Cheap & Easy Homemade Ant Spray

Are you looking at plants in your garden and wondering why they aren’t flowering?

I HAVE NEVER had a pair of boots that wasn’t hunter green or just plain black, but the madcap, cotton-lined, waterproof boots from Oregon-based Jessica Swift (top left of top photo) made me smile—and $5 from each pair sold will go to helping Charity: Water, a non-profit bringing clean drinking water to developing nations. The boots’ creator runs a new one-woman, crowd-funded business, and inside each boot is as brightly patterned as outside—plus Jessica has added a positive message like “this is the moment—your moment” to the lining, too.  Not sure what my dairy-farming neighbors will think if I show up in these babies at the Post Office or General Store, but maybe I’ll take a walk on the wild side and find out. Happy feet, anyone?gold standard: hose of my dreamsEVERYONE WHO VISITS the garden on Open Days wants one: a super-lightweight, drinking-water-safe, beautifully colored hose (many hues to choose from, including olive and cranberry, shown above, and purple and more). No more dragging around heavy, kinked-up traditional hoses for me the last few years, since I found the made-in-America ones from Water Right Inc., an Oregon-based family business.stocking-

The June 14th edition is about plants I call “confidence builders” (read: maybe too enthusiastic) that I grew at the start of my garden career. Today’s is about creatures in the garden: which to tolerate, and which not to, and why, from deer on down to slugs, snakes and more.But maybe don’t click away right yet…better yet, stay a minute first and get the backstory on the Garden Rant post:If you follow the comments here on the blog you’ll perhaps remember the funny back-and-forth about Sedum with Susan Harris, one of the voices of Garden Rant, and how her wondering aloud to me (both in a comment here and a post at her place) about the ID of a particular variety.Her wondering sent me out into the night to grab some of the plant-i

Whether you get technical or go generic with your terminology, it’s time to tuck tubers and corms and tuberous roots and rhizomes and yes, even some true bulbs into the soil for years of enjoyment. But which ones, and how?With help from horticulturist Jonathan Wright of Chanticleer Garden, who joined me on my public radio show and podcast, we’ll learn some less-than-expected uses of bulbs, like massed in lawns [photo below, at Chanticleer], and layered in containers. Plus: tips such as which bulbs are more animal-proof tha

I LEFT HOME LAST WEEK (without telling Jack first!) for a lecture in Baltimore, the farthest I’ve been from here in more years than I can recall. Besides a great crowd at the event held by the Maryland Horticultural Society, there was an extra treat: I got to meet Susan Harris, one of the four bloggers who collaborate on the wildly popular site called Garden Rant.

“This dish is a mashup of glazed carrots, which are popular in the South, and Moroccan carrot salad,” Terry says in the recipe’s headnote. “The savory coating is rich, intense, and delicious, and as you can see in the photo, this is a gorgeous dish.”Read my companion interview with Bryant Terry, and enter to win the cookbook. The recipe:bryant terry’s glazed carrot saladYield: 6 to 8 servings1 ½ pounds carrots (about 10 medium carrots) 1 tablespoon plus ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt 2 tablespoons peanut oil 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon j

Bill Logan and I talked about how mankind learned to use trees and evolved alongside them with their help; about pruning tactics like pollarding and coppicing; and also how nearly immortal trees are.Read along as you listen to the May 20, 2019 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Spotify or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).Plus: Enter to win the book, in the comments box at the very bottom of the page.our relationship with trees, with bill loganMargaret: Welcome, Bill. Is it O.K. if I say Bill since everyone we know

In late winter or early spring phrases like “slow to establish” are heard from frustrated gardeners seeing maybe 2 of the 200 they planted last fall actually doing anything.Years ago I recall reading upstate New Yorker Kathy Purdy’s frustration on her Cold Climate Gardening blog, and how she’d since learned about soil pH and its effect on winter aconites, as Eranthis are commonly called. In a vintage how-to column in “The Telegraph,”

“Afro-Vegan: Farm-Fresh African, Caribbean, and Southern Flavors Remixed” (Amazon affiliate link) is also an education in another way: about the culinary and cultural history of the African diaspora, and about food politics.Terry became a vegan in high school, and admits at first he proselytized to “convert” people to using less animal products–or at least to trying fresh and local ingredients. More often than not, his soap-box campaigns failed.“It was such a good lesson for me about the way you don’t get people interested,” says Terry. “Rather than harangue,” he says, he just started bringing home ingredients from the local farm market to share with his relati

You know Joe Lamp’l as host of the “Growing A Greener World” show on PBS and of the Joe Gardener podcast, but apparently besides being a great gardener, he also had a show on the DIY Network for three years. So before all my vining crops and tomatoes need support, or the seedlings are screaming to be gridded out at proper spacing and other such impending issues, Joe shared some proactive garden organizing tips, DIY-style, based on the wire panels.Read along as you listen to the April 2, 2018 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).joe lamp’l’s diy garden projects using livestock panelsQ. Welcome back, Joe. I’m ready for some he

For the past four years, Michael has worked at Native Plant Trust (formerly known as New England Wild Flower Society) as manager of the New England Plant Conservation Program and seed-bank coordinator. Now he has been named Director of Conservation there, leading the internationally recognized team focused on documenting and saving imperiled plants and restoring habitat.Native Plant Trust offers educational courses in-person and online on topics related to native plants and conservation; see all the offerings here.Read along as you listen to the October 7, 2019 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Spotify or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here). (Photo of Michael, below, by Tara Shugrue.)invasives, conservation & more, with michael piantedosiMargaret Roach: I was very, very happy to see of your promotion. As I said in the introduction, “overwhelm,” you know?

Crassula Ovata, which is commonly known as the jade plant, also goes by other names such as Money Plant, Dollar Plant, Lucky Plant, and Friendship tree. Thanks to its immense popularity as a houseplant, surely you must have one in your home. And, if you’re not growing it indoors yet, you’ll be, after reading these Jade Plant benefits in this article!