Fresh-cut flowers are the ultimate in home decor, don't you think? They brighten up any room with color, aroma and interest. Anyone with a bit of space can grow a cutting garden. You don't need a huge plot of land, any dedicated space will do. Even large pots on your porch or balcony will work. 

I have 4 large raised beds in my garden and one of these beds is reserved for flowers that I cut. One my favorite passtimes this time of year is dreaming about and planning for that bed. Gardening brings me great joy and a sense of pride. I enjoy planning, planting, caring for the bed during the growing season and then of course, the harvest!

Fresh-cut flowers make me happy and when I've grown them myself, it doubles the happiness. And I can't tell you how...

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Potting soil is different than soil-less potting mix, which is used to germinate seeds. Several years ago, I started blending my own potting soil, and you can, too.

The best homemade potting soil mix has three basic ingredients:
1) a growing medium
2) something to help retain moisture and nutrients
3) something to promote drainage

Homemade potting soil is great to have on hand, it allows you to quickly pot up new plants for indoors or outdoors. There are many recipes for making homemade potting soil, but if you're looking to mimic pre-packaged potting soil, you'll need:

• A growing medium, such as garden soil from a home and garden center, which has been pre-sterilized to remove...

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Microgreens are flavorful and nutrient packed tiny young edible greens from a vegetable, herb, or plant. The plant is harvested by cutting it at soil level when there is only a single shoot with 2 tiny leaves. Their flavor is amazing, I love them in salads. My favorite microgreens are sunflower, arugula, and radish.

I recently tried my hand at growing sunflower microgreens in a Southern exposure window in my house and am thrilled to report it was easy and within one week, I was harvesting.

You're going to need a warm, humid enviroment to get your seeds to germinate and something as simple as a bowl covered with saran-type wrap will work, but I purchased a set up at my local Gardening Center to make a tiny table top greenhouse becasue I will use this again and again to start...

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Starting seeds indoors lets me get my hands in the dirt much earlier than if I wait to plant outdoors here in Wisconsin. I plan my garden in January and by March I've got my beds laid out on paper and my seeds purchased. Starting seeds indoors isn't  difficult, but it does require some planning. In a nutshell, you need the same things indoors as you need outdoors: light, seeds, soil, water, food.

I buy seeds for veggies and greens that are not available at my local nursery, are heirloom veggies, and are plants that I replant and harvest May - October.

Start your seeds in a sunny window that gets at least 8 hours of sun per day. I have  two large southern exposure windows where I start my seeds. Plant seeds in a flat shallow container with holes in...

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Almost everyone (except me) likes the summer heat and many, many people go sun bathing for the entire day in places where the sun is blazing hot. Getting a sun tan is a favorite with people living in areas like the Midwest were it is cold much of the year. But even if you really like getting sun tanned, you should not forget the importance of using a sunscreen. Today’s sun is much harsher than it was a couple of decades back and no matter how good the sun’s heat feels, it is very important to wear sunscreen to prevent not only skin cancer but also to prevent premature aging of the skin.

The sun emits Infrared and Ultraviolet radiations and those rays can cause a great deal of damage to the skin ranging from minor skin hyperpigmentation, to cancer. A sun tan may be fashionably attractive, but it can cause...

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Some of my fondest childhood memories center around helping to plant, tend, harvest and preserve the enormous gardens that my parents and both sets of my grandparents maintained. Many of the soaps that I come up with are born of memories of those garden scents that I am trying to recreate. Fresh. Floral. Green. Herbal. Earthy. Woodsy.

Gardening comes natural to me; I don't recall a year of my adult life when I have not had a garden. There were years when a garden meant I only had patio tomatoes and herbs on my apartment balcony, or I had a very small (and forbidden) pickle patch butted up against the golf course I once lived on, but I have never not had a garden.

I don't keep a garden because I am "orgainc" or becasue I will only eat organic. If that...

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If you love garlic and have never eaten garlic scapes, run to your nearest farmers market and buy up all you can get your hands on, because you are in for a treat. Garlic scapes are only available for a very short time in late spring/early summer. I buy them when they're in season and I I freeze them. I also make pesto with them (recipe to follow)

Garlic scapes are the "flower stalks" of hardneck garlic plants, although they do not produce flowers. These stalks start to appear a month or so after the first leaves. They are usually cut off of the plant, since leaving them on diverts the plants strength away from forming a plump bulb. If left on, they eventually form small bulbils that can be planted to grow more garlic, but it takes 2–3 years for them...

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