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Shawna Coronado

Food

Tomato Tuna Salad Recipe

Tuna salad is my all-time-favorite dish from my childhood as it reminds me of my grandmother. She used to make tuna salad for me for Sunday dinner in my hometown, Kokomo, Indiana, because she knew it was my favorite. This tomato tuna salad is a modern update from my memory and adds tomatoes and basil for a flavorful dish that…
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Garden

How to Grow Tulip Bulbs

Of all the bulbs, tulips are the most popular of the spring flowers. With unbelievable variety in color, form, and shape, tulip bulbs offer gardeners an interesting landscape solution that blends well with groundcovers, perennials, and annuals alike. Some tulips are excellent for naturalizing, but many need to be replanted every season as they are short-lived. Heavy soils and hot…
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Wellness

Secret Pro Tips for Cut Flowers – Part II

Last week we looked at the first part of my series Secret Pro Tips for Cut Flowers where Molly Reed, head florist and all around flower super star (above), gives us a tour of the floral department in the basement of the Biltmore mansion with tips for floral arranging. Above you see Molly collecting beautiful foliage from the gardens on…
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Tulip Bulbs How to Grow

How to Grow Tulip Bulbs

Garden

Of all the bulbs, tulips are the most popular of the spring flowers. With unbelievable variety in color, form, and shape, tulip bulbs offer gardeners an interesting landscape solution that blends well with groundcovers, perennials, and annuals alike. Some tulips are excellent for naturalizing, but many need to be replanted every season as they are short-lived. Heavy soils and hot…
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Tomato and Tuna Salad

Tomato Tuna Salad Recipe

Food· Garden

Tuna salad is my all-time-favorite dish from my childhood as it reminds me of my grandmother. She used to make tuna salad for me for Sunday dinner in my hometown, Kokomo, Indiana, because she knew it was my favorite. This tomato tuna salad is a modern update from my memory and adds tomatoes and basil for a flavorful dish that…
Read More

VegTrug Herb Garden with Living Wall

How to Build a Fall Elevated Herb Garden

Garden

Fall is a time when a lot of our gardens are winding down. I’ve cleaned up the beds and have stopped watering my Chicagoland Zone 5 garden beyond a few elevated beds and container gardens. I was thinking of slowing down for the season because the hosta leaves are browning and my garden is signaling me that it is time…
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Easy Elegance Calypso Rose bush

Easy Elegance® Fall Rose Maintenance Tips

Garden

Growing roses has been challenging for me in the past, but this season my Easy Elegance® roses were planted in the back garden in a very difficult location where I ignored them most of the season. They performed very well under these harsh conditions, resisting disease and performing well in high heat. Late this season I went out behind the…
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Milkweed for Monarch Butterfly

Plant Milkweed for the Monarchs

Garden

When I was a young girl growing up on a Midwestern farm, milkweed grew prolifically in ditches and along fence rows. The plant looks rather uninteresting on a day-to-day basis, but it is truly an essential monarch butterfly garden plant. When they bloom (see photo), the air is filled with the most magnificent fragrance from the milkweed flower. Seductively sweet…
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Rosies Workwear Overall Eggplant in Garden

Garden Clothing Review

Garden

When I first began the journey with spinal osteoarthritis treatment, I was in tremendous pain. The most obvious thoughts on my personal healing agenda were how to exercise and strengthen my body in order to have less pain and how to eat better so that my inflammation would go down. These two categories became my focus points. As I began…
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Organic Mechanics Hardwood Mulching with Steve Kroiss

Garden Mulch Can Be Toxic

Garden

Your garden mulch might be toxic – this season I did a lot of research on mulch and I am concerned about the level of toxic chemical exposure for gardeners because garden mulch can be toxic. According to the UMassAmherst Center for Agriculture, Food, and Environment, mulch “comes from recycled wood, i.e. wood scraps, wood pallets, and wood reclaimed from…
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Drinking Water Safe hose

Drinking Water Safe Garden Hoses for Organic Gardens

Garden

If you are gardening with a hose that is filled with lead and BPA – a standard American garden hose by the way – then how can you grow organic vegetables in your garden? Your veg is being sprayed with the chemicals that come out of a drinking hose. If you need to water your garden, drinking water safe hose…
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Native - Big Bluestem

How to Grow Big Bluestem Grass

Garden

Big bluestem or Turkey Foot Grass is a perennial bunchgrass with greenish blue stems that can grow between 4 to 8 feet tall. It has interesting seedheads that branch into three parts that resemble a turkey’s foot, hence its nickname. Big bluestem is known as the “king of the prairie” and is one of the top four native grass species…
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Easy Elegance Roses Mid Summer Plant Review

Easy Elegance Roses Shrub Tips

Garden

Midsummer is a great time to give you an update on my Easy Elegance® Roses adventure. While traditional roses need extensive care such as spraying for rust or black spot, pest management, and adding extra fertilizer, I was surprised to learn that Easy Elegance® Roses are pretty easy to care for and the only consistent care I’ve tended to is…
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Hosta Plants copyright Shawna Coronado

How to Make Hosta Leaves Bigger

Garden

Hosta plants are the low work, super easy, perennial plants of the north. Park Seed has a great line of hostas to choose from. In the below photo you see two of my absolute favorite hostas; Hosta ‘Guacamole’ on the left and Hosta ‘idontknowwhaththeheckthisis’ — yep, I’m a classic gardener just like you and I sometimes lose or forget what…
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Organic Japanese Beetle Control

Organic Control Of The Japanese Beetles

Garden

Want a Japanese beetle? I have about 2 million of the shiny, metallic green creatures. They have copper-colored wing covers and look quite beautiful for a beetle. I can assure you, they are not nice creatures to have in your garden. In 1908 some yahoo accidentally introduced Japanese beetles to the United States. In Japan they are not a problem,…
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Native plant prairie

Native Plants are a Smart Garden Choice

Garden

Whether mixed in heavily or lightly in your landscape, native plants and wildflowers are an amazing addition to any garden, both for their beauty and their value to the environment. Native plants attract favorable insects, butterflies, songbirds, hummingbirds, and wildlife that live in your specific region of the state. They eliminate the need for pesticides or herbicides, require very little…
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Greek Olive Oil and air plant

Greek Olive Oil Tastes Delicious

Food

Olive oil – I love it and use it for cooking, salad dressings, and over vegetables to add a little extra flavor. Several years ago I would have told you that it is all much the same. Yet since that time I have traveled to Europe and tried many different types of olive oils from many different regions – Portugal,…
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Flowering Tobacco Nicotiana Growing Tips

Flowering Tobacco – Nicotiana Growing Tips

Garden

A scented flowering tobacco bloom can be a little bit of heaven; many varieties have a scent that is downright alluring and are more likely to have a stronger scent toward late evening and at night. Heirlooms often have a stronger scent, some cultivars are scentless, and a few newer hybrids have light scents. Each flower is a colorful, trumpet-shaped…
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