Leah Ingram is a lifestyle expert and seasoned spokesperson who appears frequently in the media to discuss shopping, gift buying, eco-friendly topics and frugal living.

I recently posted about our ability to become accidental pumpkin gardeners at our old house. In response to that post “Jen on the Edge” made a comment about lasagna gardening. Of course, my mind went immediately to that gooey Italian dish. But this isn’t what Jen meant.

“Instead of digging a garden, you build one by layer leaves, grass clippings, compost, dirt, etc. on top of layers of newspaper or cardboard. If you do it now, you’ll have a great garden and amazing dirt next spring,” Jen wrote.

If you like container gardening, you’ll appreciate Better Than Rocks.

If you’re still using rocks in the bottom of your containers to aid drainage, there’s a new product that can make your gardening life a bit easier. Better Than Rocks is…well, you know.

This product is made of 100% recycled plastic and comes in squares that can be cut to any size for use in planters of every shape and size, including window boxes.

It was easy for me to layer the mesh-like product in the bottom of the planter and then fill the container with potting soil before planting.

The pots were so much lighter to move around the patio and I used less potting soil.

So far, I’ve found the product does help prevent soil from draining away during watering. I also like the idea the plastic can be reused for several seasons.

Better Than Rocks is located in Hudson, Wisconsin. You can read more at www.betterthanrocks.com.

I think these irises are as beautiful as any orchid.

Irises have been part of the landscape for so long it’s easy to take them for granted. Cultivated for hundreds of years, and a staple of grandma’s garden, the bearded iris is the perennial that keeps on giving.

These easy-to-grow plants are colorful, drought-friendly additions to any landscape. The plant’s upright leaves add vertical interest throughout the season and the flowers come in a dazzling array of colors, color combinations, shapes, sizes and bloom times. They also multiply each year.

Irises also serve many purposes in the landscape. Tall irises are traditionally planted along fences or in corners as specimen plants. But mixing heights and bloom times can add color to the garden throughout spring.

Irises can also fill in areas where it’s difficult to put other plants, like the edge of a sidewalk or along the driveway because they can take the heat.

A litter of four squirrels has found a happy home in my garden.


One day John and I looked out the office window and saw a little squirrel head poking out of the opening of the wooden squirrel nesting box at the corner of the garden. Then another head poked through. And another. And then one more.

The squirrel box was one of the last projects my father-in-law made for me and he would be delighted to know that it’s made such a hospitable home for these four juvenile squirrels.

It’s so much fun to see them chase through the garden in the morning, jumping from the picket fence to the arbor and then playing hide-and-seek. We watch them from inside our house as they take turns at the squirrel feeder chomping furiously at sunflower seeds or hanging upside down at the “squirrel-proof” bird feeder. I love to watch them take long drinks at the birdbath.

Bergamot, also called bee balm, is a native perennial that causes bees to linger longer in the garden.

Some things in life make ideal combinations like cookies and milk, peanut butter and jelly, and spinach and radishes.

Spinach and radishes not only make a delicious spring salad, they also make perfect partners when grown together in the garden. Radishes attract destructive leafminers to their tasteless leaves and away from the spinach. These botanical buddies are one example of how plants team together to help each other thrive.

Companion planting is the art and science of arranging combinations of two or more plants to benefit one another. Planting certain crops together saves garden space, controls pests and encourages healthy gardens.

Native Americans practiced companion planting for centuries by growing corn, beans and squash together. These vegetables are called the Three Sisters because they complement each other when planted in the same hill. The corn provides tall stalks for the pole beans to climb. The beans help replenish the soil with important nutrients. The large squash leaves serve as a living mulch to maintain soil moisture and choke out weeds.

This edition of Sunset’s Western Garden Book, published in 1976, was the best gardening guide for a gardening greenhorn.

When I first started gardening, I needed a lot of help. I had always thought gardening was a relaxing pastime that rewarded one with beautiful flower beds, baskets of fresh vegetables and a luxurious lawn.

