Add a touch of elegance to your dishes and desserts with edible flowers grown straight from your backyard. Many of these varieties can add a unique taste to your creations. Remember if you aren't sure if a flower is edible, it is always best to consult a plant or medical professional before consuming. A Arugula – (Eruca vesicaria) After plants have...
Growing indoors makes it easy to snip fresh herbs to flavor meals whenever you need them. Fresh herbs invigorate every meal and make everything taste good. Probably the most difficult thing is deciding which herbs to grow, so think about the meals you cook and the herbs you find yourself reaching for time and again. Also...
ASTER - Roses Formula Mix A beautiful mix of small and large double flowers in appleblossom, apricot, rose and white. ALYSSUM - Carpet of Snow Tiny pure white fragrant blossoms on dwarf plants are uniform and compact, spreading rapidly from June to October. This cool weather performer thrives well in drained soils of rock gardens and borders. BEGONIA...
Stokes’ Special Collections are the quick and easy way to build beautiful themed gardens! The Folks at Stokes have put together several themed gardens filled with some of our most popular varieties. We have launched a few vegetable garden favorites brought back by popular demand, a couple which will attract garden friendly pollinators and the remaining collections have been revived...
Successful gardening with children looks…messy. Success is easy to overlook while scrubbing mud-encrusted little hands or sweeping up a trail of dirt down the hallway. But mud and dirt are a part of success, because gardening with kids is about more than plants: It’s an opportunity to eat well, play, teach balance, create, fail and succeed—and hang out together. Eat...
Spring sowing is suitable for annuals (plants which are sown, flower and die in one year) that tolerate light frosts. Buying a packet of seed for a few dollars rather than spending hundreds for plants could certainly be your incentive. Here are some tips on how to start sowing: Have a good idea where you're going to put your plants...
With a bit of patience and planning starting a perennial garden from seed can be extremely rewarding. In just a few years your garden could be the envy of your entire neighborhood as it displays magnificent perennials. Buying a packet of seed for a few dollars rather than spending hundreds for full-grown plants could certainly be your incentive. Here are...
STOP! It’s not too late - you can still plant ahead of Old Man Winter. For all of us northerners with a frost-free date of end of Sept or early Oct, we can still plant some late summer perennial sowings. Not sure when your frost-free date is? It varies every year as we have an early or late winter, but...
With a bit of patience and planning starting a perennial garden from seed can be extremely rewarding. In just a few years your garden could be the envy of your entire neighborhood as it displays magnificent perennials. Buying a packet of seed for a few dollars rather than spending hundreds for full-grown plants could certainly be your incentive. If seeding...
Garden lovers have kept busy this spring with garden design, clean up, soil prep and planting, so with it being summer let us offer some garden maintenance tips to keep your garden under control and looking good through to the fall months. General garden tips: - Different types of weeds germinate in the spring, summer, and fall so the battle...
The ‘raised’ veggie garden is any garden that has been framed – typically with wood – raising the soil line above that of the ground. You can use wood, field stone, bricks, treated 6 x 6 timbers or anything that will hold dirt in to frame and raise a garden. Ideally the framing material will be attractive to look at and will...
Water is a finite resource and should always be used wisely year round. Conservation is one means for consumers to do their part to preserve the resource for following generations. During the summer months one place to start is to substantially reduce water use in the garden. For many of us, conserving water has not been a concern unless there is a...
Fall is a good time to sharpen those old pruners and take a look at what trees and shrubs in your garden would benefit from a cut back. When plants are in their ‘dormant’ or sleeping state for winter you can easily see the shape of the branches and it is a safe time to cut off wood. We like...
Gosh, its fall already – feels like a few weeks ago we were planting the spring garden. Kids are back at school, we feel a coolness in the air, so it must be time to prep the vegetable garden for spring. ~ Start the fall cleanup – pull up all your ‘done’ plants and haul them to the compost pile. ~ Green tomatoes...
'Why' a family should think about canning tomatoes… We still call it canning – even if we mostly use bottles - but late summer and fall is when a lot of canning takes place. A GREAT way to control the quality of food your family eats! If one of your goals is to reduce the amount of processed food you...
Pollinators play a critical role in agriculture and our ecosystems. They transfer pollen between flowers while visiting a plant for food, mates, shelter and nest-building materials, leading to fertilization and successful seed and fruit production for plants. They are responsible for an estimated one out of three bites of food that people eat according to the National Garden Pollinator Network...
Introduction Seeds are easy to start indoors. Many vegetable, herb and flower varieties have unique requirements so the key to success is to do a little research on your seeds before you start. Starting seeds is a very rewarding and economical activity and even trying to germinate some of the more challenging seeds can be done if you read the Stokes...
Written by Karin Vermeer What is Horticultural Therapy? Horticultural therapy is all about using plants to bring about healing or wellness to a person’s life. Whether dealing with the results of growing old, or struggling with a mental disability, or addictions in substance abuse, plants, with the help of a horticultural therapist (HT) can bring about change. All activities...
