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Many of these selections are award winners. Some feature semi-double or double flowers, and some are bicolored. They are all gorgeous, each in a different way. Don’t tell my zinnias, but cosmos are my absolute favorite summer flowers. These members of the sunflower family attract butterflies, make wonderful companion plants, and will keep blooming up until your first frost, providing wonderful late summer color. And there are many different types of cosmos – not only different cultivars, but different species – giving us even more ways to enjoy them in our gardens....

1. Spring is nature’s way of saying, ‘Let’s party!’ Robin Williams 2. Spring: The music of open windows. Terri Guillemets 3. “Come, gentle Spring! Ethereal Mildness! Come.” James Thomson Also Read: April Garden Tasks 4. Spring Comes: The flowers learn their colored shapes. Maria Konopnicka 5. It is dry, hazy June weather. We are more of the earth, farther from heaven these days. Henry David Thoreau Also Read: Garden Sign Ideas...

1. Huge Bloodshot Eyes Scatter a bunch of giant bloodshot eyeballs in your yard for a large-scale Halloween decoration that onlookers will remember till years later. Click here for inspiration. Also Read: 70 Eerie Halloween Projects For Home & Garden 2. Gleaming Pods Greet trick-or-treaters with these DIY hanging paper mache lights that take on a sinister glow once the sun goes down. 3. Yard Sign Inspired by the old signs often shown in horror movies, this one is made from scrap wood and serves to invite guests to a destination of doom and gloom....

If you are looking for different Ways to Identify Houseplants, then you have arrived at the right place! Find out all about the best options here. Here’s everything you need to know about identifying a poisonous plant Best Ways to Identify Houseplants 1. Google Lens Simply snap a picture of the houseplant and open the picture using the Google lens. The app will provide all the details about the related plant!...

The nicest thing about outdoor rugs is that they come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, from small welcome mats to those large enough for a family-sized patio table and chairs. Adding an outdoor rug is one of the easiest, most interesting ways to spice up your outside space. And these additions to your patio decor also tend to be very affordable. Just as they do inside your home, an outdoor mat serves a number of purposes in your yard....

Drying peppers is easy and doesn’t take much time. In this post, I’m going to show you the 5 best ways to do it, with step by step instructions for each. If you’re like me, you always have an overabundance of fresh peppers from your garden every summer, and you may be wondering what to do with them. Drying peppers is a wonderful way to use them up before they go bad....

Chili is the perfect fall and winter comfort food, and it’s a great way to use up extra vegetables from the garden! After a long day of tackling fall or winter garden chores, the smell of a warm, bubbling chili is a great way to wind down in the evening and will warm you right up. This tasty homemade chili recipe is a family tradition, passed on for three generations! Everyone puts a slight spin on the recipe to make it their own....

Let’s get started! I can’t tell you how much fun it is to create beauty from kitchen waste. I also really love free plants. With pineapple (Ananas comosus), you can have both. From the leafy top of a pineapple — the part you would normally discard or compost — you can grow a beautiful plant that may bloom and produce fruit. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products....

Wheat is a major food crop and has been cultivated all around the world for thousands of years. There are all types of wheat and they each have their characteristics on what their flour is best suited for such as in pasta, bread, or pastries. Today we will focus on growing wheat that is best used for baking bread! Table of Contents Growing your own wheat grain takes you one step closer to self-sufficiency and the end results are worth the effort....

This nut provides a perennial substitute for wheat-based products that’s also environmentally friendly. Castanea spp. Chestnuts are a group of hardwood, deciduous trees, native to the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere where they thrive in USDA Hardiness Zones 4 to 8, with some variation in range depending on the species. Starchy, sweet, and flavorful, these nuts have been beloved by eager eaters for thousands of years, and cultivated as far back as 2,000 BCE....

