Can’t wait to get out in the garden? You can start sooner and have easily grown produce if you plant cool season vegetables! By Mara Higdon (This article was first published in The Gateway Gardener Jan./Feb. 2011 issue) Can’t wait to get out in the garden? You can start sooner and have easily grown produce if you plant cool season
» Read moreBy Steffie Littlefield Photos courtesy Tammy Palmier, Missouri Botanical Garden (This article was first published in The Gateway Gardener January/February 2011 issue.) Creating a garden or landscape that is more than a park but a place that produces food for your family is not just a trend, it is a style of gardening that has been documented since ancient times.
» Read moreThere are lots of benefits to keeping backyard chickens. Turns out one of them comes from simply watching them. Debi Gibson, director of the Maplewood/Richmond Heights School District’s Seed to Table program and the “mother hen” who cares for a clutch of chickens at the district’s Early Childhood Development Center’s teaching garden, says that’s what the employees of the adjacent
» Read moreOn this February 1st, 2012, it’s a sunny 55 degrees F–the third day in a row of spring-like temps, and it shows in the garden. Here are some things I found in bloom. It’s been a crazy winter! Click on any photo to view and click on the forward or backward arrows to move through the photo gallery. After the
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January and February are top months to purchase blooming orchids of all types. But buyer beware! Don’t be tempted by the “Just add ice” plants found in groceries and mass merchant stores. The ice watering method may reduce the store’s loss but is not best for the plant. Plus, “grab n go” orchids’ sitting around by drafty doorways in winter
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Ferns can be striking specimens in the home and work beautifully when displayed with poinsettias for the Holiday Season. By Ellen Barredo (This article was first published in The Gateway Gardener December 2009 issue) When you first see a fern, it is graceful and delicate experience. The fronds from species to species are unique in size, texture, and color. They
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By Joyce Driemeyer (This article was first published in The Gateway Gardener December 2006 issue) The omnipresent wreath has become a major statement seasonally. It no longer manifests itself just at the holidays, but now trims entries year-round with ornamentation and color appropriate to the season.
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(This article was first published in The Gateway Gardener December 2006 issue) By Steffie Littlefield This holiday season leave the glitz and glimmer to the commercial establishments and refresh your outdoor pots, window boxes and porches with natural fresh cut greens and colorful twigs. Combining beautiful lush evergreen boughs, wreaths and garlands with weatherproof berries, pinecones, charming outdoor ornaments and
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If you take some time to study tulips, you will find there are certain ones that are reliably perennial. By Barbara Perry Lawton Photos Courtesy Brent and Becky’s Bulbs [This article was first published in The Gateway Gardener October 2009 issue] The trouble with tulips is that they often act more like annuals and do not reliably come back every
» Read moreBy Steffie Littlefield [This article was first published in The Gateway Gardener October 2009 issue] Combine spring blooming bulbs with garden perennials for a spectacular start to the gardening season. Think outside the boring line of tulips planted in front of your boxwoods or yews. Make your traditional perennial beds and borders awake next spring with the color of spring
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