 | A Pesticide Primer
When pesticides are needed, one should always start with the safest thing and use it only on the target insect.
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 | An Illusion of Neatness
Some people's gardens always look as though they were momentarily expecting Architectural Digest's photographer. Others look as though they've been stirred up with a giant spoon and never tidied up.
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 | Backyard Pond
A pond or water garden will likely become the focal point for all your backyard conservation.
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 | Backyard Wetland
Wetlands filter excess pesticides and nutrients. Many plants and animals find a home in wetlands.
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 | Bearded Iris - Early Summer's Colorful Show
No other flower so brilliantly announces winter's end as the bearded iris, Iris germanica.
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 | Beware of Birdseed!
Birdseed carries the eggs of meal moths. In hot weather these varmints hatch, eat starch, then pupate and turn into small tan moths with black markings.
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 | Beware of Invasive Vines
If you have bare ground but don't want more lawn, evergreen ground covers are very good.
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 | Bringing Outside Plants Indoors for the Winter
As the glorious palette of fall unfolds and fades in the northern parts of the country, can Jack Frost be far behind?
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 | Build a Redwood Planter
This handsome planter will enliven a deck, garden or patio.
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 | Build your own Window Boxes
Whether you live in an apartment in the city or in a cottage by the beach, a window box.
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 | Building a Dry Stone Retaining Wall
Building a dry stone retaining wall is a challenge. In addition to holding back the weight of the earth it is meant to retain, it must survive the surrounding area’s freeze and thaw cycles, and be visually appealing.
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 | Bulb Profile: Daffodils
Why grow daffodils? The question might better be asked, Why NOT grow them? Few plants can boast the daffodil's combination of adaptablilty, reliability, low maintenance, and pest resistance.
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 | Bulb Profile: Tulips
There's a Dutch saying that every bulb holds a promise—a promise of a world alive with color and good cheer.
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 | Bulbs for Early Spring
Nothing signals the end of winter like the first crocuses poking their heads through the last of the melting snows. Few plants are as easy to grow, or as rewarding, as the early-blooming bulbs.
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 | Butterfly Gardening
We aren't the only ones attracted to beautiful flowers. Butterflies need the nectar that many flowers offer to survive.
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 | Choosing a Sprinkler System for Your Lawn
If you think you've had it with hauling hoses to cope with drought, maybe you think it's time to consider a sprinkler system.
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 | Christmas Table Centerpiece
If you've always wanted one of those beautiful table centerpieces that look like miniature Christmas trees but didn't want to shell out the $40 they cost, they're quite easy to make and a fun project to do with children.
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 | Composting
Composting turns household wastes into valuable fertilizer and soil organic matter.
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 | Container Gardening 101
Some of the most spectacular gardens found anywhere are on the rooftops and patios of the world's largest cities.
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 | Continuous Bloom of Perennials
The secret is they don't. There is this myth about perennials returning each year and producing a sequence of bloom that continues all season long. Well, it's just not so.
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 | Cooling Your Home Naturally
There are several methods to reduce or even replace the use of an air conditioning system by using nonmechanical ways to keep your home cool when it's hot outside.
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 | Creating Summer Shadows
Simple ideas to help create a shady spot to protect you from the hot summer sun.
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 | Dividing Perennials in Late Summer
If you're tired of paying big bucks for small pots of perennials of dubious hardiness, look around your garden (while you're lying in the summer hammock) and choose the flowers that perform best for you.
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 | Energy Efficient Windbreaks
Smart landscaping that saves energy and dollars.
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 | EnergyWise House: Using Plants for Sun Control
Landscaping is a critical element in building an energy efficient home. A few simple strategies can add up to big savings on your monthly electric bill.
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 | Evergreen Groundcovers
These useful plants can cover a bare spot and save you some raking.
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 | Fall Colors
Although bright red maples and glowing orange sugar maples are what's referred to as "peak" color, the more subtle hues wax and wane throughout the season.
