Weeding. Most gardeners consider this to be one of their least favorite tasks. It can be tedious, monotonous, and thankless enough to put some people off gardening all together. Weeds grow incredibly fast and can overtake your garden seemingly overnight. They can quickly result in crop yield reductions or the death of ornamental plants. Thus,…
Category: Gardening
Brown Rot: The Bane of Growing Stone Fruit
If you have ever tried growing stone fruits like peaches or plums, then you might have struggled to ever get fruit. This is particularly if you live in the hot humid environment of the southeast. In the spring your trees flower, you get a promising set of happy looking fruit, then shortly before they start…
Saving Seeds: How To Maximize Color on a Budget
If you’re a budget conscious gardener (and who isn’t in today’s economy), then you might be interested in saving seeds. Many annuals are grown from seed, and they are a fantastic addition to the garden. Annuals are the best way to get copious amounts of long-lasting color. Unfortunately, buying them over and over every year…
Dwarf Abutilons: Not Your Grandmother’s Flowering Maple
If you pay any attention to the horticulture industry, then you know that plants come and go in fads just like almost any thing else. Colors are popular, then they’re not. Variegated foliage is all the rage, then it’s not. However, one thing that never becomes unpopular is bountiful blooms. Most people who grow plants…
How To Propagate Plants Part 3: Grafting
Today is part 3 of our how to propagate plants series. We will be discussing a more difficult, but no less important method: grafting. If you are unfamiliar with what grafting is, it is taking a small piece of one plant (called a scion) and attaching it to a different plant (called the rootstock) in…
How To Propagate Plants Part 2: Cuttings
Last time we started talking about how to propagate plants by discussing seeds and the various requirements that sometimes must be met before germination is successful. Today we are going to discuss propagation via cutting. Cuttings are stem or root pieces that are induced to create a new plant. Propagating plants using this method can…
How To Propagate Plants Part 1: Seeds
Today we are going to start a mini-series on how to propagate plants. Different plants are successfully propagated using different methods. There is no one size fits all solution to making more of your garden plants. So in the next several articles we will be discussing tips for propagation via seed, cuttings and grafting. Because…
How To Prune Hydrangea Macrophylla
Earlier this year we discussed how to prune Hydrangea paniculata, the woody, sun-loving white hydrangea. Today we are going to discuss how to prune its semi-woody cousin the mophead hydrangea, Hydrangea macrophylla. These are the hydrangeas with glossy green leaves and blooms that are blue or pink and can change color depending on the soil…
The No-Spray Fruit Tree You Should Start Growing Now
Everyone wants to grow common fruits such as a apples, peaches and plums in their backyards. The sad reality is that most people are unlikely to reap a nice crop from these more common fruits. Realistically, they are just not no-spray fruit. Most homeowners who plant fruit trees do so without realizing that these trees…
The 10 Best Winter Vegetables You Should Be Growing
Now that we gave you some tips to use to extend your season, we thought we would tell you about 10 of our favorite winter vegetables. Some of these have the potential to overwinter to produce a very early spring crop as far north as places like Vermont and New York if given protection. Of…