A tiered garden can produce more vegetables in a given area than a raised bed. The vertical beams of the plants reduces opponent of their roots and allows smaller plants to rise above the shade of bigger ones. If it’s implanted in three gardens a year — spring, summer and fall — a tiny tiered …

Although you probably think of these as nuts, almonds are actually a type of stone fruit. They climb in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 5 through 8, however, need specific environmental conditions to fruit successfully. These trees are susceptible to spring frost, need wet soils, and blossom just in cold, rainy weather. California …

Producing the largest fruit about the longest vines, the watermelon (Citrullus vulgaris) also has the longest history of any of the melons. And most dieters concur; it is the sweetest of the bunch. The first recorded evidence of a watermelon crop occurred over 5,000 years ago in Egypt. Depicted at hieroglyphics, watermelons were put at …

Compact, evergreen shrubs that perfume the atmosphere for weeks in late spring or winter with their white or pink blossoms, dwarf Indian hawthorns (Raphiolepsis spp.) Stand just 2 to 4 feet high and wide. Their dense, shiny green foliage often deepens to red or purple in winter. The tidy, salt-tolerant shrubs thrive in sunlight to …

When pond water stagnates because of stratification, a sulfur odor results as gas from microbes in the base of the pond flows to the atmosphere. Stratification occurs when no motion is in the water. The top of the river receives oxygen in the water surface, however, the pond’s bottom layers become depleted of oxygen since …

If you generally purchase tomato plants and raise them, then you know that the choices are limited to the choice the garden store carries. Growing tomatoes from seed opens your lawn up to an overwhelming range of tomatoes in dozens of colours, flavors and sizes. Growing tomatoes from seed takes more work than growing pre-established …

Crabapples, members of this Rosacae plant family, are low-maintenance, versatile trees which add color to the landscape for the majority of the year — providing masses of flowers in spring, vibrant apples in summer, and a dramatic show of color in autumn. Fall foliage may be yellow, yellow, red, maroon, purple, orange or bronze, depending …

Even though they bring tears into your eyes, it’s difficult to imagine not having onions in the kitchen. These cool-season vegetables can be grown reliably in virtually any climate. As they develop, the plants generate a tuft of leaves above ground for a bulb develops underground. A bulbless onion can nevertheless be harvested because of …

Large cactuses and succulents create a bold statement in the garden. All these drought-tolerant plants may take the heat and thrive in dry-soil conditions where many other plants die. A succulent is any plant that has a fleshy stem, leaf or root capable of storing water during long, dry periods. Cactus (Cactaceae) is a part …

Sedums, numerous species, hybrids and cultivars within the genus Sedum, are commonly called stonecrop. They’re drought-tolerant perennials prized across U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 3 through 10, although specific cultivars generally have smaller growing ranges. Bigger varieties of this plant, also called showy sedums, grow in clumps, producing flowers attractive to bees, butterflies …