Articles Index

Garden Catalogs - Plants and Seeds
Gardening catalogs are a great way to learn about new plants, tools and supplies. Many garden catalogs are so full of information, reading them is like reading a book. Garden catalog shopping isn't quite as much fun as gardening, but it's very close. Here is a list of gardening favorites and what they have to offer the gardener.

Grow Award Winning Plants
Growing new varieties of plants is the best way to learn what grows well for you. Some plant growers organizations give out annual Plant of the Year awards to point gardeners toward excellent choices for their own gardens.

How Much Mulch?
Knowing how much mulch or amendment to purchase for your garden is always a bit of a guess, but you can make it an educated one by using a couple of easy measurements and calculations. Here's how to know how many bags, pounds or cubic yards of mulch will actually give you 3inches of coverage.

Seed & Plant Exchanges
Some people have a wealth of plant seeds left over at the end of the gardening season. Some folks can never find the seeds for the garden plants they want at the beginning of the season. It's a match made in heaven. Whether you have seeds to trade or a seed wish list that's gone unfulfilled, these Seed Exchanges are worth a look.

Amending Your Garden Soil - Making Good Soil out of Bad
[br]Most garden plant problems are caused by poor soil. What is good soil and how do you know what kind of soil is in your garden? Understanding your garden soil means knowing its fertility and texture. Fertility is a combination of essential nutrients and a pH that makes these nutrients available to the plants. Texture refers to the size of the soil particles and their cohesiveness.

USDA Hardiness Zone Maps
The USDA Hardiness Zone Map has been used by gardeners to determine what plants will survive in their garden climate. The latest revisions by the American Horticulture Society, add zones and take into consideration more than just annual low temperatures. Other hardiness measures include: length of cold spells in the winter, airflow patterns, the effect of large bodies of water like oceans and lakes and heat factors and how these things effect garden plants.

Gardening Quick Tips for a Better Garden
Great gardeners seem to know all the little secrets for making plants happy. Luckily, gardeners love to share almost as much as they love to talk about their gardens. Here's a collection of quick gardening tips and ideas to make your garden better. Feel free to share your gardening quick tips too.

Gardening Quotes of the Month
A compilation of words of wisdom as quoted by fellow gardeners.

Glossary of Gardening Terms
Gardening can sometimes sound like a foreign language, with hybrids, drupes and herbaceous plants. This garden glossary is meant to assist you in deciphering gardening terminology.

Gardening Step-by-Step
When it comes to taking care of your lovingly tended garden plants, sometimes words are not enough. Here are a series of gardening step-by-step tutorials to show you how to start seeds, create a new garden, divide, take cuttings...

Gardener's Glossary and Plant Profiles
If anything is essential to a gardener it is understanding something about garden terminology and garden plants. If you can't explain soil pH or root pruning and don't know a petunia from a potato flower, here are the answers.

Gardening Basics
Starting a garden should be a pleasure. But it does help to have a little knowledge of how to go about making a garden. Here's a quic selection of articles to give you confidence in creating your won garden.

When to Start Seeds
Growing plants from seed is an easy, inexpensive way to get more plants. The hard part is often knowing when to start the seeds. Here are a few easy tips to get you on the right track for seed starting.

The Cooperative Extension System
What exactly is a Cooperative Extension office and is there one locally? We’re often told to call our local Extension office with a gardening problem, but what do they do and how to you find them? And how do the Master Gardeners fit in? Find out here.

Palmate and Palmately Lobed Leaves
Leaves that are distinctly lobed, like a maple leaf, are called palmate. Their shape is evocative of an open plm with the fingers outstretched.

10 Fall Garden Tasks for a Better Spring Garden
Taking some extra time in the fall to prepare your garden for winter will make spring garden clean-up a snap. Removing diseased foliage and amending the soil will also make for a better growing garden next season. It’s not too late to pamper your garden with some easy fall garden tasks.