Posts

Reducing Water Needs with Xeriscape Gardening Watering can become an even bigger issue when faced with the fact that many areas in dry climates already have some serious water rights and conservation issues. So what is a good gardener to do? All these magazines and catalogs make you believe that your garden should look a certain way, filled with green and exotic plants that need to be tended and coddled. If you follow that stereotype though, you are helping to support some pretty serious environmental problems....

Zone 4 Vegetable Gardening Spring can be short-lived in U.S. hardiness zone 4. Some years it can seem like you blinked and missed spring, as cold freezing rain and snow showers seem to turn overnight into hot, muggy summer weather. With an expected last frost date of June 1 and a first frost date of October 1, the growing season for zone 4 vegetable gardens can be short too. Starting seeds indoors, properly utilizing cold crops and succession planting can help you get the most out of the limited growing season....

About Four Leaf Clovers Before you begin your search for that seemingly ‘mystical’ clover specimen, it helps to have a little background info about four leaf clovers. We all know that it is thought to bring good luck to the finder (Yeah right. I find them all the time and if it weren’t for my bad luck, I’d have no luck at all!), but did you know that St. Patrick is said to have used the three-leaf clover to explain the Holy Trinity to the pagan Irish, and the fourth leaf is believed to represent God’s grace....

Fertilizing With Alfalfa Meal What is alfalfa meal? This organic garden booster is a product of fermented alfalfa plant seeds. It’s light and airy looking and has a pleasant, earthy smell. Alfalfa meal generally comes in large quantities, as you use it generously around all your blooming perennials and shrubs. Although you may be able to find alfalfa meal at some larger garden centers, it may be easier and less expensive to get at feed and animal stores....

Golden Trumpet Flower Allamanda is native to northern South America. As such it requires high light, consistently warm temperatures, and humidity of at least 50 percent. These conditions are hard to simulate in the average home without grow lights, humidifiers, and heaters. Greenhouse conditions are often ideal for Allamanda plant care. Indoors, we tend to have less moisture in the air and the sun doesn’t penetrate the interior for as many hours as the plant needs....

Amaryllis Plant Info Amaryllis belladonna is an amazing plant that produces clumps of bold, strappy leaves in fall and winter. The showy foliage dies down by early summer and bare stalks emerge after about six weeks – a surprising development because the leafless stalks appear to grow directly from the soil. These bare stalks are why the plant is often known as “naked lady.” It is also known as “surprise lily” for its proclivity to pop up seemingly out of nowhere....

Crown Gall on an Apple Tree Crown gall bacteria live in the soil, just waiting to attack your apple tree. If the tree suffers wounds, whether from natural causes or caused by the gardener, they serve as an entryway. Typical wounds that apple tree crown gall bacteria enter include mower damage, pruning wounds, cracks caused by frost, and insect or planting damage. Once the bacteria enters, it causes the tree to produce hormones that cause the galls to form....

What is Apricot Armillaria Root Rot? This disease is a fungal infection and is also known as apricot mushroom root rot and apricot oak root rot. The fungal species that causes the disease is called Armillaria mellea and it deeply infects the roots of the tree, spreading through fungal networks to the healthy roots of other trees. In affected orchards, trees tend to die in a circular pattern as the fungus makes its way further outward each season....

What are Arctic Supreme Peaches? Peaches can have flesh that is yellow or white, and Arctic Supreme has the latter. This white-fleshed peach has red and yellow skin, a firm texture, and a flavor that is both sweet and tart. In fact, the taste of this peach variety has won it a few awards in blind tests. The Arctic Supreme tree is self-fertile, so you don’t need another peach variety for pollination but having one nearby will increase fruit yield....

Different Kinds of Caraway Caraway has been used in food and as a medicine for centuries. The commonly cultivated variety has several cultivars but most remain unnamed. It is best to group the different kinds of caraway by their growth pattern, either annual or biennial. Technically, there are no listed named varieties. Annual caraway requires a longer growing season, while biennial types of caraway are grown in cooler regions. Biennial Caraway Plant Varieties Biennial varieties of caraway (Carum carvi f....