We all know that it is "officially" spring but in many parts of the country the calendar is teasing us! It may still be cold out and our frost free dates are still many weeks away, but let’s talk about what you can do now in your garden. First the hard stuff “soil prep”. So hard to do and...
Healthy Soil is the key to your success with any garden. Roots are the big secret to gardening. If you are able to grow great roots – the top of the plant will likely be just fine. Take for example – carrots. If you plant carrots in hard, compacted soil you will get teeny tiny twisted little carrot things. The...
How to harden off your seedlings. Your indoor seedlings will suffer a major setback if placed directly into the garden. Scorched plants will turn white or brown. Any that are not directly killed, will definitely suffer and growth will be stunted. Cool nights and high winds can also affect your delicate shoots. A week to ten days before your planting...
Damping-Off Your baby plants come up and all is well. Then the stem gets a pinched appearance right at the soil line, the seedling flops over, and the whole thing soon withers and dies. Damping-off can be a problem for even the most experienced seed starters and is probably the single biggest problem for gardeners who start their seedlings indoors...
If you live in an apartment or it is freezing and bitter outside, you can still garden under lights. The extra light and the growing plants help to take away the winter blues. Even if you don’t have a store-bought stand one can be made with a cast-off fixture, some cedar or treated lumber, screws, nails and cords. The best...
Through school and the media, many children, even pre-schoolers, are already aware of nature and the environment. The garden is an excellent place to reinforce what they have heard and learned, and a great place to encourage their creativity and self-discipline. As a child, how many times did you snap the jaws of a snapdragon or look for funny...
Add a touch of elegance to your dishes and desserts with edible flowers grown straight from your backyard. Many of these varieties can add a unique taste to your creations. Remember if you aren't sure if a flower is edible, it is always best to consult a plant or medical professional before consuming. A Arugula – (Eruca vesicaria) After plants have...
Growing indoors makes it easy to snip fresh herbs to flavor meals whenever you need them. Fresh herbs invigorate every meal and make everything taste good. Probably the most difficult thing is deciding which herbs to grow, so think about the meals you cook and the herbs you find yourself reaching for time and again. Also...
ASTER - Roses Formula Mix A beautiful mix of small and large double flowers in appleblossom, apricot, rose and white. ALYSSUM - Carpet of Snow Tiny pure white fragrant blossoms on dwarf plants are uniform and compact, spreading rapidly from June to October. This cool weather performer thrives well in drained soils of rock gardens and borders. BEGONIA...
Stokes’ Special Collections are the quick and easy way to build beautiful themed gardens! The Folks at Stokes have put together several themed gardens filled with some of our most popular varieties. We have launched a few vegetable garden favorites brought back by popular demand, a couple which will attract garden friendly pollinators and the remaining collections have been revived...
Successful gardening with children looks…messy. Success is easy to overlook while scrubbing mud-encrusted little hands or sweeping up a trail of dirt down the hallway. But mud and dirt are a part of success, because gardening with kids is about more than plants: It’s an opportunity to eat well, play, teach balance, create, fail and succeed—and hang out together. Eat...
Spring sowing is suitable for annuals (plants which are sown, flower and die in one year) that tolerate light frosts. Buying a packet of seed for a few dollars rather than spending hundreds for plants could certainly be your incentive. Here are some tips on how to start sowing: Have a good idea where you're going to put your plants...
With a bit of patience and planning starting a perennial garden from seed can be extremely rewarding. In just a few years your garden could be the envy of your entire neighborhood as it displays magnificent perennials. Buying a packet of seed for a few dollars rather than spending hundreds for full-grown plants could certainly be your incentive. Here are...
STOP! It’s not too late - you can still plant ahead of Old Man Winter. For all of us northerners with a frost-free date of end of Sept or early Oct, we can still plant some late summer perennial sowings. Not sure when your frost-free date is? It varies every year as we have an early or late winter, but...
With a bit of patience and planning starting a perennial garden from seed can be extremely rewarding. In just a few years your garden could be the envy of your entire neighborhood as it displays magnificent perennials. Buying a packet of seed for a few dollars rather than spending hundreds for full-grown plants could certainly be your incentive. If seeding...
Garden lovers have kept busy this spring with garden design, clean up, soil prep and planting, so with it being summer let us offer some garden maintenance tips to keep your garden under control and looking good through to the fall months. General garden tips: - Different types of weeds germinate in the spring, summer, and fall so the battle...
Add a touch of elegance to your dishes and desserts with edible flowers grown straight from your backyard. Many of these varieties can add a unique taste to your creations. Remember if you aren't sure if a flower is edible, it is always best to consult a plant or medical professional before consuming. A Arugula – (Eruca vesicaria) After plants have...
