The Secret Garden Magazine

Michel Flores Tavizon

Patricia Monet Ramon

Karla Cavazos Ramiro Barrera

Yazmin Sanchez Cortez Manuel Gamez

Steven Hughes

Lovette Mai Sanez

Maria Teresa Ruiz

Angela Lopez

Jesus Amaya

Cecilia Sierra Pedro Casares

About The Secret Garden

Who are we?

TheSecret Garden launched in 1922 in Des Moines, Iowa, as Fruit, Garden and Home by Edwin Meredith, who wanted a product that door-to-door magazine salesmen could offer the woman who answered. For one hundred years, The Secret Garden has been stimulating creativity, delivering know-how, and sharing fresh ideas that you can make your own. We power your passion to live a better, more beautiful, and colorful life.

The Secret Garden is a go-to resource for home ideas, food and recipes for everyday and special occasions, and garden knowhow that can’t be rivaled. Our early

magazines dealt almost exclusively with garden topics, but as the years—and our name and logo— progressed, we’ve been busy adding to our encyclopedia of home helpers. We built a first-of-its-kind “tastetesting kitchen” in 1928, and by the 1970s, we had over 7 million magazine subscribers. We erected a halfacre test garden in the middle of Des Moines, Iowa, in 1998, and in all the years between filled our pages with ideas for elevating everyday living.

Beyond the page, The Secret Garden continues to be a trusted brand for readers around the world, across various platforms. With over 13 million followers across social platforms, a newly launched podcast, The Better Buy, and the second largest licensed brand in the world (License Global), BHG is a leading authority on all things home. In addition to a robust real estate presence, our 20+ year collaboration with Walmart continues to offer a wide range of products (more than 3,000 items!) and in April 2022 we launched our first-ever collaboration with “Fixer to Fabulous’” Dave and Jenny Marrs.

BY: ANDREA BECK

Whenyou focus on creating an easy-care landscape, you’ll have more time for relaxing outdoors and less yard work to do. These simple garden design tips will help you keep maintenance to a minimum, while creating a beautiful landscape you’ll enjoy throughout the seasons.

01 of 10 Know Your Site

Take the time to really get to know the weather, light, and soil conditions of your site. When plants are paired with their desired growing conditions, they’ll thrive with a lot less help from you. So for example, if you have quick-draining sandy soil that bakes in full sun, plant drought- and heat-tolerant varieties. Damp shaded spaces will require a different palette of plants.

02 of 10 Make a Master Plan

Successful landscapes start with a well thought-out plan. Even a simple sketch of your property will do the trick. Include any structures, existing trees and shrubs, and garden elements. Add outdoor living areas, pathways to access those areas, and other elements, such as a swing set or vegetable garden. Don’t hesitate to include areas that you’re not yet ready to install, but plan to create in the future. The master plan will be essential for illustrating how your landscape will come together in time.

03of 10 Choose Trees and Shrubs

Sometimes called the “bones” of a landscape, trees and shrubs have a big presence that increases over time. These long-lasting woody plants can provide decades of flowers, fragrance, and colorful foliage with minimal annual maintenance. When making your choices, look for varieties with features that will provide year-round interest, such as spring flowers, summer fruit, colorful fall foliage, and interesting bark that will brighten winter.

04 of 10 Rely on Native Plants

05 of 10 Focus Your Efforts

The beauty of landscaping with native plants is that these varieties are most likely accustomed to the weather and soil conditions in your area. Be sure to site the plants in their preferred sun exposure, and you’re well on your way to a trouble-free garden that thrives year after year. Also, these plants are the best for supporting pollinators and other beneficial wildlife.

Focus on creating one or two key garden areas that offer impact, rather than placing multiple beds and borders in all corners of your property. A perennial and shrub border along your front walkway, or near the front door, is always a good choice. The area immediately surrounding your porch, deck, or patio is also a great spot for landscaping.