What is an Armenian Plum? If you read up on Armenian plum facts, you learn something confusing: that the fruit actually goes by the common name of “apricot.” This species is also known as ansu apricot, Siberian apricot, and Tibetan apricot. The different common names attest to the ambiguity of the origins of this fruit. Since the apricot was extensively cultivated in the prehistoric world, its native habitat is uncertain. In modern times, most trees growing in the wild have escaped from cultivation....

Why Should I Attract Penguins? Why should I attract penguins, you ask? Good question. Attracting penguins to the garden can be a fun way to explore their habits – up close and personal. Penguins call out to each other frequently throughout the day. Watch closely and you’ll see lots of body language such as dipping their heads down and bobbing them back up as their flippers flap at one another. Since penguins have no teeth, there is no need to worry about being bitten....

Determining When Mice are Eating Tree Bark Trees add so much to a garden or backyard. They can be expensive to install and require regular irrigation and maintenance, but most homeowners find it well worth the trouble. When you first see mouse bark damage, you may feel that your house is under attack. Just keep in mind that small rodents need food to survive the winter too. The mice are eating tree bark as a last resort, not to annoy you....

Aphids are responsible for spreading bean mosaic virus in two ways: bean common mosaic as well as bean yellow mosaic. Either of these types of bean mosaic may afflict your bean crop. The mosaic symptoms of beans afflicted with either bean common mosaic virus (BCMV) or bean yellow mosaic (BYMV) are similar so careful inspection can help determine which one is affecting your plants. Bean Common Mosaic Virus BCMV symptoms manifest themselves as an irregular mosaic pattern of light yellow and green or a band of dark green along the veins on an otherwise green leaf....

Why Beans Fail to Bloom Beans, like other fruiting plants, require exacting conditions to set lots of blooms. Buds fail for a number of reasons, but over fertilization is a common problem among new growers. Other common reasons for beans plants not flowering are easily correctable environmental conditions. If you catch these early in the season, you may still have a decent crop. Nitrogen fertilizer stimulates plants to grow lots of vegetation at the expense of flowers....

Are Sesame Seeds Good for You? What would many of our favorite Asian food dishes be without sesame seeds? These simple seeds have been used in cooking and medicinally for thousands of years – Egyptians, Babylonians, Ancient Asia, Greeks, and Mesopotamians. Signs of their use in the Bronze Age as flour and oil and in the Iron Age for incense lamps have been also found recently. So it’s clear that sesame seed plants have been in use for some time and must have potent benefits as more than just a food....

Fertilizer for Pumpkins Pumpkins are heavy feeders and will eat up whatever you give them. Different nutrients promote different kinds of growth, however, so when fertilizing pumpkins, it’s important to pay attention to what stage of growth your pumpkin is in and feed it accordingly. Commercial fertilizers come with three numbers on their packaging. These numbers represent nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, always in that order. When feeding pumpkin plants, apply three successive fertilizers, each heavy in one of those numbers, in that same order....

Growing Roses in the Midwest Some types of roses are finicky, especially when grown in a colder climate, like in the Midwest. Thanks to selective cultivation, there are now many varieties that are easier to grow and that adapt well to the Midwest region. Even with the right variety, there are certain things your new rose will need to grow well and thrive: At least six hours of direct sunlight Well-drained, rich soil Regular watering Plenty of space for good air circulation Spring fertilizing Regular pruning...

Two-Color Gardens Take a good look at a color wheel, and then plan (and plant) accordingly. There are many ways to use the color wheel for creating two color gardens. For example: Analogous colors – This bicolor scheme involves harmonious colors that are side by side on the color wheel. Two color gardens based on analogous colors may feature shades of red and orange, orange and yellow, blue and violet or violet and red....

How to Take Care of a Boston Fern The first thing you need to do for proper Boston fern care is to make sure that it’s in the right kind of environment. Boston ferns need a cool place with high humidity and indirect light. When you care for Boston fern plants indoors, it’s a good idea to provide additional humidity for them, especially in the winter. Most homes are rather dry, even more when heaters are running....