Gardening How-to Articles

Long before flowers were cultivated solely for their good looks, they were grown to serve some practical, or even preternatural, purpose. This was especially true in the good old days of Minoan Crete, about 1500 BC, when a thriving industry and religious iconography grew up around Crocus sativus, the corm better known as saffron crocus. Read › Saffron Crocus—Conjuring Color and Flavor in the Autumn Garden

Grape tomatoes combine a number of desirable tomato qualities, including very sweet flavor, firm texture, and at least the semblance of having been ripened on the vine. Read › Grape Tomatoes: Giving the Cherries a Run for Their Money

You can grow chile peppers just about anywhere in the United States and southern Canada, as long as you prepare your soil, nurture your seedlings properly, and provide the plants with their basic needs. Read › Growing Chile Peppers

In midsummer, chile peppers mature, begin to ripen, and become more pungent. Some are fiery hot, while others are crisp, slightly sweet with just a hint of heat, and full of flavor. This is the time to put up that prize-winning corn relish, those pickled peppers, salsas of every kind, and hot pepper chutney. Read › Preserving Chiles

Lemon grass is a tropical perennial, native to southern India, but cultivated outdoors in practically all tropical regions. In the United States, it is root-hardy to about USDA Zone 9 (California, central Florida) where it goes dormant during the mild winter. Read › Lemon Grass: A Very Versatile Herb

Like a country kitchen, a four-square kitchen garden evokes thoughts of hearth, home, and abundance. It is a garden design based on a very simple layout that provides a rich, unpretentious display of color, form, and, quite literally, good taste. Read › The Four-Square: A Classic Kitchen Garden Design

Seed packets often carry more abbreviations than contents, making many of us wish that seeds still came in cloth bags labeled simply BEANS or PUMPKIN. Read › Tomato Terms—or, What is an F1 Hybrid, Anyway?