Those of us who garden are not comfortable using the municipal drinking water supply for watering our plants so using collected rain water makes a lot of sense.

The clay soils in this area get compacted fairly easily as traffic increases across the lawn in the summer. To let the air, water and nutrients reach the roots of our grass; we need to aerate the soil.

The sansevieria, or mother-in-law’s tongue, is a houseplant that does an efficient job of cleaning up the air in our homes. The plant should be repotted about every third year.

If you’re finding holes in the leaves of your eggplant, it could be the work of a flea beetle, a small, black, hard-shelled insect that is more active at night than during the day.

Tomatoes are a very important part of our gardening experience in this area. Whether you use pots or have them in a garden, you'll have to stake them or utilize a cage.

One way is to use slow-release fertilizer, which will give an even amount of nitrogen throughout the growing season, and the other is to use a liquid fertilizer to give it a quick boost.

Meteorologists are forecasting a possible light frost Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. This is about one week later than the average last frost of the season.

If you see black spots on your roses' leaves, be sure to remove them as soon as possible. Once they're gone, spray the plant with a good-quality fungicide to prevent more outbreaks.

Once the blooms have reached their peak and are starting to look a bit faded, we need to get rid of that bloom so new growth can come on and we can continue to have new roses.

Brandywine tomatoes are known for their flavor and dark color. If you want to plant some in your yard, Anne Clapp has soem advice on how to do it.

Butterfly gardens are quite the rage today, but some of those plants you think will attract butterflies actually attract them in their caterpillar stage.

Tomatoes are planted most frequently by home gardeners. If you don’t have a lot of space, you can always grow tomatoes in a container. Find out how.

If you want a bright spot of color near the front door, try a container garden. There are as many types of containers as there are people and ideas.

There are many different types of irises that are blooming this time of year and they are all quite beautiful. Anne Clapp takls about two diistinct varieties.

The use of chemicals for the control of weeds in the lawn is certainly something people are interested in. If you want to use some of these, be sure to read the labels carefully.

It's the time of year most people start planting and tending to their gardens. However, some people are reluctant to plant because of the ongoing drought and water restrictions.

A weed that’s very common this time of year is an annual grass called poannua. It can be controlled easily in the fall with an herbicide. Chickweed and dandelion can also pop up.

This is the time of year when everyone wants to put out a little bit of fertilizer to feed the plants they have out in their yard and get them off to their best showing for the spring.

Keep the avocado seed in a sunny area and make sure there is water at the base of the seed at all times.

This is a great time of the year to find azaleas in bloom at the local garden centers. If you get them from pots, make sure you know the proper way to put them in the ground.

The azalea is a mainstay of the Southern garden. The color is beautiful in the early spring but they have a bad way of overgrowing the area we set aside for them.

The daffodils in our yards have been beautiful. They’ve had a good spot of color in the all of the yellows, whites and oranges. But as the blooms begin to fade, they are not quite as attractive.

It’s easy to transplant and divide daffodils in your yard. Just make sure you have dug a large enough hole and that your bulbs get the amount of phosphorus they need.

Your evergreens might have had a tough time with the lack of rain over the past several months. If that’s the case, you might have to remove them.

The forsythia is beautiful this time of year. It is a large plant and some pruning might be necessary to get it into shape for a smaller garden.

Bouquets of flowers, especially roses, are very popular at Valentine’s. To make your flowers last more than a day, you need to know how to take care of them.