Accidental gardeners

John Kwiliasz picks up a container of strawberries he and his wife Pat harvested Tuesday from their Portage garden.

Accidental gardeners

John and Pat Kwilasz work in their Portage garden Tuesday. What started with an about an acre and a few peony plants has grown to 4 acres, a vegetable garden, and about 5,000 peony plants. John and Pat have been growing vegetables, peonies, mums and other plants in their Portage yard for abo…

Accidental gardeners

John and Pat Kwilasz pick strawberries Tuesday in their Portage garden. What started with an about an acre and a few peony plants has grown to 4 acres, a vegetable garden, and about 5,000 peonies plants. It began with them helping a neighbor transplant some peonies. "She asked if I would li…

Garden a place for Valpo students to learn and grow

Second-grade teacher Jane Jones helps student Alyssa Snow-Ames plant vegetables Tuesday in the new teaching garden at Parkview Elementary School in Valparaiso.

Garden a place for Valpo students to learn and grow

Third-graders Jolee Smith, left, and Kylie Begley plant a strawberry plant Tuesday in the new teaching garden at Parkview Elementary School in Valparaiso. The garden was installed with support from the American Heart Association and Methodist Hospitals.

Hobart's 'green initiative' part of a growing trend

HOBART | The heirloom tomatoes, strawberries and herbs Linda Papp is growing in her community garden plot won't go to waste.

FROM the FARM: Reader buys soap for her squirrels

Phil Potempa's weekly farm column recipe.

Want to Learn About Rain Gardens?

CROWN POINT | A rain garden is a landscaped area planted with native plants and flowers that soak up rainwater. At the Lake County Fairgrounds in the 4-H Building this April 27, Purdue Cooperative Extension Service, Soil and Water Conservation District, and the Surveyor’s Office are sponsori…

Hobart officials planting seeds for new community garden

HOBART | The idea for a Hobart community garden was planted a couple of years ago, but this time plans are firmly taking root.

The Cottingley Fairies Photograph No. 1 of Frances Griffiths Surrounded by Fairies in 1917

"The Cottingley Fairies Photograph No. 1" shows Frances Griffiths surrounded by fairies in 1917 in the family's garden in England.

Park improvements, fests keep South Haven moving

Kindergarten student Martina Healy pulls a bonnie green bell pepper off its vine while harvesting vegetables last September from the South Haven Elementary American Heart Association Teaching Garden.

Please prune the shrubs, deer

Although unconcerned with promoting plant health or aesthetics, in at least one situation deer can actually help us prune well.

Please prune the shrubs, deer

Although unconcerned with promoting plant health or aesthetics, in at least one situation deer can actually help us prune well.

SHGARDEN - Students harvest veggies

Gardeners can reap fitness along with plants

Add trails for jogging. Build benches for workouts. Use trees and fence posts for stretching. Lose even more calories by squatting or lifting while weeding, planting, hauling and digging.

Gardening Grafted Vegetables

Side-by-side tests run by Ball Horticultural Co. show at least 50 percent higher yields from grafted tomato transplants, left, over non-grafted varieties, right, as seen here at Log House Plants Nursery, in Cottage Grove, O.R. That total varies somewhat depending upon garden and gardener but…

Grafted veggies are next season's celebrity seeds

In many of the seed catalogs arriving soon in mailboxes, the headliners will be grafted vegetables, in which one or more different varieties grow from a single rootstock. Tomatoes seem to be the grafted transplants most frequently offered, providing greater disease tolerance, bigger harvests…

Cutting gardens can yield beauty inside and out

Cut flower gardens are attractive options for those who don't like removing the best blooms from their borders and beds for indoor display.

Potempa Farm Garden Green Tomatoes Guarded by Gnome

Final garden finds this time of year include green tomatoes that have escaped frost. One of Times Columnist Philip Potempa's tomato plants photographed this week under the watchful eye of a garden gnome, even sports late season yellow blossoms.