Urbanization is transforming landscape design in many places: Larger houses and smaller lots are driving the development of scaled-down plants. Plant breeders are introducing plants — everything from shrubs and trees to flowering perennials — that remain compact when placed in the garden. They look great in containers, too. “This is happening in every urban […]

Summer may officially be the season of green salads, but wintertime versions have advantages that make them worth exploring. The cooler weather seasonable greens are hearty and darker green, which makes them nutrient-rich. And these thicker-leaved greens such as kale or spinach can hold up to the addition of warm ingredients, opening up the possibilities […]

Wait! Before you put those tulip, daffodil, crocus and hyacinth bulbs in the ground, do you want to multiply them? Sure, they’ll multiply by themselves, but you can speed up the process. Bulb or corm? Before you can multiply a bulb, you have to know if what you have in hand really is a bulb. […]

After years of Dustin groaning about my stash of knitting supplies and yarn (and my habit of buying new shoes once a year), I had an opportunity to show him that it could be worse. You could call this priming. I call it making conversation. First, I showed him a picture of a tin can […]

NEW YORK Oscar is a cat of the world. He has his own Instagram account, @Oskibabi, along with high-tech toys like a remote-controlled centipede. But there’s one aspect of modern life Oscar doesn’t like: flying. Rather than leave Oscar home in New York while I spent 10 days in Phoenix, I decided to take him […]

Before electricity, doorbells rang via a complex rigging of mechanical pulleys. Visitors pulled a rope or turned a key-like affair — think Downton Abbey’s elaborate system to summon staff, but on a smaller scale for the masses. The electric doorbell was invented in 1831, and by the early 1900s was all the rage. Chimes and […]

Six months ago, my husband, Dustin, retired from the military. The last six years of his service were particularly difficult as he was deployed overseas for a year and then took assignments at the Pentagon and elsewhere while we kept the family in Maine. There was a lot of back-and-forth, and Dustin essentially lived in […]

Brussels sprouts lovers, you are in for a treat: a side dish that will threaten to steal center stage. Spanish chorizo, a wonderfully spiced smoked pork sausage, gets sauteed just enough to brown a bit and release its oils. Then fresh bread crumbs are sauteed in the same pan and set aside to become a […]

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. Family fitness dates are replacing the old school pizza and movie nights as more parents are realizing that the benefits of moving aren’t just about burning calories but setting an example for the next generation. We talked to three fitness experts to get a feel for what family fitness looks like in […]

Friends have complimented me on my pumpkins, but are these things I’ve grown really pumpkins? Sure, they are round and orange and fluted. But look again: There’s more than a hint of red in their skins, and their shape is more akin to a doughnut than to a basketball. But yes, they are pumpkins, if […]