Featured Series

Medicinal Weeds: The Many Benefits Of Wild Violets

Caroline Rivard

Wild violets are some of the first flowers to bloom in the spring, covering lawns with tiny lilac and white flowers. Those who strive for golfing green lawns consider them weeds, but wild violets are incredibly useful and delicious to boot!   There are more than 500 species in the viola family, and most of them…

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Medicinal Weeds: The Many Virtues Of Mullein

You almost can’t miss it; mullein, or Verbascum Thapsus, is a lovely plant with yellow spikes as flowers that can grow up to seven feet tall! The bi-annual weed begins its life cycle as a low-growing rosette with fuzzy, felt-like leaves. Quite the transformation! 
July 6, 2020
Caroline Rivard

Seed Saving Part 4: Storing And Testing

Seeds, like all living things, have a lifespan. How long they last depends on factors including the seed variety and conditions during growth and processing. However, the way seeds are stored has an enormous impact on their vigor and longevity. Correctly preserving them will ensure your efforts to save seeds reaps long term rewards. 
June 1, 2020
Anne Gibson

Mugwort: A Magical and Medicinal Weed

This article originally appeared in Garden Culture Magazine UK33 & US31. Tall and robust with dark green lobes for leaves, mugwort, or Artemisia Vulgaris, is a weed that has many wonderful virtues.  This perennial plant grows just about anywhere; find it along roadsides, railroads, and riverbanks to waste places and fields. It is so common…
March 30, 2020
Caroline Rivard

Illinois Valley Hemp: The Final Stretch – Part 3

This article originally appeared in Garden Culture Magazine US30. The previous installment of the Illinois Valley Hemp series left you in mid-August when our plants were developing flowers. As the days passed by, the skies became darker earlier.   Cannabis, including hemp varieties, is traditionally a short day (long night) plant, meaning it requires long periods…
February 10, 2020
Kyle L. Ladenburger

Illinois Valley Hemp, Part 2: Breaking Ground and Setting Roots

This article originally appeared in Garden Culture Magazine US29.  Our first installment of Illinois Valley Hemp (US Issue 28) left you with somewhat of a cliffhanger! After more than a few hiccups setting up our hemp farm, torrential rains throughout May and June made it impossible to get the plants into the ground. But it…
February 3, 2020
Kyle L. Ladenburger