Gardening for You: Self-harvesting sunflower seeds

Gardening for You: Self-harvesting sunflower seeds

Harvesting your own sunflower seeds is a rewarding end-of-summer activity. Sunflowers are annuals, completing their life cycle in one season. Annuals have four main developmental phases from seed to seed: vegetative, reproductive, ripening, and senescence. A large, fully expanded sunflower head with showy, bright-yellow, ray petals is in the full reproductive stage. Seed will be…

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Celosia for flaming-hot fall color

Celosia for flaming-hot fall color

Even though August temperatures are still well into the 100s, we have the promise of autumn just around the corner. And with autumn days is a much-anticipated relief from summer heat with refreshing, cooler days. Gardeners can once again plan for color in the ornamental garden. Feathery plumes of ‘Flamma Orange’ Celosia make it a…

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‘It mimics nature’s randomness’ – this simple gardening trick is how landscape designers make a backyard look more put together

‘It mimics nature’s randomness’ – this simple gardening trick is how landscape designers make a backyard look more put together

If your foray into the world of gardening is still relatively new ground, you might be wondering why those flowers you diligently planted in spring just aren’t the dimensional display you hoped they would be. Maybe the flowerbed you worked tirelessly to plant is lacking that certain je ne sais quoi, or perhaps the potted…

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