gardening

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This Indiana Sunflower Is Off the Charts
Indiana Guy's
Sunflower Is
Off the Charts
VIDEO
Aug 11, 2025 8:33 AM CDT

Indiana Guy's Sunflower Is Off the Charts

Alex Babich sets unofficial world record at 31 feet, 1 inch—and Guinness awaits

(Newser) - If you fail to achieve your dream, try and then try again, says Fort Wayne, Indiana, resident Alex Babich, who's managed to grow the unofficial world's tallest sunflower after multiple attempts to best the US record. Babich's efforts were featured in a 2024 award-winning documentary called Bloom,...

To Chill, You May Need a Kolonitradgardar

New York Times explores the popular urban garden plots in Sweden

(Newser) - The New York Times is introducing its readers to what is likely an unfamiliar term in the quest to find some personal peace: kolonitradgardar. The word essentially means urban garden, and the story focuses on Sweden's particular version of it. The nation instituted the program around the start of...

The Scope of Home Depot's Garden Business Is Shocking

The company spends years developing plants that will turn anyone into a green thumb

(Newser) - Home Depot sells massive quantities of paint, lumber, and tools. But one category outpaces them all: its garden business. The flowers, shrubs, soil, grills, and patio furniture sold by the retailer is a roughly $20 billion business. As Ben Cohen writes for the Wall Street Journal , "it's...

Couple's Eye-Popping Potato Isn't a Potato After All

New Zealand couple's dreams 'turn to mash'

(Newser) - When is a potato not a potato? When it's a tuber of a gourd, according to Guinness World Records. A New Zealand couple who believed they had dug up the world's largest potato in the garden of their small farm near Hamilton have had their dreams turned to...

Enormous Pumpkin Disqualified From Winning $20K Prize

Tiny crack means no cash for would-be winner

(Newser) - It’s a great pumpkin—the heaviest in the US, even. Its grower, Mike Schmit of Wisconsin, says “it weighs in at about 2,520 pounds,” ABC7 reports. But that great pumpkin will not win any prizes, thanks to a tiny, tiny crack. To win the Safeway World...

Queen Guitarist Suffers Unfortunate Garden Injury

'I managed to rip my Gluteus Maximus to shreds,' says Brian May

(Newser) - Queen guitarist Brian May has been hospitalized, but this has nothing to do with the coronavirus. The British rocker took to Instagram Thursday to announce he'd ripped a butt muscle. "I managed to rip my Gluteus Maximus to shreds in a moment of over-enthusiastic gardening," wrote the...

Have $1,600 for a Tree? France Is Calling

Marie Antoinette's private garden is finally being revived

(Newser) - Marie Antoinette's reign ended badly—the queen of France was guillotined for treason in 1793—but her taste in gardening lives on, the New York Times reports. A private garden designed to her liking is being rebuilt at Versailles, and after years of debate, caretakers have decided her taste...

National Guard Raids Grandma's Garden—for a Single Pot Plant

Margaret Holcomb, 81, says it eases her arthritis

(Newser) - Margaret Holcomb is an 81-year-old grandmother in Amherst, Mass., who says she has been growing one marijuana plant in her raspberry patch for years because it soothes her arthritis and glaucoma and also helps her sleep at night. So when a military-style helicopter descended on her garden (which is fenced...

Woman Dies After Gardening Scratch Leads to Sepsis

Blood test finally revealed problem, but it came too late

(Newser) - Lucinda Smith, a 43-year-old attorney and mother of two in the United Kingdom, was gardening in March of last year when she suffered a minor scrape on her hand. After feeling pain in her shoulder she visited her general practitioner, who diagnosed a pinched nerve and sent her home with...

Scientists Coax First Flower to Bloom in Outer Space

A month ago the zero-gravity zinnia plants weren't looking so good

(Newser) - Back in 2014, through a NASA project called Veggie, scientists began to grow plants in space—red romaine lettuce, to be specific. It took two attempts to get it right, though even the setbacks provided valuable data for the scientists back at home. So astronaut Scott Kelly's ability to...

