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Ideal traits for apartment plants A word to the wise for apartment dwellers: Don’t just go to IKEA and buy whatever plant catches your fancy. Instead, carefully consider how large the plant will grow, its light needs, and how much care it requires. For the greatest chance of success with your new plant baby, take care in selecting the best variety for you. When looking for a plant for your apartment, here are a few things to keep in mind....

I have about eight plants around my yard, all providing various shades of pink flowers in the spring. They don’t all bloom at the same time, so when they’re in season, I get to enjoy freshly cut peonies in vases for a few weeks. However, if I just paid a little more attention in the early spring, I’d also get to enjoy them in the garden for longer. Peony blooms are heavy....

Vegepods 101 I’m now in year two with my Vegepod planter, and have grown dozen of types of crops in this compact space. Last spring I started with hardy greens, like kale, spinach, and arugula, which were followed by heat-loving tomatoes, peppers, basil, and corn. Yes, corn! It grew over seven feet tall in the Vegepod and we harvested tender, sweet corn in mid-summer. Once the summer crops were finished, they were removed and I planted cold-tolerant greens and radishes for late fall and winter harvesting....

Not only does this allow the plants to tolerate colder temperatures, but it also makes them taste better. In fact, I don’t even start to harvest my late kale crop until it’s been sweetened by a few frosts. Ditto for my celeriac, leeks, beets, carrots, and parsnips. At a recent farmers market, one of the farmers at my favourite stall told me that his kale had been ‘frost-cured’.. what a cool way to describe this frost response!...

A three-year study at Dawes Arboretum in Newark, Ohio, found that the harvest from a raised bed almost doubled per square foot compared to a traditional vegetable garden. Raised beds allow you to plant more closely together, you can start your growing season sooner when the soil warms up in spring, and the soil remains loose and friable, because it’s not being compacted by stepping in the garden. And the best part?...

How often do you water tomato plants? There isn’t a quick answer to the question of ‘how often do you water tomato plants?’ Frequency of watering depends on a number of factors: the growth stage of the tomato plant (a newly planted transplant needs less water than a fully grown plant), soil type (in both gardens and containers), container material if growing in pots, and weather (expect to water more often when the weather is hot and dry)....

3 pitfalls of planting seeds too early: Too little light – Those who rely on a sunny windowsill to start their seeds would be wise to wait until a little longer for seed sowing. Most plants need at least 10 hours of light in order to grow well, and in January, much of the Northern Hemisphere receives less than that. In my Nova Scotia garden, I only get about nine hours of light in early to mid-January....

What are cover crops? On a broader scale, cover crops are planted by farmers to revitalize and improve the soil structure in their fields between plantings. You might see the word tilth used in descriptions of cover crops. Soil tilth refers to the health of the soil. A variety of factors from aeration and soil composition to moisture content contribute to the health of your soil (or lack of). Cover crop seeds are sown in your raised bed, and the plants are later turned into the soil....

How are your basil leaves turning yellow? First, I think that it’s important to point out that the best way to prevent yellowing leaves is to provide ideal growing conditions. Learn more about basil growing basics HERE. However even the most attentive gardeners may find themselves dealing with yellowing leaves from time to time. Before you panic, take a look at the plant. A random yellow leaf is normal and not usually a symptom of a more serious issue....

Meet the dwarf Hinoki cypress The full-sized Hinoki cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa) hails from southern Japan as well as parts of Taiwan. Special in its own right, the Hinoki tree has long been sacred to those who practice the Shinto religion. While Hinoki cypress trees can reach heights of 75 to 130 feet, their dwarf Hinoki cypress counterparts are slow growing and much smaller. Although many different Hinoki cypress dwarf cultivars exist, Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Nana Gracilis’ is among the most widely available....

What is a weeping Alaskan cedar? One look at this beautiful tree and its easy to see why so many people adore it. The texture of the flat-needled boughs is soft and wispy. No sharp or painful needles here. With a blue-green cast, this tree is also sometimes called the weeping blue Alaskan cedar, too. The softly pyramidal shape of this tree, along with its weeping habit, make it an ideal landscape plant....

