Even the greenest green thumbs have overlooked a ready-to-pick zucchini during harvest and come back the next day to find a Hulk-sized zuke glaring at them from beneath the large leaves. But before ...

As summer shuffles on, between the sounds of waves crashing at the beach, the sizzling of grills, and the evening chirping of birds and frogs comes the quiet yet insistent wail of the home gardener.

Like so many of the most banal tools of modern life—duct tape, tampons, canned soup, the Internet—the microwave oven was born from the industry of war. Its key element: magnetron tubes, tiny, ...