Gardening Life

Here is an easy-to-make idea that proves that almost everything looks cuter with chalkboard paint! Learn how to make your own chalkboard herb pots with this tutorial.

Chalkboard paint recipe: Mix well 1 cup of paint + 2 Tbsp unsanded tile grout. Allow painted surface to dry at least 24 hrs.

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A strawberry tower is a great way to grow fresh fruit in a limited space, such as on a deck or patio. Here, Master Gardener Charlene Landreau shows how to build a tower out of cheap (or free!) 5-gallon plastic buckets.

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What is a Three Sisters Garden?

It is an ancient method of gardening using an intercropping system which grows corn, beans, and squash crops simultaneously in the same growing area that is typically a rounded mound of soil, often called a hill.

As the corn grows the beans will begin to climb, you can help them early on by wrapping the bean vines around the corn stalks. The squash will begin to grow it's vines and the large squash leaves will soon cover the growing mound and shade its soil. On occasion help the squash continue to cover the mound by turning the ends of it's vines towards the center of the mound. Water the mound well during weeks where there has been little or no rain.

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No doubt organic gardening provides better opportunities and safe foods compared to the traditional method but each of these has some demerits as well. To put it other way, both gardening technique are good depending on certain factors while they are equally bad to some respects. A brief discussion follows covering the key differences between organic and conventional gardening . . .

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How do you create a frog-friendly garden? Start by installing a pond planted up with marginal, floating and submerged aquatics to attract frogs from all the different frog families. These are the plants that Ernst suggests for your frog garden . . .

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A new begonia has combined the compact growth habit and extraordinary blooming power of wax begonias with the vigor and robust growth of the Dragon Wing begonia.

The growth habit is robust and vigorous. The plants are compact and bushy, like wax begonias, and eventually grow to be about 12 to 16 inches tall and about 10 to 12 inches wide.

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Bees are responsible for pollinating one in three bites of food we eat...and they're in trouble. Since the mid-1990s, they've been dying off in droves around the world. Colonies have been mysteriously collapsing with adult bees disappearing, seemingly abandoning their hives.

Take the pledge to provide a honey bee haven with access to pesticide-free food, shelter and water. It doesn't take much space — a few containers of the right kinds of plants tucked into your garden, on a balcony or front stoop, will get you started.

Read about how to help, here:  http://goo.gl/6SqLT

In what may be the sweetest collaboration for a couple ever, urban knitter Heather Powazek Champ came up with a project that combines her love of knitting with her husband’s love of plants. Heather knits adorable little plant pockets and her husband, Derek Powazek, fills them with soil and live plants. They then distribute them around their homebase of San Francisco in a project they call Plantbombing, which is basically a grown up version of yarn bombing and seed bombing.

Read more here:  http://goo.gl/7rVTP

Spring has sprung - or promises to, anyway. If you're dyeing eggs in celebration, engage nature in the process this year. Natural ingredients like herbs and spices offer an endless variety of hues for dyeing eggs -- from the soft purple shades of hibiscus to the rich gold tones of turmeric. Dyeing with nature takes a bit more patience, and a bit more openness to whatever nature decides to deliver. But that's what makes the activity such creative fun -- and the results so subtly stunning.

There are two easy ways to dye eggs with natural dyestuffs. One is a hot method, which delivers the deepest colors; the other is cold. You might try each, or use them in combination.

Find instructions here:  http://goo.gl/788I5

Work your garden with ease by doing this simple stretches to keep your back, knees and joints flexible and strong.

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Have fun in your garden this year. Grow square watermelons! It’s fun and easy to grow fruits and vegetables in containers.

By growing these cool watermelons you can have the whole family interested and participating in your garden. It offers a great way to get your children interested in helping out in the garden. Square watermelons are very enticing! Plus watermelons are a great source of vitamins and minerals. They also provide powerful antioxidants.

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You divide your laundry up into loads of lights, darks, and gardening before you wash it. Bonus points if the largest pile is gardening.

You have been known to take off your clothes in the laundry room after a day of gardening to avoid tracking mud, leaves, and other garden debris into the rest of the house.

Read more of Carol's "You might bee a gardening geek" here:  http://goo.gl/t5n5Y

The trend, which involves using specially-designed planters that can be hung from walls and trellises, is growing in popularity in city gardens as well as a number of community gardening projects because of its eco-friendly credentials and space-saving techniques.

The rise is being fuelled by the big increase in food bills over the past two years with home-owners cutting costs by planting a range of edible crops, including strawberries, peppers, and other fruits and vegetables.

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Flower bombs are seeds encased in mud, thus the planting process has already taken place. They only need to be placed on the ground and watered.

They are immensely pleasurable to make since it involves playing with mud!

Read the instructions for making your own, here: http://goo.gl/m841E

Scientists are currently examining the form and function of butterfly wings with the use of an electron microscope. Their research is now focused on two specific species of black butterflies, which they chose because they are capable of absorbing a maximum amount of sunlight. In their work, the scientists noted that the wings are composed of what they said are elongated rectangular scales, pieces of which are arranged in an overlapping fashion.

Such scales are also equipped with steep ridges, which scientists said contain small holes on either side that lead to a second coating. As a result of such a unique characteristic, sunlight is directed to the second layer, a feature that helps bolster a butterfly's heat-trapping capabilities.

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While many avid gardeners flock to new trends and innovative hybrids, there is still nothing quite as satisfying as the timeless charm of the good, old-fashioned petunia. Growing petunias is a hobby that continues to be enjoyed by gardeners who appreciate the variety, the colorful, long-lasting display of blooms, the fragrance, and the easy care of these enduring favorites. And while they may be an old-fashioned idea, new varieties of petunias continue to be developed every year, just to keep it interesting.

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In 1975, hundreds of millions of Monarch butterflies were discovered in Mexico's Transvolcanic Mountain Range. Most of them had traveled more than 1000 miles to a secluded patch of forest where the conditions are right to survive the winter, then travel north in the spring to begin a new generation.

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