Home & Garden

The Winter Flower Show: Home for the Holidays will open Nov. 20 at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Pittsburgh’s Oakland section. “There’s no better place to celebrate the holidays than Phipps’ Victorian glasshouse jewel,” said Joe Reed, director of marketing and communications. “This year’s show presents a ‘horticultural home...

Those fall mums look so good at the garden center or grocery store that you splurge on a few big pots for your front porch. But after a couple of weeks, they no longer look so good — the blooms are browning and the unopened buds are drying out. What...

If you want to avoid chemical weedkillers but don’t like the idea of hand hoeing or bouncing along behind a rototiller, you still have options to keep weeds from taking over your garden. MULCH For starters, there’s mulches, which can smother weeds. Pile organic mulches such as leaves, grass clippings,...

Coronavirus quarantine had many people rethinking the interiors of their homes this spring. DIY projects were tackled, and rooms reorganized. Now that summer’s here, why not give the same mini-makeover to backyards and outdoor spaces? You’ll feel less cooped up if you bring some indoor style outside, even if it’s...

Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens will be reopening to the public this weekend. The Oakland landmark opened to members Wednesday, just in time for their summer flower show, “Back in Bloom.” The public will be able to visit starting Saturday. As Phipps put it in a social media post, “A...

The Delmont Public Library’s volunteers the Delmont Diggers were already looking at alternate plans for 2020, since the new library is being built where their butterfly garden once stood. “We’d planned to do container gardens around the library, but when covid-19 happened, we weren’t even able to do that,” said...

Imagine if all the back and front yards — and even patio container plants — across the country were seen as one magnificent patchwork quilt, a “Homegrown National Park.” Home gardeners would join forces to bring back a variety of native plants to protect and nurture struggling birds, bees and...

The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy is seeking volunteers to assist with planting some of its Pittsburgh and Allegheny County community flower gardens. “Healthy people of all ages who want to get outdoors and help beautify local communities can sign up now to volunteer through mid-June,” the Conservancy says. “To prevent the...

Plants from the Derry Area School District greenhouse will be sold to the public weekdays between 8:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. Friday through May 22. As part of covid-19 precautions, a maximum of four adults will be permitted in the greenhouse at a given time and are required to wear...

Greensburg Garden Center is selling a variety of perennials that originally were intended for sale at the annual May Mart, canceled this year due to the covid-19 quarantine. Plants ordered by Friday will be available for pickup from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. May 12 and 13 in the garden at the...

Home gardeners who are looking forward to adding new plants to their flower beds might consider some of the native varieties being offered by the Ligonier Valley Historical Society. The Laughlintown-based society’s native plant sale is being held in partnership with nearby Penguin Court, a preserve of the Brandywine Conservancy....

The annual May Mart Plant Sale, scheduled for May 1-2 at the Greensburg Garden Center, has been canceled, according to organizers. The event is one of the group’s largest fundraisers of the year....

Home gardeners can have their questions answered beginning April 1 via the annual garden hotline sponsored by Penn State Extension Master Gardeners of Westmoreland County. The hotline is a free service offered through the Penn State Extension Office to help Westmoreland County residents with various gardening questions and concerns, including...

Early spring is a great time to start planning your plantings for the coming season. Look over photos of your garden from last year to see where blank spaces occur or where the design of your flower plantings could be elevated. One of the most wonderful opportunities we have to...

“Sustainable” is one of gardening’s trendiest buzzwords, yet it carries a range of definitions. Just what does it mean in practical terms, and how important is it to the average gardener? Very important, according to a recent plant trends study by horticulturalists with the University of Florida Institute of Food...

Question: Like everyone else, I’m stuck at home and itching to do some work in the garden. What can I do this time of year that isn’t jumping the gun? I can’t spread mulch because there’s none available yet and I think the ground is still too wet. Is it...

The garden has always been my safe place. For more than three decades of good times and bad, it’s a space to reflect and gain perspective. Regardless of what happens outside the garden, crocus flowers push through the cool soil as winter fades, followed by daffodils, the harbingers of spring....

If you enjoy eating carrots and growing them in your garden, I encourage you to try your hand at cultivating parsnips, too. They’re one of my family’s favorite root crops. Parsnips (Pastinaca sativa) are in the same plant family as carrots, celery, parsley, and dill (Apiaceae). They are all biennial...

With a theme of “An Orchid Journey,” the Orchid Society of Western Pennsylvania will hold its annual orchid show March 14-15 at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Pittsburgh. “An ‘orchid journey’ is meant to describe the opportunity to experience the unbelievable variety and beauty of orchids firsthand,” says Norma Raiff,...

Question: I’m looking to add some more bee-friendly perennial plants to my flower garden this summer. Can you make some recommendations? It would be a bonus if the deer don’t eat them, but I know that’s a tough request! Answer: Kudos to you for wanting to provide more nectar-foraging plants...

When Rich Gebrosky noticed grafted tomato plants in a seed catalog, it piqued his interest. “But they were so expensive,” he says, “I decided to look into it and see if I could make my own grafted plants.” Grafting tomatoes starts with two sets of plants. There’s the rootstock, which...