Image: statelyenglishmanor

If you're like me, you've been harvesting a bounty of beautiful tomatoes from your garden all summer – more than you could ever possibly eat before they spoil. I used to put tomatoes in everything to try and use them all up … in pasta sauce, on pizza, in salsa, in rice and a variety of other dishes. Every summer I would scramble to brainstorm new ways to use up every single tomato. But then I discovered a better way to take advantage of all those delicious tomatoes from my garden: making and freezing my own pasta sauce.

While you can make a delicious pasta sauce with canned tomatoes, nothing beats the rich taste of using fresh tomatoes. Best of all, this sauce recipe is so easy – anyone can do it and enjoy garden-fresh pasta sauce year round.

To get started, you'll need tomatoes – lots of them! You'll be roasting them in large batches in the oven, so just keep roasting batches until you use them all up.

Roasting the Tomatoes

• Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
• Core and slice the tomatoes in half and lay them cut side down on a baking sheet.
• Here's where you can use a few tricks to infuse even more flavor in your sauce. You can peel cloves of garlic and place them in the tomatoes so the flavor is absorbed during the roasting process. You can also slice an onion and place it on the sheet with the tomatoes. All of those extra steps will help pack the tomatoes with a delicious punch of flavor.
• Before sticking the pan in the oven, drizzle the tomatoes with extra virgin olive oil.
• Roast the tomatoes for 40 minutes, or until you see the skin start to brown and the tomatoes look very soft. Remove them from the oven and let them cool.
• Once they are cool enough to handle, drop the tomatoes into a food processor or blender and pulse until the sauce reaches your favorite consistency. Sometimes I like to go with a chunkier sauce and sometimes I decide to puree the tomatoes and get a very smooth sauce. It's all up to you and your preference as to how long you want to process the tomatoes.

  Using the Tomatoes for Sauces
  

  Pour the sauce into freezer-safe bags or storage containers. One trick I like to use is placing the sauce bags flat in the freezer so they freeze very thin. Then I can stand them up on their sides like books. This is a great space saver tip for those of you who have a small freezer or – like me – have a very packed freezer at all times.

  When you want to use the sauce, all you need to do is transfer a bag or container to the refrigerator to thaw. Once the sauce has thawed, you can use it just as you would use sauce from a can.

  This is a very simple sauce, so I always kick it up a notch when I'm cooking pasta. My favorite simple sauce recipe involves just a few ingredients.

  • Dice a medium onion and mince three gloves of garlic.
  • Sauté those in a little butter and extra virgin olive oil until the garlic is fragrant and the onions are translucent.
  • Add in a cup of full-bodied red wine like Cabernet Sauvignon and simmer until it reduces by half.
  • Then add your sauce – about the equivalent of three standard 14-ounce cans.
  • Finish it off by adding two tablespoons of sugar and pepper and salt to taste.
  • Cover and simmer for 30 minutes and enjoy!

Image: cq-biker

Landscaping your yard can be intimidating. If you're like me, you want low-maintenance plants that will still look beautiful in your yard.

When my husband and I bought our townhome, the yard was completely bare – all it had was grass. I researched plants that were native to our area and planted them in raised and flat beds around the yard. For the most part, I chose the cheapest plants I could find that still looked pretty, like coneflower, blanket flower, hyacinth, lilies, threadleaf tickseed, astilbe and aster.

Knockout Roses Add a Wow Factor

When I finished planting all the flowers, I wasn't totally satisfied. The yard felt underwhelming and lacked a wow factor. After a little research, I stumbled across the perfect focal point for my yard: a knockout rose.

I know what you're thinking: roses are finicky, disease-prone and high maintenance. They need a lot of work to bloom and look pretty, and even then there's no guarantee they won't get black spot and die.

But the wonders of science have given us the knockout rose, a rose bred specifically to be disease-resistant and need very little maintenance. You don't even have to prune them or do much of anything to them. The knockout rose is designed to bloom profusely from spring to fall and never need any work at all. It sounds too good to be true, right?

