Should You Put Nonstick Pans in the Dishwasher?

Harry's Chelsea garden, The School Food Matters Garden

The gardens at Great Dixter.

This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Mapping your vegetable garden before planting helps

There's nothing like having a home garden to make you begin to appreciate the trials and tribulations of the farmers who grow our food. Between weather, weeds, and insects, not to mention the challenges of soil fertility, it can be an incredibly humbling experience to try to put food on the table with a home garden. This is true especially when adhering to organic protocols that don't rely on quick yet potentially harmful solutions, such as herbicides, pesticides, and conventional fertilizers.

There’s a reason it’s called the Mighty Oak: Oak trees are stately trees that can live for hundreds (yes, hundreds!) of years. “If you want to plant a tree your great-grandkids can enjoy, go with an oak,” says Greg Huber, a Georgia Registered Landscape Architect (RLA), and program coordinator of the certified landscape and plant professional programs at theGeorgia Center for Urban Agriculture, University of Georgia. “There’s tremendous variety, and oaks have a classic beauty that feels solid and unchanging.”

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In late May, many of us look forward to seeing social media posts about the Chelsea Flower Show. The timing of this event is a reminder that there are many perennials that benefit from a late spring cutback, commonly known as the “Chelsea chop.” Many perennials that bloom in midsummer, late summer, or fall can be pinched or cut back early in the season to increase flower production, limit plant size, extend or delay bloom time, create novel flower combinations, and minimize flopping or lodging. While the chop is generally timed to coincide with the famous flower show, it’s more important to time the trimming for a point when a significant amount of vegetative growth has occurred. For the Mid-Atlantic region, this can be any time from midspring to early summer.

When the warm days announce that it’s tomato growing season and you’re ready to choose which varieties to include in your garden, there are many characteristics to consider.What will they taste like? How big will they get? What do they look

There’s nothing like opening up a fresh package of sheets. Most of the time, they’re perfectly ironed—almost crisp—and they never feel more soft or luxurious than before that first use. While you're probably looking forward to putting them on your bed and getting ready for a good night's sleep, you may be wondering if you should wash your new sheets first. But is it worth all that effort? They don't seem dirty and no one's used them yet, so is it really necessary to wash sheets before you use them?

Bath & Body Works

From floors to bathrooms and bedrooms, there are so many places that can get dirty in the home. But one of the spaces we rarely talk about is the inside of the microwave. After all, it’s pretty easy to hide microwave messes. Once the door is shut, no one notices until they need to use the microwave again, and how often do guests use your microwave, anyway?

The last few years have seen the spread of No Mow May, a campaign that encourages folks to mow their lawns and meadows less in order to reduce fossil fuel emissions and water use as well as help wildlife. On the face of it, it seems almost too good to be true–you could do a lot of good things for the environment by doing literally nothing. So perhaps it’s not surprising that letting your lawn grow for a month has fallen short of its promises.