Home & Garden category, Page 6
Early spring chores to tackle amid covid-19 pandemic
Question: Like everyone else, I’m stuck at home and itching to do some work in the garden. What can I do this time of year that isn’t jumping the gun? I can’t spread mulch because there’s none available yet and I think the ground is still too wet. Is it...
A garden is a respite through the bad times
The garden has always been my safe place. For more than three decades of good times and bad, it’s a space to reflect and gain perspective. Regardless of what happens outside the garden, crocus flowers push through the cool soil as winter fades, followed by daffodils, the harbingers of spring....
How to grow parsnips
If you enjoy eating carrots and growing them in your garden, I encourage you to try your hand at cultivating parsnips, too. They’re one of my family’s favorite root crops. Parsnips (Pastinaca sativa) are in the same plant family as carrots, celery, parsley, and dill (Apiaceae). They are all biennial...
Orchid Society of Western Pennsylvania show blooming
With a theme of “An Orchid Journey,” the Orchid Society of Western Pennsylvania will hold its annual orchid show March 14-15 at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Pittsburgh. “An ‘orchid journey’ is meant to describe the opportunity to experience the unbelievable variety and beauty of orchids firsthand,” says Norma Raiff,...
Best plants for bees (but not for deer)
Question: I’m looking to add some more bee-friendly perennial plants to my flower garden this summer. Can you make some recommendations? It would be a bonus if the deer don’t eat them, but I know that’s a tough request! Answer: Kudos to you for wanting to provide more nectar-foraging plants...
Grafting tomatoes is well worth the effort
When Rich Gebrosky noticed grafted tomato plants in a seed catalog, it piqued his interest. “But they were so expensive,” he says, “I decided to look into it and see if I could make my own grafted plants.” Grafting tomatoes starts with two sets of plants. There’s the rootstock, which...
Phipps’ Center for Sustainable Landscapes earns new top-level designation for green building
The Center for Sustainable Landscapes on the campus of Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Oakland is one of a kind. It is the first facility in the world to meet four of the world’s highest green construction standards — The Living Building Challenge, WELL Building Platinum, SITES Platinum and...
Gardeners, trees share inescapable connection
I’m not sure when I first noticed the late afternoon sun illuminating the orange bark of a tall, beautiful Scotch pine that overlooked the vegetable garden, probably about 20 years ago. There’s a chair in the corner of the garden that I would use at the end of the day....
Items you might not expect to see at the Pittsburgh Home and Garden Show
There’s no shortage of windows, doors, roofs, decks, cabinets, bedroom furniture and flowers at the 39th annual Duquesne Light Pittsburgh Home and Garden Show, which opens Friday. Some may not know there are also pianos, elevators, arcade games and an indoor spray park, as well as an artists’ aisle. One...
6 seed-starting tips
Over the next few weeks, gardeners everywhere will take on the challenge of starting their own seeds. Whether it’s sowing seeds of your favorite heirloom tomato variety, planting herb seeds, or starting a collection of annuals like sunflowers, cosmos, or marigolds, it’s one of our most favorite times of the...
Bringing back struggling plants
Dr. Peter Zale became fascinated with trees as a child growing up in Olmstead Falls, Ohio, near Cleveland. One day his parents took him to Holden Arboretum in Lake County wanting to encourage his interests in plants. While visiting he picked up a flyer that had a beautiful ink drawing...
Endeavoring to save endangered plants
Roxanne Swan methodically searches hundreds of drawers filled with seeds of native plants. Each small drawer is labeled with the Latin name of the seeds stored inside. She’s in a small room, adjacent to a greenhouse in the Audubon Center for Native Plants at Beechwood Farms in Fox Chapel, where...
Meet Doug Oster during Duquesne Light Home and Garden Show
You can receive free tickets to see Everybody Garden’s Doug Oster appear at the Duquesne Light Home and Garden Show held at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center from March 6-15. You must email Oster at doster@535media.com or otherwise contact him with the names of the people attending, what day...
Paste tomatoes are perfect for crafting homemade sauces
Homegrown tomatoes are one of the garden’s greatest gifts. And for those of us who make and preserve our own tomato sauce and soup, paste tomatoes are particularly special. Also known as sauce tomatoes, these elongated varieties have flesh that is very dry and meaty with few seeds. This, combined...
Backyard gardeners can act to help bee populations
Chemicals are routinely applied around residential landscapes to kill insect pests and troublesome weeds, but many are indiscriminate and devastate pollinators in the process. Over the past 30-plus years, pollinator populations have crashed worldwide due to a variety of reasons, including pesticide and herbicide exposure, invasive pests and diseases, loss...
True geraniums are hardy, disease- and pest-resistant perennials
Question: I just found out that geraniums aren’t actually geraniums! I’ve been growing them in a porch pot for years and didn’t realize there’s also a perennial called a geranium. What’s the difference between them and are the perennial ones worth growing? Answer: When most gardeners read the name “geranium,”...
Dig into seed catalogs before you dig in the dirt
The ebbs and flows of gardening parallel the fashion world. One year plant breeders turn everything lime green, and the next it’s deep red. Seed sales slump some years, then return with a vengeance for various reasons, often in times of economic uncertainty. I sometimes feel like a sort of...
Tips for growing cauliflower
For many gardeners, cauliflower is a challenging vegetable to grow. Not only do cabbage worms find it irresistible, but it can be persnickety to grow, requiring just the right weather and soil conditions to thrive. Today, I’d like to offer you some cauliflower- growing tips to help increase your chances of...
Easy-to-grow succulents come in a variety of shapes, sizes, textures
A long greenhouse bench is filled with an array of succulents at Soergel’s Garden Center in Wexford. These varieties are indoor plants that have become increasingly popular over the past several seasons. Randy Potter is a general manager here and wears many hats at the nursery. One of his jobs...
Elderberries are beautiful landscape plants and medicinal, too
Question: Everyone in my family takes elderberry syrup in the winter because there’s evidence that it is antiviral and helps fight against the flu. We’d like to start growing our own elderberries and making our own syrup. Are there particular varieties we should grow? Answer: Elderberry (Sambucus spp.) plants have...
3 ways to grow purple coneflowers from seed
Purple coneflowers are a favorite among many gardeners. Known botanically as Echinacea purpurea, this North American native perennial produces colorful magenta blooms in late summer and is a butterfly and bee magnet. While the straight species of this plant is my personal favorite, there are many cultivars and varieties that...
Low-maintenance succulents make watering a breeze
Looking for an easy plant to care for? Try a succulent. Any plant with fleshy stems or leaves is called a succulent. Aside from cacti, only a few other plant families have succulent members. All these succulents, cactus or not, are low-maintenance. Some non-cactus succulents One family of noncactus succulents...
Controlling two-spotted spider mites by introducing predatory mites
Question: We always have spider mites on our flowering garden phlox and a few other perennials in the summer. The leaves look speckled with tiny pin-pricks of white, and we can see their webs on the undersides of the leaves. We’ve read that spraying can lead to other problems (and...
Winter is not a hindrance to these gardeners
Sue Gilmore’s love of gardening began at an early age. “I started when I was 7 years old,” Gilmore says. “I just wanted so much to grow food. I think I have a little farmer heart.” The parents in her neighborhood started a 4-H group, and Gilmore was the youngest...
Unassuming rutabaga is easy to grow, surprisingly delicious
Winter is a rest period for the garden (and the gardener), but it’s also a time when we get to enjoy the fruits of our labors. I’m not talking about biting into a freshly picked tomato or a sweet, ripe strawberry; instead, I’m talking about enjoying winter storage vegetables. These...
