Planting Arugula: A Seed-to-Harvest Guide

Collaborative post

Susan Burke’s home and garden on the Nantucket shoreline off the coast of Massachusetts were designed from scratch when she and her late husband first purchased the property. Featuring tall borders of naturalistic plantings and hardscaping that weave off into nature in the backyard, this space also has a more formal garden in the front yard consisting mostly of native plants. A large dune comes up from the beach, where a buffer of native flora divides the garden from the beach beyond.

Like many northern gardeners, I had red-hot poker envy for many years but ruled out growing them because of their iffy -chances of surviving winter in my region. However, I am very excited about some of the newer Kniphofia introductions we are growing at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Being able to overwinter a South African plant in the Midwest is pretty cool, right? 

This plan represents a bed along a property fence between the west side of a house and a large canopy tree. The edge of the border is curved because I find that adds visual interest. This plan includes many plants that are adaptable to sun and shade as well as some supporting players that add interesting textures and forms to the design and that provide repetition and rhythm. The plants are placed according to their needs:

Jade is one of the most resilient plants you can have in your collection. Though it doesn’t mind a bit of a neglect, it will surely appreacite a right placement where it can multiply in size!

We all love herbs don’t we? Be it their flavor, and many uses in the kitchen—we all want a few that keep on growing, providing us with plentiful leaves all year round!

If you buy your garden border plants from the people who grow them, you’ll benefit from their expert advice and knowledge.

There’s no need to wait months to enjoy the delicious flavor of homegrown peas as you can grow pea sprouts and shoots year-round inside your home. These nutrient dense foods are quick and easy to grow and you don’t need fancy equipment to produce a bumper crop of sweet, tender pea sprouts and shoots. In this article you’ll learn the difference between sprouts and shoots, discover how to plant each type, get growing tips, and find out when to harvest. Pea sprouts and pea shoots You may have noticed there are a lot of terms used for describing immature pea plants: sprouts, microg

Harvesting lettuce is not always like snipping off the entire plant the moment you see the leaves plump and full. To make sure you let the plant stay to provide you more leaves, there’s an art to cutting its leaves and this is where we come to help you!

With basils, we always think about a stubby plant that’s growing in a small pot on a sunny windowsill. What if we tell you that it can be trained to grow like a 4-6 feet tall specimen? Sounds impossible? Well, it’s not!

Chives (Allium schoenoprasum) are among the most popular herbs for home gardeners to grow. They are easy to plant and care for, and since they are a hardy perennial, they return to the garden year after year. The fragrant and flavorful leaves of the chive plant are delicious to people, but the deer and rabbits leave them alone. To add yet another benefit, chive flowers are a favorite nectar source for many of the pollinators who also help pollinate other edible crops. Learning how to harvest chives for use in the kitchen is key to enjoying this easy-to-grow herb. Let’s take a look at several different ways to harvest chives for both fresh use and for preservation. The best time to harvest chives Before we get to the information on how to harvest chives, it’s important to understand

Putting plants together is the most creative and joyful part of making a garden. With colour, shape and texture, you can conjure up a living work of art, something that not only gives you sensory pleasure but also benefits wildlife and the environment. But with so many options available to us, where do we start? I always think back to the plantswoman Beth Chatto and her mantra ‘right plant, right place’ when conceiving a plan, because there is no point in rushing to place your favourite sun-loving flowers in a shady spot at the back of a north-facing house. ‘Plants, like people, have their preferences and don’t like being thrust into the nearest available hole,’ she observed.