The first time I tried hydroponics, I did everything right except the beginning. I bought the bucket, the air pump, the light, the nutrients — then I dropped soil-grown lettuce seedlings straight into net cups and watched them sulk for three weeks. Half of them rotted at the crown. The other half sat there doing … Read more >>
The first summer I grew a lotus in a half-barrel on my patio, I was convinced I had killed it. The floating leaves yellowed at the edges, the first standing leaf flopped over like wet paper, and nothing bloomed all July. I had done everything the tag said — sun, water, a tuber buried in … Read more >>
The first summer I grew a lotus in a half-barrel on my patio, I woke up one July morning to find three gorgeous, plate-sized leaves scorched black around the edges. I panicked. I had babied that tuber since April, and I was sure I’d killed it. Turns out I hadn’t. Two of those leaves were simply old, … Read more >>
The first year I built a 4×4 raised bed, I planted it like a checkerboard with no plan at all. Broccoli sat next to tomatoes, onions crowded my beans, and by mid-July the whole thing looked like a traffic jam of leaves. Cabbage worms found the brassicas in about a week, and my basil never … Read more >>
Last July I walked out to my back porch in Zone 6 with a cup of coffee and got hit by a smell like a forgotten vase of flower water. It took me a minute to trace it to the two big petunia baskets hanging above the railing. They looked fine from six feet away. Up close, … Read more >>
A few winters back, I knocked over a big Dieffenbachia (‘Camille’, about four feet tall) while dragging a bag of potting soil across my sunroom. Three gorgeous leaves snapped clean off at the base. I couldn’t stand tossing them, so I stuck all three in a jar of water on the kitchen windowsill and told myself I’d … Read more >>
My first hydroponic system was a 5-gallon bucket on a laundry room shelf in February. I filled it with water, dropped in a pepper seedling, and waited. Three months later, I had one sad, hand-pollinated pepper the size of a golf ball. Meanwhile, the lettuce I’d stuck in a leftover jar on the windowsill had … Read more >>
Every June I hang four baskets of calibrachoa and trailing petunias off the front porch rail, and every June, right around the Fourth of July, at least one of them starts going pale. First the inner leaves fade to a soft lime green. Then the lower ones turn straw-yellow and drop onto the porch boards. Meanwhile, the basket hanging … Read more >>
A hanging basket can look fantastic in May, then suddenly turn into a thin, tangled mop by mid-July. I have had this happen on my own back porch, especially with petunias and calibrachoa that started the season full enough to hide the basket rim. When hanging baskets go leggy, they usually stretch toward light, outgrow … Read more >>
A bag of cactus mix looks tempting when you are repotting a houseplant. It feels clean, drains fast, and may be the only unopened soil bag in the garage. I have faced that exact situation while repotting a droopy Dieffenbachia on a bright, covered patio in my Zone 7 backyard. So, can you use cactus … Read more >>
