ALABAMA ARTICLE ARCHIVE

Below you will find our growing collection of Alabama-specific articles. Enjoy!

BORDERS FOR BUTTERFLIES

Story by Peggy Hill I live in rural Alabama, the boonies. When you leave my house, you are on a gravel road for a half a mile. There are no houses or fields on this stretch of road. It’s old, undeveloped timberland, still checkerboarded with pine trees. I walk my dogs down that road almost …

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PARADISE FOUND

A continuing garden profile Story and Photography by Peggy Hill Long-time readers of Alabama Gardener magazine might recall an article in the September 2011 issue about Barry and Connie Methvin’s quirky, imaginative garden titled Paradise Found. The article focused on how they created an amazing garden by decorating with art fashioned from found objects. It’s …

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CURB CLEANERS

Curbside plantings that filter the pollutants of the street Story by Rachel Williams Natural chi flows to our homes right at its start – the curb! Unfortunately so does pollution. An easily dismissed aspect of this is noise pollution, which we can never totally drown out. Constant noise has many negative impacts, including hearing loss, …

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PUT A CHERRY ON TOP

The appeal of miniature tomatoes in Alabama Story and Photos by Katharine Musso The term “cherry tomato” commonly refers to a group of plants bearing fruit from as large as 1½ inches to as small as ¼ inch. Technically, a true cherry tomato is the perfectly round and red fruit of the plant Solanum lycopersicum …

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BRING THE HEAT!

Growing hot and hotter peppers in the home garden Story by Katharine Musso Hot peppers are used to add heat to dishes across the globe: Mexican salsa, Ethiopian Berbere stew, and Thai red curry, to name just a few. Fresh hot peppers can be used for an authentic classic pasta sauce arrabbiata, which means “angry” …

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SOFT CARESS

A profile of ‘Soft Caress’ mahonia Story and Photos by Peggy Hill Many people make the mistake of designing their gardens around flowers. They concentrate on creating pleasing blends of colors and flower shapes. While blooms are important, your focus should be on exciting foliage combinations; the flowers that come and go are merely the …

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CHOICES MATTER

Do your part in stopping the spread of invasives Story by Michelle Reynolds Take a hike in any nearby woods, and chances are good that you will see the effects of someone’s poorly thought out landscape plan. In my neck of the woods (Birmingham and central Alabama), I see escaped English ivy (Hedera helix) climbing …

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