Considered a cruciferous vegetable, kale belongs to a group of cabbage cultivars originally grown in the eastern Mediterranean. Under the plant species of Brassica Oleracea, it grows in cold …
Homestead Stories: Types of Irises
Iโm not sure I have a favorite iris. Theyโre all so different, and unique. There are many varieties from bearded irises to the invasive yellow iris. There are also wild irises, which …
15 Trellis Plants For Your Wall, Pergola, And Arbor
Pergolas, arbors, and trellises look mighty boring without a plant wrapped around their nooks and crannies. But why should you bother finding trellis plants to cover your garden structure? It …
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10 Summer Flowers to Make Your Garden Pop With Color
Summer is a time of bold barbecue flavors, bright sunlight, vivid green on the fully-leafed trees, and hot temperatures. The garden would be remiss if it didn't have colorful flowers to match the …
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9 Flowering Trees To Consider
Flowering trees are available in a variety of sizes and shapes for almost any landscape application. Not only do deciduous flowering trees bring visual impact and beauty to your homestead, but they …
How To Grow And Forage For Lady Fern
I am in love with lady ferns and tuck every variety into shaded crevices, niches, nooks, and crannies in my homestead rockery. Apple-green in the spring and a glorious golden-yellow in autumn, lady …
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How To Grow Bamboo
Bamboo is an amazing plant! It has so many benefits to offer on so many levels. Not only does bamboo produce oxygen, which helps to clean the area where you grow your plants, but many varieties are …
10 Gorgeous Winter Flowers To Add Color To Gray Winter Days
It can be rather sad to see the blooms of summer fade. As your summer flowers die back and prepare for winter, plant some of these winter flowers to create color for otherwise dreary …
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9 Of The Best Decorative & Festive Christmas Plants
Have you started decorating your house for Christmas? Hung a holly wreath? Dangled some mistletoe over the entryway, decorated a Christmas tree, and bought your poinsettia? Or did you choose different …
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10 Steps To Attract Birds In The Winter
Do you want to attract birds in the winter to your homestead landscape? Do you enjoy their sweet sounds and would like to have more feathered friends come to visit? Birds make the garden magically …
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8 Gorgeous Spring Bulbs To Plant This Fall
If you want a bold display of color in the spring, fall is the time to start planting! Spring bulbs like daffodils, tulips, crocus, alliums, and hyacinths, as well as tubers, tuberous roots, corms, …
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Homestead Stories: A Colorful Zinnia Extravaganza
I have a couple of gardens that do well in the spring when the sun isnโt as intense but come late July everything dries up. It doesnโt matter how much I water those gardens (which I do sparingly as I …
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20 Eye-Catching Flowers That Attract Hummingbirds
If youโre wondering how you can attract hummingbirds to your garden oasis, look no further. Here are 20 flowers you can plant that have bright colors, high-quality nectar, tubular-shaped flowers, and …
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40 Large Planters For Trees And Flowers
When you're planning your garden for the upcoming spring, you may find yourself quickly running out of space in your yard, garden beds, and hanging planters, but who says you have to pick and choose …
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How to Attract Butterflies to Your Garden
Habitat loss, climate change, and pesticide use have decreased butterfly populations. Unbeknownst to many butterflies do not live on nectar alone, some species prefer, even require, overripe fruit …
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25+ Acid-Loving Plants For Your Garden
Experienced gardeners know: A healthy productive garden is one in which the plants are compatible with the pH of the soil. Not all soils are the same, and it's important to recognize that many …
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Homestead Stories: Beautiful Wild Asters Galore
Generally speaking, I donโt like fall. Why? It precedes winter โ which is a long, cold, nongrowing, nongardening season that seems to stretch on forever. However, I do enjoy some of the pretty …
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6 Beautiful Plants That Like Wet Soil
When you consider gardening in a heavily watered area, it is important to know which plants will thrive. Anything, from the sun you get to the seeds you buy, can affect the growth of your plants. …
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Watch These Cacti Bloom Bright, Mesmerizing Flowers [Video]
When you bought a cactus for your home or office, you were probably fascinated by its shape, color, or unique spiky characteristics. But if you're lucky enough to see them bloom, the cacti's flower …
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10 Of The Best Vine Plants To Add To Your Landscape
Are you looking to up your landscaping game this year? Have you considered adding vining or climbing plants? Vine plants can add a unique, vertical element to any landscape. Use them to climb …
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17 Of The Best Hanging Plants To Add Beautiful Greenery To Your Home
One of the most recent trends in home decor includes adding greenery to your home. Hanging baskets allow you to grow beautiful plants without sacrificing counter space. Hanging plants can add …
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30 Gorgeous Flower Box Ideas To Welcome Summer To Your Home
Pop a flower box underneath your homeโs front window, add one to your porch railing, or put a few around your patio. Colorful blooms add instant curb appeal and are an easy, inexpensive way to jazz up …
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10 Beneficial Ways To Use Epsom Salt For Plants
Epsom salt is an all-natural, time-tested mineral compound composed of magnesium, sulfate, and oxygen. Not only does it make bathwater soft and silky, but a long, relaxing soak in a hot bath full of …
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Gardening Resources For Kids
One of the best parts about gardening is building community. There's something special about sharing the experience of planting and nurturing seeds, and watching them grow -- especially when it's with …
Homestead Stories: Art And History In The Most Unusual Garden Topiary
Not too long ago, I saw a photograph online of a reclining human figure, larger than life, totally carved out of shrubs. Garden topiary. I was fascinated -- and recalled years ago, when I visited …
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How To Care For Easter Lilies
Walking into church Easter morning, the air is rich with the powerful scent of Easter lilies. But not just any lily, the prolific white lily, popularly known as the Easter lily. Its symbolic …
9 Beautiful Water Plants For Your Aquatic Garden Or Pond
Spring has come. For the winter-weary gardener, the chance to finally get back out into the wonderful world of soil and sprouts is exhilarating. Within a few short weeks, garden beds are awake and …
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Homestead Stories: The Mighty Oak Tree
The arborist was following me around the property. It had been a hard winter with several damaged trees and a lot of large limbs downed. Rather than use the chainsaw to clean up the mess, I preferred …
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Homestead Stories: How Does It Grow?
