I live in the Desert S.W. Over the 12 yrs. of crazy gardening, I went through an obsessive phase and ended up an organic gardener with a Cert. Wildlife Habitat. It just means I provide water, shelter, nesting and plantings that support the many needs from the tiny insects to whatever else travels here. My flowers are more prolific than those I see around the community, so inviting them in was a blessing. Of coarse that includes the flowering of all herbs and veggies. I found when I really…

 Hollyhocks can be stunning vertical additions to any landscape, so many colors, and so many flowers on one plant. I can't do hollyhocks here, so I sub Prairie Mallow. Very similar without the rust. Any plant of any kind in my garden that gets diseased, pest infested or struggles is culled. With the 100's of 1000's of choices of flowers, shrubs, bulbs and trees, well, the list is endless. No gardener could ever hope to know much less grow all of the plants of all kinds, even that grow…

There are books galore on composting, and there are online sources that are good to use. One thing I've never seen is that when you start breaking down small twigs and branches for your compost bin, you might get tired of cutting them up w/pruners if you don't own a grinder, like me. So you might start breaking them up with your hands. NEVER break anything with your thumbs toward the twig or whatever, always break across a…

I have been learning, as we do as gardeners daily, about how many kinds of bees there are. I have a lot in my yard, I am happy to say. I have an organic, Wildlife Habitat, flowers, herbs, trees, shrubs, vegetables, lots and lots of herbaceous plantings. I planted every one myself, every bulb, corm tuber, seedling, sowd seed thousands of times, just sowd some Mustard Green seeds in my veg bed where I had cut the last of the greens, have to cover it with that plastic with the square holes ( I…