Those beautiful gardens you admire in your neighborhood and magazines don’t happen by chance. A lot of planning goes into planting a garden. Additionally, it takes a lot of labor and money, so money, so here are some tips on how you can avoid being disappointed when plants you purchased fail to thrive or die….
Category: Gardening
Wilts: How Can My Healthy Plant Suddenly Be Dead?
Last time we talked about root rot, and how one of the main symptoms is a plant that wilts down, never recovers and eventually dies. We mentioned that there were also other kinds of wilts including ones vectored by insects. While these wilts are also caused by bacteria and fungi, they are not quite the…
Root Rot Could Be What Is Killing Your Plants
Do you have a plant that wilted down and never recovered despite you watering it when you noticed it was wilted? Or is your plant experiencing dieback? Does it have yellow leaves and stunted growth? If so. you are likely dealing with root rot. As passion flower growers, root rot is something we are always…
The Harlequin Bug: A Closer Look At This Beautiful Pest
Have you have ever grown any kind of Brassica crop? Did you encounter a gaudy black and orange bug that is shaped like a stink bug on your broccoli or cauliflower plants? If so, this was the Harlequin bug, and it is a major pest of Brassica crops in the southern United States. It is…
Help! Something Is Eating My Broccoli. Its Cabbage Worms
You planted out these beautiful broccoli plants, and seemingly almost overnight one day the plants are almost completely gone. The leaves have been stripped back to just the stems. What happened? What do you do? Your plants were likely eaten by cabbage worms. Now saying cabbage worms is a bit inaccurate. These caterpillars feed on…
How To Improve Your Garden By Knowing Your Soil pH
Do you have a plant that looks nutrient deficient regardless of how much fertilizer you apply? Are your plant’s leaves yellow with green veins? Is the new growth growing in almost white? If so, you likely have a soil pH problem. Nutrient levels, drainage, soil texture, and light exposure probably get more attention than soil…
How To Prune Grapevines From Planting To Maturity
If you are interested in getting quality fruit, it is important to learn how to properly prune grapevines. If you do not prune your vines, you will not get a good fruit crop. Without pruning, there will be too much vigorous leafy growth, and few poor-quality fruits. Now, if you are standing in front of…
How To Rejuvenation Prune Overgrown Shrubs
In a previous blog post on pruning Hydrangea paniculata, we mentioned that if a deciduous shrub has been sheared or otherwise pruned inappropriately for many years it can become an eyesore that does not bloom well. We briefly alluded to the topic of rejuvenation pruning as a solution to this problem, and that is what…
Exploring The Diversity Of The Sweet Potato
The lowly sweet potato doesn’t get much attention. It is something many people only think about for holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. White or ‘Irish’ potatoes are much more common. There are a dozen or more varieties of them taking up a whole shelf at most grocery stores while sweet potatoes are relegated to 1…
How To Prune A Hydrangea Paniculata
Do you need help knowing how to prune a Hydrangea paniculata? Hydrangea paniculata is an extremely common landscape plant, and for good reason. It has beautiful summer blooms that remain on the plant all winter giving it an extended season of interest. It is also sun loving, cold hardy and extremely easy to grow. As…
