Martinis and Marigolds - Refreshingly Quick Tips for Home and Garden

If you’re like me, when fall rolls around and frost is on the horizon, you hate to just throw the plants away.

And if you've grown herbs you probably have a lot of wonderful foliage on your plants. So what’s a gardener to do with all of this beautiful herb foliage?

Happily there are lots of ways to preserve your herbs for use during the cold of winter.

Read on to find out how!

I love this time of year! We are so blessed with the bounty of summer fruits and vegetables. I hope that you are finding delicious ways to enjoy them!

But we are also faced with the resulting peels and pits that many times end up in our trash. According to the EPA “The estimated 35.3 million tons of wasted food that went to landfills in 2018 represents 24.1 percent of all MSW landfilled.”  Somehow that just doesn’t make sense, since all of this organic waste can quickly break down and return lots of nutrients to the soil.

 So what’s a home gardener to do? Composting your kitchen and garden waste is a great way to reduce the amount of waste you dispose of in the trash.  By composting, you can generate a free source of nutrient-rich material to help improve your garden.

Read on to find out how to get started!

Love cooking but hate figuring out what to make? I can never resist a great cookbook or sharing a yummy looking recipe on Facebook or pinning it on Pinterest. We are so lucky to have so many on-line resources but I can't seem to remember where I saw the recipe when I want to figure out what to make.

Read on to find out to use a low-cost on-line tool that makes saving and finding recipes a breeze

I have a live-and-let-live approach to dealing with wildlife that sometimes can be destructive. As long as things don’t get too out of hand, we share and deal with the downside. 

In the past the deer have browsed on the lower limbs of trees on their way to other feeding grounds. Not a problem until last summer when I found that they had eaten every single daylily flower (and there were lots) and munched on my favorite begonias. And this year they’ve added flowers from the pots on the front porch to their menu.

Read on to find out what options I've explored and what I'm doing about it!

This year, when I planted my small raised bed vegetable garden of tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapeños, cucumbers and zucchini, I made sure to reserve some space for one of my favorite herbs, cilantro. Previously, I didn’t always try to grow it with my other herbs because it can be frustrating to try to grow. But it can also be fun to grow at the same time. What???

Let’s take a look at this plant which seems to have a very ‘split’ personality and I’ll explain what I mean.

Read on to find out why planting cilantro is a great idea.

As gardeners, we deal with lots of challenges in our gardens.

Unwanted insects in your garden are just that: unwanted. Unwanted insects may eat and destroy your vegetables and prized flowers, something both farmers and home gardeners have in common.

Organic gardening is a means of controlling unwanted insects naturally, without the use of dangerous pesticides.

Read on to find out how to control unwanted garden insects naturally that are also cheap, easy and good for the earth.

Never done it before? Don’t worry - the good news is that grilling perfect produce is easy. Read on for  a few helpful hints to make your fruit and veggie grilling a success.

In most of the US the heat of the summer is upon us. This is the time of year that we see our plants drooping under the hot summer sun and we need to spend more time watering. Hmmm or do we?

Not if you use my secret weapon. Read on to find out how to decrease the time you spend watering your flower beds, giving you more time to relax and enjoy your garden. 

The heat of summer is upon us in most of the US. While it might be tempting to continue planting, the next optimum time to plant perennials and shrubs is fall.

So what' a gardener to do besides maintenance chores?  (And hopefully by following our tips you don't have too many of those!)

Read on for 5 of my favorite gardening-related and relaxing things to do now that the rush of Spring planting is over. 

When creating our low maintenance garden spaces, it’s fun to provide a habitat for garden visitors like butterflies.  Butterflies can add even more beauty to already beautiful landscape. I love sitting on my deck and seeing them flutter from one plant to another along with the bees and hummingbird moths. It’s fun to see them enjoying all of the flowers that I spent so much time planting.

Butterfly gardens require several things to be successful. Read on to find out how to create a garden that butterflies will 'flock' to.