If there were 10 things you could do to lessen the effect of the perils of this great Earth, wouldn’t you jump in and give it your all to help? Do not underestimate the power of a gardener. We have the power to change the world one garden at a time! Mother Nature needs all of the help we can give her right now, and our own yards are the perfect places to start.

Douglas Tallamy’s Bringing Nature Home has been my favorite book since it came out. It’s a down to earth read that is chock full of information on ecological cause and effect — or harm and ruin of habitat by development and urban sprawl. Tallamy challenges the reader to take personal responsibility, to help right the wrongs done to nature, to improve habitats by putting nature back into the landscape by starting with our own lawns — and then encouraging others to do the same. If everybody read this book and applied just a few of the concepts, the impact would have a huge, rippling effect. Tallamy is an entomologist, and so he has the best understanding of insects’ interrelationships with plants and the chemicals that insects rely on from the native plants they co-evolved with. Insects are our friends. Tallamy says that of the 9 million or so insect species, only 1 percent affect humans in negative ways. The other 99 percent “pollinate plants, return the nutrients tied up in dead plants and animals to the soil, keep populations of insect herbivores in check, aerate and enrich the soil and provide food either directly or indirectly for most other animals.” That includes us. So, if insects are our friends, native plants should be our best friends. They are the building block of biodiversity.   >> read article

Spring means planting time. For best results, you can’t just blindly follow planting dates on the back of seed packs. Even if the air feels warm to you, those seeds go into the ground. It’s the temperature of the soil that is important. Too cold, and the seed won’t germinate.

So how cold is too cold? That depends on the type of plant you want to grow. Lettuce seeds will germinate even when the soil temperature is near freezing. It might take over a month, but they will germinate. On the other extreme, cucumber seeds won’t germinate until the soil is 60 F. Ideal soil temperatures for different crops and plants can be found on seed packets, in seed catalogs or online.   >> read article

The most-talked about gardening trends may not be so come-and-go after all, as new ideas and designs encouraging us to innovate and create are the ones that we build into our lifestyle. For some simple garden design tips that translate from styles contemporary to eclectic, Atlanta, Ga.’s maverick landscape designer Matthew Klyn recommends thinking high and low when creating a green-inspired look.

If you have a small space or find yourself overwhelmed by too many possibilities, consider vertical gardening. A perfect green solution to apartment and urban dwelling, this approach offers creative, yet practical designs that can be admired from a variety of unassuming perches. GARDEN, Klyn’s ethereal, French-inspired floral and home goods boutique, thrives with a wide collection of vertical examples ranging in color, composition and character.   >> read article

The word Celosia comes from the Greek keleos, which means “burnt” and refers to the fiery colors of this dramatic and versatile annual. Celosias come in a variety of shapes, colors and sizes. ‘Cramer’s Amazon’ is named after Ralph Cramer who discovered it in Peru.

“Amazon” is an apt description because this is a whopper of a plant that produces masses of blooming spikes that attract hordes of butterflies and hummingbirds. It is advisable to pinch plants when they are 12 inches tall, otherwise you will end up with plants 9 feet tall! Even with pinching, plants will form healthy clumps about 6-7 feet tall ...   >> read article

It stops traffic in our small Southeastern Tennessee town. In the middle of fall, cars come to a screeching halt as the driver casts a glance towards the stand of pink muhly grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris) rimming the upper left curbing of our circle driveway. It must be the unexpectedness of seeing a swath of pink cotton candy backlit by the soft angle of fall’s lower light that causes this reaction. In early mornings, it is often sprinkled with dew or sparkled with frost, giving the appearance of glistening pink diamonds that would have caused even Elizabeth Taylor to feel intense envy. It is a thing of wondrous awe.

Pink muhly grass waves its pink magic wands like no other forb. Hardy in USDA Zones 7–10, it requires the sharpest of drainage to prosper. In nature, this grass colonizes the sand dunes along the Gulf of Mexico and the Southern Atlantic coast. My eyes were first blessed to see a blanket of pink illuminated by the setting sun while walking along the boardwalk to the ocean’s edge in South Carolina. It was an epiphany of beauty and totally unexpected. The light, the site and the mass of plants packed tightly together made it appear as if one continuous layer of pink fluff had come to rest on the Earth’s surface.   >> read article