Growing indoors makes it easy to snip fresh herbs to flavor meals whenever you need them. Fresh herbs invigorate every meal and make everything taste good. Probably the most difficult thing is deciding which herbs to grow, so think about the meals you cook and the herbs you find yourself reaching for time and again. Also...
Stokes’ Special Collections are the quick and easy way to build beautiful themed gardens! The Folks at Stokes have put together several themed gardens filled with some of our most popular varieties. We have launched a few vegetable garden favorites brought back by popular demand, a couple which will attract garden friendly pollinators and the remaining collections have been revived...
Spring sowing is suitable for annuals (plants which are sown, flower and die in one year) that tolerate light frosts. Buying a packet of seed for a few dollars rather than spending hundreds for plants could certainly be your incentive. Here are some tips on how to start sowing: Have a good idea where you're going to put your plants...
With a bit of patience and planning starting a perennial garden from seed can be extremely rewarding. In just a few years your garden could be the envy of your entire neighborhood as it displays magnificent perennials. Buying a packet of seed for a few dollars rather than spending hundreds for full-grown plants could certainly be your incentive. Here are...
STOP! It’s not too late - you can still plant ahead of Old Man Winter. For all of us northerners with a frost-free date of end of Sept or early Oct, we can still plant some late summer perennial sowings. Not sure when your frost-free date is? It varies every year as we have an early or late winter, but...
With a bit of patience and planning starting a perennial garden from seed can be extremely rewarding. In just a few years your garden could be the envy of your entire neighborhood as it displays magnificent perennials. Buying a packet of seed for a few dollars rather than spending hundreds for full-grown plants could certainly be your incentive. If seeding...
Garden lovers have kept busy this spring with garden design, clean up, soil prep and planting, so with it being summer let us offer some garden maintenance tips to keep your garden under control and looking good through to the fall months. General garden tips: - Different types of weeds germinate in the spring, summer, and fall so the battle...
The ‘raised’ veggie garden is any garden that has been framed – typically with wood – raising the soil line above that of the ground. You can use wood, field stone, bricks, treated 6 x 6 timbers or anything that will hold dirt in to frame and raise a garden. Ideally the framing material will be attractive to look at and will...
Water is a finite resource and should always be used wisely year round. Conservation is one means for consumers to do their part to preserve the resource for following generations. During the summer months one place to start is to substantially reduce water use in the garden. For many of us, conserving water has not been a concern unless there is a...
Fall is a good time to sharpen those old pruners and take a look at what trees and shrubs in your garden would benefit from a cut back. When plants are in their ‘dormant’ or sleeping state for winter you can easily see the shape of the branches and it is a safe time to cut off wood. We like...
Gosh, its fall already – feels like a few weeks ago we were planting the spring garden. Kids are back at school, we feel a coolness in the air, so it must be time to prep the vegetable garden for spring. ~ Start the fall cleanup – pull up all your ‘done’ plants and haul them to the compost pile. ~ Green tomatoes...
'Why' a family should think about canning tomatoes… We still call it canning – even if we mostly use bottles - but late summer and fall is when a lot of canning takes place. A GREAT way to control the quality of food your family eats! If one of your goals is to reduce the amount of processed food you...
Introduction Seeds are easy to start indoors. Many vegetable, herb and flower varieties have unique requirements so the key to success is to do a little research on your seeds before you start. Starting seeds is a very rewarding and economical activity and even trying to germinate some of the more challenging seeds can be done if you read the Stokes...
We all know that it is "officially" spring but in many parts of the country the calendar is teasing us! It may still be cold out and our frost free dates are still many weeks away, but let’s talk about what you can do now in your garden. First the hard stuff “soil prep”. So hard to do and...
Healthy Soil is the key to your success with any garden. Roots are the big secret to gardening. If you are able to grow great roots – the top of the plant will likely be just fine. Take for example – carrots. If you plant carrots in hard, compacted soil you will get teeny tiny twisted little carrot things. The...
How to harden off your seedlings. Your indoor seedlings will suffer a major setback if placed directly into the garden. Scorched plants will turn white or brown. Any that are not directly killed, will definitely suffer and growth will be stunted. Cool nights and high winds can also affect your delicate shoots. A week to ten days before your planting...
Damping-Off Your baby plants come up and all is well. Then the stem gets a pinched appearance right at the soil line, the seedling flops over, and the whole thing soon withers and dies. Damping-off can be a problem for even the most experienced seed starters and is probably the single biggest problem for gardeners who start their seedlings indoors...
If you live in an apartment or it is freezing and bitter outside, you can still garden under lights. The extra light and the growing plants help to take away the winter blues. Even if you don’t have a store-bought stand one can be made with a cast-off fixture, some cedar or treated lumber, screws, nails and cords. The best...
Through school and the media, many children, even pre-schoolers, are already aware of nature and the environment. The garden is an excellent place to reinforce what they have heard and learned, and a great place to encourage their creativity and self-discipline. As a child, how many times did you snap the jaws of a snapdragon or look for funny...
