The Smithsonian’s first and only botanical illustrator brings her subjects to life in all their scientific glory

Urban growing takes a lot of careful planning, hard work, and the right tools (not to mention a little creativity) to get everything growing successfully.

Guy decides to convert his "useless" lawn into a veggie garden that hosts a slew of vegetables from Carrots & Beats to Lettuce and Radishes. Although this may look great during the gardening season, I highly doubt it will look good during the "off season" months. I still have to say, his efforts are commendable.

A plant which produces both potatoes and tomatoes, described as a “veg plot in a pot”, has been launched in the UK. The TomTato can grow more than 500 sweet cherry tomatoes while producing white potatoes.

This exotic plant from Southeast Asia has a massive bloom that emits an odor of decaying flesh. The plant is being adopted as a cash crop because of its large edible root. Scroll down the page for the full gallery of photos.

Instructions to build a tiered strawberry planter box. Get those berries out of the dirt.

The space agency has announced plans to grow turnips, basil and cress on the moon by 2015.

Sheet mulching is a technique of laying organic material in layers on the ground to build up a raised bed of rich soil for your plants. Hugelkultur is an extension of this technique, where a gardener builds quite tall raised beds using logs and dead branches as the first layer in this bed.

View pictures of cannabis plant problems, or use the (Beta) "Plant Doctor" interactive tool to narrow down your results.

Sean Law is proud of the natural garden that he has grown over the past few years, but his neighbors are less than thrilled with the looks and effects of what they see as a messy yard. According to the Orlando Sentinel, in the past year Sean has amassed nearly $130,000 in Longwood, Florida code-enforcement fines for his yard garden because of trash, debris, weeds and overgrown grass.

Learn exactly what you need to do to produce buds that have the best taste and smell possible! Find out which tactics actually increase the terpene content of buds during the flowering stage, avoid common growing mistakes, and learn about strains that have become legendary due to their unique taste and smell!

There are some ingredients I cook with so often I can never buy too many of them, and most of them are produce. Onions, garlic and fresh herbs are staples in a lot of dishes, and they may be inexpensive, but when you use them on a daily basis it can add up. Some foods are easy to regrow at home from leftover scraps, and some of them can even be grown right on your kitchen counter.

Who needs gas when you've got biofuel? The EcoMow Harvester trims your lawn and transforms the clippings into pellets, which can then be burned for power.

Say "No" to Miracle-Gro for growing marijuana! For those who are having trouble deciding which nutrients to get (or figuring out whether they need nutrients at all), this article will guide new growers through cannabis nutrient choices proven to work well for growing cannabis in different setups (soil, hydro, coco coir, etc).

For cannabis growers - Learn how to identify male & female plants by their pre-flowers, and discover what growers can do to prevent hermies (plants that display both male and female parts).

Hong Kongers are finding inventive ways to grow sweet potatoes, mangoes, and other edible goodies in an urban jungle.

Ripping up weeds on your way home sounds therapeutic after a crappy day at work.

There's time this month to do the prep work before the planting and growing season gets going.

If you love cooking then you'll know how nice it is to have fresh herbs on hand for that extra special touch. How amazing would it be to have your own personal little herb garden right in your kitchen? Not only would it smell amazing, it would give your home a boost of green spring energy that we're all craving right now.

Some weeds can grow without invading native plants.

Once-in-a-lifetime blooms on an 80-year-old American agave plant at the University of Michigan's Matthaei Botanical Gardens have yet to open, but anticipation for the big event has drawn huge crowds to the Ann Arbor gardens.

VEGETARIANS, get off your moral high-horses. It turns out that plants can hear themselves being eaten.

An American agave plant housed at the University of Michigan since 1934 started to bloom Tuesday afternoon. The blooms so far are "low-key" with yellow anthers sticking out, Joe Mooney, a spokesman for Matthaei Botanical Gardens, said Wednesday. The anther is the part of the stamen where pollen is produced.

When Ryan Kuck’s young twins both tested positive for elevated lead levels in their blood he was worried — but not surprised. A longtime urban gardener in Philadelphia, Kuck regularly encounters problems caused by the rampant lead contamination of his city’s soil. But this time, as a parent, it was different.

Hailed as the Yelp of weed, marijuana startup Leafly is running a full-age ad in the Sunday edition of The New York Times. With the western US state struggling to conserve water, locals are re-landscaping their outdoor spaces as attitudes shift about what constitutes an attractive yard.

Kale has become remarkably popular. Once a little-known speciality crop, its meteoric rise is now the subject of national news segments. Some experts are predicting that kale salads will soon be on the menus at TGI Friday's and McDonald's. Cabbage is a different story. Per capita consumption of it peaked way back in the 1920s, when the average American ate 22 pounds of it per year. Nowadays, we eat about eight pounds, most of it disguised as cole slaw or sauerkraut.

China certainly knows how to have fun with their vegetation. If they’re not putting panties on peaches, they’re growing gourds in the shape of various religious and political figures. China has a long history of making art and figures out of gourds and more recently the process has been simplified so that any Joe Schmoe can make his own Jesus squash or garden full of dangling Mao Zedongs. All it takes are some molds and a good ol’ green thumb.

DIY stuff made of recycled material: 100% green and free!

A gourd weighing 2,058 pounds took first prize and set a new tournament record Monday at an annual pumpkin-weighing contest in Northern California. John Hawkley, 56, won this year's Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-off in Half Moon Bay south of San Francisco.

Say hello to an insect friend ...

The theft of endangered and rare flowers has led botanical gardens to go to extreme measures to protect their plants, locking them down with cables and installing CCTV. But is this enough to preserve such species?

A gardener died after apparently coming into contact with Aconitum, a poisonous plant known as Devil's Helmet

Did you know that Monsanto tried to patent a tomato that had no biotech traits? Now, the European Patent Office has revoked Monsanto’s fraudulent patent.

There's a reason kale is all the rage these days. Find out what makes this veggie a superstar.