Basics Archives

Container pollinator garden. In the sunny garden there is an old wooden cart filled with containers of various pollinator-attracting flowering plants such as cosmos, yarrow, phlox, snapdragons and others.

How to Start Your Own Pollinator Garden in Pots or Containers

Awakening bumblebee queens, emerging butterflies, migrating hummingbirds - these are all signs of spring signaling for us to create a potted pollinator garden in hospitality to the locals. Pollinators and beneficial insects enrich biodiversity, manage pests, and keep ornamentals and vegetables healthy and productive. Here, gardening expert Katherine Rowe outlines the essentials to create a buzzing pollinator container garden at any scale.

The sunny garden terrace features a variety of healthy container plants including tomatoes, lettuce, thyme, rosemary, lemongrass, flowering begonias, purple sweet alyssum and more.

Gardening Tips

9 Ways to Grow Healthier Container Plants

Small gardens, porches, and patios are perfect for container gardening! Containers allow for easy transporting, cultivating, and harvesting. Seasoned grower Jerad Bryant shares nine easy ways to encourage healthy and robust growth from your potted plants.

Epipremnum aureum wide green leaves with creamy streaks and slits along the edges

Gardening Inspiration

How to Plant, Grow, and Care For ‘Thai Constellation’ Monstera

'Thai Constellation' is a houseplant lover's dream. Easy to care for and visually stunning, it doesn't get much better. Join houseplant enthusiast Melissa Strauss to talk about caring for your beautiful monstera.

A man and woman plant a young sapling with oval oblong green leaves and an upright stem in loose dark brown soil in a garden as one of the great ways to celebrate Earth Day.

Gardening Inspiration

11 Easy Ways to Celebrate Earth Day in the Garden

For Earth Day this year, let’s celebrate the Earth by nurturing biodiverse ecosystems and nourishing the living things that inhabit our green spaces. Join beekeeper and pollinator enthusiast Melissa Strauss for some ways to make your garden a more inviting place for all its inhabitants!

Hypnum cupressiforme and lichen growing on a damp brown branch under one orange-chested and one grey-feathered animal

Gardening Inspiration

9 Ways to Attract A Higher Diversity of Birds to Your Yard

Songbirds, raptors, and hummingbirds need different resources to survive. By catering to all types of birds, you’ll invite a higher diversity of them to your garden. Use these nine simple techniques from native plant gardener Jerad Bryant to lure birds into your yard.

A Monarch butterfly feeds on the pink blossoms and buds of a swamp milkweed plant, a native pollinator plant of the Southeast, with its vibrant orange wings contrasting against the soft flowers.

Gardening Inspiration

15 Native Plants for Pollinators in Southeast US Gardens

With pollinator populations declining rapidly, it's more important than ever to create habitats where these creatures can thrive and reproduce. Join beekeeper and gardener Melissa Strauss to learn about some excellent plants that can help support pollinators in the Southeast.

Echinacea purpurea with pink petals and a spiky orange center, bee on top.

Gardening Inspiration

15 Native Plants for Pollinators in Northeast US Gardens

A major reason to plant native plants is to support local pollinators! Insects, birds, and mammals rely on plants for nectar, pollen, fruit, and habitat space. The best plants for pollinators are those that are local to your region. Consider one of these 15 native species for northeastern U.S. gardens.

Earth day projects kids. A little girl with light curly hair holds in front of her a young plant seedling with green leaves and a wet root ball.

Gardening Inspiration

11 Simple Garden Projects You Can Do With Kids for Earth Day

Earth Day is a perfect occasion to get kids involved in the garden and teach them about nature and sustainability. Mom of three and gardener Melissa Strauss shares some simple ways to celebrate Earth Day with your family in your own backyard.

Attracting bumblebees to the garden, a bumblebee gathers nectar from the vibrant purple, spiky blossoms of the Milk thistle.

Gardening Tips

7 Ways to Attract More Bumblebees to Your Garden

Bumblebees are beginning to join the ranks of other threatened species, and they need our help! Join beekeeper and pollinator enthusiast Melissa Strauss for some tips on keeping the bumbles safe and welcome in your garden.

Lactuca sativa with large green romaine and butterhead heads in a mulched raised wooden bed

Gardening Inspiration

How to Grow More Food in Less Space: Intensive Planting Tips

Do you love growing your food but lack space for a garden? With a few tricks, you can grow plenty of food wherever you live. In this article, horticulture expert Matt Dursum shows you intensive planting tips to grow more food with minimal space.

Anaphalis margaritacea with fuzzy white flower heads and a butterfly perched on clustered blooms.

Gardening Inspiration

19 Native Plants for Pollinators in Southwest Gardens

With pollinator populations in decline, gardens that help sustain them are more important than ever. If you're a gardener in the Southwest looking for native plants to add to your space, here are some great recommendations from beekeeper and gardener Melissa Strauss.

A female gardener in green gloves trims the branches of a hydrangea plant with green pruning shears in a spring April garden.

Gardening Tips

15 Plants You Should Prune in April: Tips for Your Zone

April is prime time for pruning! Which plants to cut depends on your growing zone and how warm the climate is. Some are early emergers, while others break buds in late spring. Native plant gardener Jerad Bryant shares 15 best plants to tackle this month.

Basics

Learn to grow.