10 Group Similar Plants Together

06 of

07of 10 Install a Border

Cluster plants with similar needs together. Grouping containers simplifies watering, and it allows pots to shade one another, which reduces the need for watering. Planting in groups of odd numbers and repeating those plants throughout your beds is most pleasing to the eye.

Delineate shrubs, perennial beds, vegetable patches, and other garden spaces with a border. This might be as simple as a spaded edge that separates the lawn from your planting beds, or you might use metal edging, stone, or brick to create a lasting border. A defined bed edge plays two important roles in the landscape: It provides a clean finish for your garden areas and it prevents grass and other weeds from creeping in.

08 of 10 Blanket the Soil

Bare soil is an invitation for weeds to move in. A lush groundcover, such as easy-togrow creeping thyme or low-growing sedum, adds color and texture below perennials and shrubs, while helping to prevent weeds from germinating. A two- to three-inch layer of shredded wood mulch, cocoa hulls, or pine straw also helps reduce weed growth.

09 of 10 Plan to Prune

10 of 10 Add Plenty of Compost

Rich in nutrients that plants need to thrive, compost is an essential addition to almost any garden. It keeps plants healthy, and healthy plants are easier to care for. Search for quality compost through your local municipality or garden center, or you could start your own compost bin.

If you trim your plants back at least once a year, you’ll save yourself a bigger hassle down the road, when an overgrown shrub or vine can demand drastic action. Some plants require more pruning than others, so factor this into your selections. The best time to prune flowering trees and shrubs is just after they bloom. Prune shade trees and evergreens in mid to late spring.

Howto

BY: VIVEKA NEVELN

Make a Simple Rain Garden to Solve Storm Water Problems

Plant a landscape that can catch and filter runoff. You’ll help reduce water pollution while enjoying a more colorful yard.

Whenever

it rains, all that water has to go somewhere.

Our homes, patios, driveways, and other hard surfaces prevent water from seeping into streams and underground aquifers. Instead, the rainwater usually runs off into storm drains and sewers, often carrying pollution with it that can contaminate water supplies. Creating a rain garden in your yard is a practical and beautiful solution. This watersmart landscape feature is designed to catch and filter rainwater runoff with the help of native plants.

Plus, your rain garden will provide a home to birds, butterflies. and other beneficial creatures. Use these easy steps to design your own eco-friendly rain garden.

1. Choose the Right Site for Your Rain Garden

Take a good look at your yard: Do any low areas in it have a little standing water after a heavy rain? That could be a natural place to start a rain garden. You also want the site to be in full sun to part shade and at least 10 feet away from your house. Finally, locate your rain garden down a slope from a downspout, ditch—or other outlet for water— running off hard surfaces on your property.

2. Prepare Your Soil

Remove any lawn or other vegetation from the spot where you’d like to create a rain garden. Clay soils work best because they have a slower percolation rate, allowing water to slowly drain. If you are unsure of the type of soil you have, complete a soil test, which can usually be done for a small fee through your state’s extension service. If you have loose, sandy soil, you will

need to add water-absorbing compost and topsoil to the rain garden area. Dig out the soil to a depth of 6 inches, gently sloping down from the outside edges to the center where it should be deepest. Use the loose soil to create a low berm on the lowest side of the rain garden. As water flows into your new rain garden, the berm will help hold it long enough to seep into the soil. If you make the garden deeper than 6 inches, mosquitos could become a problem because it will take the water longer to completely percolate down and evaporate enough.

3. Select Native Flowering Plants and Grasses

The best rain garden plants are those that can tolerate wet sites. Many native plants from boggy habitats work well. Try to use native grasses, sedges, and rushes in at least one-third to one-half of the rain garden. These plants have very deep root systems that help water seep down into the soil. Also, select plants with different types of foliage, texture, and colorful flowers for the prettiest look.

BY:KELLY ROBERSON

4. Add in Marginal Plants

Other good plant choices for a rain garden include marginal plants that aren’t necessarily native. These plants typically grow near the margin, or edge, of a pond, and tolerate both extremes of moisture: They thrive in soggy soil but are content in dry spells too, bouncing back when water becomes available again. Such plants include ‘Bengal Tiger’ canna, scarlet rose mallow, yellow flag iris or Siberian iris, cardinal flower, and obedient plant.

