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.

After clearing away whatever is left of last season’s vegetables – perhaps you have left the roots of runner beans and French beans in the soil to improve its nitrogen content – you just pull out serious weeds then cover whatever is left with several inches of new compost.

This beautiful, sprawling permaculture garden is run by guys who met in jail or on the streets.

Whether you live in a big city or someplace that gets cold 9 months out of the year, indoor herb gardens provide so many benefits. They purify the air in y

Warmer temperatures in Alaska are giving farmers flexibility to plant a wider range of crops over a longer growing season. One farmer says the secret to his bounty is soil enriched by flooding rivers.

Spring is coming.

Like every other trait on every other living thing, a clover's lucky fourth leaf sprouts from DNA. But understanding the clover genome won't necessarily help you find one.

Birds add grace, beauty and amusement to our lives with their gorgeous colors and quirky behavior.