Home Garden Joy

How to ship iris rhizomes (bearded iris) correctly is a simple skill, and one worth learning if you’re interested in pass-along plants. When I was a girl, it was common for neighbors to share plants. Someone would divide their peonies or iris and offer a portion to a neighbor. These “pass-along plants” came with stories,...

The Herbal Academy has just launched a new course called “After the Bite: What You Need to Know About Tick-Borne Diseases.” This course features a natural remedy for tick bites and supportive herbal care after the bite. As someone who was seriously ill ‘after the bite’ – and didn’t even realize a tick had sent...

I’m sharing these June gardening tips for gardening zone 7B. However, you can easily adapt them to your gardening zone. June is one of those months that feels like there’s so much to do in the garden you don’t know where to start. Fortunately, nature gives you extra-long days and plenty of sunshine! Whether you...

Growing ginger is fun. I was surprised to learn that I could grow ginger in Zone 7B, central Virginia. I attended a lecture by Ann Codrington of Nisani Farms several years ago. She discussed growing both ginger and turmeric. Her farm is in Maryland, but I discovered that both plants can be grown in both...

Every summer, without fail, I plant basil at the end of the raised beds. These are the beds filled with Roma tomatoes, the ones we harvest by the bushel to make our salt-free organic tomato sauce. My tomatoes thrive. “Did you know that basil repels aphids?” an organic gardener friend mentioned to me casually one...