Gardening Sweet Spots – The Emerald Necklace Garden Club

Your family and friends — especially those who garden or enjoy watching birds — will appreciate gifts from your garden that you can make yourself. Read on for some suggestions from our gardening blogger, Donna Hessel. ...

We can’t ignore it any longer. It’s Fall! Time to put the garden to bed for the winter and do some spring prep in those last few temperate days of an Indian Summer. Here are a few tips to help you get the job done. ...

If you have a room or basement with a window that gets bright, indirect light with relatively cool temperatures (60-70 degrees is ideal), you can take cuttings from plants you’ve grown in containers or in your garden to root over winter. There are many plants that provide options for cuttings. Geraniums and coleus are two that are often recommended. Gryphon begonia and Wandering Jew root reliably. Taking cuttings is easy. Read on. ...

You’ve probably grown a variety of herbs in containers or in your garden this summer and clipped them as needed for recipes. Now is the time to harvest your herbs and preserve them so you can have “fresh” herbs through the winter months, too. Read about methods of preserving herbs and some tips that will facilitate the process in this month’s Gardening Sweet Spots blog. ...

Why can't a rose just be a rose? Wouldn’t it be easier to just call a petunia a petunia or a purple salvia a purple salvia? Why add all those unpronounceable Latin appendages to every plant? There’s a good reason why, and a fairly simple way to decipher those complicated add-ons. Read on... ...

It happens every once in a while to everyone — a frustrating day at work or a day at home when nothing goes right. What to do? What to do? Head out to your garden for some restorative “garden therapy!” Kneel down in a shady spot next to your garden and grab a handful of soil, squeeze and crumble. Mmmm. Feels good, releases tension and helps aerate the soil. But that's just the beginning. Garden blogger Donna Hessel has much more to share about the healing powers of your garden retreat. ...

Fireflies or lightning bugs? Whatever you call them, they create magic in the summer night's sky. Blogger Donna Hessel tells us more about the different species that light up our nights in Northeast Ohio. Along the way, you'll learn how fireflies are great for your garden, too! ...

It never occurred to me to deliberately grow or search out flowers specifically to use in a recipe. But that’s exactly what is trending! So here’s a brief guide to some flowers that are edible and how to use them; and a few caveats to keep in mind before you make a selection. ...