Bats have gotten a bad rap over the years, thanks to their associations with blood-sucking vampires, and the scare of them carrying rabies. However, despite these myths, bats are actually really useful in the garden. In fact, only 3 species of bats carry rabies and all of them live in Central and South America. Instead, […]

At American Beauties they define natives as straight species and their cultivars, with cultivars being selections of straight species that have not been hybridized with other species. That may sound like an easy question to answer but it isn’t. There are almost as many different definitions as people you ask. Our environment is an extremely […]

Canning is a method used to preserve fresh food in jars using high temperatures to kill microorganisms and inactivate enzymes that could cause food to spoil. The heating process pushes air from the jars, creating a vacuum seal as jars cool. Without air, the bacteria, yeast and mold will not grow and food won’t spoil. […]

Deadheading is a gardening task that must be done regularly throughout the growing season. Deadheading is nothing more than the removal of dead or spent flowers from living plants. It’s good for your plants and means more flowers for you. Benefits of Deadheading There are four main reasons to include deadheading as part of your […]

For many, particularly northern Europeans, the summer solstice means midsummer celebrations: feasting on early harvests, gathering around bonfires, dancing, singing and games. It’s a beautiful time of year with flowers blooming everywhere, fireflies lighting up the night and cute speckled fawns hiding in the brush. And for gardeners in the northern hemisphere, indeed, there is […]