As Seen at Keukenhof - Get the Look

A couple of weeks ago my mother asked me if I was putting the garden to bed for the winter. It’s a common gardening phrase, and yet I have very little understanding of what it means. It implies the garden is going to be hibernating all winter, which isn’t true for a well-designed ornamental garden, and certainly isn’t true for a kitchen garden. Perhaps it means the gardener is going to be hibernating all winter, and the garden needs to be prepared for a long, untended stint? It can’t be about getting the kitchen garden ready for winter, I have been doing that all year.

Just over a year ago, when we were celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing, I talked about the lack of diversity in space and mentioned Mary Jackson. In 2016, the movie Hidden Figures shared the stories of Mary Jackson and two other Black female mathematicians – Katherine Johnson and, Dorothy Vaughan. They worked at NASA when a ‘computer’ still meant a person carrying out mathematical calculations. The film is based on a book by Margot Lee Shetterly, which I am reading at the moment. The book offers a more detailed and accurate account of the prejudice these women (and others) had to overcome.

Can we grow food on the Moon or Mars? That was the question that started Dr Wieger Wamelink, ecologist and exobiologist at the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands, on a research quest in 2013.

Header image: Geoff Caddick/EPA

A new year is just around the corner and paint brands have already started announcing their colors of the year. Color, whether through paint or decor, is the simplest way to evoke a feeling in a room. These colors range from traditional to truly unexpected, setting the bar for just how creative we can be in our homes. Whether you're looking for tones that evoke tranquility and calm, or just want to spice things up with something unexpected, The Spruce has got you covered.

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Courtesy of Dutch Boy Paints

We might be in the final weeks of summer, but that doesn’t mean all the perks of your summer vegetable garden are over. In fact, there are a ton of amazing ways you can prolong the use of your veggie patch—and keep enjoying the literal fruits of your labor—well into autumn. That’s why we turned to Ashley Nussman-Berry, founder of the Black Planters, and a few other amazing members of the Facebook Group, to ask for their advice. 

The elm zigzag sawfly (Aproceros leucopoda, SLF) is one of the latest non-native species to take hold in the U.S. It was first found in Virginia in 2021, and active infestations are now established in Maryland, New York, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. EZS has not been detected in South Carolina, but it is an insect for which we need to be on the lookout.

A cherry plum, sweet, thin-skinned and very prolific (you’ll also find it sold under ‘Red Grape Sugar Plum’). It was in the top three of our recent taste test and everyone liked it for its strong tomato flavour that’s sweet but not overly so, and its firm not mushy texture. It has a slight acidity running through it which all sweet tomatoes need. It ripens quite late compared to ‘Sungold’ and produces for a long period of time. It’s lovely in a mixed salad with the larger varieties. 

It may feel like a cliché to say that kitchens are the heart of the home, but there’s an undeniable truth to that statement. Kitchens are where we gather with friends and family and where we whip up delicious meals and refreshing drinks—they’re a central location around which our home lives revolve. 

With TikTok continuing to rise in popularity, and short-form video becoming the end-all, be-all of information sharing, it seems like our attention spans are getting shorter and trends are coming and going faster than ever before.