My LATEST ap gardening columns
I started writing an internationally distributed gardening column for the Associated Press in January 2022. Prior to that, I spent 15 years as Newsday's "Garden Detective" columnist, fielding reader questions, writing gardening how-tos, profiling exceptional local gardeners and reporting the gardening beat.
To keep up with the latest gardening news and trends, you can always find my latest AP gardening columns here.
THIS WEEK: Serviceberry is a sadly underused native tree that helps wildlife and is worth planting
More topics I've written about
- How to overwinter tropical plants
Planting bulbs? Here’s how to protect them from critters and the cold - For brilliant fall foliage, look no further than native trees
- Fall is the perfect time to plant a tree. Some important tips.
- Minor bulbs can have major impact in the garden - here's why, and some to choose from
- Outside lights are deadly to birds, especially at this time of year
- Fall cleanup doesn't mean what it used to
- You might need to replant your houseplants before bringing them back indoors. Here’s how.
- Fall is the best time to renovate your lawn. Here are steps to ensure the best results.
- Ready to preserve your harvests? There are easier ways than canning.
- Tips for filling in bare spots under trees
- Hammerhead worms are toxic, invasive, and a threat to earthworms
- Buttonbush is an otherworldly native shrub you should know
- It's time to plant your fall crops -- here are some to consider
- Sex and the single zucchini
- Monocarpic plants wait their whole lives to bloom just once -- and it's usually spectacular!
- How to grow blueberries at home
- How a heat wave can actually help (and yes, hurt) your garden
- Keep you kettle whistling all year long by growing and making your own white, green, black or Oolong tea
- How to identify and safely remove poison ivy
- You can grow peanuts at home— even as far north as Zone 6! Here’s how.
- Finding a balance between lawn and non-lawn with sustainable lawn care
- Yes, you can have a tidy, manicured native garden. Here’s how.
- Luckily for cooks and gardeners, these herbs will grow back year after year.
- Why you should take steps if you see a grayish powder on your plants. It’s powdery mildew
- Growing plants in straw bales
- How to make cut flowers last longer
- How to spruce up a supermarket bouquet
- Flowers aren’t the only way to add color to the garden. Here’s how to “paint” with foliage
- The problem with leaf blowers — and what to do instead
- Foodscaping: If your vegetable garden is too small for all the plants you want to grow, why not slip them into the flower garden?
- The garden is waking up. But where to start? Here’s what needs to be done now — and what shouldn’t be tackled yet.
- How to care for potted lilies, hyacinths, daffodils and other spring gift plants.
- Not all vegetables are annuals. Here are some that come back every year.
- Cool and unique just-introduced annuals and perennials to plant this spring
- It's not what St. Patrick used but today's three-leaved shamrock can make a nice houseplant
- For Women’s History Month, a look at some trailblazers in American gardening and horticulture
- New varieties of fruits and vegetables to plant this year
- Tips for growing sweet, juicy peaches in every climate
- Covering ground in the desert
- Before you start seeds indoors, make sure they’re not duds
- For a fun and fancy winter project, grow microgreens on your kitchen counter
Here’s how to decide which vegetables to plant this year - 2024 has been named the year of the African violet. Here’s how to grow these petite charmers.
- Trendy peach-toned plants for your 2024 garden
- How to spend the winter planning and preparing for your spring garden
- Save your poinsettias for next year. Here’s how to get them to bloom again in time for the holidays.
- The bathroom is an ideal place for many houseplants. Some are even happy in the shower.
- Camellias, the queens of the winter flowers, don’t deserve their reputation as garden divas. They‘re easy to grow, and not just in the south.
- By kit, or from scratch, you can grow your own mushrooms at home
- Are your evergreens turning brown? That might or might not indicate a problem. Here’s what you need to know.
- How to help housplants reacclimate indoors after their summer vacation
- There’s a movement to ‘leave the leaves’ in gardens and lawns. Should you do it?
- If it seems like there are a lot of acorns this fall, you might be seeing a ‘mast’ year
- Spooky plants for your goth garden (and Halloween!)
- How to grow your own cup of coffee -- indoors!
- Rose hips provide a pop of fall and winter color – plus a yummy ingredient for teas and jams
- Dahlias, they’re easier than you think
- How to help migrating hummingbirds and see their antics up close
Easy houseplants for neglectful gardeners - The mutant tomatoes are here, and they come in peace
- Annuals are the loyal friends every gardener can use
- Invasive and ubiquitous, English ivy can hurt trees and plants. Removing it isn’t easy.
- Fire-resistant and flammable plants: What you need to know
- Deer and rabbits and voles, oh my!
- Heat-tolerant plants and practices for a warming climate
- Where flooding has become more common, here's how gardeners can respond
- Are ants in your plants harmful?
- Extend your season with succession planting
- A little prevention goes a long way to combat garden pests and diseases.
- How to grow pawpaws, the exotically delicious, sadly underplanted N. American native fruit trees
- How to grow a cutting garden
- How to grow Rhubarb
- How to save water in the garden
- How to save your garden from wildfire smoke and ash
- How to plant containers like a pro
- Hardening off seedlings, an essential step in your spring gardening routine.
- Why No Mow May is a terrible idea
- How to grow an herb garden
- How and why to test your soil’s pH level
- How to select climate-resilient trees to plant
- How to Go easy on your body while gardening
- How to plant a meadow
- Five apps and phone features to help identify plants and problems
- How some of DC's cherry blossom trees have defied their age
- Itching to start spring cleanup? Not so fast!
- Bradford pears, once the darlings of suburbia have become rude invasives. Learn how to manage them -- and get my recommendations for better-mannered alternatives to plant instead.
- Philadelphia Flower Show
- Botanical Latin
- New plants for 2023
- Moon gardens
- Toxic plants and cut flowers to avoid if you have pets
- Pretty but toxic: Watch toddlers around these houseplants
- What's that green stuff on my tree?
- It's in fall, not summer, that leaves show their true colors
- How to protect a fig tree over winter
- How to make Bokashi compost
- Six favorite conifers and the cones they produce
- Time to study up: 35 gardening terms everyone should know
- How to prepare your soil in fall for spring planting.
- Save Your Mums: How to care for your mums so they return next year.
- Jumping worms — How to recognize and prevent their spread.
- Everything you ever wanted to know about planting and growing garlic
- How to save flower seeds
- Growing food indoors from kitchen scraps
- Fall houseplant care
- Gardening doesn’t stop just because it’s fall: Some tips
- How to collect and save vegetable seeds
- Turning a sidewalk strip into a curb appeal
- Stressed Lawns
- Mosquitoes.
- Harvesting potatoes
- Attracting birds to your garden
- Monarch butterflies are in trouble
- Troubleshooting in the vegetable garden
- Fall crops to plant now
- Gardening in drought?
- Alternatives to store-bought fertilizer are all around you
- The new blended garden: Going native one step at a time
- Pollinator-friendly pest control
- Protecting your garden before and after severe storms
- Best, worst companion plants
- Gardening success means avoiding these common mistakes
- 7 tips for growing giant tomatoes
- Gardening in shade
- Sunflowers
- Native alternatives for invasive plants
- Go native
- Old-Fashioned annual flowers worth revisiting
- Filling raised beds? Save money—and grow better—with Hugelkultur
- *Growing veggies in small spaces
- Plants to plant in spring for a beautiful garden next winter
- Tips for indoor seed-starting
- Black innovators who reshaped American gardening and farming
- Houseplant trends for 2022
more to explore
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