Grow

If there is one thing I have learned about gardening, it is how useful gardening tools can be. At times, some tools have been more useful than others. Depending on your gardening needs, you may need anything from small hand-tools to larger tools for your home garden. Sometimes it can be hard to figure out which tools you need for your garden. So, to help you out a bit, here are 6 tools that I have found to be very useful when working in the garden.

1. Gardening Clippers*

We often hear about tea being used for its many health qualities for the body, but did you know that tea can be beneficial for your home garden as well? It’s called compost tea, and here are six great gardening benefits you can gain from using it!

Foraging For Beginners Pt. 1 went over just a few of the many wild foods available throughout the United States. Part 2 will cover some of the winter edibles available.

You don’t always have to go out and get seeds to grow new organic plants in your garden. In fact, you may want to reconsider getting new seeds to grow because some plants can successfully attempt to regrow themselves. Yep, that’s right! Some plants can regrow themselves from merely a piece of the plant from which they came. And the neat thing is that these can be regrown repeatedly the same way. Curious to know which plants can do this? Here are 8!

The wings of a certain butterfly begin with a milkweed. Now, scientists are looking to the often misunderstood plant to help prevent crop damage.

In the October-December 2016 issue of Weed Science, Cornell crop science professor Antonio DiTommaso says, "Managing crop pests without fully understanding the impacts of tactics -- related to resistance and non-target plants or insects -- costs producers money."

Why settle for store-bought food when you can have fresh, seasonal produce growing on your windowsill? Here’s the best part: It’ll cost you practically nothing. After all, seeds are relatively cheap, and if you already have access to soil and pots, you're set. You can even grow some of these from scraps! Just follow these simple instructions and you'll be growing (and eating) autumn bounty in no time.

Many of the organic gardening techniques used today have been adopted from Native Americans. One of the most popular of these is the Three Sisters technique, which is also commonly known as companion planting. This technique was based off an Iroquois legend, which involved a story about corn, beans, and squash. Legend has it that the three vegetables were three inseparable sisters who would only flourish when they were planted alongside each other. This method of planting works well because each of the plants benefits one another.

Want your home to smell awesome without using perfumed aerosols and gels? Try a fragrant garden instead; sweet-smelling house and garden plants will give out a lovely fragrance and help you make a greener environment too.

Strongly Scented Blooms

Think of fragrance and nature has a bounty to offer you. Other than the very fragrant and very obvious roses, here are some more flowers that can fill your garden with sweet scents and obvious prettiness.

If you aren’t familiar with heirloom gardening, now is the perfect time to learn. Heirloom gardening requires planting only heirloom variety plants. Heirloom plants are planted by seeds that have been passed down and grown from generation to generation, although the definition may vary for some. The opposite of heirloom planting is modern hybrid planting. Heirloom plants and seeds are different from modern hybrid plants and seeds because they are open-pollinated, true breed, and they can be saved by the gardener from year to year.

Not what you would have imagined, rain gardens are an excellent way to conserve water, and stave off water pollution…

When I first heard the term, I imagined a scene from a tropical jungle – lush plants, drenched in the rain, giving off aromatic humid vapors. The reality, well, is far more real.

So what is a rain garden?