5. Plan and Plant Your Rain Garden

In the final step to designing a rain garden, arrange the plants how you’d like them, spacing according to label directions. Consider planting in larger drifts of five to seven plants for a more natural look and the best overall impact. Once you’ve gotten all plants in the ground, water well and add a layer of mulch. If the weather is dry for the first couple of weeks after planting, continue watering to help your new plants get established. Remove any weeds that pop up. After your rain garden’s first summer, it won’t need much additional care other than cutting back old, dead growth in spring.

Smart MoneySaving Strategies When Shopping for Plants

By: Mia Taylor

Asyou’re walking the aisles of the nursery or garden center, be on the lookout for plants that look particularly full. Once you get your purchase home, you may be able to separate it into pieces, essentially giving you two (or more) plants for the price of one. This works best with annuals and perennials that have multiple stems growing up from the pot.

“I always like to buy the plants that are about to bust out of their pot, which means I can divide them into two or more sections before planting them in my garden,” explains Andrychowicz.

Look for plants that can be divided.

Save seeds and let plants go to seed.

Research plants before going shopping.

Buying the wrong plants for your garden will end up wasting money. Before you start shopping, you’ll want to identify plants that are hardy in your region and will thrive in the amount of sunlight and type of soil you have. Taking this step will help save you from buying plants that are likely to die because they’re not right for your climate or local growing conditions.

“Researching plants ahead of time can inform you about which plants have natural disease resistance, drought resistance, or benefit native pollinator species,” says Hillary Swetz, a certified Master Gardener and creator of the frugal living website Homegrown Hillary.

The natural order of a plant is to try and make more of itself. Allowing some of the plants you’re growing go to seed so that you can then use those seeds elsewhere in your yard is one way to save money on plant purchases. Collecting and propagating cuttings, tubers, bulbs, and rhizomes from your existing plants are also good ways to get more of the plants you love without having to spend a fortune on plant shopping, explains Swetz.

Buy plants from local nurseries.

Local growers often specialize in plants that perform well in your exact location. Therefore, they do a lot of research, trial-and-error testing, and chatting with experts to find the best species and varieties, says Swetz. All of which means that doing your plant shopping at local nurseries and garden centers not only translates to better quality plants suited to your area; it’s also likely to be more budget-friendly than buying through a large nationwide retailer.

“Local farmers also know proper seedstarting techniques and how to keep plants healthy for sale,” adds Swetz. “If they sell seedlings, you can bet the slightly higher price tag (compared to a big-box store) will actually be costeffective in the long run.”

Buy plants from local nurseries.

Savvy gardeners know that spring is the most expensive time of the year to buy plants. “That’s because everyone is excited to get outside in the garden after the long winter. But if you wait until after the spring rush, you’ll find that many plants will go on sale in early summer,” says Amy Andrychowicz, creator of the site Get Busy Gardening. “The selection may be smaller, but you’ll get a much bigger bang for your buck.”

Fall end-of-season sales are another opportunity to do your plant shopping for less, adds Andrychowicz. “That’s when the stores are trying to get rid of their inventory before winter, to clear their shelves for the next season of goods,” explains Andrychowicz. Plus, she points out that “fall is a great time for planting perennials, trees, and shrubs as the weather turns cooler.”

BY DANYA ISSAWI

HOW PLANTS CAN HELP PEOPLE GROW

Marcus

Bridgewater says that caring for his garden of roughly 600 plants, made up of nearly 40 different verdure varieties, is a way of caring for himself. “I believe it relates in a way of helping someone slow down to appreciate nuances that our world today does not necessarily encourage,” he said in an interview in July.

Posting as Garden Marcus on TikTok, Mr. Bridgewater, 33, has shown his 653,000 followers how planting a sweet potato vine in a new spot can help it flourish, a reminder that many living things can benefit from a change of scenery.

