Gardening in May can be delightful—or delightfully treacherous. One year can bring early spring sunshine while another can bring weeks’ worth of downpours. In some cases, frost can continue until the end of the month. While no one can account for freak weather, there are many must-dos during the month that can ensure your blooms are vibrant and your garden productive all summer long.
Gardening is an extremely rewarding hobby that can really save you money in the long run if you have a green thumb. Instead of buying herbs, produce, and vegetables from the store, you can just grow them yourself.
If you’re shameless about eating a pint of cherry tomatoes in the summer sun, you might consider including ground cherries in this year’s bounty. Though known by many a name—husk cherry, husk tomato, ground tomato, winter cherry, strawberry tomato, or cape gooseberry—the flavor of the ground cherry is like no other item you’ll sow in your garden.
Not everyone has a green thumb. But if you really want some green(ery) around, here are some tips and tricks for the lazy gardener in you.
Composting is a technique which involves decomposing plant matter into rich, productive soil. It is an essential method for anyone who chooses to practice organic gardening. Successful composting requires more than just placing organic matter into large piles. To get the most out of your compost, check out these 9 useful tips!
My five-year-old son bounds out of bed before my husband and I have opened our eyes. Messy-haired, barefoot, and still in his pajamas, Asher runs outside to check on the strawberries. The sun hasn’t reached the garden before Asher has spotted the only one red enough to pick and popped it in his mouth. I’ve come out to meet him with a baby on my hip and a watering can in my hand. This garden, like the mop-top kiddo in front of me, is my first. We moved to the country three years ago, and I’ve finally worked up the courage to put some seeds in the ground.
Along with cultivating an organic garden often comes the patient practice of weed-picking. It can sometimes feel like a tedious as well as an endless job. When it comes to removing the unwanted plants in your garden, the smarter and not harder method is always the best route to take. Weeding a little bit everyday goes a long way. Fellow gardeners, do not despair. Here are 9 wonderful tips for making your weeding easier.
For those of you who are looking for something easy and edible to plant in your garden or kitchen, look no further than microgreens! Microgreens are small, leafy vegetables that are fairly easy to grow for most home and backyard gardeners. They are grown from the same seeds as their full-sized counterparts, but the greens are harvested much earlier – earlier than baby greens, but later than you would harvest sprouts.
Air purification, improving health, beautiful décor and adding moisture to the air—those are only some of the great rewards of having houseplants. I don’t know if it’s the same for you, but the larger the vegetation growing within my living space, the closer to nature I feel. Indoor trees are fantastic for adding a greater amount of green-environment to your residential setting. For those of you who would like to make your house feel more like a small forest—or at least close to it—try growing one or more of these 10 terrific trees for your home interior.
Ever wonder what you can do with some of those old items you no longer use? Use them as new homes for your plants! Plant containers can be made from all sorts of things, so there’s really no need to spend your hard-earned money on boring, conventional planters. To give you a little inspiration, here are 13 reusable items that make unique plant containers.