Simple ways to save money while you garden
You check the weather forecast and see something no fall gardener wants to see: temperatures dropping below freezing overnight. Your lettuce, spinach, and other cool-season vegetables are still growing, so you grab a frost blanket and cover everything before bedtime. By morning, however, some of your plants are flattened, their leaves bent beneath the weight…
You’ve spent weeks growing lettuce, kale, spinach, and carrots, only to discover that an unexpected cold snap is heading your way. The thought of losing those vegetables just before harvest is frustrating, especially when you’ve already invested money in seeds, soil, and garden supplies. Fortunately, one relatively inexpensive gardening tool can help protect your crops…
You’ve planted your fall vegetable seeds, kept the soil moist, and finally watched tiny green shoots emerge from the ground. There’s just one problem: dozens of seedlings are growing practically on top of each other. Removing perfectly healthy little plants might seem wasteful, especially when you’ve spent time and money getting them started. However, leaving…
Your summer vegetable garden may be winding down, but that doesn’t mean you’ve missed your last opportunity to grow something fresh. While tomatoes and peppers need months of warm weather, certain radishes can go from seed to harvest in just three or four weeks. That makes them an excellent option for gardeners hoping to squeeze…
Your summer garden might be winding down, but those empty vegetable beds could still have something to offer. Carrots are one of the more rewarding cool-season crops because they tolerate chilly temperatures, store well, and can develop excellent flavor during autumn. However, getting them established before the ground becomes too cold requires a little more…
Your tomatoes are finished, the cucumbers have stopped producing, and your once-productive summer garden is starting to look empty. But before you pull everything out and call it a season, there’s one vegetable worth planting that actually prefers cooler temperatures. Kale can turn those empty garden beds into a fresh source of leafy greens long…
You bring home a beautiful pot of chrysanthemums, set it beside your pumpkins, and enjoy a burst of fall color on your porch. Then the first cold snap arrives, and suddenly those cheerful flowers are brown, drooping, or completely lifeless. It’s frustrating, especially when you paid $15 or $20 for a plant you hoped would…
Your summer container gardens probably looked beautiful a few months ago, but by October, those once-colorful petunias, begonias, and other warm-weather flowers may be looking tired. Fortunately, you don’t have to pack away your planters or spend a fortune replacing everything. With a few strategic changes, those same pots can provide beautiful color throughout fall…
Those gorgeous pots of orange, yellow, and burgundy chrysanthemums seem to appear everywhere once fall arrives. They’re an easy way to brighten a porch or garden after summer flowers begin fading, but there’s one frustrating problem many gardeners encounter: their mums look beautiful for a few weeks, then disappear for good. If you’ve purchased new…