How to Xeriscape Your Yard for Efficiency and Aesthetics

Yuccas, Yucca spp., are succulents that grow in full sun and rocky, dry soil in USDA Hardiness Zones ranging from 3 to 11. We link to vendors to help you f

Many of our tried and true recipes and dishes can be ‘modified’ to increase vegetables, fiber, and fruits by making simple adjustments to meals we already eat. Many of us love watching chefs on TV but tend to go back to old favorites, i.e., macaroni and cheese, potato salad, beef stew, soup, fried chicken, broccoli casserole, spaghetti, etc.

“Last year [2012] at the overwintering sites, the area occupied was at only 60 percent of its previous low,” she says. “It had been declining, but that was astonishingly low.”The migration-monitoring program Journey North also reported lower stats in 2013’s cold spring. And though the numbers were only preliminary when we spoke that fall, University of Minnesota’s Monarch Larva Monitoring Program seems to indicate that “we’re at about 20 to 30 percent of our average,” Oberhauser says, acknowledging that these drastically lower numbers might be a “new normal.” But she’s not sounding defeated, by any means.A big positive: A lot of people are interested in monarchs. “Though it will be difficult to make up for all the habitat we’ve lost, we can make that ‘new normal’ as good as we can.”  (Ways to help are father down this page.)what going wrong for monarchs?MONARCH

The backstory: When I heard the title of a lecture being given nearby by a visiting North Carolina State University zoologist, I had to know more. The talk wasn’t titled “Woodchuck-Proof Your Backyard,” or “Rabbits Be Gone,” which would have attracted me, too, but for more obvious reasons. It sounded far more dramatic:“The Return of Predators to Urban America.”The speaker was Kays, a North Carolina State University zoologist and expert in using new technologies to study free-ranging animals, including the ones that may very well live in your neighborhood and garden. He leads the project called eMammal—a citizen-science animal-counting collaboration with the Smithsonian—and directs the Biodiversity Lab in the Nature Research Center of North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. I invited him to my public-radio pro

I asked Andy to use his recent experience to inspire all of us to dare to open up to a wider plant palette, too, whether by necessity or just for fun, and where to look for inspiration. He’s even just started using a hashtag on social media, #somanyplantstolearn, to celebrate the unknowns.Andy Brand was long-time nursery manager at Broken Arrow rare plant nursery in Connecticut until he moved to Maine and became plant curator at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. Since then, he’s been on a steep learning curve, getting acquainted with exciting new plants in the garden’s collections (like feathery Ptilotus, above; photo by Andy Brand) and in the surrounding wild landscape.Read along as you listen

A new awareness of ecological and conservation concerns has resulted in a rising interest in growing native plants and trees. Why are native trees important? One of the main benefits of planting native trees is their adaptability to their specific region. Living in their natural habitat means native trees require less water and fewer herbicides and pesticides to keep them healthy. Trees in their natural environments are also hosts to local wildlife, providing them with food and habitat.

Radishes are one of those first treats to come from the spring garden. There is nothing like pulling out a colorful root veggie, giving it a little dust and polish, and biting into it before it has a chance to see the kitchen. Did you know you can also enjoy fresh radishes in the fall, as well? In this article, I’m going to explain the difference between spring and winter radishes, and share some tips on growing radishes from seed for a spring crop and for a fall crop. Timing your radish seeding is simply a matter of counting forwards or backwards to frost-free and frost dates.

Daylily, Hemerocallis spp., is a flowering perennial in the Asphodelaceae family that brightens summer gardens in USDA Hardiness Zones 3 to 9.It sprouts from a rhizome and has bare, slender stems

Arugula, Eruca vesicaria, is a leafy salad green in the Brassicaceae family that also includes broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, and Swiss chard.It’s a self-seeding annual for Zones 3 to 11 tha

Like its brassica relatives, cauliflower, Brassica oleracea var. botrytis, is prone to pests that pose a threat to successful cultivation.And in addition to the damage pests can do to develo

Fuchsia is a genus of flora that grow upright, cascade, or creep. They display exquisite nodding or upward-facing, bell-like or tubular corollas, and upturned sepals.Many have distinctive features like ruf