Independent gardening advice for real gardens, balconies and windowsills.
Practical advice on growing food and flowers, improving soil, and making the most of small spaces. Start anywhere — the garden will meet you.
If one has a fine lawn and desires to keep it so, he should never work upon or mow it when the turf is wet or soggy. The impression made by the feet in walking over the sod while in this state, will l...
The owner of the average small home seldom goes to the expense of employing the professional gardener to do the work of lawn-making. Sometimes he cannot afford to do so. Sometimes skilled labor is not...
Limestone Land. Soil analyses are serviceable only within certain limits, and in the case of the normal soils that comprise the very great part of the entire humid region of the United States the prac...
Of the beautiful, but delicate, adiantums perhaps the one most frequently seen in the florist's window is A. Farleyense, with its drooping, lace-like, light green leaves. It is not, however, suited fo...
The Night-blooming Cereus is an interesting plant, and excites much admiration when in flower, as it blooms at night-time only, the flowers closing up when exposed to the day-light. They are magnifice...
Another fern developed from the Boston is Whitmani, in which the fronds are not so long but the foliage is so finely divided that it gives a decided plumey effect. The Whitmani is perhaps the best of...
The year 1845 will ever be memorable by its giving birth to a disease which threatened the entire destruction of the potato crop, and which caused suffering and pecuniary ruin to an incredible extent...
Plants at present are more generally cultivated in-doors than formerly, and they may be seen in almost every home. The cultivation of plants in dwellings is decidedly a modern custom--at least to the...
The amateur gardener may enjoy Roses from June to November if he is willing to take a little trouble for them. Not, however, with the material treated of in the chapter on "The Rose"--though what is s...
The owner of every garden tries to grow roses in it, but where one succeeds, ten fail. Perhaps I would be safe in saying that ninety-nine out of every hundred fail, for a few inferior blossoms from a...
A well grown large Boston fern requires a good deal of room, and the long fronds--three feet or more in length--are apt to get damaged at the ends. For these reasons the Scottii fern, a development of...
The name given Pteris ferns is descriptive of only part of them, as they vary greatly. They are commonly used in made up dishes, or with other plants, but most of them will make fine single plants as...