Posts

Many people are wary of drought-tolerant gardening, or xeriscaping, because they’re concerned about the cost. With proper planning, you can incorporate a drought-tolerant landscape for very little money. In fact, it may even turn out to be a cheaper alternative than traditional landscaping. Drought Tolerant Lawns Where should you start? Reducing the size of your lawn can benefit your landscape, saving you time, energy, and expense. Why not take a long look at your lawn and start considering cheaper alternatives to traditional turf....

Dutchman’s Pipe Info The plant is also called pipe vine and is suitable for gardens in USDA zones 8 to 10. The vine is usually only 10 to 15 feet (3-4.5 m.) long but can get as long as 25 feet (7.5 m.) in perfect growing conditions. Growing a Dutchman’s pipe requires a trellis or vertical structure to support the twining stems and wide foliage. The large heart-shaped leaves alternate along a woody stem....

Can You Reattach a Severed Plant Stem? Once a stem or branch has broken off of the main plant, the vascular system that feeds and waters that limb is cut off. This would mean the material would die in most cases. However, if you catch it quickly, you can sometimes splice it back onto the plant and save the piece. Splice grafting broken plants is a method that will attach the main body back onto the broken stem, allowing the exchange of important moisture and nutrients to sustain the damaged stem....

Choosing and Preparing Bulbs for Forcing Almost any spring blooming bulb can be forced to bloom indoors, but some spring blooming bulbs are more popular for bulb forcing. Some popular spring bulbs to force are: Daffodils Amaryllis Paperwhites Hyacinth Tulips Crocus Choose flower bulbs for forcing that are plump and firm. The larger the flower bulb is, the bigger the bloom will be. With the exception of amaryllis, unless you have bought flower bulbs that have been specifically prepared for forcing, you will need to prepare them....

What is Fumewort? If you were to research fumewort plant info, you would discover that it underwent some taxonomy changes. Originally named Fumaria bulbosa var. solida in 1753 by Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, it was changed in 1771 to the species Fumaria solida by Philip Miller. These early classifications in the genus Fumaria help explain why it is called fumewort. It was later reclassified in 1811 into the genus Corydalis by French botanist Joseph Philippe de Clairville....

Implementing Decorative Garden Fences Fences for gardens often expand to encompass the whole backyard and sometimes the front too. Depending on your landscape design, you may use some of the following fun garden fence ideas. You may find the appearance of your new fence stark or unattractive. If so, soften lines and add color with plant materials and interesting hardscape features to hold them in place and direct their growth. There are many innovative and unusual ideas for decorating fun garden fences on Pinterest and Facebook....

Garden Tips and Tricks to Engage Kids Gardening with kids helps teach them about nature and the world around them. Here are some tips to help get the kiddos outside and make gardening easier: Cinnamon, pepper, and sand: My son has a sandbox and it’s one of his favorite places to spend the day. Cinnamon sprinkled into the sand helps keep bugs out and it also smells great! Another idea is to sprinkle a perimeter around the sandbox or garden area with black pepper, which is said to help keep ants out....

Gardening in Summer 2020 Unless you’re still sitting in front of reruns, it will come as no surprise that gardening in summer 2020 is a hot topic. Due to the uncertainty surrounding the virus, many people fear going to the supermarket or are concerned about food supplies which lead them to the logical path of growing their own fruits and veggies. Whether you are concerned about either of the above, spending this summer in the garden is the perfect recipe for shaking off the blues and boredom of isolation and social distancing....

May Gardening To-Do List Lawn Mowing is one of the weekly gardening tasks for Ohio homeowners this month. Control your carbon footprint by composting or recycling those grass clippings. Apply a fertilizer/herbicide combo to the lawn. Fill in and reseed low spots in the yard.Use grass clippings for inexpensive veggie plant mulch. Flowerbeds As the Ohio gardening season gets underway, May is the perfect time to add color and texture to the landscaping....