TV Crew Spots Hallucinogenic at Queen's Palace

But 'magic' mushroom likely grew on its own, expert says

(Newser) - "Care for a mushroom, your highness?" Queen Elizabeth II may well decline after a television crew discovered a so-called "magic" mushroom in her palace gardens. "I won’t be eating any of that," said celebrity gardener Alan Titchmarsh upon noticing Amanita muscaria, a toadstool with red...

Michelle Presents Letterman's Top 10

She offers some fun facts about gardening

(Newser) - Michelle Obama's media blitz continued last night on David Letterman's Late Show, where she presented the night's Top 10 list, "Fun Facts About Gardening." The list included No. 7: "In his lifetime, the average American will eat half a radish," No. 4: "...

National Mall's $700M Plan: Skating, Theater, Gardens

'Overused' lawn set for major renovations

(Newser) - The National Mall is getting a serious facelift: Soon, we'll be going skating, watching outdoor theater, and exploring vibrant gardens in America's so-called "front yard." The $700 million project will mark a big change from the "overused" grass currently between the Lincoln Memorial and Capitol...

Michelle Writing Book on White House Garden

Charity volume will give tips on community gardening, keeping healthy

(Newser) - Barack Obama's not the only Obama who can write a book, and now Michelle Obama is taking her turn, the AP reports. The illustrated tome from Crown Publishing Group will tell the story of the White House garden, Obama says, answering questions like: “How did we do it? Why...

Hottest Trend in Dining: Gardens

According to chefs, who say they're cheap, and popular

(Newser) - Chefs have responded to the local food movement by going as local as it gets: their own gardens. In a survey of 2,000 chefs by the National Restaurant Association, a third identified gardening as the top restaurant trend of 2010, the AP reports. Growing produce, they’ve discovered, is...

Big Bird to Michelle: Are You Part Bird?
 Big Bird 
 to Michelle: 
 Are You Part Bird? 
WATCH THE VIDEO
Nov 10, 2009 10:09 AM CST

Big Bird to Michelle: Are You Part Bird?

First Lady Obama makes her Sesame Street gardening appearance

(Newser) - Michelle Obama’s much-hyped guest stint on Sesame Street airs today, and as promised, she helps Elmo plant a garden—and assures Big Bird that they’re not related, even though they’re both tall. Watch the clip above.

First Lady to Garden on Sesame Street

Michelle Obama will educate the residents on the value of healthy eating

(Newser) - What do Michelle Obama, Cameron Diaz, Eva Longoria Parker, Ricky Gervais, and Kobe Bryant have in common? All of them will appear on this season of Sesame Street, its 40th anniversary. The first lady will flex her green thumb and talk about gardening and eating healthy on the show’s...

Michelle Obama's Garden: Policy Move or Photo Op?

(Newser) - Michelle Obama’s vegetable garden had its first big harvest recently, and so far, it’s the most tangible food policy move the Obama administration has delivered, Salon reports. President Obama came to office promising real reform that so far hasn’t materialized. The more patient  in the progressive food...

Plant Your Own Beer Garden

  Plant Your Own Beer Garden 
Jul 2, 2009 12:14 PM CDT

Plant Your Own Beer Garden

Even if you don't drink, hop vines can be an attractive garden addition

(Newser) - Sure, anyone can buy a home beer-making kit. But why not go one step further and grow the hops yourself? That’s what Ben Granger, owner of a specialty beer shop, decided to do when he turned to home brewing. “I wanted to know what I was working with,...

Plants Warn Each Other: Study
 Plants Warn Each Other: Study 
Jun 22, 2009 7:11 AM CDT

Plants Warn Each Other: Study

(Newser) - They can't quite tweet, but plants have sophisticated means of communication nonetheless, reports the Telegraph . A new study suggests they use complex chemical signals to discuss both predators and pollinators. In one test, sagebrush shrubs whose neighbors had their leaves clipped, as if by grasshoppers, appeared to grow more...

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