This week, the University of Connecticut master gardener program celebrates the graduation of 186 newly certified master gardeners. Members of this year’s class came from throughout Connecticut to attend classes at the Bethel, Brooklyn, Haddam and more

In September I wrote about an unsettling incident in which I’d found high levels of lead in the chard I’d grown in a backyard planter box filled with store-bought soil. According to the head of the lab that did the testing, I shouldn’t have eaten more

AREA VACCINE CLINICS: H1N1 influenza vaccine clinics will be held Nov. 9 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. in the Underwood City Hall and and Nov. 12 from 3 to 5 p.m. in Zion Lutheran Church in Towner. The First District Health Unit offices of McLean County and more

After a recent successful harvest, it was time to give the rooftop garden a little tender loving care. Fred Bové, my garden teacher from the San Francisco Permaculture Guild, had helped me pick fruit off trees, vegetables from vines and harvest two more

Without a major investment in time, labor or money, you and your imagination can run Picking a poinsettia: Choose plants with colorful bracts and dark, rich green foliage. The plant should be full and balanced on all sides. Avoid those with more