By Julie Bawden Davis

Guests often ask me about the colorful insects flying around my houseplants. “Those are ladybugs,” I reply. “My natural pest control solution. Aren’t they cute?”

The beauty of fall leaves runs deep even after they’ve fallen to your lawn. Here are a few tips to use them to enrich your landscape

By Jolia Sidona Allen

Americans have a reputation for being wasteful — even going so far as to waste our own waste. According to the EPA, yard trimmings and food scraps make up 24 percent of U.S. waste, needlessly filling up our landfills when it could be put to good use in a backyard or potted garden.

The thousands of recently planted green and purple shrublike sedum lining the roof of Con Edison’s training center in Long Island City look a bit out of place in the shadow of Manhattan’s skyline. But the tiny absorbent leaves and modest but hardy roots of the sedum — typically found in desert climates — are at the center of a growing effort to reduce greenhouse gases, rainwater runoff and electricity demand in New York.

By Jenny Rough

In recent years, Americans have been concerned about what's in Chinese products, including the food we eat and the toys we buy. In China, a small but growing number of people are worried about the same issues.

By Amelia Glynn

 

CASSANDRA FEELEY prefers organic ingredients, especially for her baby, but she finds it hard to manage on her husband’s salary as an Army sergeant. So this year she did something she has wanted to do for a long time: she planted vegetables in her yard to save money.

It’s easy to spot people uncomfortably hunched over in their gardens. But how easy is it to find a gardener who is kneeling on knee pads pulling weeds, or doing gardening warm-ups in their front yard?

Growing great tomatoes is like having a baby. You either start your own from seed, or adopt little ones through an organization you have seriously investigated.