Latest Gardening News

Find out where your firewood comes from to prevent the spread of invasive pests

Dec. 24, 2024 10:25 AM EST

Crackling fires have long been a gathering place where idyllic chestnuts are roasted, stories shared and souls warmed, whether around a hearth or at a campsite. Some folks cut their own wood and let it season, but most buy their wood without much thought about where it came from. As...

In Florida, the Miccosukee fight to protect the Everglades in the face of climate change

Dec. 20, 2024 10:01 AM EST

EVERGLADES, Fla. (AP) — As a boy, when the water was low Talbert Cypress from the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida rummaged through the Everglades’ forests, swam in its swampy ponds and fished in its canals. But the vast wetlands near Miami have radically changed since...

New York man finds mastodon jaw while gardening in his backyard

Dec. 18, 2024 15:02 PM EST

SCOTCHTOWN, N.Y. (AP) — Scholars are hailing the discovery of a fossilized mastodon jaw discovered by a man who spotted two giant teeth while gardening at his upstate New York home this year. The mastodon jaw and some other bone fragments were found in late September in a backyard...

A step-by-step guide to renovating a neglected garden

Dec. 17, 2024 09:09 AM EST

Some homeowners gaze out their windows and see lush and beautiful gardens. Others would like to see lush and beautiful gardens but instead are greeted by overgrown, dead or otherwise messy landscapes. Whether you’ve inherited a neglected garden from a previous homeowner or have...

Gardening can be a four-season labor of love. Here's a look at some winter tasks and projects

Dec. 10, 2024 08:38 AM EST

I see you, sitting there by the fire with your cup of hot cocoa (or wine). Don’t get too comfortable. You might think you can rest on your laurels now that there’s a break in the mowing, weeding, sowing and planting action. But fall and winter are the best times to tend to your...

Want more shrubs? How to make new ones with hardwood cuttings

Dec. 03, 2024 09:30 AM EST

Our gardens may be preparing for their winter slumbers, but that doesn’t mean we have to rest: It’s time to make free shrubs! The easiest way to propagate woody plants like dogwood, forsythia, hydrangea, rhododendron and viburnum, among others, is by taking hardwood cuttings in...

Serviceberry is a sadly underused native tree that helps wildlife and is worth planting

Nov. 20, 2024 08:29 AM EST

Winters were brutal throughout most of New England in Colonial America. It snowed a lot, often into spring, and there were no radiators (or antibiotics). Many settlers didn’t survive the season, but because the ground was frozen solid, the colonists couldn’t bury their dead in real time....

There are flowers too? Some plants prized for foliage surprise gardeners with late-season blooms

Nov. 12, 2024 08:19 AM EST

I’ve been taking Miguel, my 12-year-old Havanese, for 3,500-step walks around the neighborhood lately (and telling myself he’s the only one who can’t handle longer strolls). And now that the weather is cooling, I’m noticing that some of the plants we encounter along the way look nothing...

How to help your tropical plants survive the winter blues

Nov. 05, 2024 10:07 AM EST

Dreaming of a beach vacation? My guess is you’re picturing a palm tree. Fantasizing about life on a remote island? You’re probably envisioning a walk among birds of paradise, cannas and bananas. Nothing conjures up the feeling of the tropics like giant, lush-leaved plants, and if you live in...

Mexico City’s floating gardens have fed people for hundreds of years. Now they’re threatened

Nov. 03, 2024 09:38 AM EST

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Cassandra Garduño squinted in the sunlight, her pink boots smudged by dirt as she gazed out over her family's chinampa — one of the islands first built up by the Aztecs with fertile mud from the bottom of a lake that, later drained, would one day become Mexico City. ...