Category: How-To Projects

  We spoke with Lisa Ringer of Two Pony Gardens in Long Lake, MN about how she prepares for the dahlia season. Many parts of the country are experiencing a late spring, so her advice on how to lengthen the growing season is particularly relevant this year, even to non-Minnesotans. Here's what she told us, commenting that she has two feet of snow on the ground and it's the middle of April (!)  This is not typical, even for Minnesota.…

  Many people who might otherwise consider making their own maple syrup are put off by the numbers. Forty gallons of sap yields 1 gallon of syrup. What? My friend Debbie Battaglia is a seasoned vegetable gardener, so she is accustomed to receiving the bounty of her hard work in the form of something tasty that she can share with family and friends. She is also attracted to projects that involve building something, so when she learned that there was…

The system developed by my brother Geoffrey allows him to water his favorite ficas tree from anywhere in the world. First he logs onto the web page he set up to monitor all of the controls in the process. Then he looks at his moisture sensor to see if he needs to water his plant. If the plant needs water he turns on the video camera so he can watch the water going into the pot. Then he turns on…

  I got the idea for my living ornaments from a magazine called "State-By-State Gardening," whose author, Lisa Eldred Steinkopf, filled her glass balls with air plants and shiny bling. She bought Christmas floral picks at a craft store and cut them apart so she had a collection of tiny sequined balls, miniature lights, jingle bells and more. For mine I chose to keep it simple. I used a couple of air plants, plus some artificial berries and dried flowers…

We first published this article in 2013, and we have been republishing it every year since! A problem with paperwhites, as with many bulbs planted in pots, is that they grow quite tall and all of their weight is at the top. This information is reprinted from the about.com website. I have tried it and it works. Researchers in the Flowerbulb Research Program at Cornell University have come up with an unusual solution to this top heavy problem: Alcohol. When paperwhite…

  Thanksgiving feels like a less commercial holiday to me. In the spirit of keeping it that way I like to make table decorations with natural items found right outside my door. If you have a pair of scissors and a few craft items it's easy to create a beautiful, natural looking table that celebrates Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving Placecards Create placecards with the following items: woven bags and kraft paper tags (I purchased mine at Michaels); a piece of Oasis foam;…

  Garden designer and writer Rochelle Greayer grew up in Colorado, but spent time at the family ranch in Montana where her grandmother grew “hedges and hedges of peonies,” as she remembers it. They were a dark burgundy and adapted well to the zone 3 climate. When Rochelle and her husband moved to Massachusetts years later, she wanted her grandmother’s peonies to be one of the cornerstones of her garden. She divided and carried the bare root plants across country…

  Michelle Lam’s happiest childhood memories are of sitting in fruit trees eating fruit on her parents’ farm in Hong Kong. Those memories bubbled to the surface when she and her husband and daughter Lily moved to Dutchess County, NY, to ‘put down roots,’ says Michelle. The previous owners of the 7 1/2-acre property they fell in love with had “lots of animals and the soil was great,” says Michelle. Also, the house sits on a hill facing south, so…

Pruner Maintenance: Anne Cleves Symmes, horticulturist and garden educator at Beatrix Farrand's celebrated Bellefield Garden in Hyde Park, NY, demonstrated how she keeps her pruners sharp and well oiled each Spring. First she uses the scouring pad side of a discarded kitchen sponge to rub off gummy buildup on the blades. You can also use a piece of wire wool for this. To sharpen your pruner she recommends a diamond blade, or you can use a sharpening stone or whetstone.  Swipe the diamond blade or stone…

If you received a free package of three Hyacinth bulbs, they are ready to be potted up indoors as soon as you get them. This is because they have spent the winter in a cool warehouse in Pennsylvania. (For other Spring blooming bulbs, you need to put them in a cool, refrigerated location for 6-8 weeks before potting them up indoors.) Follow these instructions for forcing your bulbs to bloom this Spring indoors: Fill a pot (6" diameter or more) with potting…