I have a colleague who spends the summer months along the rugged coast of Maine, and returns to life in North Carolina around this time of year. My family likes to "summer" along the North Carolina beaches and mountains. And I have a Christmas Cactus and some Peace Lilies that summer on the front porch.

Last week, Rah-Rah Rita posed a good question: when should we bring in our Christmas Cactus for the cooler weather?

Our houseplants like to get out in the sun, stretch their leaves and soak in the Vitamin D and warmth just like we do. The heat and humidity of our Carolina summers is good for them, particularly when placed on a covered porch or deck. And, likewise, they're also ready to head back indoors when the evening temperatures begin to dip below 50⁰. So over the next few weeks, it's time to move your houseplants back to their warmer indoor abode. In the back of my mind, I have a three-step approach that I follow each fall:

1. Adjust...

Dear Gardening Gloves:

I know mums are a traditional fall flower, but I was wondering about the best way to plant them. Should I plant them in the ground in my garden, or put them in pots on the porch?

- Chermaine, Knightdale

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Hey Chermaine, great question! I think where you plant your mums is entirely based on personal preference. I love the way mums look along a curved flower bed, or in groups in natural areas beneath pine trees. But, for me, one thing I do not enjoy is scrubby mums that are overgrown and unshapely. So I tend to put them in pots on my porch steps, on the back deck, or dotted throughout my garden (pots and all). Lavender mums are my absolute favorite, but I have always enjoyed burgundy plants, too.

One trick I've learned through the years for plants whose roots I don't want to spread, like mums and mint, is to put the whole two- or three-gallon plastic bucket down into the hole I dig in the earth. The buckets are unseen, the...

Lovers of nature, unite! The weather is perfect this time of year for a hike ... so lace up your boots, grab your kids and your dogs, and hit the trails.

Last weekend we had our first fall family hike at Harris Lake County Park. The park is located near Progress Energy's Sharon Harris reservoir, but it's one of the Wake County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces. Convenient to us in western Wake County, it's one of my family's favorite places to hike, picnic and ride the trails. The trails are peppered with an interesting array of flora, and I like to quiz my 11 year old on the names of the trees and plants we see as we amble along. His memory is pretty good, though his favorite tree to point out is the sassafras--mostly because he loves root beer. But his specialty is the rocks.

Another favorite hike in the Triangle is at Crabtree Lake, and we enter on the Aviation Parkway side. When we're in...

You don’t need acres and acres to plant a sustainable vegetable garden for your family. In fact, if you’ve got a patch of sun in your postage size yard, or space for a terracotta pot on your porch or your apartment stoop, you’ve got space for a garden. 

As my own gardens have grown in and become more shady, it was hard to find a spot this summer for our beloved tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. But I shifted things around on the back deck and found a home for three varieties of tomatoes and peppers in basic pots. Like the Obama’s, who have renewed the interest in backyard victory gardens in countless families across the nation, my family supports the idea of growing food locally and naturally (and for yourselves). 

At my office in downtown Raleigh, a fellow tenant has planted a beautiful garden in the small greenway...

Dear Miss Fifi:

Our newly acquired, one year old Husky mix is killing our wallet and our house! We have bruises all over from the constant biting/nipping, and he's tearing up everything he can get his teeth on. We've tried the Kong—but it doesn't work. Peanut butter, cheese, cookie filled—doesn't matter. He has plenty of toys and we play with him and walk him, but it never seems to be enough. He's tearing up the backyard. Digging everything, including a newly planted tree with fresh soil and mulch. I know I need obedience training, but are the basics enough? Will that kill the biting/ digging/tearing up stuff?

- Jennifer

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Dear Jennifer:

Whoa ... uh, I mean woof. That sounds like one serious handful of a Huskie you've got there. I believe obedience training will be a huge asset to you and your pup, and it will most definitely go a long way toward curbing his urge to chew. Will it totally stop the...

I always love quick and easy gardening tips, particularly when they come from great friends. Take, for example, my great friend Sue Coy. She and her family live in northern Durham County, and her garden is overly natural and shady and just beautiful. Filled with ferns, hosta, columbine, lilies, foxglove, azaleas, dogwoods, deciduous trees and hardwoods, and pines, it's a classic North Carolina garden.

The Coys have also always had a really successful and sustainable vegetable garden. They're the first true naturalists I've known. Their garden is chock full of asparagus, tomatoes, herbs, and the unusual pairing of tart, delicious cherries. But given the bumper crop of veggies they have each year and the abundance of wildlife in their back yard, it's long been a wonder how the two coexist. 

It's simple: Milorganite. 

"I've tried dried blood," she said, "and mixing eggs and water, which...

Gardeners of the Piedmont ... Unite! 

It's Earth Day, and aside from my disappointment with not having Dave Matthews tickets tonight, it's a great day for gardeners. I thought it would be nice to share a few eco-friendly ideas and tactics my family practices ... and hope you'll share some of your great ideas with us! I posted some photos of my gardens for reference.