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 | Fall Perennial Pruning
Fall is the time to prepare the perennials for winter.
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 | Feed Your Lawn
Your lawn needs more than just water—it needs several nutrients to keep it healthy and looking great.
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 | Feeding The Birds
Who eats what in this feathered kingdom.
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 | Fence Types and Styles
Fences are more than walls with a view, they have style, form, and function to meet the needs of homeowners and their property.
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 | Fire-Safe Landscaping
Wildland fires destroy hundreds of homes and acres of land every year across the country. Fire-safe landscaping is an effective tool that creates an area of defensible space between your home and flammable vegetation that protects against devastating fires.
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 | Five Easy Roses
While it's true that some rose varieties require extra effort to grow their best, there are others that are as carefree as many other popular garden shrubs.
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 | Flowering Bulbs
Fall is for planting bulbs. Their flowers are the harbingers of spring and one can never have enough of them.
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 | Forcing Bulbs
What to do with those leftover bulbs.
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 | Garden Design for Small Spaces
Are you tired of the same old scene? Want to try some of the fancy new ideas in glitzy magazines?
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 | Gardening Made Easy
A few simple strategies to make your garden less labor intensive.
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 | Gardening With Kids: Theme Gardens
Planning a garden around a theme, such as a fairyland or outer space, allows kids to create a growing space that means something special to them.
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 | Gardening with Perennials: Choosing Plants
A few ideas to keep in mind when you're planning your gardens and choosing plants.
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 | Gardening with Perennials: Designing with Color
The great thing about flowers is that you really can't go wrong with them. Even if a perennial bed doesn't turn out exactly like what you envisioned, chances are it's going to be attractive.
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 | Gardening with Perennials: Gardens with Style
Choosing a garden style is a little like getting dressed.
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 | Gardening with Perennials: Getting Started
Whether you're a new gardener planning your first perennial bed, or an experienced gardener hoping to improve your existing plantings, we can help make your garden a success.
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 | Gardening with Perennials: Ornamental Grasses
Long relegated exclusively to lawns, grasses are now becoming the darlings of the perennial garden.
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 | Growing a Bamboo Garden
Bamboo provides a quick-growing evergreen screen and adds glorious character with delicate leaves and substantial culms or canes, but research and commitment are needed to maintain the right plant for your yard.
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 | Growing Peas
To plant or not to plant...the peas? When is the question.
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 | Herb Gardening Basics
Over 15 million households in the United States grow herbs—in vegetable and perennials gardens, in containers, or on windowsills.
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| Houseplant Blights
When houseplants get sick and it's not insects, we may say they have blights.
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 | Houseplant Bug Problems
Bugs have few natural indoor predators. It's here that their populations explode and cause real harm to our houseplants.
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 | How Gardens Grow
One of the joys of summer is making time to read technical journals and publications that pile up on the floor that have been saved for these less hectic, lazy days to get new understandings of how gardens grow.
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 | Hydroseeding
After the construction crews have gone and the debris have been cleared from the building site, homeowners have to turn their attention to a new quandary—how to turn a muddy lot into a lush lawn.
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 | In Pursuit of the Perfect Lawn
A perfect lawn depends on constant care...regular mowing, fertilizer, water, monitoring, maybe chemicals and lots of tough love.
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 | Indoor Air Pollution - Pesticides
According to a recent survey, 75 percent of U.S. households used at least one pesticide product indoors during the past year. Products used most often are insecticides and disinfectants. Another study suggests that 80 percent of most people's exposure to pesticides occurs indoors and that measurable levels of up to a dozen pesticides have been found in the air inside homes.
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 | Invite Birds To Your Garden
Ideally, bird plantings should be a blend of trees, shrubs, vines and flowers that provide food over a long period.
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 | Japanese Beetle Grubs
Lawn insects are a problem, none more so than Japanese Beetles.
