Purple is a powerful color, and purple perennial flowers are a wonderful way to introduce more of this color to the garden. While I don’t know much about using purple for interior design, art, or fashion, I do know how to use it in a garden. The power and bravado of purple in the landscape is undeniable, especially when it comes to perennials. Today, I’d like to share 24 of my favorite purple perennial flowers. Whether their shade of purple is dark and regal or light and luscious, these beauties add depth, richness, and a pop of color to your garden.
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Growing parsnips: A seed to harvest guide
Growing parsnips in a home garden takes some planning, but the reward is nutritious root vegetables ready for harvest when the rest of the garden is slowing down in the fall and winter or before it has gotten started again in the spring. In fact, after parsnips greens are kissed with a frost or two in the fall the roots are even tastier. If you’re not able to harvest them right away, these hardy root vegetables can overwinter in the garden. Parsnips (Pastinaca sativa) are a bit more finicky to grow than other vegetables in the carrot family, but they’re absolutely worth planting in a home garden. This article will give you the details you need to create the perfect conditions for growing parsnips as well as a caution about parsnip-plant lookalikes.
How to grow kale: Tips for planting, preventing pests, and harvesting
Kale is one of my favorite vegetables to grow. These versatile greens can be steamed or stir fried, chopped into soups, or baked into chips. And the young leaves are delicious in salads. It’s a perfect double-duty plant, because it adds interesting foliage in various shades of green to a garden or an ornamental container, with the added bonus of being able to harvest some of the leaves. Plus it’s super-healthy. Kale is a good source of fiber and high in vitamin C. Learning how to grow kale is pretty easy. Unfortunately its nemesis, the cabbage worm, can crush—or rather eat—all your kale-growing dreams very quickly. Here are some tips on raising healthy kale plants.
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Growing thyme from seed: Tips for direct sowing and starting seeds indoors
Although growing thyme from seed isn’t difficult, it requires patience, since this versatile, fragrant herb takes a while to germinate and grow. However, with the right know-how, you can start your own thyme seedlings and subsequently grow them into mature plants. Plus, seed is much less expensive than established bedding plants, so you stand to save a lot of money by starting thyme seeds yourself. This article is going to cover starting seeds indoors and direct-sowing seeds once the soil warms up in spring.
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The best soil for a raised garden bed
One of the major benefits of gardening in a raised bed is you get to control the soil that goes into it. This is especially advantageous for gardeners with a property that has hard-packed or clay soil, issues with tree roots, or concerns about pollutants. It also comes in handy if you want to place your raised bed on a patio or driveway. Since good soil is the foundation of a healthy garden, you want to make sure you’re setting your vegetables up for success. So, what is the best soil for a raised garden bed? In this article, I’m going to share some advice on figuring out how much soil you need, what to purchase, amending a soil delivery, and more.
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The best types of lettuce to grow in gardens and containers
Flip through any seed catalog and you’ll quickly discover that there are many types of lettuce to grow. Certain lettuces, like loose-leaf and oakleaf, are best enjoyed as baby greens while others, like iceberg and butterhead, are grown for their mature heads. Texture can also vary and some lettuces, like butterhead varieties, have tender, buttery leaves and others, like romaine, have crisp leaves for a satisfying crunch. In this article I’ll share the different types of lettuces and offer advice to help you choose the best ones to grow in your garden.
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