intimate looks at spring wildflowers (win a guidebook) plus how to grow kale   

One of spring's treats, besides the shift in weather, is the chance to see native wildflowers -- on hikes in wild spaces, or simply cultivated stands in our gardens. The acclaimed naturalist Carol Gracie looks beyond the surface beauty of trilliums and trout lilies, baneberry and bloodroot (above) -- into their life histories, their lore, and their cultural uses. Take an intimate tour with us, and maybe win her book, "Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast: a Natural History." Start here.  

ask the experts: how to grow kale 

"Anyone can grow kale," the seed farmers at Adaptive Seeds (who have collected kales from around the world and made them a specialty) said recently, seeming to beg me to ask, "How?" Do I start indoors, or direct sow? What about spacing, timing, soil prep, aftercare? From the masters, then: How to grow kale.

miss it last time? success with hellebores 

Longtime hellebore breeder Judith Knott Tyler and I talked the other day about how to get these deer-resistant perennials settled in the garden; how semi-shade (and not deepest darkness!) is more to their liking; about some extra-gorgeous varieties, plus some companion plants that are favored at her Pine Knot Farms.  The scoop.