Build a $300 Underground Greenhouse for Year-Round Gardening

Even if you aren't fortunate enough to live next to a meadow of wildflowers, you can still capture their untamed beauty in a container or garden this summer by planting cosmos. Cosmos come in various colors, from burgundy to pink to white. Mix them up for a more natural look, like a wildflower meadow. Bonus: this colorful flower, native to tropical America, attracts birds and butterflies with its cheery blooms. Because of their wildflower characteristics, cosmo flowers are considered invasive in some environments. Cosmos are prime not only for containers but for creating a mass of color in borders or backgrounds or as a filler among shrubs.

How to Establish a Monarch Waystation in Your Garden Help monarch butterflies by providing essential nectar and host plants in your own Monarch Waystation. The amazing monarch butterfly journey

Hi GPODers!

Do African Violets bloom all year round? You can make them! Here are a few tips and tricks to coax your flowers to appear throughout the year, lighting up your home even on the gloomiest days!

Whether we’re sourcing fresh blueberries from the farmers market, a pick-your-own farm, or the supermarket, it’s tough to accurately estimate exactly how many fresh berries to invest in for our favorite healthy blueberry recipes…and the handfuls of snacks we’ll snag during the drive home, to refuel midafternoon, or to power us up while we’re cooking those aforementioned recipes.

Header image: Cilantro seedlings grown in 100% recycled glass material. Image credit: Andrea Quezada

There is no way to sugarcoat the challenges many of us in the Mid-Atlantic region have faced this summer. The inconsistency of rainfall and the extreme high temperatures have greatly impacted our efforts to garden successfully. Even with valiant efforts to apply supplemental irrigation, I have witnessed a wide range of plant material showing signs of drought stress that I have rarely witnessed in my 15-plus years of gardening in this region. To say it is cause for concern would be an understatement. As a result, in the last few months I have been repeatedly asked how we can prepare our beloved gardens to reduce heat and moisture stress for future growing seasons. One answer to this conundrum is to add organic matter to the soil in the form of compost.

Got pests? Encourage native ladybugs to inhabit your garden instead of buying wild-harvested ladybugs to manage unwanted insects. Purchased ladybugs are expensive and potentially disease-carrying, threatening native bug species already living in your garden and the surrounding area. Your best bet is to attract and encourage native ladybugs to thrive and flourish, which will responsibly deter unwanted pests.

If you're craving a pop of color in your home, Behr is here to help with their 2025 Color of the Year, Rumors.

Native plants, as the name indicates, grow naturally in an area or region. There is a growing shift among many people away from a manicured garden with non-local species in support of more natural areas, and especially, for embracing native plants.

Happy Monday GPODers!

The best ground covers are multi-purpose workhorses, suppressing weeds, preventing soil erosion, and adding another level of interest to garden beds. Naturally, we’d prefer them not to be invasive, and to look good over a long season. But why do so many gardeners seem to fall back on the same few choices? In this episode, Danielle, Carol, and expert guest Amanda Thomsen cover new ground in their quest to expand the definition of what a ground cover can be. Whether it’s a tough but underused North American native, a cheeky little annual, or an unusual self-seeding edible, we hope you will find something unexpected but garden-worthy in this episode.