Gardening How-to Articles

Saving seeds is a global effort of immense importance. But home gardeners should also institute this practice—not so much as an insurance policy against floods, famine, or doomsday, but as a way to save natural resources and money, and as a means to become more in tune with the life of the garden. Read › Save Your Vegetable Seeds

Urban beekeeping is on the rise in the U.S., powered by such trends as the local food movement and the spread of inner-city community gardens. Read › Urban Beekeeping

In the United States, managed honey bees pollinate more than 100 commercial crops, including cherries, blueberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, coffee, and almonds. And these bees are dying. Read › Give Bees a Chance—The Mystery of Colony Collapse Disorder

In all the busyness of installing “green” systems in your garden—drip irrigation, compost bins, solar panels, gray-water recycling—it can be easy to overlook one of the most important environmental decisions you make as a gardener: what you plant. Read › Go Native

Seed banks, also known as seed archives, germplasm banks, and seed vaults, are gene banks for plants, and there are approximately 1,400 of them around the world. The projects range from small, geographically specific ones that support horticultural research and local restoration to larger, overarching projects that seek to provide the means to sustain life in the face of mass ecological catastrophe. Read › Seed Banking for Survival—Saving the World, One Seed at a Time

Today we may have an abundance in water but tomorrow a drought, so in the meantime, we should all learn how to curtail our water usage, both inside and outside the home. Read › Saving Water in the Garden

I consider myself a socially responsible consumer, and suddenly I just wasn't sure what I was buying into when I purchased cut flowers. I thought these issues would be worth exploring, so I traveled to Ecuador with a tape recorder, a camera, and a definite bias. Read › Sustainable Cut Flowers: A Buyer’s Guide

Here are ten easy ways you can conserve water in your garden without harming your plants. Read › Water-Thrifty Gardening

Combining shades and tones of the same color or limiting yourself to using a related group of colors is a fun way to create an exciting yet harmonious garden design. Read › Easy Monochromatic Gardens

Once roaming open fields and forests and controlled by natural predators, deer now must make their home near housing developments, office parks, and shopping malls, and their populations are growing. Little wonder then that they treat our gardens like buffet bars. Thoughtful plant choices, fences, dogs, and repellents help to keep deer at bay. Read › Deer Deterrents That Work