Gardening Planning
Prepare for your next gardening project by discovering our planning ideas & tips.
How to Choose and Use Shovels and Other Digging Tools
Hole-digging advice with This Old House landscape contractor Roger Cook
All About Hydrangeas
For generations, these beloved shrubs have charmed with their big blooms and carefree nature
How to Create a Container Garden
Create and maintain a garden on a small scale, with This Old House landscape contractor Roger Cook
How to Build a Wheelchair Accessible Raised Garden Bed
In this video, This Old House landscape contractor Roger Cook builds a wheelchair accessible raised garden.
How to Start Plant and Vegetable Seeds
From tiny sprouts a glorious garden grows. Here's how to cultivate your own—from seed
Nutrient Boosters for Cool-Weather Gardening
Fill a cold frame with these vegetables for healthy ingredients perfect in fall dishes
Dahlias: Late Summer's Drama Queens
In a showstopping array of colors, sizes, and shapes, dahlias can play a leading role in your garden's finale
Late-Season Garden Sensation
Carved out of an apple orchard, these colorful garden rooms show how fall-blooming perennials, long-flowering annuals, and a fruitful harvest can really shine in the golden light of autumn
8 Essential Elements for Planning a Cottage Garden
Now's the time to sketch out your plan for beautiful results in the spring. Here's how to get started
Best Plants for a Cottage Garden
Carry your home's cottage style through the garden with these flower options
Grow a Lush Shade Garden With Hostas
These leafy perennials are showy, shade tolerant, and a cinch to grow—and new varieties offer a wider-than-ever range of leaf color, size, and texture. Read on to learn how to pick and plant them to create a sensational landscape
Grow Fruits and Vegetables Anywhere
With smart strategies, you can raise your own harvest in any size outdoor space
Carts and Wheelbarrows
From trash to topsoil, everything travels more quickly when you stick a wheel underneath it
Best Plants for a Healthy, Organic Garden
Pair these flowers and herbs with your favorite garden growers to improve soil, increase propagation, and keep harmful insects at bay—all without the help of chemicals
How to Get More Plants at No Cost
Grow additional specimens (for free!) from ones you have on hand to fill out your garden beds or share with friends
Grow a Healthy Vegetable Garden
The benefits of vegetable gardening go way beyond cutting food costs. Here's a guide to planning, planting, and relishing your own backyard harvest
Fall Plants to Propagate For Spring
Just about any tender perennial is a candidate for snipping in the fall and replanting in the spring. Here are our 5 favorite plants to propagate in fall.
How to Place Pots
A landscape designer's top 7 tips for incorporating containers into your yard
Good Climbers
Fill your bare trellis with blooms and vines that grow vertically
Best Plants for Colorful Foliage
12 easy-care plants with dramatic leaves that dazzle
The Sustainable Garden
A homeowner turns her humble backyard into a sustainable garden filled with food, flowers, and a few farmland friends
Shrub-Type Roses
These long-lasting blooms will take you into the fall with little to no fuss
Easy Care Roses
Far from finicky, many shrub-type roses bloom all summer long with very little fuss. Here are some top choices for flower borders, hedges, and containers
Cold-Weather Plantings
Don't retire your gardening gear just because the temperature's dropped. Pot up some cold-weather plantings to brighten your home's exterior—and your spirits
Garden Hand Tools
Choosing and using tough, reliable tools that will take a beating in your yard.
Easy Houseplants
Plant expert Carrie Kelly, featured on Ask This Old House, gives advice on low-maintenance houseplants that anyone can grow
Winter Plant Tip: Buy Ugly
Dormant bare-root plants make for a wise cold-weather purchase
Drought-Resistant Ornamental Grasses
These ornamental grasses aren't only easy on the eyes; they're easy on the water bill, too
Drought-Resistant Perennials
Your garden doesn't have to be a water hog—if you plant drought-resistant perennials.
Drought-Resistant Annuals
This year, save water and plant drought-resistant annuals
Mulch Materials
This gardening essential not only neatens up your yard, it also helps conserve water and discourages weeds.
Made for the Shade
Plants that flourish where the sun doesn't much shine.