I am from Phoenixville, Pennsylvania where I run a homeless outreach non-profit and offer plants and seedlings from the garden in exchange for donations. Our website is https://BDAOutreach.org to find out more!
I’ve been working on turning my side yard into one huge garden for four or five years total now. We had some nonnative pines in this spot; they all died, so I started one bed at a time. I go heavy with native pollinators and perennials but also plenty of ornamentals. There’s enough room for everything here!
The yard six years ago—before it started turning into a garden
Lush plants now fill the area, like these huge hardy hibiscus (Hibiscus hybrids, Zones 5–9) derived from native species that boast huge flowers and beautiful foliage.
A huge mass of zinnias (Zinniaelegans, annual) blooms in shades of orange and red. Zinnias are native to Mexico and are easily grown from seed to fill a sunny area with flowers.
The gardener’s best friend on a brick walkway through the garden
Along with all the plantings in the ground, containers of houseplants outside for a summer vacation are lined up along the walk. Putting houseplants outside for the summer—taking care to move them into bright sun gradually so the leaves don’t burn—is a great, easy way to help them thrive.
Sunflowers (Helianthusannuus, annual) are North American natives and are easy to grow from seed. As you can see if you look closely here, they’re big hits with bees and other pollinators, and then turn into living bird feeders as the seeds mature.
A bumblebee enjoys the nectar and pollen on the zinnias.
A furry garden friend between the lushly planted beds
Containers of petunias (Petunia hybrids, Zones 9–11 or as an annual) add
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My husband and I bought our first home in a small West Virginia town in January 2023. The bright green dwelling sits in the middle of a dead-end street where retirees claim most homes as the original dwellers. From 1978 until now, our house had only one homeowner. So, for the past 45 years, the yard has been a neatly mowed lawn with a single tulip tree.
If there’s one DIY recipe that’s simple, fun, and makes a house feel (and smell) like a home, it’s a simmer pot. All you have to do is cut some fruit into slices, add it to a pot with some spices, cover the ingredients with water, and simmer it on the stove for a few hours, and voila—you have a warm, inviting home. It’s such a lovely trick that you might consider bringing part of the routine into the rest of your household duties. Like, perhaps, cleaning your pillows?
Fall is here, as is pumpkin and gourd harvest season. We are shopping for gourds, whether green, white, orange, or yellow, smooth, lumpy, or perfectly spherical. What’s a more fun and classic fall activity than gourd painting for Halloween and Thanksgiving? Painting gourds and pumpkins is a safer activity for kiddos than carving, and the decorations last a lot longer. However, are these festive gourds edible when it’s time to take down the decorations? Is it safe to cook and eat painted gourds? Find out here.
Is there a gardener anywhere who wouldn’t appreciate a beautiful space designed specifically to keep maintenance requirements realistic and manageable? I recently designed such a landscape for a client who wanted to replace her front lawn with a garden where her family of six could play, socialize, and gather with their large circle of relatives and friends. The goal was to strike a balance between beauty and ease of care, since she wanted to maintain the space without hiring outside help. The design we came up with is an excellent example of a hardworking landscape that looks great but does not require hours of labor or a crew of landscapers to keep it that way. As a bonus, the new garden requires about half the water that the turfgrass did.
First came feta, which brought with it an outrageous amount of baked feta pasta and whipped feta dip recipes. Then came cottage cheese, and that dairy-based food trend du jour added a flurry of savory recipes, such as pizza toasts and pasta sauces. Then things snowballed into a storm of sweet recipes ranging from edible cookie dough and “ice cream”—all made with cottage cheese.
Though quite possibly the peskiest plant for homeowners trying to maintain a pristine lawn, dandelion is not just a weed but a bonafide superfood, often provided to us free of charge by Mother Nature.
You probably weren't aware that much of the honey found on grocery store shelves is actually fake—in some cases, it contains little to no actual honey. In fact, honey is one of the most faked foods found in our food supply today. Here's why, and how it's affecting those who produce real honey—plus what it means for all the supposed health benefits of the so-called superfood.
It can be hard enough finding suitable shade plants, and choosing the best plants for shady slopes is even harder. The plants need to be be sturdy enough to cling to a slope and also tolerate low light. They are out there, though, if you know where to look. Erosion control shade plants may be bushes, grasses or low groundcovers, and should be adaptable to the site conditions.
Header image: Amid an otherworldly landscape outside of Hanksville, Utah, sits the Mars Desert Research Station. Facilities like these are intended to mimic how people might fare on Mars or the Moon, or on long-term orbital stations. Visual: The Mars Society