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 | Landscaping for Energy Efficiency
Are you looking for cost-effective yet eye-pleasing ways to lower your energy bills? Planting trees, shrubs, vines, grasses, and hedges could be the answer. In fact, landscaping may be your best long-term investment for reducing heating and cooling costs, while also bringing other improvements to your community.
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 | Landscaping for Increased Property Value
Landscaping is much more than pretty plants—a good landscape design can add 20 percent to the value of your property and save up to 25 percent in heating and cooling costs.
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 | Maintaining a Vegetable Garden
Healthy, vigorous vegetable plants produce the most flavorful and bountiful harvests.
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 | Maintaining Common Flowers
Simple tips for timeless favorites.
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 | Make a Beautiful Christmas Garland
Simple, neat and cheery. By using what is in the garden, one can make fine Christmas decorations which can also be given as gifts. I think things prepared by hand are always nicer because they show one cared enough to spend one's precious time.
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 | Making Compost
It's common knowledge that compost improves water drainage, fertility, and structure of garden soil.
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 | Mesclun
Grow your own mesclun salad green indoors or out.
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 | Mowing Lawns Efficiently
Both a fine art and a science.
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 | Mowing Technique
Mowing is the most important determining factor of a lawn's appearance. Not only does it keep grass from becoming too long and unsightly, it keeps it full and healthy.
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 | Mulching
Mulching enriches and protects soil, helping provide a better growing environment.
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 | Naturalizing with Spring Bulbs
The effect of a brilliant mass of blossoms is impressive, especially in spring.
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 | New Trees, Shrubs, and Sod
Tips to keep your new plants happy and healthy.
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 | Nutrient Management
Apply only the nutrients plants can use.
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 | Oh Christmas Tree!
Once upon a time in our communal memory one tramped through the woods, cut a tree for Christmas, and dragged it home through snow covered fields. This memory still lives on Christmas cards and calendars but in reality hasn't existed for many years.
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 | Organic Fertilizers
Most gardeners know that for the best results in their vegetable gardens, flower borders, and lawns, they need to start with fertile soil.
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 | Patio Gardens
Patio gardens soften the transition between indoors and outdoors by bringing plants into outdoor living areas.
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 | Perennial Profile: Daylily Companions
Daylilies are one of the most versatile perennials available to gardeners. Thanks to the work of devoted breeders and the enthusiasm of passionate gardeners, daylilies are available in an astonishing range of flower colors, sizes, shapes, and patterns, ensuring that there is a variety to complement any garden.
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 | Perennial Profile: Hosta Companions
Hostas have become almost synonymous with shade gardens, and with good reason: hostas are hardy, vigorous, and reliable.
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 | Perennial Profiles: Daylilies
Gardeners can't get enough of daylilies, and it's easy to understand why. Other flowers may be as beautiful, but no other plants are as rugged, widely adapted, or versatile. Daylilies are gorgeous, and they are survivors?perfect plants for both the connoisseur and the weekend warrior.
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 | Perennial Profiles: Hostas
There is no better way to brighten up a shady spot than by planting hostas.
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 | Pest Management
Early detection and treatment of pests means a healthier growing environment.
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 | Planting a Bare-Root Rose
Get your roses off to the best possible start by choosing their growing site carefully and then planting them using the techniques most suitable for your climate. Bare-root rose plants?those sold without soil?offer the best value and grow quickly after planting.
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 | Planting Bulbs
A few frequently asked questions anwered.
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 | Preventing Rose Diseases
It's no surprise that roses are among the most popular ornamental garden plants: they're beautiful, fragrant, and easy to grow in most climates.
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 | Pruning Grafted Trees and Shrubs
Many of our most best flowering and fruiting trees and shrubs are grafted.
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 | Pruning Shrubs in Early Spring
Certain deciduous shrubs can be pruned in very early spring.
