CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — For the first time, scientists have grown plants in soil from the moon collected by NASA’s Apollo astronauts.
Researchers had no idea if anything would sprout in the harsh moon dirt and wanted to see if it could be used to grow food by the next generation of lunar explorers.
Gardening in the shade is often thought of as a Sisyphean endeavor, swimming upstream against all odds with limited plant choices and no hope for color.
But that notion couldn’t be further from the truth.
The annual sunflower (Helianthus annus) has a long history in North America, with evidence of its cultivation for food, ceremonial and medical use by Native Americans dating back to at least 1,000 B.C.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Collecting piñon nuts has been tradition for Native American and Hispanic families in the Southwestern U.S. for generations.
When my family moved into a new home in the spring of 2005, the only plants growing in the garden were a rhododendron by the front door and a few scattered daffodils and ferns. I was delighted to see a stunning perennial pop up a month later.
Picture this: You step into your garden, and the beds are brimming with flowers that thrive on benign neglect.
You seldom need to water them, and they don’t require much in the way of fertilizer, either.
MYKULYCHI, Ukraine (AP) — On a quiet street lined with walnut trees was a cemetery with four bodies that hadn't yet found a home.
All were victims of Russian soldiers in this village outside Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.
ALMERE, Netherlands (AP) — Tulips herald the advent of spring — and the Dutch believe they can also highlight ways to fight climate change.
In Thornton Wilder’s 1938 play, “Our Town,” heliotrope flowers connect two sets of characters who gather to inhale their intoxicating scent in the moonlight. Heliotropes, then common, are, indeed, wonderfully fragranced.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Nearly 60 years ago, a historic Black community founded as a home for newly freed slaves was demolished to expand a national park commemorating the Battle of New Orleans and Civil War casualties.
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Alister MacKenzie offered some advice for his design of what has served as the opening hole at Augusta National since the second playing of the Masters.
No telling what he might have said to Charl Schwartzel.
Gardeners are made, not born. If you want your children to become enthusiastic gardeners, take steps early to get them going down the proverbial path.
It isn’t difficult, but it might require an adjustment to your attitude about children in the garden.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A new program in North Carolina is placing a “bounty” on invasive Bradford pear trees as they spread through forests in the state.
The initiative is set to start with an April 23 event in Greensboro and could expand to more locations in the fall, according to North Carolina State University’s website.
As winter winds down, gardeners collectively look for signs of life, whether from the green sprouts of fall-planted bulbs or the return of foliage as deciduous trees leaf out. But our gardens could retain interest year-round.
The achievements of George Washington Carver, the 19th century scientist credited with hundreds of inventions, including 300 uses for peanuts, have landed him in American history textbooks.
But many other agricultural practices, innovations and foods that traveled with enslaved people from West Africa — or were developed by their descendants — remain unsung, despite having revolutionized the way we eat, farm and garden.
Easter has lilies. Thanksgiving has gourds. Christmas has poinsettias. And Valentine’s Day should have amaryllis.
For the uninitiated, amaryllises are big bulbs that can produce among the biggest and showiest flowers a gardener can grow indoors (maybe outdoors too).
After the houseplant heyday of the 1970s, the penchant for potted green companions faded with all but the most dedicated plant parents. But over the past decade, as many young adults began filling their homes -- and social media feeds -- with indoor plants, a cross-generational audience started to take notice.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — The rare ghost orchid faces mounting threats in Florida from poaching, loss of habitat and climate change and needs federal protection, environmental groups said Monday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — On a warm spring day in Ukraine 26 years ago, three men smiled for cameras as they planted symbolic sunflower seedlings in freshly tilled earth where Soviet nuclear missiles had once stood ready.
Houseplants have been keeping a lot of us company during the pandemic, and the good news is there's a plant for any home, big or small, well-lit or not.
There's also a virtual jungle of stylish containers in which to show them off.
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s fragile governing coalition moved to resolve a crisis on Wednesday after Arab Bedouin staged protests against tree-planting by nationalists on disputed land in the Negev desert.
Farewell, fellow gardener. After almost 30 years of sharing my gardening experience, expertise, and enthusiasm in columns for The Associated Press, I’ve decided to focus my time and energy in other directions.
COCONUT ISLAND, Hawaii (AP) — On a moonless summer night in Hawaii, krill, fish and crabs swirl through a beam of light as two researchers peer into the water above a vibrant reef.
Minutes later, like clockwork, they see eggs and sperm from spawning coral drifting past their boat.
There are some trees whose showiness does not end once they’ve lost their leaves in autumn. Some trees have an attractive bony framework that is then revealed. Ginkgo tree, for instance.
Leafless, a ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) tree, soft and green in summer, appears as if each main limb knows where it is going, jutting boldly and alone into space to give the whole tree a coarse yet pleasant appearance.
ENCINITAS, Calif. (AP) — The bloom of a giant and stinky Sumatran flower nicknamed the “corpse plant” because it smells like a dead body is drawing huge crowds to a Southern California botanical garden.
At a recent dinner party, my host launched into a monologue about a plant he had discovered in his garden and was delighted with.
It had, he said, green leaves (what a clue!) and large, yellow flowers.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Manatees have starved to death by the hundreds along Florida’s east coast because algae blooms and contaminants are killing the seagrass the beloved sea mammals eat, a wildlife official told a House committee Tuesday.
Nobody ever said gardening offers instant gratification. With this limitation in mind, I dug and made over one of my flower beds last weekend.
For the plants, fall is a fine time for a flower-bed makeover.
WOODLAND TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey plans to restore vast tracts of a coastal tree species threatened by climate change, and will pay for it with money from polluters of groundwater.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection said Thursday its plan to restore 10,000 acres of Atlantic white cedar would be the largest restoration effort involving the species in U.S.