LET ME HELP YOU HELP YOURSELF
jessica damiano The Garden coach
Mentoring and guidance for a beautiful and productive garden
LET ME HELP YOU HELP YOURSELF
jessica damiano The Garden coach
Mentoring and guidance for a beautiful and productive garden
My ap gardening columns
Gardening success means avoiding these common mistakes
Much of gardening is learned by trial and error -- mostly error. Here are the most common gardening blunders -- and how to avoid them.
7 tips for growing giant tomatoes
As 13-year host of The Great Long Island Tomato Challenge, I learned the secrets of growing competition-worthy tomatoes directly from the champions — and I’m pulling back the curtain in my latest AP gardening column! Here's how to grow a whopper!
Not all shade is the same: Gardening where there’s little sun
Gardening in the shade doesn’t have to mean limited plant choices and lack of color. The first step is understanding which type of shade you have. Click in for guidance and plant suggestions.
Homegrown sunflowers are popular, native and, for some, newly meaningful. Learn how to grow them— and how to harvest and roast their seeds.
Native alternatives for invasive plants
Purple loosestrife is an invasive thug that threatens the ecosystem. In fact, it should be removed if it’s growing in your garden. But fear not: Liatris spicata, right, is a beautiful and well behaved substitute! My latest AP gardening column offers native alternatives for 7 more garden bullies.
If your idea of the perfect garden includes abundant plants that do well with little human intervention, while attracting and supporting all manner of pollinators, plant natives. here how to get started.
Old-Fashioned flowers worth revisiting
Eight vintage garden flowers to plant for charm and fragrance.
Filling raised beds? Save money—and grow better—with Hugelkultur
Hugelkultur is a different, more natural (and cheaper) approach to raised beds or mounds that doesn’t require so many bags of top soil or compost. Instead, you fill the space with organic matter that gradually decomposes, feeding the soil and plants. Here’s how.
Growing veggies in small spaces
Smaller new varieties can yield great results for vegetables grown in containers.
Plants to plant in spring for a beautiful garden next winter
When you’re planning and planting your spring garden, think ahead to next winter too, and include plants that will create interest in your landscape in the so-called “off season.”
Black innovators who reshaped American gardening and farming
The achievements of 19th-century scientist George Washington Carver have landed him in U.S. history textbooks, but many other agricultural practices and innovations that traveled with enslaved people from West Africa or were developed by their descendants remain unsung. Here’s a look at five.
When to start planting seeds indoors? First, check your frost date.
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