Grow Slowly. Live Fully.
Practical plant care, garden design, and home ideas for a calmer, greener life.
1 to 2 tablespoonsof neem oil per gallon of warm water Quick answer How do you use neem oil on plants without burning the leaves? Mix 1 to 2 tablespoons of neem oil with 1 teaspoon of mild dish soap per gallon of warm water. Spray the tops and undersides of leaves in the early […]
The best okra companion plants are basil, peppers, beans, marigolds, radishes, and cucumbers. They repel pests, add nutrients, or make good use of the shade okra casts. Skip squash, sweet potatoes, and broccoli near okra, since they compete for nutrients or attract root-damaging nematodes. Okra is easier to grow beside other vegetables than many garden […]
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My first holiday plant was a $3 poinsettia from the grocery checkout. A sweet little purchase. It was dead two weeks later. I’d watered it without checking the soil. Apparently more attention meant more water. It did not. Seven years and more than 70 plants later, I’m pickier about what comes home. A store display […]
Plant Care
six to eight weeksof darkness for winter blooms Quick answer How do you care for a Christmas cactus and get it to bloom for the holidays? Give a Christmas cactus bright, indirect light, fast-draining soil, and water when the top inch or two feels dry. Keep it at 65 to 75°F by day; for winter […]
To water a jade plant, wait until the top 2 inches of soil are completely dry, then soak it until water runs out of the drainage holes and empty the saucer. That usually works out to every 10 to 21 days in spring and summer and every 3 to 6 weeks in fall and winter. […]
de plant leaves turning yellow is most often a sign of overwatering, especially when the leaves feel soft and puffy. A few yellow leaves at the very bottom are normal aging. Other causes include poor drainage, underwatering, low light, nutrient gaps, pests, hard water, and cold drafts. Last November, three bottom leaves on my Portland […]
Coffee grounds are good for succulents only in small amounts. Spent, fully dried grounds add organic matter and a little nitrogen, but they hold moisture and can slow growth when used raw. Compost them first, or mix in no more than 1 part grounds to 10 parts gritty soil at repotting. I killed a perfectly […]
My first aloe came home from a Portland grocery store, the same shelf that started this whole collection seven years ago. I watered it every Sunday because that felt responsible. It was mush by February. Aloe vera is built for dry, rocky ground and long stretches with no water at all. Those thick leaves are […]
That aloe on your windowsill holds two completely different substances inside every leaf. One is the clear, soothing gel you want. The other is aloin, a yellow latex that sits just beneath the green skin. It is a skin irritant and a stimulant laxative. In 2002, the US Food and Drug Administration ruled that aloe […]
Houseplants
When I say “jade plant” to a visitor eyeing my Portland windowsill, they usually think of one thing: the little green succulent your grandma had. The species does most of the heavy lifting for that image, but “jade plant” as a category is a lot bigger than one shape. Jade
In Ghana, this plant is called Tameawu. The name roughly translates to “Hate me, you die.” Few houseplants come with a threat attached. The reputation makes sense once you try to kill one. A leaf torn off and left on a dry shelf will sprout babies along its own edges. No soil, no water, no […]
I killed my first pothos in about three weeks. Not from neglect, from love: I watered it every single day because that felt like the caring thing to do. Root rot doesn’t care how much you love a plant. That pothos was the first of the 70-plus plants now crammed into my Portland apartment, and […]
Mother of Thousands is Kalanchoe daigremontiana, a succulent native to southwest Madagascar. It produces tiny plantlets along the serrated edges of its broad, blue-green leaves. It’s frequently confused with Kalanchoe delagoensis (Mother of Millions), Kalanchoe laetivirens, and the natural hybrid Kalanchoe × houghtonii. I got my first Mother of Thousands plant from a neighbor who […]
Every summer thunderstorm used to leave a brown puddle in the low corner behind my packing shed. Scout, the bigger of my two rescue dogs, treated it like a day spa. I treated it like a problem. One wet July afternoon I followed the water. It poured off the shed roof, picked up whatever was […]
Nobody builds a garden fence for fun. You build one because something has been eating your lettuce, or your dog keeps flattening the tomato bed, or the deer in your neighborhood have decided your yard is their personal salad bar. I’ve designed gardens for over a decade, and the fence question comes up in almost […]
Home Decor
Quick answer What are the main types of Christmas trees, and how do you choose the best one? The main Christmas tree types are firs, pines, spruces, cypresses, and cedars. Choose a fir such as Fraser or noble for strong branches that hold heavy ornaments; pines offer a milder scent, spruces have stiff, sharp needles, […]
You know that feeling when you walk into a room and immediately want to stay a little longer? There’s good light. Something green. Maybe a wood table that feels really nice under your hand. Nothing is shouting for attention, it just feels good. That’s the feeling biophilic design is trying to create. And thankfully, it […]
Dig Deeper
The low corner behind our packing shed used to hold a puddle for two days after every summer thunderstorm. My first fix was a row of lavender, because it looked great in the nursery pots. By August, every one had rotted at the crown. (Scout dug up the last two,
You checked that plant last week, and it looked fine. Great, even. Now the leaves are curling in on themselves, going yellow at the edges, and when you reach out to steady a stem, your fingers come away sticky. Something is clearly wrong with your plant, but you can’t see
Last October I found an old tomato cage in the back corner of my yard, flipped it upside down, threw a white sheet over it, and tied it off at the top to make a little head. That was it. That was the whole project. And I’m not exaggerating when
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