Orange and black monarch butterfly on a flower

Going Green with Native Plants

These days, many of us have chosen to live a more mindful life. We try to use less plastic when possible, buy things made with renewable materials, and choose locally grown food. We might even start a veggie garden (yay!). A garden with edibles is a must, but we also want our yards to look great with ornamentals. We can live a “greener” life and have a beautiful landscape by bringing native plants into the garden....

Learning botanical names from an herbal book

Herbs and the Importance of Knowing Botanical Names

Spring is right around the corner and you’ve been planning your new herb garden. You know where it will be and you’ve got it all laid out in your Planter app. You decide to check out your local garden center for some more inspiration. You see a beautiful witch hazel named ‘Jelena’ that would look good in your garden. Then you see another one named ‘Rubra’. ‘Jelena’ is labeled as Hamamelis x intermedia and ‘Rubra’ is labeled Hamamelis japonica....

Feverfew and calendula in bloom

Why Should I Grow Herbs in My Garden?

Have you ever wanted to know more about herbs but weren’t sure where to start? Maybe you’re thinking you have to be enrolled at a school of wizardry to learn. Or maybe you have to be a medieval monk to have an apothecary garden. Not at all! The interest in herbalism is growing quickly. Many countries around the world use plants as a form of complementary medicine. There’s no better time than now to start your herbal garden....

Plan Your Tea Garden

So begins our series of various garden plans to inspire you! Today, we’re focusing on an assortment plants that we can use for tea. Whether it’s the fruit, leaves, root, flower, or even the seeds themselves, there’s incredible range in the kind of plants that can be used for a wonderful cup of tea! We’ll be focusing on some of the more common plants in this Growing Guide. Harvesting Some plants may taste better dried or fresh, so experiment!...

Bee with pollen on an echinacea flower

Attracting Pollinators to the Garden

Many types of plants depend on pollinators such as bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds to pollinate their flowers so they can produce fruit and seeds. To get the best harvests possible, there are steps we can take as gardeners to encourage more pollinators to visit our garden. Why are pollinators important in the garden? To understand why pollinators are important in the garden, we first need to understand which plants rely on them....