They're a popular source of blues, purples, pinks and other colours in the fall garden ... although, as far as botanists are concerned, most of them aren't actually asters.

NEW FROM Empress of Dirt: Planting Potted Mums Outdoors as Year-Round Perennials

Keiki paste is used to propagate certain kinds of orchids -- but what's in it, does it really work, and can we use it on other plants?

NEW FROM Empress of Dirt: How to Grow Pineapple As a Houseplant

There are more species of rust fungi than any other plant pathogen. Once you have it, there's not much you can do about it, but you can make things more challenging for the rust.

NEW FROM Empress of Dirt: 10 Spectacular Fast-Growing Flowers

Willow water, honey and many others are touted as natural alternatives to rooting hormone. But do they work as well as rooting hormones -- or at all?

NEW FROM Empress of Dirt: How to Harvest Sweet Pea Seeds

Rooting hormones an easy way to improve the odds that our cuttings will take root -- and also to speed up the process a little bit.

NEW FROM Empress of Dirt: 20 Easy Plant Propagation Tutorials for Gardeners

There's a whole slew of amendments to buy or make -- and many do some good for our plants. But there's also a lot to be said for keeping things simple.

NEW FROM Empress of Dirt: Make a Robin Nesting Shelf (Free Plans)

You hear all the time that some plants need well-drained soil, but what does that mean, exactly? How do we know if we have it and what can we do about it?

NEW FROM Empress of Dirt: How to Harvest Zinnia Seeds

They're the world's most abundant animal. Almost all of us have nematodes in our gardens. They do a lot of good for the soil but some of them can badly damage your plants.

NEW FROM Empress of Dirt: How to Cure Winter Squash for Storage

It has lots of enthusiastic supporters among gardeners -- and it also gets called snake oil. Can we come to any conclusions about compost tea?

NEW FROM Empress of Dirt: How to Ripen Tomatoes After Picking

What does scientific research tell us about the effectiveness of Epsom salt in the garden?

NEW FROM Empress of Dirt: How to Grow Mums From Cuttings