Home & Garden

I have tended my Iowa garden for nearly 40 years now, but it was a persistent problem with my backyard lawn that made me break down and finally do what all the garden experts recommend as a first step when creating a garden in the first place -- testing the soil.

Planting native plants rebuilds natural habitat, supports wildlife

Many of our favorite annuals are prolific reseeders that scatter their seeds and return year after year.

Stake and support plants using things from your yard to do it for little or no cost.

Marion couple Lucas Howes and Lexi Thumann have completed a 6,000 square foot renovation, turning what was a crumbling 1866 structure into a place where tenants can have their own slice of a restored mansion.

Native plants are valued by gardeners because native wildlife have relied on those plants for centuries. But which plants are the most beneficial for butterflies, bees and other insects, and how can you tell if a plant is truly native?

Nursery beds allow you to coddle plants that might otherwise get lost in an established flower bed or border.

If you are seduced by its charms and don’t control it, it will take over whole portions of flower beds and lawns, choking out the flowers, vegetables, or grass you are trying to grow.