Not really gardening but although I am not a gnome fan, I thought some of you might get a kick out of this. A remote outcrop in Scotland is covered with garden gnomes but nobody knows exactly how they got there. The gnomes beam their mischief from the rock of Swallow Craig which sits just off Inchcolm Island in the Firth of Forth. The gnomes first appeared there in 2010, with some people speculating they were left by a local fisherman. But one local legend muses the gnomes escaped... Read more ..read more

Spring flowers are a reminder of new life. For this reason, they also call us back to the resurrection of Christ from the dead and make Easter more joyful. With all the hustle and bustle of spring, it is sometimes easy to forget that we are still in the Easter season. Yet at this time of year there are ever-present reminders of Christ’s resurrection all around us. Trees blossoming, grass growing, and flowers blooming call to mind the new life that is promised to each of us at... Read more ..read more

At the Birmingham Botanical Gardens (BBG), a plant that most people will never see flower has sprouted its azure blooms for the first time in over 10 years. This incredibly rare event has turned the plant, a bromeliad called Puya alpestris into a “sapphire tower.” Native to the Chilean Andes at altitudes above 6,000 feet, P. alpestris is a distant relative of the pineapple. Brought to the Arid Glasshouse at the BBG almost 20 years ago, this is the first time the plant has... Read more ..read more

Beautiful aerial photos captured gardeners perfecting a maze of garden hedges at a Six-Century-old British castle. Pruners were hard at work trimming the box hedging around the medieval maze following wet weather at Bolton Castle, near Leyburn, North Yorkshire. The impressive stone labrynth was commissioned by Sir Richard le Scrope, Lord Chancellor of England to Richard II, and finished in 1399, reportedly at a cost of 18,000 marks. Today it remains in the private ownership of one of Sir... Read more ..read more

The best aroma of spring imo. Several of my bushes are just starting to bloom ..read more

If you like cottage gardens but aren't thrilled with the upkeep, this gardening style may be for you. PHOTO: JACKY PARKER/GETTY IMAGES ‘Chaos gardening’—an uncurated practice of throwing a bunch of seeds down in soil—has gone viral in recent years for its practicality and accessibility. For... Read more ..read more

Have you ever heard of the plant Brassica oleracea? These vegetables — broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kale, kohlrabi, cauliflower — are all varieties grown from the plant Brassica oleracea.(Image credit: stockcreations via Shutterstock) Kale, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collard greens and kohlrabi have unique nutritional values, and we think of them as distinct vegetables. Yet, they all... Read more ..read more

For those who love to garden, and those not quite so green-thumbed, here are some pleasures to be had from getting outside and tending to your garden. With spring in the air, it’s wonderful to sit back and watch our gardens thrive. However, the only setback is that our little green havens can quickly get out of control as everything starts to bloom at the same time. While getting out there and doing some gardening should be a joy, for some people it can feel like a burden, especially if... Read more ..read more

I was shocked to learn that my cousins in a suburban community were fined by their homeowners association (HOA) for having clover in their lawn. Doing a little research I discovered this is not unusual; in fact many HOA’s have rules that forbid a wide array of beneficial species including native grasses and wildflowers. Allow me to be direct: I think the contemporary approach to lawns as instantiated in the dominant practices of our ‘lawncare’ constitutes a crisis. Why? At issue here is... Read more ..read more

I don't have much of a green thumb. I have tried, juniper, maple azalea and a few other things with no success. But I am not giving up ..read more