Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Earth laughs in flowers,” and it may be true, but for the day-to-day journey through life — and the garden — the leaves on those flowers sustain us. Nearly every plant on Earth has a flower. Some are flamboyant while others are hardly noteworthy. So it is with foliage ...   >> read article

The lady beetles of my childhood were affectionately called ladybugs, and my memory colors them red with black spots. However, that idyllic image, secured in legend and lore, is no longer the species most people encounter today. My grandchildren are most familiar with the orange Asian lady beetle, the one that has become a nuisance in most households ...   >> read article

This isn’t about pasta — lasagna gardening is about building up soil in layers. The concept is based on layering compost ingredients, which also keeps weeds down. Here’s the ‘recipe' ...   >> read article

By March, we’ve dog-eared our seed catalogs and sense that the germination of the growing season is upon us. We’ve carefully ordered (or bought at the garden center) the seeds we will nurture from seedling into fruit. Decorated packets that rattle and hiss a bit as we jostle and inspect them, have landed at our doorstep ...   >> read article

March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb. And by the end of March, Midwest gardeners have had it with snow and cold. So when temperatures start to warm up and we get that whiff of spring in the air, we cheer for those perennials that first appear in late March and April. These are our harbingers of spring ...   >> read article