Get off to a great gardening year by finishing these tasks early With spring comes spring gardening chores. Put down your gardening catalogs, slip on your gardening gloves and boots, and head out the back door. Time spent outdoors tending to the … [Read more...]
Native Fruit and Nut Trees and Shrubs of the Virginia Mountains and Piedmont
Native fruit and nut trees can be grown to produce food for people and/or wildlife while protecting soil, water and air quality. Because they are multifunctional, native fruit and nut trees and shrubs are prime candidates for agroforestry plantings … [Read more...]
Starting Seeds Indoors
Starting seeds indoors is the perfect “fix” for the gardener with cabin fever and a need to get their hands in the soil or simply a desire to get a head start on spring. Despite the frigid temperatures, March is the time to make a seed-planting … [Read more...]
Elderberry as a Medicinal Plant by D. Charlebois
Folk medicine has been around for millennia exploiting first wild then cultivated plants to prevent or cure a myriad of illnesses. Continued: … [Read more...]
List of antiviral herbs and their uses
Back to school can mean back to the Doctor. We have all experienced that cold that just won’t go away. Try adding these herbs to your diet to prevent cold and flu viruses from taking hold. Continue: … [Read more...]
The Ageless Gardener
“A little studied negligence is becoming to a garden” — Eleanor Perenyi in “Garden Thoughts” (1981)For the past several years some authors of garden books have honed in on writing what can best be described as adaptive gardening or gardening for a … [Read more...]
Composting
All organic matter eventually decomposes. Composting speeds the process by providing an ideal environment for bacteria and other decomposing microorganisms. The final product, humus or compost, looks and feels like fertile garden soil. This dark, … [Read more...]
ISI Tomatoes
Though paper garden catalogs are not as plentiful as in years past, many of you are finding that your mailboxes contain these dream packets. If not, a quick internet search will yield a plethora of seed companies to peruse. Ask anyone who … [Read more...]
Protecting Garden and Landscape Plants During Cold Weather
Arctic air is on the way – scheduled to arrive in full force tonight with low’s dipping into the upper teen’s and even colder temperatures expected for Tuesday night. Read More: … [Read more...]
Starting Plants Indoors From Seeds
Many flowers and vegetables may be started from seeds indoors. Vigorous plants started indoors flower sooner and produce an earlier harvest than plants started outdoors. Seeds of certain species, however, are best sown directly outdoors when weather … [Read more...]