Category: How-To Projects

It almost seems as if everything in Heidi’s life has led her to this enchanting place – a home on Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island where she and her husband David Sommers enjoy sailing and gardening. Heidi grew up in Rye, NY, the daughter of a talented gardening mother, Helen Hild, who enrolled her at age 8 in a children’s gardening program at…

It's been a rainier winter and spring than most here in the northeast, and many of us are having issues with drainage in places we never had them before. In some cases it might be best to wait and see if the problem persists or if the excessive rainfall is just an aberration. In my case I have an herb garden that hugs the back of our house and extends about…

One of the most satisfying parts of gardening for me is to take part in the miracle of plant propagation. It can be as simple as pinching off a stem and dropping it in a glass of water or as complicated as grafting a branch from one plant onto the root stock of another. Boom!  A plant is born. There are two primary ways plants procreate: sexually and asexually. Sexual propagation is through seeds, and it is the primary way…

At this time of year a little gardening therapy can go a long way. There isn’t much that can be done outdoors where I live in Zone 6 until the ground thaws and dries out a little. But there’s plenty you can be doing indoors, and for me the fun begins with grow lights. Many houseplants need 12-16 hours of light a day to thrive, and seedlings like 16-18 hours a day.  That doesn’t mean that they will die with…

  Amaryllis and paperwhite bulbs blooming exuberantly around the house are now a part of my winter garden tradition. I like to have paperwhites for the holidays and I enjoy amaryllis from January through March. I stagger the planting so there's always something blooming. For paperwhites I allow 3-5 weeks to bloom, and for amaryllis, 6-8 weeks. Start with an amaryllis bulb and a favorite…

If you have an orchid and its flowers have fallen off and you don’t know what to do, read on. Chances are your orchid is a Phalaenopsis, or phals for short in orchid circles, since it is the most common available commercially. You have two choices: throw the plant out or follow the instructions below for encouraging it to rebloom! I confess I have thrown my share of orchids on the compost heap because they sat there flowerless for months…

August can be a misunderstood month. As gardeners we put our energy into fighting back weeds and thinking about next year’s garden, and often miss the rich variety of flowering plants that the late season has to offer. Garden centers will tell you that most people shop for plants in the spring, and they reach for the plants that are blooming, passing over late season bloomers. That may help explain…

  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…