Gardening & Habitat
The Gardening category explores practical ways to grow and care for plants in Midwest gardens and backyard spaces. You’ll find tips on planting flowers, growing fruits and vegetables, improving soil, managing garden pests, and supporting pollinators.
This category also includes container gardening ideas, composting guidance, and simple ways to create wildlife-friendly habitat in your yard. Whether you’re planting seasonal blooms, tending a vegetable patch, or maintaining a small patio garden, these posts offer clear, useful advice.
Gardening connects us to the land. With thoughtful planning and care, even small spaces can support healthy plants and local wildlife.
I remember as a little girl my great-grandfather and also my grandmother saving flower seed from the plants they loved to grow.
They looked for characteristics in certain flowers, and then picked out the best plants of the batch to save the seeds from.
Use these tips to use less soil in your planting containers. We all have those x-large outdoor pots that need to be filled with soil for holding beautiful flower arrangements, herbs, and produce. Over the years I have used several items to serve this purpose. Some were excellent choices and some, poor choices.
Dried flower potpourri dates all the way back to the ancient Egyptians who incorporated it as part of their royal rituals. Today, the art of drying florals is making a come back and are included in potpourri, sachets and blended with fragrant and richly scented essential oils.
If you enjoy plants and want to try your hand at growing herbs, try growing these 6 easy to grow varieties.
In order to choose a plant, you need to know what plant in full sun really means. It is fairly simple, let me explain.
When your husband’s work jeans have seen better days – give them a new use for a season. Oh husband I need your jeans for a project.
Garden bicycle with planted baskets on an old bike, Paint a wooden sign and wire it to the frame for visual interest.
Neem oil is fantastic if you purchase the correct kind and use it properly. Most of the time when I hear someone complain that Neem oil didn’t work for them it is because they were misguided. So, here is the low down on Neem Oil For Plants.
Wondering what you can make with all the cabbage that you grew this year? Try this sweet and sour red cabbage recipe.
Strawberry Berry Bliss Topping
I was hoping to find a winning combination to replace my chocolate topping addiction – looking for something I could make from whole ingredients and that would give my sweet tooth a kick but wouldn’t interfere with my waistline goals too much.
If you have a vegetable garden or a flower garden at some point you will see proof of a spittlebug in the garden. Proof you ask? What is that proof?
Did you know that a newspaper barrier prevents weeds in your flower garden? It is true! It helps cut down on weeding
If you are looking for any easy garden flower that will thrive and grow in any condition, and most lighting conditions, the nodding onion flowers might be a plant you wish to look at.
Purchase the largest geraniums that you can find and mix them with trailing ivy and spilling plants to fill an entire wheelbarrow for a grand entrance – it is the go big or go home wheelbarrow planter.
Ants are attracted to sugar and sweetness and since hummingbird feeders are made up of sugar water, they, of course, are going to go straight for the mixture. Here are 6 ways to keep ants out of your hummingbird feeders.
The greatest determining factor for the garden and prepping for a garden placement is the sun. Once you have chosen the ideal location for your garden it is time to start planning. Not sure where the best placement is to read the article choosing a location for the garden to help you decide.
Three different types of plants for a water garden. The three that are most common in ponds and water gardens. Overview of the different groups.