“It can be difficult to re-root, establish new relationships, grow beyond the old form, but it can also be what’s needed to create new and healthier roots in our future,” he said.

Mr. Bridgewater is one of several Black gardeners and farmers who have cultivated online followings in recent years.

Christopher Griffin, who posts as @plantkween, preaches the pleasures of tending to and surrounding oneself with houseplants on Instagram.

Cheyenne Sundance, the founder of a Toronto farm called Sundance Harvest, posts about food sovereignty as a form of liberation. Ron Finley, known as the Gangsta Gardener, leads a MasterClass course that has been called “one of the most popular” yet.

TikTok fame has been a relatively new development for Mr. Bridgewater; he had no idea the app existed until last December, when a college student he mentored suggested he make an account to share his gardening philosophy with the masses.

Mr. Bridgewater started learning about plant care in the garden of his adopted grandmother in Florida; some of his earliest memories from childhood are of watering the vibrant hibiscus flowers and orange trees that bloomed in her yard. But it wasn’t

until adulthood that he learned how to keep his own plants alive and help them thrive.

“I saw this kind of reciprocation,” Mr. Bridgewater, who lives in Spring, Texas, and often dons a belt buckle befitting the state, said. “I found myself finding peace in my garden.”

Here, he explains how tending to a garden can be a symbiotic relationship, one that helps both plants and people flourish in their everyday lives.

Slow down

There is a joy in watching plants, like a propagated pineapple, grow slowly over time.

“Think of how many people don’t realize they’re being impatient,” Mr. Bridgewater said. “They put a little water here, and they rush through the process.” Moving in a hurry, he said, may allow us to feel like we’re getting things done faster, but it often leads to overlooked details and backtracking.

Marcus Bridgewater, who posts on TikTok as Garden Marcus, shares tips about caring for one’s plants and oneself.

Slowing down gives you the chance to be more intentional with your next steps. “I think we are experiencing high waves of anxiety and bombardment of information regularly,” he said. “But for me, slowing down and thinking about what to do next comes seamlessly through the garden.”

Let nature be your healer

Physical wellness is an instrument to mental wellness. And it comes in handy when shoveling soil and uprooting plants all day.

Maintaining physical fitness can be achieved in traditional ways, like practicing yoga, stretching and breath work, or through slightly unorthodox methods such as walking on your toes through the garden, like Mr. Bridgewater does, to work on balance.

There are other ways to encourage physical wellbeing while tending to one’s garden. Mr. Bridgewater recommended grounding, in which one makes direct contact with the earth with their bare feet or hands.

“Our bodies are batteries, and we need to energize them,” he said.

Show compassion to others

“In a pot with 10 different plants, to just look at one plant is to sacrifice probably three others,” Mr. Bridgewater said. “If I start coddling any one of my plants, I’m likely to fail many.”

After growing up in Northern Florida, where he was often singled out for his speech impediment and for being the “token Black guy,” he came to equate living through adversity with being raised in a thorny rose bush.

“In these recent times, many of us who’ve had thorns in our side for our entire lifetime are having to go back through a process of addressing them,” Mr. Bridgewater said. “And because I have a ton of thorns all over, I am conscious of how wounded so many other people out there are.”

He said that navigating his own pain has taught him to be more compassionate toward others and their own experiences. “Many of us who have learned to grow in a pot with other people may be unrooting ourselves unintentionally because of these wounds,” he said.

8 Basic Tools Every Beginner Gardener Needs to Own

Make garden tasks easier with a few must-have tools every beginner gardener needs to have on hand. Here are the tools we swear by to get you started right.

BY VIVEKA NEVELN

If you’ve recently been bitten by the gardening bug, you’ll likely need to invest in a few tools to kick your green journey off right. What you’ll need depends on how much space you have to work with. If your garden zone is limited to a windowsill or a balcony, you don’t need much to support your dirt endeavors. Start with the first four items listed below and you should be prepared for any small-space gardening task.

