I love fine garden tools: My edger that has lasted more than 25 years; my stainless border spade; the long-reach telescoping pruners with precision snipping power from a distance. But I also pack my tool tote with must-have cheap stuff, some under $10. Things like a discarded bread knife, a brilliant $5 rain gauge, and a professional weather-radar app that isn't in the tote, exactly, but that I always have on hand. The list.

evaluating the best native plants, at mt. cuba center  

Which bee balm (top photo) will really resist powdery mildew -- and which of the endless parade of near-lookalike Heuchera (below) is truly a standout? At Mt. Cuba Center in Delaware, they aim to find out that, and more, about the fast-widening palette of native-plant cultivars, including what the insects who have long relied on the straight species of popular natives think of the newer garden varieties. Fascinating stuff.  

miss it last time?

• making pickling spice, with gayla trail (a giveaway!)
• a buggy whodunit, with charley eiseman