Michigan Gardener - Your guide Great Lakes gardening: Garden Event Calendar / Expert Advice / Plant Profiles / Tree Care

PLEASE NOTE: In the autumn of 1995, we hatched the idea for a free, local gardening publication. The following spring, we published the first issue of Michigan Gardener magazine. Advertisers, readers, and distribution sites embraced our vision. Thus began an exciting journey of helping our local gardening community grow and prosper.
After 27 years, nearly 200 issues published, and millions of copies printed, we have decided it is time to end the publication of our Print Magazine and E-Newsletter.

We will continue to update our Website with articles and enter current gardening events in our website Event Calendar. All the best wishes for 2024 and beyond.

How to choose plants that promote pollinators in the garden

February 13, 2016 • Leave a Comment

MSU Extension:

Pollinators are looking for nectar and pollen when foraging in your garden. This is their food, the carbohydrates and protein they need to thrive and produce offspring. Native bees will widely feed on many different types of flowering plants in your landscape and garden.

Think about “serving” up a menu of blooms in early spring through fall. Choose a wide range of flowering plants including annuals, herbaceous perennials and native plants, bulbs, trees and shrubs that are known to support pollinator health. Early blooming plants such as spring bulbs or Pachysandra, or very late bloomers such as Sedum or Anemone are often the most needed food sources for pollinators since there are fewer floral resources available during those times.

Read the rest of the article…

Meet the farmers producing near-perfect vegetables for the most demanding chefs

January 27, 2016 • Leave a Comment

The farmers at The Chef’s Garden in Ohio are producing vegetables that not only look perfect but have taste to match. Photo: Michelle Demuth-Bibb/Chef's Garden — The farmers at The Chef’s Garden in Ohio are producing vegetables that not only look perfect but have taste to match. Photo: Michelle Demuth-Bibb/Chef’s Garden

NPR:

There’s a small corner of the restaurant world where food is art and the plate is just as exquisite as the mouthful. In this world, chefs are constantly looking for new creative materials for the next stunning presentation. The tiny community of farmers who grow vegetables for the elite chefs prize creativity, too, not just in what they grow but in how they grow it. They’re seeking perfection, in vegetable form and flavor, like this tiny cucumber that looks like a watermelon — called a cucamelon. The Chef’s Garden is a specialty vegetable farm in Huron, Ohio, about an hour west of Cleveland. It’s a family farm, where three generations of the Jones family work side by side with about 175 employees. It’s a place where vegetables are scrupulously selected and then painstakingly coaxed from the ground.

Read or listen to the full story and view photos here…

Learn how to rebloom your holiday poinsettia

January 15, 2016 • Leave a Comment

MSU Extension:

Your poinsettia should be moved outdoors during summer, so it is important to keep it in good condition now. Often, blooms will last for months after January. The first important part is to remove the colored foil covering the outside of the pot. It traps water if it has no holes and plants can be marinating in several inches of water, rotting the roots. Poinsettias need to be close to a west or south window and receive some sun during the day. Michigan State University Extension suggests watering it when the top inch of soil is dry.

Read the full article…

Digital Editions