Putting My Knockout Rose to the Test

Even after I read about the knockout rose, I was still hesitant to give it a try. I loved roses but didn't want to deal with plants that needed a lot of work. Plus, knockout roses were way over the amount I had budgeted per plant. I'd be throwing a serious Hail Mary by taking a chance on a knockout rose.

But I decided to put the knockout rose's promise of no maintenance to the test. I wanted to plant it under my living room window so I could see the beautiful fuchsia blooms once it grew tall enough. That spot in my yard only gets part sun.

As I stood in my yard next to the giant hole my husband dug for the rose, I read on the tag that it should be planted in full sun. I didn't care. The knockout rose is supposed to be incredibly hardy in all growing conditions – this was a test of epic proportions.

I planted the rose with some manure mixed in with normal soil. I covered it with about an inch of mulch, added a liquid fertilizer and walked away. The creators of the knockout rose said the roses were drought resistant, so I didn't water it. They said I didn't need to prune it, so I didn't. They said I didn't need to do anything to it, so I ignored it entirely.

Watching my Rose Bloom and Grow

I won't lie, for the first month or so I thought that knockout rose hated me. Perhaps it was just adjusting to its new environment, but it dropped all of its blooms and seemed to glare at me every time I walked by it.

But then it started growing like a weed and blooming. In only three months it tripled in size and I can now see it out of my living room window, just like I wanted. I still haven't done anything to it.

That knockout rose cruised straight through the hot summer and has handled the crisp fall weather with ease. If you're looking for a low maintenance plant for your yard that is also beautiful, I can't recommend the knockout rose enough.

Image: max_westby

I just love seeing bees buzzing around in my garden, working hard as they collect nectar and pollen. Having bees in your garden isn’t just a nice thing to do, it can also increase the productivity of your fruits and vegetables, as without honeybees pollinating the flowers you aren't likely to see many fruits. Recently I went to our local honey show and got some great tips about how to choose the best plants for bees.

Bear in mind…

Honeybees need both nectar and pollen if their hive is going to have the proper nutrition and food through the winter. They also need to collect this food throughout the growing season, so try to pick a variety of plants that will provide sustenance to the bees for as long as possible. Of course, this has the added benefit of giving you flowers in your garden for as long as possible too!

Trees

Willow – Gives nectar and pollen from February to March. Should be planted in the fall.

Magnolia – Provides pollen between March and April. Can be planted in the fall.

Crab Apple – Bees love the delicious nectar and pollen that crab apples give from April to May. This is another tree you plant in the fall.

Winter Flowering Cherry – Great for a late or early snack of pollen, this tree flowers from November to March and can be planted in the summer.

Hazel catkins are a great source of pollen in March and April.

Bulbs

Snowdrops are an early flower with both nectar and pollen. Plant in the fall for flowers from January to April.

Chives will give bees nectar and pollen from June to August and give you a tasty ingredient for your kitchen.

Flowering Shrubs

Winter Honeysuckle gives nectar and pollen from February to April.

Lilac can then take over the job from April to June with nectar and pollen from their large beautiful flowers.

The small globes of the Orange Ball Tree are a favorite with bees and butterflies, who will lock to the flowers in May and June.

The Butterfly Bush is loved by bees too, who will descend on its flowers for nectar in July and September.

Lavender is perfect for nectar and pollen all the way from May to August, and the flowers are great for you to use to fragrance your wardrobes and drawers.

Rosemary gives flavor to chicken and lamb in your kitchen while the bees enjoy its nectar and pollen from April to May.

For a late snack, plant Hydrangeas, which flower from August to October.

Perennials

If you have a cat, they will be very grateful for a little bit of catnip now and then. The bees will be very happy as well, as they collect its nectar and pollen from June to September.

Sage flowers from May to July, and will add another herb to your garden.

Red Hot Pokers flower late in the year, giving your garden a splash of color from September to October while giving the bees the nectar and pollen that they need.

Annuals

Pansies are a source of nectar from September to May.

Violas give nectar from Aril to October and can be planted in the spring and the fall.

Don't feel like you have to have all of these plants to be helping bees. Even just a few of these trees, shrubs and flowers will help your local hive stay healthy and strong and produce delicious honey.