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 | Pruning Trees in Early Spring
Though there yet may be snow in some places, in early spring shrubs and trees can sense the approaching weather change. Buds begin to swell as the days warm. Warm temperatures and longer days tell their hormones to initiate that burst of foliage we call Spring.
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 | Raking Leaves
What to do when the leaves fall.
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 | Remembering the Gardens of One's Childhood
The gardens of one's childhood are fleeting images of sunny times with loving parents or grandparents or neighbors. Memories return of mothers picking, arranging or enjoying the beauty of flowers. These memories are often closely intertwined with our current love of gardening.
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 | Salt Resistant Plants
Salt tolerance is different in each species, and even often among plants of the same species.
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 | Sequence of Bloom
Planting for different seasons of bloom and color.
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 | Smart Watering Systems
We are changing the way we water our lawns with smart technology that monitors and controls water use to maintain healthy growing conditions for lawns, plants, and trees.
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 | Sounds in the Garden
Protect your ears from longterm exposure to machinery noise.
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 | Splendor in the Grass
Wake up your lawn with designs of tall grass.
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 | Starting a Garden with Children
Our love of gardening oftern begins in childhood. Share your passion for gardening with your child or grandchild and plant the seed for generations to come.
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 | Starting Seeds on the Windowsill
The basics are not complicated, but there are a few little tricks to help things along.
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 | Steps To Success: Roses
With just few simple steps, you can grow healthy roses.
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 | Storm-Ready Home: Protecting Your House from Wind
If the area immediately surrounding your house contains trees, outbuildings, trash cans, yard debris, or other materials that can be moved by the wind, your house will be more likely to be damaged during a hurricane or tornado.
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 | Sunroom Planter Construction
Though often considered outdoor pieces, planters can be both functional and beautiful inside the home, especially in an enclosed porch or sunroom.
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 | Terracing
Use terraces to make flower and vegetable gardening possible on steep slopes, or simply to add interest to your landscape.
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 | The Biting Bugs of Summer Are Back
Strategies for combating backyard pest, including black flies, ticks, biting flies, yellow jackets, and of course, mosquitoes.
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 | The Plantscape
If you're planning on adding to your house, great care must be taken to protect the trees and their root systems from the heavy equipment that is used to excavate, pour concrete, and deliver supplies.
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 | The Transit Level
The transit level is to plane surveying what the hammer is to nailing.
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 | Training a Climbing Rose
Roses are one of the most versatile plant groups, at home in a rambling cottage garden as much as they are in a more formal setting.
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 | Transplanting Vegetables
Here are some general guidelines on setting your transplants into the garden.
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 | Tree and Shrub Planting Instructions
Seven easy steps for successfully planting trees and shrubs.
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 | Tree Planting
Trees add beauty and so much more.
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 | Types of Roses
With their great beauty, tremendous variety, and luscious scent, it's easy to become passionate about roses.
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 | Vegetables for Beginners
If you want vegetables grown using clean water and few chemicals, grow your own.
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 | Water Conservation
Save water with efficient systems and healthy plants.
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 | Watering Lawns & Gardens
One secret to achieving lush, healthy lawns and bountiful gardens is thorough, careful watering, which encourages deep, drought-resistant roots.
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 | What's New in Tree Care
Good tree health begins with the roots and the soil they grow in.
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 | Why Plants Die
Many things may be wrong, but knowing which are causes and which are effects is complex.
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 | Wildlife Habitat
Make a home for birds, butterflies, and nature's other creatures.
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 | You Can Design A Beautiful Vegetable Garden
A vegetable garden does not have to look like an old shoe. There's no reason to not combine flowers and good design with edibles.
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 | You Can Eat the Flowers
You can have it all and eat it too in the backyard garden. Are you tired of the same old potatoes, tomatoes, and beans routine? Do you want to replace the old waltz with a new minuet that satisfies the aesthetic soul as well as the cravings of the flesh?
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