Our South Park Learning Garden won second place in a statewide search for excellence among PA's Master Gardener Demonstration Gardens.
October is National Estate Planning Awareness Month.
Lichens are not plants; they are a symbiotic combination of multiple species.
Snake plants are perfect beginner house plants.
Understanding a weed's life cycle—its growth and reproduction pattern—is the first step in controlling your weeds. Horticulturists have three weed life-cycle classifications: annual, biennial, and perennial.
As a culture, we give thanks this month and gather to share a traditional holiday meal, often centered around turkey, a bird domesticated by Native Americans. What other foods did the Indigenous Peoples of North America find to forage, eat, cultivate and domesticate? How did Indigenous Peoples survive and prosper?
Have you ever encountered a toad in your garden? No, not a loathsome, contemptible person, but a small bumpy-skinned creature who hops around devouring garden pests. Toads make wonderful garden partners by eating lots of grubs, slugs, snails and also many insects.
Perennial flowering vines add height and diversity to the garden. They are valuable for adding vertical interest to the garden, whether draping a trellis, growing within a tuteur or planted at the base of a shrub, gracefully winding along the branches.
The combination of late spring rains, warming temperatures, and increasing daylight awakens your lawn, flowers and shrubs. These conditions also nudge warm-weather weeds into making their initial seasonal appearance.
If a competition exists for the perfect perennial, bluestar (Amsonia species) gets my vote. The North America natives and their cultivars check just about every box on a gardener’s wish list.
Your vegetable garden may be planted for the summer, but for an extended harvest of different crops, try succession planting. Smart gardeners enjoy spring greens, followed by warm-season plants like tomatoes and peppers, then segue into planning for a long fall harvest.
Whether you've admired a grove of American beeches (Fagus grandiflora) in our hardwood forests, or planted a showy cultivar of European beech (Fagus sylvatica) such as 'Tricolor,' be on the lookout for the presence of beech leaf disease (BLD). The disease is also a problem for Asian beech species.
People have been saving seeds since the Stone Age. No mail-order seed companies. No racks of seeds at the local grocery store or garden center. Saving seeds was a matter of survival. Today, gardeners still collect seeds. It's a great way to save money, to propagate heirloom varieties, and to increase the spread of native wildflowers in our gardens.
Stumped by a problem in your garden? Call the Penn State Master Gardeners of Allegheny County's Garden Hotline for solutions. The Garden Hotline is staffed by Master Gardener volunteers who can offer knowledgeable advice on garden-related issues. They can provide tips on growing vegetables, fruits, ornamentals, and turfgrass. Whether you're struggling with plant ID, need advice on pruning, or resolving insect and disease issues, the hotline can give you science-backed recommendations.
In years past, fall cleanup for home gardeners meant scouring flower beds, vegetable patches, and lawns of every fallen leaf, leaving a neat and tidy home landscape. Times have changed.
Do you have room, in your landscape and in your heart, for more? Any tree may provide shade, block wind, or obstruct an unwanted view, but the oak stands far above all others for its life-supporting capabilities.
Despite the old saying, sometimes money really can "grow on trees." Studies by research organizations and real estate professionals estimate that landscaping—especially when it includes healthy, mature, well-placed trees—can increase property value by as much as 20 percent.
Holiday celebrations, for better or worse, often feature alcoholic beverages. Plants play an active role in producing beer, wine and spirits.
A miniature world of plants, thriving in a container, viewable at close range, makes for a perfect way to brighten one’s spirits in the middle of winter. Terrariums are such created worlds.
Almost nothing represents Christmas better than bright red berries on glossy green holly branches. Though the holidays are fading into memory, this remains a perfect time to be thinking about holly.
Matrix planting is a gardening technique that uses a few dominant species to form a base or "matrix" into which other plants are interwoven. The idea is to mimic natural plant communities that grow densely and cover every square inch of soil, to reduce weed competition and provide wildlife habitat.
One of the pleasures of creating a garden lies in the process of choosing plants. Designs rely on composing vignettes that consider scale, form, texture, and, of course, color. But one dimension not to be missed when planning a garden is scent.
Annually selected by members of the Perennial Plant Association (PPA), the 2026 Perennial Plant of the Year® is Andropogon gerardii ‘Blackhawks.’ This exceptional cultivar, commonly known as Blackhawks big bluestem, stands out for its striking appearance and resilience once established.
Think about why you want to grow a portion of your own food: superior nutrition, taste and freshness or value. Cooking and consuming vegetables within hours of harvest opens new doors to the joy of cooking and eating.
Meet Cuphea (KYOO-fee-uh), a fresh flower you may have never tried before, is a diverse genus of over 200 species, many with great garden performance.
The key for gardeners to peacefully coexist with Nature is to understand the basic needs of wildlife for food and shelter. A good place to begin is incorporating native plants into your garden.