Want a chance to win one of our new Spray Away automatic sprinkler repellents for your garden this spring? Now's your chance! Here's how to enter:

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Happy Spring! #Win a $25 Amazon gift card: Follow @havahart_brand & RT to enter! Ends 5/31 bit.ly/hhm12  #hhmay

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When I was about ten years old, my father, still only in his forties, had a massive stroke as a result of a brain aneurism. He lost most of the use of his right arm and right leg, and his capacity for verbal communication was severely impaired. He never recovered.

It has now been over fifteen years, and though my father moves about with some difficulty, and struggles to communicate with me when I visit, it is still inspiring how well he has gotten past his disability.

As he put himself through his own recovery process, it was amazing to observe the things he learned to do all over again with only the use of one hand: tying his shoes, opening cans and jars, cutting tomatoes. It wasn’t just old, familiar tasks that he delved back into, either.

The aftermath of his stroke introduced my father to hobbies that he had never had in his earlier life. Primarily, he has become something of a foodie, and so his kitchen is his playground throughout the year. But if I visit his home in the spring or summer, chances are good that I’ll find him hard at work in his garden.

For All Seasons

I’m not even sure when he started it. It’s been so long now that it just seems like it’s always been a presence in his home, though I have watched the space expand over time. And its presence truly is constant.

From the last harvest to the first planting, my father composts his trash in preparation for the next season. He collects so much produce from the garden that he keeps busy in the autumn canning the excess, and is well prepared when winter comes. It gives me confidence that he rarely has cause to feel stifled or limited by his disabilities.

For Health

In addition to encouraging healthy eating, my father’s garden helps him to get frequent exercise that does not put excessive demands on him. Digging in the dirt and tending to a fairly large patch of earth demands repeated standing and kneeling.

With impairments to extremities, stroke victims are at risk of further cardio-vascular problems and tissue damage if the disable limbs remain immobile. My father’s right leg is probably much stronger and his knee more flexible because of his gardening than they would be otherwise. The same can be said of his right arm, with which he often needs to support himself with it while weeding. And he never needs to actually think about making special effort for either. It’s just a natural consequence of doing what he loves.

For Family

When I visit my father in spring or summer, even if he’s not out working in his garden, he’s certain to take me out there at some point and show off its progress. And in the cold seasons he’s sure to have some delicious food to share with me, made using his home-canned vegetables. Beyond the benefits that his garden has provided to my father, some of its greatest benefit has been to us as a family. When I visit, it reliably gives us something to talk about, and something for him to take pride in!

The truth is that even if it’s your parent, it’s difficult to relate to someone who can barely talk to you. When we’re standing together in front of his garden, though, he only needs to muster a few individual words, and I can determine what he’s saying about the yield, or about the kinds of wildlife that have been in his yard, or the size of zucchini, or the spiciness of the peppers. And whatever the news from the latest season, I can always tell that he’s happy, even on the other side of tragedy.

The value of a rich and fulfilling hobby to one who has lost much is manifold. It can give you a persistent sense of purpose, restore physical strength, and reconnect you to a community. My father’s garden has done all this for him and more, to say nothing of what it has done for his family. We’re all stronger for his having discovered that new passion … partly because we’re all very well fed!

Image: dr_television

When my husband and I purchased our first home, we were overwhelmed at the thought of caring for our own yard. Our yard was small, but it still needed to be mowed and trimmed to keep it from growing into a jungle.

We started looking at lawn mowers, trimmers and leaf blowers and quickly realized lawn equipment is expensive. Between the cost of the equipment itself and the gas needed to run it, we were looking at dropping a lot of money to keep our lawn looking neat and tidy.

Using a Reel Mower

We decided to go back to basics with our lawn care and purchased a $50 reel mower. While you might think of reel mowers as being seriously outdated, the reel mower does the job and gets our grass just as short as a gas-powered lawn mower would. It did take a few tries to figure out the best way to use the reel mower. Tips I had read online said to push the reel mower quickly over the grass, but I found doing that left chunks of tall grass behind. Instead, I push the mower at a steady pace and go back over any areas that the mower doesn't shorten to my liking the first time. 

