Savvy Gardening

Growing romaine lettuce: A guide from seed to harvest

by Jessica Walliser

While there are many different types of lettuce to grow in the garden or in a patio pot, romaine is among my favorites. Yes, I love a good buttercrunch lettuce, but nothing beats the thick, crisp leaves of a head of romaine. Their texture holds a creamy salad dressing like no other leafy green out there. Have you ever tried to put Caesar dressing on bibb lettuce? The results are limp and soggy. Thankfully, growing romaine lettuce is easy, and I recommend every gardener grow a few heads each season. Continue Reading
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Growing sweet alyssum from seed: Add this bloom-filled annual to raised beds, gardens, and pots

by Tara Nolan

Growing sweet alyssum from seed is a lot cheaper than purchasing flats of seedlings each year—it’s one of those plants where you don’t really buy just one! I love the versatility of this hardy annual—lobularia maritima—a member of the cabbage family that is the perfect filler and spiller for container arrangements. Mature plants produce a profusion of delicate blooms that cascade over the side of a pot. In the garden, it can be planted as a beautiful annual groundcover or edging plant. Sweet alyssum plants grow so densely they help keep the weeds down!

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Fern propagation techniques using spores or mother plants

by Jessica Walliser

With hundreds of species to choose from, ferns make a lovely addition to your plant collection. Whether you’re growing warm-climate ferns indoors as houseplants or cold-hardy perennial ferns in a shady corner of the garden outdoors, ferns have so much to offer. Learning how to propagate ferns from spores or mother plants means you’ll always have plenty to share with friends and family. The following excerpt from The Complete Book of Ferns by Mobee Weinstein explains fern propagation techniques and is used with permission from the book’s publisher, Cool Springs Press/The Quarto Group.

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Armenian cucumber: A productive, heat-tolerant crop for the food garden

by Niki Jabbour

The Armenian cucumber is the one of the most popular vegetables in my garden, but it’s not actually a cucumber. Botanically, it’s a muskmelon and produces vigorous vines that bear long, slender fruits that look and taste like cucumbers; crisp, mildly sweet, and never bitter. Armenian cucumbers are easy to grow, productive, and heat tolerant. Keep reading to learn more about this unique vegetable. Continue Reading
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Natural fertilizer choices for the garden

by Jessica Walliser

Instead of turning to synthetic chemical fertilizers to feed your plants, consider relying on natural fertilizers to nourish both your plants and your soil. Fertilizers based on natural ingredients not only provide mineral nutrition for growing plants, they also feed the soil’s living organisms. These organisms (most of which are microscopic fungi and bacteria) process these natural fertilizers, breaking them down into the nutrients that plants use to grow. In this article, I’ll introduce you to several natural fertilizer options and discuss which ones are good choices for the garden. Continue Reading
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Front yard vegetable garden ideas: Grow a mix of food and flowers

by Tara Nolan

Wish you could grow veggies, but your backyard is in complete shade? Or perhaps it’s taken up by a deck or laid out with a play for kids? Why not plan a front yard vegetable garden? With attitudes changing towards what a front yard should look like, more and more green thumbs are taking advantage of that valuable space and planting food. Oftentimes, the front yard presents the better option for growing fruit, vegetables, and herbs, because it offers perfect growing conditions.

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