Grow your own pest control, and perhaps never buy bug spray again! Look: mosquitoes are awful. They may be great food for birds and bats, but you don’t want them hanging around your backyard. You also don’t want to cover yourself in harsh chemicals to repel them. So, aside from making your property less friendly to the buggers by getting rid of any standing water (including those rain gutters!), what can you do to keep them away? It turns out...

GARDEN & HOME Lantna - A Heat Loving Plant Perfect For Summer Jason French, Greenhouse Manager Our June Plant of the Month Lantana is a genus of about 150 species of perennial flowering plants in the verbena family. They are native to tropical regions of the Americas and Africa but exist as an introduced species in numerous areas, especially in the Australian-Pacific region. The genus includes both herbaceous plants and shrubs growing to...

Are Hot Peppers Good for You? If you like to put hot spices or hot sauce on your food, you may be doing yourself a favor. Capsaicin, the alkaloid responsible for the spicy flavor in hot peppers, may offer benefits in the treatment of some diseases, according to an article published in 2011 in the journal “Molecules.” Peppers that contain capsaicin include jalapenos, habaneros, cayenne, serrano, cherry peppers and even bell peppers....

Health Benefits of Fruit Fruit has been recognized as a good source of vitamins and minerals, and for their role in preventing vitamin C and vitamin A deficiencies. People who eat fruit as part of an overall healthy diet generally have a reduced risk of chronic diseases. USDA’s MyPlate encourages making half your plate fruits and vegetables for healthy eating. Fruit are important sources of many nutrients, including potassium, fiber,...

The Power of Eating Your Fresh Vegetables Nature’s most powerful medicine, fruits and vegetables, are low in calories, high in complex carbohydrates, contain no cholesterol and almost no fat. They are rich sources of a variety of nutrients, including vitamins, trace minerals, and dietary fiber, and many other classes of antioxidants and phytochemicals. These nutrients may be your best weapon against age-related disease. A body of...