Does it require a little extra effort? Sure. Is it worth it? Absolutely. This little reel mower will last forever. It will never need any maintenance aside from sharpening the blades, which we can easily do at home for free. The reel mower is lightweight and easy to store. We just pick it up and lean it against a wall in our garage. It's also green and good for the environment. We feel good about the fact that we're reducing our carbon footprint by choosing not to use a gas lawn mower.

Using an Electric Trimmer and Broom

We also went back to basics with our trimmer, which is electric. At only $20, it won't plow through any major trimming jobs, but it trims around my flowerbeds and raised beds just fine. By choosing an electric trimmer we're saving on gas costs and reducing emissions.

We also decided not to get a leaf blower and use an old-fashioned broom instead. We could have purchased an electric leaf blower, but when faced with the choice of purchasing a leaf blower or using an old broom for free, the choice was easy.

Of course, using a broom requires extra effort. I generally move our patio furniture out of the way to make sure I can sweep all the grass off our patio. But it's satisfying to put a little extra elbow grease into getting the patio clean and tidy.

There are many reasons to go back to basics when it comes to lawn care. By choosing to purchase more simple products to care for your lawn, you'll save hundreds of dollars. Not only will you save on the initial equipment purchases, but you won't face any maintenance expenses down the road. Gas lawn mowers can be very expensive to repair, whereas reel mowers cost little if anything to repair. Going back to basics will also reduce carbon emissions and save you from buying expensive gasoline to power your lawn equipment.

You only have to spend about five minutes with my mom to realize that this is one lady who loves her garden. She can recite chapter and verse on the latest gardening techniques, and whenever you do a favor for her, she sometimes responds with “Thank you very mulch!” I’m not sure if this is intentional, or the gardening version of a Freudian slip.

An Unwanted Rabbit Intrusion

So, you can imagine my mom’s total dismay at not being able to get rid of a rogue rabbit that terrorized her garden for months on end. In the past, she had little trouble with rabbits, probably because she had a high fence built around the garden’s perimeter. She even enjoyed the occasional rabbit sighting in her backyard, figuring her cherished plants and vegetables had nothing to fear.

One morning, my mom’s whole attitude toward the cute, floppy-eared critters took a decided turn for the worse. When she ventured out to do her daily gardening chores, she noticed that something had enjoyed a hearty meal of her carrots, radishes and other assorted plants and flowers. The telltale pellet-shaped droppings informed her that a rabbit was the culprit, somehow finding its way over, under or around the fence. The battle lines had been drawn!

The Face-to-Face Meeting

A short time later, my mom returned to the garden to further survey the damage left by the intruder. As soon as she walked through the gate, she saw him—a large tannish-colored rabbit, lustily chomping on a mouthful of vegetation. They stared at each other impassively, no doubt sizing each other up. Then, my mom made a quick move toward Mr. Rabbit, only to watch him scamper through the open gate and on to freedom.

The Ongoing Saga

Throughout the spring and well into the summer, the rabbit returned again and again to fill his belly. Had my mom known about effective rabbit repellent techniques like a motion detector sprayer or the liquid repellent that affects their sense of taste and smell, her problem could have been solved quickly. Instead, she tried her own method of combining Tabasco sauce, dish liquid and water and spraying it around her garden. She even tried placing a radio in the garden and turning up the volume to try to scare her tormentor away, but nothing seemed to work.

As a last resort, she stationed Boots, her uninspired 12-year-old cat, inside the garden in hopes that his presence would frighten the rabbit. Unfortunately, when she returned to the garden, Boots was fast asleep on top of her gardening jacket she’d left behind. As a “watch cat” Boots left much to be desired.

Setting the Trap

My brother and I decided that the only way to help my mom get rid of this rascally rabbit once and for all was to trap it. We constructed a crude trap consisting of a box propped up by a stick and placed a few carrots inside.

After a couple of weeks of “false alarms” which only rendered an empty box, my mom excitedly called my brother one day to inform him that the trap contained the elusive prey. My brother came over later that day and transported the rabbit to a wooded area several miles from my mom’s home, where he presumably lived a long and happy remainder of his life while terrorizing every inch of vegetation in sight.

