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Using Medicinal Herbs in Gardens For centuries, in almost every culture, the herb garden has held a special place in the garden. Long before walk-in clinics and huge medical complexes, people had to grow and prepare their own medicines. Healing herb plants were often grown in sacred gardens that not only provided healing from the plants themselves but also to be aesthetically pleasing to the senses. Herbs were arranged by size and texture, often in geometric patterns, along with fruit and vegetable espaliers....

About Seed Pod Plants Plants that produce true pods are members of the legume family. Peas and beans are well-known legumes, but other less familiar plants are also members of this family, such as lupines and wisteria, whose blooms give way to bean-like seed pods. Other plants produce pod-like seed constructions that differ botanically from legume seed pods. Capsules are one type, produced by blackberry lilies and poppies. Poppy capsules are dark rounded pods with a ruffle on top....

Sweet potatoes are highly nutritious and come in two different varieties — dry flesh types and moist flesh types. The moist fleshed types convert more starch to sugars when cooked, thus becoming softer and sweeter than their dry kin and are more often referred to as yams, although true yams can only be cultivated in tropical climes. Either variety has roots variously hued from white to orange to red, depending on the cultivar....

When Do You Harvest Prickly Pear Fruit? Prickly pear fruit is found in warm regions of North America but even northern denizens can get a taste of this unique fruit in specialty markets. Prickly pear fruit is a traditional food of the indigenous population of arid, warm regions. The chubby little fruits are excellent eaten raw, stewed, canned, or prepared into preserves but first, you have to have a plant for picking prickly pear fruit....

Wiser still might be raised bed gardening. This article will point out some of the benefits and some of the deficits. Benefits of Raised Beds in Arid Regions Garden articles advertise raised bed gardening. In zones with little moisture, the practice may also be helpful, especially if you have poor soil. Raised beds for hot regions can allow you to replace existing soil with fertile, well formulated soil. However, they will raise plants up to the hot sun and tend to dry out quickly....

Common Types of Tuber Rot Tuber soft rot problems may be bacterial but are most often caused by various fungi. Tuber rot in plants is difficult to control because the rot can live on contaminated equipment and can lie “in wait” in the soil throughout the winter. Tubers damaged by disease, stress, insects, or frost are most susceptible. Blight: Blight occurs when spores are washed into the soil from lesions on nearby foliage....

Recycled Garden Furniture Although here in the United Kingdom we may have been a little slower than our European cousins to truly embrace the recycling movement, there are signs that we are catching up. In fact, urban areas in particular are, on average, increasing the percentage of waste that is recycled by the most significant proportions. There are many factors that may be contributing to this phenomenon. Whilst sustained advertising campaigns promoting the benefits of recycling are becoming less common nowadays, big business has taken a lead, most notably with supermarkets discouraging the use of disposable carrier bags....

What is Rose Rosette Disease? Exactly what is Rose Rosette disease and what does Rose Rosette disease look like? Rose Rosette disease is a virus. The effect it has upon the foliage brings about its other name of witches’ broom. The disease causes vigorous growth in the cane or canes infected by the virus. The foliage becomes distorted and frazzled looking, along with being a deep red to almost purple in color and changing to a brighter more distinct red....

Gladiolus Seed Pods Gladiolus seed pods occur after the flowers are spent. They are small and innocuous, and most gardeners don’t bother with them because glads grow so much more quickly from their bulbs. Starting gladiolus from seed is as easy as starting any other plant but the desired blooms will not come for many years. Far easier is to dig away some of the little bulblets at the base of the parent plant....

What is Septoria Cane and Leaf Spot? Septoria cane and leaf spot (Mycosphaerella rubi) is a fungal disease common to cane berry plants such as: Marions Boysenberry Blackberry Dewberry Blueberry Raspberry Spores are disseminated by wind and water splash. All cane berries are perennials, as the roots come back year after year. However, the plant above the soil is biennial– the canes grow vegetatively for a year, bear fruit the next year, and die....