I use a lot of cinnamon when baking. I love the smell it leaves in my cupboard, the aroma that wafts through the house when Iโm baking, and of course, the flavor. That said, cinnamon is expensive. I …
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10 Types Of Moss For Your Garden
Thereโs something mysterious and intriguing about moss. Maybe itโs because of the way it drapes over trees and rocks in places like the Hoh Rain Forest of Washington state. It looks like a land …
Homestead Stories: The Poison Garden
There are a lot of beautiful plants in the world. Some have medicinal purposes, others are edible, and there are those that are purely decorative. There are also many plants that are dangerously …
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Homestead Stories: What Color Is Your Bleeding Heart Flower?
โAnd what do we have here?โ I shook my head as I worked around some sprouts that had poked through the ground. It was early spring and the garden was coming back to life. I wasnโt talking to …
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Homestead Stories: Forget-Me-Not Flowers
I have a special affection for the tiny blue wildflower that appears every spring. Forget-me-not flowers, the state flower of Alaska, is known to have special meaning and reflect compassionate …
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Are Underwater Herb Gardens The Future? [Video]
If sea levels keep rising, where will we grow our food? Researchers in Italy are exploring one option: Underwater gardens. Nemo's Garden in Noli, Italy is an agricultural project that's attempting …
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Homestead Stories: A Colorful Mosaic Of Nasturtiums
"I love my nasturtiums,โ Mom declared years ago as she led me on a walk through her extensive garden. The nasturtiums were everywhere. Every color imaginable -- from solids pinks, reds, yellows, …
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Homestead Stories: The Purple Passionflower
โDid you know there are hundreds of varieties of passionflowers?โ I thought I was talking to my husband, but he had wandered off to another part of the nursery while I studied the array of color …
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Homestead Stories: Swaddled Babies Or Baby In The Cradle?
โI have a swaddled baby to show you,โ a friend said over the phone. โLike a baby in the cradle. Want to come over and see?โ The words caught my curiosity. My friend was too old to have a baby in …
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19 Eye-Catching Terrarium Plants For Your Miniature Garden
A terrarium garden is much like an aquarium, but a habitat for plants rather than aquatic life. A terrarium can be constructed in a diverse array of glass containers. When planted, it should look like …
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The Brazilian Grape Tree
I had spent another morning doing battle with the proliferous wild grape that grew across my rock wall border. I had nothing against grapevines, especially when they bore fruit (which these vines …
Rodgers Flower: A Shady Perennial
โWhat is that huge plant in your shade garden?โ The large, leafy plant with tall spiky flowers (extremely tall -- almost my height of 5 feet) really caught my attention. I was visiting a nursery …
Homestead Stories: I Love My Birds, But…
Several years ago, my daughter informed me (with great excitement) there was a mourning dove nesting in my hanging fuchsia on the front balcony. โNo way,โ I declared. โCome see,โ she …
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12 Refreshing Natural Air Fresheners
My mother survived stage IV lung cancer (!) but the effects of the disease forced her to be on oxygen 24/7. Needless to say, she's had to make adjustments to her lifestyle. One thing she had to …
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Osage Orange Trees: Durable Hardwood With Alien-Like Fruit
Grown for decades by farmers and gardeners across the mid-western United States, Osage orange trees are incredibly versatile and can serve all sorts of purposes on the homestead. The wood from the …
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How To Grow Sunflowers
I love sunflowers. Sunflowers display a bright splash of cheerful color against the garden fence, they provide an abundant crop of seeds which both our family and the birds enjoy, and they are so easy …
Deer-Resistant Plants
Deer are graceful, nearly ethereal creatures. Their silent forest ways and magnificent appearance may inspire paintings and poetry, novels and songs. But for the hard-working gardener, they may more …
5 Compelling Reasons to Turn Your Lawn Into a Meadow
Forget about that perfectly manicured lawn consisting of short green grass and nothing else. Boldly embrace biodiversity instead by turning that sterile lawn of yours into a mini-meadow or wildflower …
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Homestead Stories: The Spider Flower
โYou know I donโt really like spiders.โ I scowled as my friend led me around her garden. Large or small, spiders really do give me the creeps, and sometimes they bite. Yuck! I do know they have a …
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The Anise Plant
Brooke Medlin is an Ohio horticulturist with experience growing both edible and ornamental plants. She really likes anise and is a fan of the plantโs medicinal and culinary benefits. She also loves …
How to Grow the Vanilla Plant
Donโt you just love the fragrance and flavor of vanilla? Most folks do. In fact, the United States is the second largest consumer of vanilla per capita worldwide. While much of the world's vanilla …
Planting, Growing, and Maintaining Chestnut Trees
โChestnuts roasting on an open fire โฆโ is a phrase most Americans can sing along to without even thinking, but there is so much more to these amazing trees than Christmas lyrics. Much more than a …
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