Want a chance to win one of our new Spray Away automatic sprinkler repellents for your garden this spring? Now's your chance! Here's how to enter:

1. Visit Havahart® on Twitter

2. Become a follower!

3. Re-tweet the following message (be sure to include the entire message!) between April 1, 2012 at 11:00 AM (EST) and April 30, 2012 at midnight, 12:00 AM (EST):

Happy Spring! #Win a $25 Amazon gift card: Follow @havahart_brand & RT to enter! Ends 4/30 bit.ly/HpHIiI #hhspring

The winner will be chosen at random and announced on May 2, 2012 at 11:00AM (EST). Only one entry per person; multiple entries will not be counted!

Thanks for participating, and for joining Havahart® on Twitter!

For the fine print details of our Twitter Contest, please download our Official Twitter Contest Terms and Conditions.

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Do you live in an apartment or house with a really small yard, but still would love to garden? Is your schedule so busy that you rarely spend time at home, but enjoy fresh produce? Is your thumb any color but green? Perhaps container gardening is the answer for you.

So What’s Container Gardening and Why is it So Great?

Container gardening is exactly what it sounds like: it’s growing produce strictly in a container or planter instead of putting the plants in the ground. I love container gardening because it can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. Take it from me, when you first start out, keep it simple by only planting a few varieties. After you have one season under your belt, get more adventurous and add a few more different plants to the mix.

Another reason why I love container gardening is how flexible it is. You can have your garden just about anywhere … balcony, front porch, even your rooftop!

It’s Easy to Get Started with These Supplies

You’ll just need some basic supplies, like plant containers (get the ones that allow for water to drain), soil and seedlings. You should also pick up some fertilizer if you’d like to give your plants that extra edge. To add visual dimension to your garden, vary the height of your plant placements with some plant stands. And, of course, you’ll need a watering can of some sort!

Choosing the Right Container For You

Everyone has different opinions on what kind of planter or container to use in their garden. You just need to remember to get a container that is large enough for the plant and that will let the soil drain. You can be as creative as you like … I once saw a recycled toilet used as a planter!

You usually get what you pay for when purchasing planters. If you choose cheap plastic or terra cotta, your pot may not withstand the wear and tear of being outside all summer long. I prefer using enamel covered ceramic pots because they are durable. When I did not have the money for a ceramic container, I recycled a five-gallon bucket or a large plastic bin then poked holes in the bottom for drainage.

How I Started Container Gardening

As a country girl, I grew up gardening. When I moved to an apartment that had a small balcony for my yard, I missed being able to grow a garden. My first summer on my own, I ended up eating canned vegetables instead of fresh vegetables. The fresh ones cost too much.

The next March, I saw a magazine article about container gardening, so I had to give it a try. I hit the thrift store and purchased three big planters. Instead of trying to start everything by seed, I used the money I saved buying used pots to buy plants.

The space I had available was very sunny, so the vegetables I chose preferred a lot of sun. (You will need to think about the amount of sun you have available for your garden when you pick plants to grow.) I grew tomatoes and peppers.

In October, I was still bringing tomatoes and peppers to my co-workers. Although I was tired of eating tomatoes and peppers, I was hooked on container gardening. The next year, I added a bit of leaf lettuce seed into the same pots so I could make salads. I planted the lettuce around the base of the other plants so that I used all my available space.

Years later, I have a yard. Even though I grow a larger garden, I still keep my tomatoes, peppers and lettuce in containers near my back door for easy access!

Some of My Best Tips on Container Gardening

With time and consistency, anyone can grow a container garden. Here are a few hints to help you out!

• Use a potting mix (without soil in it) in your containers. The mixture will stay moist, but still drains adequately to prevent root rot.
• Top the potting mix with mulch to keep moisture in longer.
• If you use a large planter, put the pot where you want it and then fill it with soil and plants. It will be heavy and hard to move otherwise.
• If you choose to use fertilizer, make sure you follow the manufacturer instructions.
• Prune your plants if they begin to look overgrown. They will stay healthier this way.
• Have fun with it! Gardening can be a great way to de-stress.