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Start With Organic Garden Soil and Mulch For a healthy organic vegetable garden, you need to start with healthy soil. The most important component in soil is the organic matter, such as manure, peat moss, or compost—the latter is the best option, because it contains decayed microorganisms of previous plant life. Those microorganisms supply plants the nutrients they need. You can create your own compost pile by designating an area or bin where organic matter will decompose....

What Is a Pressure Canner and How it Works With the boom in popularity of pressure cooking using a multi-cooker such as the Instant Pot many people assume it can be used for canning, too (that’s understandable, those appliances have a lot of functions and pressure cooking is similar, just not quite the same.). But no, you cannot pressure can in a pressure cooker, only in a pressure canner. So what is a pressure canner?...

1 14 ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained 1 cup beef broth ½ teaspoon dried savory, crushed ½ cup chopped onion ½ fresh habañero pepper, seeded and minced, or 1 to jalapeño or serrano peppers* 2 tablespoon vegetable oil Salt Chiltomate Sauce 1 14.5 ounce can fire-roasted diced tomatoes, undrained 1 tablespoon cider vinegar ½ teaspoon bottled habanero chili sauce ¼ teaspoon salt Fresh or Fast: Fresh: Make as directed....

Read on to find out the pantry ingredient that can reduce saltiness. This works for any rich gravy, including chicken gravy or giblet gravy. How to Cut Saltiness in Gravy When making turkey gravy (or any pan gravy), avoid making your gravy too salty by waiting to add any salt until the end. The pan drippings from the bird and any added broth may be enough to properly season the gravy....

Using herbs, flowers, roots, and other plant compounds for health and healing is therapy as old as time. And whether people are making tinctures or their own herbal capsules or purchasing them online or from stores, the lure of the healing power of herbs and botanicals is predicted to continue for generations. “Herbs and botanicals are quite consistently the fastest-growing categories within supplements,” says Bill Giebler, Content & Insights Director at Nutrition Business Journal (NBJ), which shows herbs and botanicals growing at 17....

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Laura Kristine Miller has been writing and editing home design content for over 10 years. Before joining the Real Simple and Better Homes & Gardens teams, she was an editor and strategist for content that focused on subscription-based companies and homeowner services across all of Meredith’s websites. For five years, Laura developed and edited articles that focused on equipment that property owners could use to maintain their acreages. Laura fell in love with all things home as the associate editor of Better Homes & Gardens’ special interest magazine, Refresh....

In midsummer, this shrubby plant can be topped with button-like yellow blossoms that some gardeners think detracts from the overall appeal. Lavender cotton may not even bloom in areas where it is borderline hardy. Lavender Cotton Care Must-Knows When planting lavender cotton, consider its native Mediterranean climate where it prefers well-drained and gritty soil. It will not tolerate excessive moisture. This is especially important during wintertime because this plant does not like wet winters and is likely to die from root rot....

Maggie Meyer Glisan graduated from the University of Missouri with a journalism degree, with an emphasis on magazine design. She also minored in business, which has equipped her to become an entrepreneur.

1 ½ cup all-purpose flour ½ teaspoon salt ¼ cup shortening ¼ cup butter, cut up, or shortening ¼ cup ice water Crust (Pick One): Half of a 15-ounce package rolled refrigerated unbaked pie crust (1 pie crust)Pastry for a Single-Crust Pie (page xx)Purchased frozen 9-inch unbaked pie shell. (Remove 1/2 cup fruit mixture before adding to pie shell; place the 1/2 cup filling in a 6-ounce custard cup and sprinkle with some of the crumb topping....

¼ cup maple syrup ¼ cup water

To smooth the transition from pots to garden, add compost into the planting holes for your roses and clematis. Make planting holes at least twice as wide as the pot they came out of, then backfill halfway with a 50-50 blend of topsoil and compost. Reduce transplant shock by watering your newly planted roses and clematis with a transplant fertilizer. Vitamin B-1 is usually a key ingredient in these fertilizers....