When to Pick Cherry Tomatoes for the Best Flavor and Quality

With so many types of art pieces to choose from for your home, it may be daunting to think about starting to shop for prints, posters, originals, or other works. However, filling your home with art should be an enjoyable process, and it isn't quite as complicated as you might think, either.

Awaken the fantasy lover in you and try out these exciting Forest Theme Bedroom Ideas for a wacky indoor makeover!

No other plant native to South Carolina has such fragrant and beautiful spring blooms and stunning fall color as the witch-alders. Fothergilla was named after Dr. John Fothergill, an English physician and gardener who funded the travels of John Bartram through the Carolinas in the 1700’s. These beautiful shrubs have been planted in both American and English gardens for over 200 years, including gardens of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

Are you frustrated because there are dandelions and other weeds in your lawn? Did you know that dandelion flowers provide one of the first springtime sources of pollen for bees, butterflies, and other pollinating insects?

With all those mums and pumpkins at garden centers and farmers markets, how can we select the best and make them last?

If you said Heuchera, you’re right. Perhaps you’re going to reshuffle some shady beds this spring, and know that Heuchera, with their great foliage, can help make garden pictures work–but wonder which ones, and how best to use them. I invited George Coombs, trial garden manager at the must-visit Mt. Cuba Center in Delaware, with 50 acres of native-plant display gardens and 500 acres of natural land, back to the radio show to help make the best choices and grow them to perfection.George knows from Heuchera, having trialed 83 varieties side by side (the exhaustive results are in this pdf). “I say to people, ‘I’m doing Consumer Reports for plants,'” he explains. Though there are countless varieties on the market, many are duplicative in appearance or just not distinctive. “I can honestly say that when it

E. palustris, as its species name reveals, is a marsh-type plant, so wet and heavy soils are no problem for it (though it doesn’t seem to require them). Most spurges are finicky about such conditions. Not this one. It gets to between 2 and 3 feet tall and at least as wide.I grow seven or eight other Euphorbias, including the basic polychroma, its newer, red-foliage variant called ‘Bonfire,’ and the fiery-colored one called E. griffithii ‘Dixter’ [above]. In California, mail-order Digging Dog Nursery has a good list of spurges, but not palustris. I swore I got my most recent generation of plants at Forestfarm, but I don’t see it in their current list. Hmmm….how about Annie’s Annuals?The hardest thing about growing spurges is cutting them back,

THE LATEST BOOK GIVEAWAY–which was a smashing success–ended at midnight Sunday, but there’s a “win” for everyone, it turns out. Collaborator and author Katrina Kenison and I asked commenters to tell us about books they’d relied on in times of transition…and wow, did they ever.

You may recall I posted about these collapsible, heavy-duty, supersized strokes of genius a few springs ago, when I started A Way to Garden. Since then, I see Texas Tomato Cages have become more widely available…but just in case you missed the news, a little reminder. They come in two diameters, and with or without second-story extensions that can have them tower as high as 6 feet. (And no, I don’t get a commission; I don’t even know the manufacturers. I’m just a satisfied customer.)Those are some of the 24-inch wide lower halves set into place (photo above), with one of the (folded flat) tops leaned beside the bed; below are five tops piled together awaiting action, so you can get the idea of what I mean by “folds flat.” Once you put the top portion on, the cage is above eye level, by t

Skip right to the bottom of the page if you just want recipes, or start with these cucumber FAQ’s:Q. I have many flowers but no fruit forming on my cucumbers (or squash). Why?Q. Some cucumbers finally started to form, but they are misshapen and stunted looking. What should I do?Q. I finally got fruit! Except it’s bitter. What did I do wrong with my cucumbers? Q. My cucumber vines were looking great—and then the vines started to wilt, though the soil wasn’t dry. Why?Q. Are those gherkins in the top photo? Is a gherkin just any small cucumber? Q. I have many flowers but no fruit formi

I’m often asked that question, usually phrased like this: Why didn’t my (insert name of tomato variety) taste as good this year as last?Getting the best flavor from a tomato is “a matter of lining the genetics up with the environment,” says Tom Stearns, founder of High Mowing Organic Seeds. It’s something he acknowledges that people are more inclined to do with animals than plants—to choose a breed of l

Sarah, with Andrew Still, founded Adaptive Seeds in 2009 as a farm-based, organic seed company where they grow and harvest more than 80 percent of the seed they sell, including a beautiful assortment of grains and grain-like annuals that were the subject of our conversation.We talked about high-yielding and statuesque sorghum—perfect for porridge or even popcorn-style—and amaranths in a range of colors, plus flowering oil-seed crops like sunflowers, poppy seed, Camelina, and flax. We even got into some hints on cover-cropping for soil-building.Read along as you listen to the Jan. 28, 2019