan and Stevie Rozean with Wildly Collective are masters at the art of outdoor entertaining, and here they graciously share some of their trade secrets with us for making the teardown and tidying a breeze.

Are you keen on the idea of growing your own vegetables, but not really sure where to start? This list of ten easy to grow vegetables is a great first step on your grow your own journey.

I’m not usually much of an impatiens lover, but ‘Fusion Glow’ and the Fusion series from the giant breeders Ball Horticultural will have a place here again next year for its mounding habit and free-flowering, and of course its lovely color (one of several in the series). Also on my list to be sure to track down for next year: that elusive ‘Terra Cotta’ viola (above) I couldn’t find locally this year and should have ordered in advance. Come to think of it, Viola ‘Blue Bronze’ is on the list, too; I just didn’t love the substitutes I grew this year, as I have complained before. Oh, and that variegated Abutilon I found without a label on it (which I have since ID’d). It’s named