Dear Neil: While visiting a friend, I was admiring a groundcover bed she has. She called it “purpleheart,” and she said it’s a winter-hardy cousin to wandering Jew. How dependable is it? I’d like to plant some myself. Answer: It’s an amazing plant. Yes, it freezes to the ground for the winter, but it comes … Read more
This spring, yellow spikes of forsythia and the red blossoming flowering quince passed along to me from my mother’s yard are now adding spectacular spots of perennial color in my own yard. And, vicariously, my father’s strawberry field thrives once more in my accidental strawberry patch this year. I never intended to have a strawberry … Read more
Dear Neil: Attached is a photograph of my lawn. I’ve had the same problem with my St. Augustine every year for the past five years. I have applied a fungicide and Canadian peat moss with no apparent effect. I have planted new sod squares only to watch them die within a couple of seasons. My … Read more
A resident in Beijing waters spring onions and lettuce grown on his balcony in April. [Photo/China Daily] In a video posted by an online vegetable seed buyer, a couple and their three children portray vegetables in a skit they perform amid eggplant and tomato plants that they’re cultivating in a mini-farm on their apartment’s balcony. … Read more
Container gardening is an increasingly popular way for home gardeners to grow their favorite vegetables, particularly when gardening space is limited. Containers can be placed on a windowsill, patio, deck or balcony, or in any place where growing conditions are appropriate for producing vegetables. Most vegetables require full sun, although leafy greens can tolerate less … Read more