• Replace your outdoor light bulbs with CFLs.
• Be good stewards of nature: place birdhouses and bird feeders in peaceful, low-trafficked areas of your garden.
• Plant perennials, bulbs and trees.
• Plant a vegetable garden or some fruit trees.
• Keep your garden weed-free; weeds are water and nutrient hogs, and are fierce competition for your "real" plants.
• Combat mosquitoes naturally, like with lavender.
• Notice the little things, like the ladybugs and butterflies.
• Use canvas shopping bags at the grocery...

I found a great statement about pollen from Achoo Allergy: "Trees, weeds, plants, and grasses release small reproductive cells called pollen, which cause allergic reactions for millions of people. Most pollen are light enough to be windborne and are found everywhere, both indoors and out." 

Which totally confirms what I've known for years—pollen is a predator. And there's nowhere to hide.

I'm struck by the duality of early spring, where my expectation level and excitement grows by leaps and bounds with each bloom on the Cherry trees, and every lovely daffodil and tulip and hyacinth ... and then crashes when the pollen duststorms whirl down the street.

Pollen is everywhere—in the weeds, grass and trees. It's a fine, grainy powder consisting of the male gametes of seed plants. And when it floats freely through the air or is carried from plant to plant by bees and insects...

Poor Narcissus, the handsome fella doomed by the avenging goddess Nemesis to fall in love with the water nymph Echo, who could only repeat the words of others. The early-Spring flower is said to have sprung from where he died by the riverbank, and it's also fabled to have been the last flower Persephone picked before being swiped by Hades.

I love a good story, particularly when it carries over to my other favorite pastime, gardening. The narcissus is a great example, in mythology and gardening and in still life art, of the concept of veritas ... the idea that every living thing must come to an end. Like Narcissus' young life, narcissus flowers have a very short blooming period. Narcissus is one of dozens of varieties of daffodils, all of which are pretty easy to grow.

According to the American Daffodil Society, "plant the bulbs when grounds have cooled, in some climates September and for...

I thought about calling this "The Orchid Exterminator," in honor of Susan Orlean's book, The Orchid Thief, but figured that was a little maudlin. Important to note, though, is that of the two orchids I have ever owned, I have managed to kill them both. John Laroche, I am not. 

But everyone who knows me will tell you that I'm an eternal optimist, particularly when it comes to gardening. So for my birthday on Saturday, my mother-in-law gave me a spectacular orchid. She's got faith in me, and I hope I won't let her (or the orchid) down. I'm doing my homework this time, researching everything I can about my elusive orchid. 

I love Orlean's description of orchids from her 1995 article in The New Yorker magazine called ...

I was reading an interesting letter last weekend in the newspaper, and one of the suggestions made by the contributor was that we should all plant and sustain our own vegetable garden. 

I have long been a proponent of sustainable gardening and community supported agriculture, and have even tended my own bountiful garden back in the day ... but life and kids and work have gotten in the way over the last decade. So I thought for 2009 me and the mister (and the little man) would get back to our roots, so to speak, and plant a patch. A veggie patch. 

In the past we've gotten young plants from Logan Trading Co. in Raleigh, and herbs from one of the local home improvement stores. But this year, since I'm pulling out the heavy duty gardening gloves, I think it would be nice to start some vegetables from seeds. My favorites: sweet tomatoes, cucumbers, silver queen corn, zucchini, and green beans.

• ...

Mother Nature is rejoicing today! Not only is it a glorious, exciting inauguration day, but the snow we’re getting here in the Triangle will take us well into the spring. She’s put mean ol’ Mr. Dry on notice: we’ll have no drought this year. 

Hopefully. 

My boys have been paying homage to the snowy day. Snow angels all over the neighborhood. Blue Moon heferweitzen chilling on the back porch. Fertilizer pellets in the bases of all of our trees.
We’ve done all we can to keep the snow around for another day or so … and then I’ll be ready for sunshine and shorts. 

But for today, have fun in the snow. Take Governor Perdue’s advice and stay off the roads. And pray for good water levels throughout the year.

Brr ... it's freezing outside. Literally. 

To protect your outdoor garden faucets, try a faucet freeze protector. My husband put ours out last evening, so we were able to insulate our faucet and rest our worries about freezing pipes—which have the potential to burst and cause extensive water damage. 

Ours is a very simple version purchased recently at Lowe's Home Improvement for around $4, but you can also find them online if you like comparisons. 

• Have you got your garden faucets freeze-ready?

Got a great gardening tip from my great friends, Peggy Noodle and Johnny D ... a quick tip on extending the life of an African Violet plant. Mind you, this came from Peggy's sister-in-law, but Cindy's a pretty good egg and I know she wouldn't steer us wrong. Plus, I love a great, new gardening tip. 

If your violet's looking a little peaked, lift the whole plant out of its pot and use a sharp kitchen knife or set of shears and trim off the bottom half inch or so of soil. Be sure to catch the tips of the roots in there, too, because giving them a fresh cut startles the violet and encourages it to grow stronger. Think spinach to Popeye. 

Trimming the bottom undercarriage is also a great solution for violets that have gotten stalky. By losing that bottom fraction, you're making room at the top of the plant to lay new soil (just beneath the leaves). The new soil will enrich the whole pot, and cover the unsightly, gangly stalk.