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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

Given how pricey they are in the market, growing this fruit may seem challenging! But with attention to a few details, it’s fairly easy and super rewarding! Homegrown fresh blueberries are a delight, especially when you have endless buckets to relish. Follow these tricks to double your blueberry harvest in containers or your garden!

Florida’s climate is one of its most important assets. Nicknamed the “Sunshine State,” Florida boasts a humid subtropical climate in the north and central sections along with a tropical climate throughout a majority of the south. The state's native plants are already well suited for its climate and soil conditions, so they can usually thrive without additional irrigation or fertilization.

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.

Hey GPODers!

Growers in cold climates often utilize various approaches to extend the growing season or boost their crops, including cold frames, hoop houses, and greenhouses. Greenhouses—typically glazed structures— are often expensive to construct and heat throughout the winter. But, they have their benefits, which is why underground greenhouses can be viable alternatives.

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.  

“Impossibly unaffordable” are two words that Californians are probably less than thrilled to hear. In a recent report from Chapman University in Orange, California, and the Frontier Centre of Public Policy (FCPP) in Canada, that’s exactly how four California metros are described. The 2024 edition of Demographia International Housing Affordability shows San Jose, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego listed among the top 10 least affordable housing markets—not just in the United States, but worldwide.