I had no idea how much work it would take.

One of my indispensable resources was Sunset’s Western Garden Book. Because it was written for those of us who garden in the West, it helped me understand that gardening was definitely regional and that understanding “climate zones” was critical to gardening success.

This book also helped me understand how plants grow. This may sound elementary, but understanding roots, stems, leaves, and fruits and flowers was also a good reminder that nothing should be taken for granted in the garden.

It’s not spring until the free mulch giveaway sponsored by Denver Recycles and Denver Parks and Recreation.

Following an annual spring tradition, we woke up early, grabbed coffee and headed out the door for the TreeCycle Mulch Giveaway. We arrived 40 minutes before opening and took our places as the 10th and 11th in line. It seems every Denver resident has discovered the benefits of mulch—especially when it’s free.

Christmas trees are chopped, crushed and turned into mulch between January and May by Denver Recycles, a program of Denver Public Works and Solid Waste Management, and Denver Parks and Recreation. In addition to the huge piles of mulch, A1 Organics sells dark rich compost at the south side of the lot.

In 2001, when we first started taking advantage of the free mulch and low-cost compost, it wasn’t nearly as popular. We’d get to the giveaway around 8:00, pull right in and load up our cars, first with bags of compost and then with bags of mulch.

Gardeners looking for hardy plants to add to their gardens should check this out.

I was at the Plant Select annual meeting a few years ago when the seed was planted for a new garden book. That seed germinated and now it has bloomed.

“Durable Plants for the Garden: A Plant Select Guide” is a beautiful new resource for gardeners looking to add the hardiest plants to their gardens. It’s an essential addition to every gardener’s library.

The book, edited by James E. Henrich, is a cooperative effort of Plant Select, Colorado State University, Denver Botanic Gardens and the Green Industries of Colorado.

The book includes the first 74 plants introduced to the public by the Plant Select Program. The program’s goal is to introduce and then recommend more adaptable plants to the Rocky Mountain region and beyond and every year 6 or 7 plants are chosen. Some of the plants are overlooked treasures and other are completely new to the trade.

Two-liter bottles can be repurposed into handy hydroponics planters.

BUILD IT YOURSELF: HYDROPONICS PLANTER
Excerpt from Planet Earth: 25 Environmental Projects You Can Build Yourself, by Kathleen M. Reilly, Polka Dot Suitcase.

You can grow plants without soil when you create a hydroponics planter. You’ll still need to find some kind of planting medium for this planter, but some scientists grow plants by spraying the nutrients the plants need directly onto the plants’ roots.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Two-liter bottle
Strips of cotton rags or T-shirts
Litmus paper (to measure pH; you can get these at garden, pool, hardware, or pet stores)
Plants: try runners (like from a spider plant) or stem cutting (try something like an ivy plant), or if you want to start from seed, try lettuce or an herb like basil
Water
Planting medium like hay, pebbles, lava rocks, etc. (You can experiment with this—just don’t use soil!)
Hydroponics plant nutrients (available at garden stores)
Aquarium tubing and small air pump or hollow rubber ball (optional)

Musa basjoo is also called Hardy Banana and can be grown in Zone 4.


Wouldn’t you love to look out your window and see a tropical plant growing there? That may seem like a dream to Colorado gardeners, but there are some cold-hardy tropicals that can survive Zone 5 winters.

The Musa basjoo is a Hardy Banana available from Logee’s Tropical Plants.  With proper siting and mulching in winter, this plant can withstand temperatures below zero. Logee’s representatives say this is an extremely vigorous banana that can grow several feet in one season or can be grown as a container specimen.

There are other cold-hardy tropicals that can tolerant colder climates like ours. If you can re-create the conditions of Zone 6 with microclimates, you might also be able to grow Jasminum officinale (Hardy Jasmine), Ficus carica ‘Chicago Hardy’ edible fig, Passiflora incarnata ‘Maypop’ Passion Flower and Gardenia jasminoides ‘Frostproof’ gardenia.