By Anna Osatuke With its funky, translucent seed pods, Lunaria is more reminiscent of something you’d find washed up on the beach, not growing in a garden. Better known to many as Honesty or the Money Plant, the large silver circlets produced by this plant can be found in crafts at arts and crafts fairs, as … More The Money Plant
By Anna Osatuke The sweet gum tree, Liquidambar styracifluica, is a native tree that can be found all around Miami’s campus. Currently in its autumn color, if you cast a glance into the leaves as you pass by, you’ll see leaves of all colors on the same tree. The sweet gum gets its nickname, “Harlequin … More The Sweet Gum: A Harlequin Tree
This fall, if you cast your eye to the country roadside while driving, you may catch glimpses of something periwinkle in the browning grass. You have spotted chicory! With its papery, faded blue flowers that are growing on long green stalks, Chicory was introduced to the States in the 1700’s. Native to the Mediterranean, chicory easily … More Fall Flower: Chicory
Black soap is a newly popular beauty product in America, but in Ghana, it is a household remedy for skin problems. This trendy soap has a bounty of benefits that lead to healthier skin. The lustrous black shade of this soap is due to the addition of potash, a potassium-rich salt, made from ashes, that … More Black Soap
When we have house plants, it is sometimes easy to forget that their maintenance goes beyond a weekly watering. As I consider bringing in my many potted plants from my patio into my house, sheltered away from the chilly nights, there is a lot of end-of-season up keep that needs to be done. This summer … More The Great Move Indoors
Sometimes, pumpkins misbehave. The three pumpkin vines in my garden gave me only one giant gourd this year. (In their defense, I didn’t want pumpkins to begin with—because I use compost, I normally end up with a wider variety of plants in my garden bed than expected.) The pumpkins flowered fruitlessly all through August. By … More Pumpkin Blossoms
With tomatoes, there’s very dramatic difference between homegrown and store-bought. Vegetable warehouses can stock up on green tomatoes because tomatoes can turn red while still hard and filled with starch if they’re exposed to a gaseous plant hormone, and when it comes time to sell them, the warehouses simply turn their tomatoes red. Add to … More Homegrown Tomatoes
When buying organic, some of the first things that come to mind may be organic vegetables, fruits, and bathroom products. While all of these purchases are likely to improve your health, there is one organic purchase all gardeners should do for the good of their local pollinators. Saving insects may sound like a very low … More Save the Bees: Why Buying Pesticide-Free Flower Bulbs is More Important Than You’d Think
Growing herbs is a fun, easy way to get some planting in without a garden patch. Borage, a favorite of bees and butterflies, yields delicately-flavored leaves and flowers, both of which are best eaten fresh. As an annual plant, to keep borage in your garden, just leave a few plants alone so that their seeds … More Borage: A Fluffy, Flowering Herb
Three days after sowing seeds in my garden, the heart-shaped leaves of radish sprouts have appeared above ground. Fast-growing and hard to kill, radishes are a wonderful crop for those who lack patience and time to care for finicky vegetables. Radish seeds can be bought at most stores. Spring radishes, which are much smaller than … More Radishes: The Cutest Crop
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