Complete Container Herb Gardening is a great read by best-selling author, horticulturist, designer, and herb enthusiast Sue Goetz. Sue’s passion for herbs is contagious and in the book she shares many herb garden designs and projects for culinary use, aromatherapy, cleaning, natural beauty, pollinators, and more. This excerpt from her book, Complete Container Herb Gardening is used with permission from Cool Springs Press/The Quarto Group, who also provided a review copy....

The same species as a beet (another tasty leafy green), Swiss chard (Beta vulgaris subsp. Vulgaris) leaves can be eaten both raw and cooked. Trim fresh young, tender leaves for salads, use larger mature leaves as wraps, or chop it up for stir fries. I enjoy sautéing Swiss chard in a little olive oil and garlic, or I’ll flavor it with sesame oil, depending on which recipe I’m preparing. I make a LOT of stir fries, so I like to have a wide variety of healthy greens ready for snipping in my gardens....

While the numbers of these and other native ladybug species were dropping, the populations of two introduced species, the Mulitcolored Asian ladybug and the 7-spotted ladybug were really taking off and doing quite well. The timing of the population shifts was suspicious and scientists wanted to know why it was happening. In 2000, Dr. John Losey, an entomology professor at New York’s Cornell University, founded The Lost Ladybug Project in hopes of using citizen science to help track the numbers and locations of different ladybug species in the state....

What is Salpiglossis? Salpiglossis sinuata is the official botanical name of this member of the nightshade family – Solanaceae (Yes, it’s in the same plant family as tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants). Not only does the painted tongue flower look great in the garden, but it also makes a lovely cut flower. The 5-lobed flowers come in a beautiful array of color combinations and patterns. Often, they are marbled or have veins in a contrasting color....

Mini hoops for a winter garden: There are different types of Quick Hoops Benders, but this one makes hoops for 4 foot wide by 4 foot tall low tunnels. This fits my 4 by 10 foot beds perfectly and allows ample room to shelter mature kale, collards, leeks, and other tall crops. The bender comes with a lever bar and lag screws for securing the bender to a solid surface like a picnic table, work bench, or in my case, a heavy log....

I fell in love with heucheras a few years ago when I was choosing plants for an autumn container. I was going with what I referred to as a moody palette—purple, blue-green, black, you know, the colour of a bruise—and I found a beautiful heuchera with a silvery blue-green variegated leaf that when flipped over, was a delicate shade of purple. That was the first of my collection. Heucheras are native to North America and may also appear as “coral bells” on a plant tag or sign....

6 Deer-Resistant Bulbs The six deer-resistant bulbs you’re about to meet are all spring-blooming. To enjoy their gorgeous blooms, plant the bulbs in the autumn. They’ll spend the winter growing roots and settling in. Then, come spring, when their greens and blooms emerge from the ground, you’ll be able to enjoy their cheery beauty for many weeks. 1. Snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis): Among the very first bulbs to emerge each spring, snowdrops may be petite, but they sure are a welcome sight to winter-weary eyes!...

The benefits of narrow trees for small gardens Narrow trees like the ones I’m about to introduce you to are perfect for today’s ever-shrinking landscapes. Their slender growth habit means they don’t take up much horizontal space while still giving the beauty only a tree can give. Yes, some of these varieties grow quite tall, but even in the smallest of gardens, the sky is the limit! More often than not, making use of vertical space is the best way to expand a small garden and add another dimension and layer of interest....

All about the nerve plant While there are many large, green tropical houseplants, fittonia is adored for its compact stature (the stems reach a height of just 3-6 inches) and brilliant foliage. As far as indoor plants go, the nerve plant is one of the most visually unique. A native of South America, the foliage is a beautiful “coat of many colors”. The leaf blades and leaf veins are different colors, making the pattern on each leaf look like a medical sketch of a mammal’s central nervous system, with a network of branching nerves running throughout (hence the common name of nerve plant)....