Some onions won't last -- you know, the ones whose tops didn't brown down thoroughly before harvest, and may still look more like a scallion's stalk. Solution: onion soup, specifically David Lebovitz's easy version from "My Paris Kitchen," his latest book (get the recipe, and enter to win a copy, too).  

choice garden-sized maples for every situation 

I have a foliage thing, probably more so than for flowers, so no surprise that a genus of trees I'm particularly passionate about is Acer, or maple, and especially the so-called Japanese maples -- which do technically flower, but not in the obvious way of a magnolia or dogwood. I invited Adam Wheeler of Broken Arrow Nursery to my radio show to talk maples, and here's what I learned.

miss these last issue?

• the September garden chores: opportunity month!
• when marigolds and history meet (Untermyer Gardens)