About Spirea Control Japanese spirea is a perennial, deciduous shrub in the rose family. It generally attains a height of four to six feet (1-2 m.) across and wide. It has adapted to disturbed areas such as those along streams, rivers, forest borders, roadsides, fields, and areas of power lines. It can rapidly take over these disturbed areas and overtake native populations. One plant can produce hundreds of tiny seeds that are then dispersed via water or in fill dirt....

Can You Divide Dahlias? I love our state fair where there is an entire pavilion filled with every size, color, shape, and style of dahlia you could imagine. This is a magical place overflowing with promise and unique beauty. Dahlias are easy to grow in well-drained soil, full sun, and deeply tilled earth. Dahlias will die if hit by a long frost, so it is wise to dig them up at the end of the summer and overwinter the tubers indoors....

General Hydrangea Pruning Instructions & Deadheading Tips Pruning hydrangea bushes is not necessary unless the shrubs have become overgrown or unsightly. You can safely remove spent blooms (deadhead) anytime. However, there are a couple deadheading tips to keep in mind for optimal results. Try to keep cuts above the first set of large leaves or only cut down to the last healthy buds. This ensures the safety of any developing blooms for the next season....

It takes a lot of work to go from seedling to slicing tomato, but the job gets even tougher when you’ve got tomatoes affected by nematodes. Tomato root knot nematode is one of the most common tomato problems in the garden, but you can still get great yields if you catch it early and implement a tomato nematode prevention program for future plantings. Nematodes in Tomatoes Everybody knows about plant diseases and the bugs that can become serious pests, but fewer gardeners are familiar with plant parasitic nematodes in tomatoes....

Help, What’s Wrong with My Mountain Laurel? Identifying what is making your mountain laurel sick means examining its symptoms. If your laurel’s foliage has spots, the likely culprit is a fungal disease like leaf spot. There are at least a dozen fungal pathogens that cause leaf spot and to be really sure which one you may have, you would have to have the diseased area tested by a laboratory. Leaf spot is caused when trees are over crowded, shaded and in excessively moist areas....

Strawberry Verticillium Wilt Fungus Verticillium wilt on strawberries is caused by two fungi, Verticillium albo-atrum and Verticillium dahliae. Unfortunately, an infected strawberry plant will probably not live to produce the delicious red berries you are hoping for. The really bad news is that if you have strawberries with verticillium wilt, it’s hard to get rid of the fungus. Once it is established in your garden plot, it can remain viable for over two decades....

Tree Roots in Flower Beds The impulse to decorate under a tree is almost universal among gardeners. Turf grass struggles to survive in the deep shade under trees and turns patchy. A lively and colorful flower bed would seem to be much more preferable. However, planting around flowers in soil with tree roots is both potentially damaging to the tree and may restrict the flowers growth due to limited resources. Additionally, you must find flowers that thrive in shade....

What is Tropical Soda Apple? Native to Brazil and Argentina, tropical soda apple weed is a member of the Solanaceae or Nightshade family, which also contains eggplant, potato, and tomato. This herbaceous perennial grows to about 3 to 6 feet (1-2 m.) in height with yellow-white thorns on the stems, stalks, leaves, and calyxes. The weed bares white flowers with yellow centers or stamens, which become green and white stippled fruit resembling that of tiny watermelons....

Hops With No Cones Hop bines need a minimum of 120 frost-free days to produce flowers. The female flowers are the cones, or burrs, the source of the aromatic flavor characteristic of good beers. The time of planting can be a driving force for when, or if, you get cones in your zone. Most growers recommend planting in May, but in warmer climates, you could plant a bit earlier as long as there are no freezes expected....

Common Diseases of Cosmos There are over 25 species of cosmos or Mexican aster as it is also known. Cosmos is in the Aster family of plants and its blooms have a distinct resemblance to that plant. Cosmos reseeds itself freely and is tolerant of low moisture and fertile soils. It is a very hardy plant with few special needs, and it will return year after year to brighten the garden space....