If you have more space in which to grow, there are a few additional tools you may want to add to your inventory. Even beginning gardeners will need a rake to clean up leaves and other outdoor debris and a hose or portable sprinkler for watering grass and plantings. Let your space guide your needs and you can’t go wrong!

Garden Gloves

Whatever your thoughts on digging in the dirt, there are times—pulling out thorny weeds, getting your fingers around deep roots—when your hands will thank you for wearing protective gloves. Washable synthetic gloves are great for all-purpose jobs; latex will protect your hands when the garden is wet.

You can read all about different glove types and what to look for in our Garden Gloves Buyer’s Guide, but for the beginner gardener, we recommend the breathable bamboo gloves from Pine Tree Tools. They are thin enough to allow you to pick up even the tiniest object, but designed to hold up to some serious wear and tear. They’ve got great grip and protect your hands while cleaning up tree branches, laying mulch, or digging holes for plants.

Hand Pruner, Shears, or Scissors

Nothing beats these for cleaning up in the spring and fall, as well as removing dead branches and cutting flowers anytime of year. If you’re serious about your new gardening habit, pick up a pair of Felco F-2 Hand Pruners. They get rave reviewers for their durability, blade strength and hand-comfort handles. For a less expensive but still reliable option, try the Fiskars Bypass Pruning Shears. The no-slip grip handles make them comfortable to use and the rust-resistant blades have a non-stick coating that will keep them from getting gummed up by tree sap.

Watering Can

It’s easier to tote and aim water at balcony containers using a good-size watering can. Plastic options come in tons of sizes and colors (and they’re lightweight). We love the OXO Good Grips Outdoor Pour & Store Watering Can for its ergonomic design that makes pouring easy. It also has an adjustable nozzle that allows you to change up the intensity of the stream and is made of heavy duty plastic that will stand up to sunny days and heavy use.

Hand Trowel

No matter how much you mulch or how well you tend, you’ll have weeds—it happens. They even pop up in containers. This handy tool helps you yank out unwanted plants, roots and all. Plus, you can use it to dig holes for new plants. There are lots of different blades—flat, pointed, serrated, and triangular—and handle types. Here’s a Tip: When trying to choose a trowel, check out the handle. Go for the hardest woods. Maple and white oak, for example, are tougher than fir and pine. You don’t need pro-grade tools, either; they’re heavy and spendy. Instead, look for words like carbon steel, stainless steel, or tempered.

Sprinker and Hose

Even drought-smart plants will probably still need water from time to time. If you don’t have a sprinkler system, buy a portable unit that can be hooked up to a hose. Try an automatic timer to conserve water (set it for early morning or late at night), and choose a sprinkler with several spray settings. If you need a hose, consider the newest innovation in the space: lightweight, expandable garden hoses. Models like the Hospaip 50-foot Garden Hose expand when water is running, then retract to a fraction of their size once the water is turned off, making them easy to use and store.

Leaf Rake

Sure, it’s a no-brainer for fall cleanup. But you’ll use it in the spring, too, for removing old plant material and other debris from garden beds. Choose aluminum; it’s lighter than steel. If you think a second one would come in handy, opt for a garden rake with short tines, and use it to smooth soil before you plant.

Garden Kneeler

Save your knees with inexpensive foam pads that makes garden bed maintenance more bearable. You can find basic mat-like foam kneelers in various shapes and sizes, but we’re fans of a new breed of memory foam kneelers like the Burgon & Ball Kneelo Kneeling Cushion. With a shock-absorbing inner foam core and soft memory foam surround, this waterproof neoprene kneeler makes the tedious task of weeding much enjoyable. If you suffer from back pain or simply have trouble getting up from your knees, opt for a kneeler with handles that can also serve as a garden bench for tasks that can be accomplished while sitting rather than kneeling. Look for one like the Ohuhu Garden Kneeler and Seat that can support your weight, has adjustable seat height settings, and is made from sturdy materials that can hold up to years of use.