LDS Outlets/Gardening & Landscaping: Making a Self-Watering Planter

by Heather Justesen on Heather Justesen
on yourLDSneighborhood Newsstands - 5 June 2008

After I wrote my previous gardening blog, I began looking into different ways for patio gardeners to keep their pots watered. I know I have a tendency to let my watering slide, which is why I didn't use my large pots last year, but I knew there were various ways to make up for the problem. Last summer, a neighbor of mine complained that she had to water her patio pots twice a day during the hottest part of the summer--something that would definitely be the death of my plants. -- Read More

LDS Outlets/Gardening & Landscaping: Plants in Unexpected Places

by Heather Justesen on Heather Justesen
on yourLDSneighborhood Newsstands - 2 June 2008

Got your veggies in yet? The one part of gardening I don't love (besides the weeding, which isn't all that bad if it's not too hot out) is watering. Let me get my hands in the dirt, or plot out where everything is going to go. Better yet, let me spend hours in nurseries looking at plants and imagining where they are going to go (If you refuse to let me buy anything while I'm there, I'm going to accuse you of cruelty.). But ask me to remember to turn the water on and off and move a hose periodically and you'll find how truly lazy I can be. -- Read More

LDS Outlets/Gardening & Landscaping: Gardening Like Laura

by Heather Justesen on Heather Justesen
on yourLDSneighborhood Newsstands - 29 May 2008

I'm really excited about the opportunity to blog for yourLDSneighborhood.com on landscaping and gardening.

If you discount snitching peas off the vine when I was a preschooler as actual gardening experience, you could say I first began gardening in my early elementary school years. The summer after I discovered Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books, I was determined to grow my own food--just like a real-life pioneer. (Of course, at this time I wanted to be Laura Ingalls, in every way--an insane dream I fortunately grew out of.) There was a patch of dirt my mom had used for veggies a few other times back behind their business, where we kids spent the long summer days. I know I planted peas, but don't recall if I planted anything else. It's a good thing peas have such a short growing season, because I remember becoming bored with all the weeding before they finished producing for the summer. -- Read More