The Gritty Truth About Growing 11 Easy Crops in a Rain Gutter Garden
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My lower back still twinges when I look at a vinyl rain gutter. People see these sleek, vertical setups on social media and assume they practically assemble and water themselves.…
The Dirt on How to Grow Bigger Onions in Your Garden
I spent most of yesterday afternoon hunched over a row of alliums, nursing a sharp ache in my lower back. The damp compost smelled sharp and slightly sour in the…
The Dirt-Cheap Guide: How to Grow Free Rosemary Plants in Your Garden
My lower back aches just thinking about the hours I’ve spent kneeling on gravel pathways. Gardening is rarely the serene, picture-perfect hobby you see in glossy magazines. It usually involves…
Sprouting the Pits: 10 Fruit Seeds to Start in Water for an Indoor Garden
I still cringe whenever I smell stagnant water. Back in 1998, I nearly wiped out my entire collection of rare Phalaenopsis orchids in a single month. I assumed more water…
Getting Dirty: 10 Annual Flowers to Plant in April for Bright Summer Color
The Muddy Reality of Spring Gardening April rolls around, the frost breaks, and suddenly everyone wants to be a gardener. The glossy seed catalogs arrive in the mail, lying to…
The Dirt-Stained Guide: 10 Flowers to Deadhead in May for Nonstop Spring Color
The Unforgiving Reality of May Let’s start with the hose. That damned green hose always kinks near the spigot right when I walk to the far end of the yard.…
The Gritty Reality of Spring: 10 Garden Plants to Divide in April for Better Blooms
April is a liar. It promises warm sunshine but usually delivers freezing mud, sleet, and a stiff lower back. I have worked the dirt for over thirty years, and I…
The Gritty Truth: How To Choose The Best Fish For A Container Water Garden
Listen, water gardening rarely looks like the pristine magazine photos. Most days, it smells like swamp muck, and your back aches from hauling buckets of heavy, algae-ridden water. I am…
The Mud, Sweat, and Blooms: How To Grow Miniature Water Lilies In Containers
I still remember the heavy, oppressive humidity of the Singapore Botanic Gardens back in the early nineties. My shirt clung to my back like a second skin, and the distinct…
11 Exotic Carnivorous Plants That Will Test Your Patience
The Grim Reality of Bog Gardening I killed my entire collection of rare orchids back in 1998 because I drowned them in hard tap water. I thought they needed constant…