If you aren’t already growing this enticing crop in your garden, you really should be! Bunching onions are a cinch to grow, strong and enduring, and once established, they can supply a sharp and delicious punch of flavor to your cooking, year after year. Allium fistulosum One of my favorite summer routines is taking daily (or hourly) strolls through my garden, plucking and eating edible leaves as I go. Probably my all-time-favorite things to eat straight out of the garden are bunching onions!...

By Julie Christensen Few flowers are as bright and cheery in the garden as asters. These perennial plants bloom from late summer to fall, when most other plants are dwindling. Asters are loved for their daisy-like flowers that come in a wide range of hues. The plants create a bright spot in the garden and also attract butterflies, birds and bees. Found in USDA plant hardiness zones 3 through 8, asters grow best in areas with cool, mild summers....

By Jennifer Poindexter Did you know bay leaves came from a tree? This may not be what you’d expect from an herb, but it’s true! Bay leaves come from a tree known as a bay laurel tree. This tree can grow to be upwards of fifty feet in height. It’s a wonderful outdoor addition in planting zones eight through eleven because it can handle the milder winters. However, if you want to grow your own bay leaves, and you don’t live in these planting zones, what should you do?...

Beets are fairly easy, straightforward cool season vegetables to grow in the home garden. They are grown for both their edible roots and greens. Beets come in not only the well-known red color, but also white, pink and yellow. Beet roots are high in Folate, fiber and vitamin C. Folate has been proven to help prevent neural-tube birth defects when regularly consumed by pregnant women prior to childbirth. Beet greens are high in vitamin A and are frequently used in salads and fresh dishes....

The tree produces clusters of 1-inch delicate flowers that produce a sweet, far-traveling fragrance. The flowers give way to round or pear-shaped yellow-orange fruits that are one to two inches long. Eriobotrya japonica As prized for its beauty as it is for its tasty offerings, loquat is unusual in that it flowers in the fall and produces fruit in late winter to early spring. Native to China, carefully cultivated in Japan for a thousand years or more, and beloved in the American South, Eriobotrya japonica is an evergreen tree that can grow to 25 feet tall and spread 15 to 20 wide....

Some compare the scent to grape Kool-Aid, soda, or gum, but the fragrance is deeper, richer, and more floral than the artificial aroma of processed food. Dermatophyllum secundiflorum The intoxicating fragrance of Texas mountain laurel is enough to cause drivers to slam on the brakes or dog walkers to abruptly stop short, giving poor Fido whiplash. Famed TV chef Emeril Lagasse used to lament the non-invention of “smell-o-vision.” I wish for “smell-o-website” so I could share with you the heavenly scent produced by the pretty purple flowers of these shrubs....

I grow zinnias in my garden every year, and absolutely love them! Every time I look out my window, they are one of the first things that catch my eye. In my opinion, these beautiful and resilient flowers are a must for every garden! If you’ve never grown zinnias before, you should definitely add them to your list. They are an old fashioned garden staple, and their popularity is understandable. These days, you can find them in all shapes, sizes, and colors....

What Is Compost Tea? As the name implies, this is a liquid derived from ‘steeping’ or ‘brewing’ compost in water. It is nutrient-rich, especially in nitrogen and has beneficial micro-organisms in it. Gardeners know compost will enrich their garden soil and aid their flowers and vegetables to thrive. You can also make a tea from the material that is easy to brew and has many benefits for the garden and indoor plants....

They’ll produce an abundant crop of edible seeds you can consume fresh or harvest dry to stock the pantry. Dried and split, these popular legumes are the star of the traditional Indian dish toor dal, and they’re tasty in a range of other recipes as well. Cajanus cajan When you live somewhere warm enough to grow them as annuals or perennials, pigeon peas sure do come in handy. These legumes, Cajanus cajan, are one of the most beneficial vegetables to grow in your garden....

Cold frames provide an ideal way to extend your growing season well into the fall and even all the way to winter. When the Persephone Period approaches, most of us are tucking our gardens to sleep and hunkering down for the long winter. Unless we have a cold frame, that is. Then it’s just business as usual around the garden. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission....