Gardening Show and Tell

1. How I Made My Garden Less Work

New gardens don't always turn out as planned. Some gardens are non-stop maintenance because they become overgrown and some gardens are poorly planned to begin with. And sometimes we just don't want to spend as much time as we used to, working in our gardens.

If this has happened to you, how did you rework your garden so that it was less labor intensive and lower maintenance, without giving up gardening completely?

2. Essential Gardening Tools

In gardening, as in most things, the right tool can make the job easier and get it done better. Your choice of garden tools will depend on what type of gardening you are doing, but all of us have a couple of tools we reach for time and again. Some gardeners can do wonders with a flat edge spade, whereas I’m hopeless with anything that doesn’t come to a point. Some of us favor multi-function tools and some clever gardeners have created their own ideal weeder, seeder or whatnot. Every new gardener is faced with the choice of what tools to begin with. Let’s help them out. What are the tools you could not garden without?

3. Favorite Gardening Catalogs

What gardener hasn't waited in anticipation for the flood of gardening catalogs to arrive in the mail? We may place our orders by computer, but the pleasure of leafing through a luscious catalog of seeds, tools or ornaments is almost as good as getting your hands dirty. Half of gardening is imagining what you're going to grow.

Share your favorite catalogs with us. Which catalog do you order from every year? Which always has something unusual? Which catalog sets you dreaming?

4. Plant Pairings

Pairing plants is the essence of great garden design. When something works, it's worth repeating. Share a plant combination that caught your eye and tell us how to recreate it.

5. Public Gardens Worth a Look

Who doesn't love to tour gardens? Public gardens live to delight us with sensational plants, stunning combinations and afternoons wandering about in their splendor. Tell us about a public garden you visited and loved. Feel free to share a photo or two, to capture our interest further.

6. Why I Garden

Was it your grandmother's flower garden? The craving for a fresh picked tomato? A new house that needed landscaping? Can you even remember not gardening? Think back and share your memories and your path to becoming a gardener.

7. Gardening Tips

Submit a gardening tip to share with other readers. Short-cuts, pest control, improvised tools... What clever ideas have you come up with in your garden?

8. Frugal Gardening

A garden with a sense of age always has more charm than a garden that looks just planted. Using recycled objects in the garden is a great way to add instant age and appeal. It's also a great way to save money and resources. Let us in on how you recycle objects in your garden. Share Your Tips

9. Homemade Garden Remedies

We all want to garden safely, but no one wants to tolerate insects and diseases. Surely gardeners had effective pesticides before there were chemicals. Do you have a homemade garden remedy that's worked for you? Share it here.

10. What I Wish I'd Never Planted

Gardeners are very generous passing along plants to novice gardeners. When we first start gardening, every plant is a treasure and the fast growing plants are a way to get your garden going faster. A few years down the line, you wonder what you were thinking. Instead of passing along a plant, pass along your wisdom and tell us what plant or plants you wish you had never planted in your garden.