Mulberry Trimming Proper mulberry tree pruning techniques depend on your landscape goals. If you want to create a shady spot that provides food and shelter for birds as well as biomass for your compost bin, only cut out small, dead, diseased, crossed-over and oddly oriented branches. In this case, mulberry trimming can be done every two to three years. If your primary goal is fruit production for human consumption, then mulberry trimming should be done every year to control size and to keep most of the fruit within easy reach....

About Harvesting Tea Plants Billions of people count on a cup of soothing tea each and every day, but probably most of those billions have no idea what their tea is made of. Sure, they may get the idea that tea is made from, well, leaves of course, but what type of leaves? Camellia sinensis produces almost all of the world’s teas from black to oolong to white and green. Camellias are popular garden specimens chosen for their lively color in the winter and fall when little else is in bloom....

Sun Tolerant Plants for Zone 8 Zone 8 in the U.S. is a temperate climate with mild winters and stretches from patchy areas of the west coast, through Texas and the middle section of the southeast. It’s a pleasant climate and one in which a lot of different plants thrive. There are some, though, that won’t tolerate the heat, the sunlight, or the potential for drought. That said, there are many more that will tolerate such conditions in the landscape....

Challenges of High-Altitude Gardening Perhaps you have recently moved to an area with high altitude and want to get going on your landscaping. What grows at high altitudes? The mountain garden should feature native plants that are already adapted to the conditions. When installing non-native plants, pay special attention to the plant label, noting the hardiness zone and the plant’s requirements. High elevations are often harsh and exposed to rough weather....

When to Divide Aster Like many perennials, asters benefit from division. One of the things division does is stimulate new roots that will form new shoots. The new growth fills in areas that were becoming sparse, a common complaint in asters that have not been separated. You will need to be careful about when to divide asters, as doing so in the wrong season can affect flower production. Whether you have New England or New York varieties, asters have a long bloom period and lovely, lacy notched foliage....

Deserts are known for their harsh conditions. Very arid soil and air, blistering heat during the day and often freezing nights, poor soil nutrients, and other extreme circumstances. This makes for a challenging environment in which plants can grow. Plant adaptations in the desert are necessary for them to gather and store moisture and prevent excess transpiration. They also need protection from extreme sunlight, which could burn their tissues. Desert plant adaptations are some of the most amazing in the Earth’s flora....

Harvest Tips for Fresher Lettuce Keeping lettuce fresh after picking actually starts before the harvest. Since lettuce is a shallow-rooted plant it requires a moist soil. This may mean watering twice daily when the weather is warm and dry. Additionally, mulching lettuce beds will slow down the process of soil moisture evaporation. Early morning is the best time to harvest leafy greens. It’s usually the coolest time of the day and the dew helps keep lettuce leaves hydrated....

There are several ways how to kill trees; let’s take a look at a few. Killing a Tree by Girdling Remove the bark completely around the circumference of the trees. This way how to kill a tree is called girdling. This is one of the most effective methods for killing trees as it will always work. The tree will be unable to transport nutrients from the leaves to the roots and will die in a matter of weeks....

Read on to learn how to grow and plant spinach in the garden. Before Growing Spinach Before you jump into spinach planting, you’ll want to decide which type you’d like to grow. There are two typical types of spinach, savoy (or curly) and flat leaf. Flat leaf is most commonly frozen and canned because it grows more rapidly and is much easier to clean than savoy. Savoy cultivars taste and look better, but their curly leaves make cleaning difficult as they tend to trap sand and dirt....

About Growing New Mandrake Plants You don’t need to be a Harry Potter fan to appreciate the much storied mandrake plant. It is a member of the nightshade family and its root is the part primarily used. While all parts of the plant are poisonous, it was once used in medicine, mostly as a pre-surgery anesthesia. It is rarely used today due to the dangers but it is a fun and interesting plant to grow....

Salvaged Materials vs. Recycled Materials Salvaged materials that are reused in garden construction differ from recycled materials. Salvaged materials are generally used in their original context, such as with patio flooring and walkways. They are used as decorative elements such as architectural stonework and antique garden furniture. While these items may require cleaning, repainting, or refinishing, salvaged materials do not need to be remanufactured as do recycled materials. Recycled materials, on the other hand, are generally created from existing products....