To outwit weeds you'll need to wage a concerted campaign on several fronts, but it can be done, and without resorting to weedkillers. Perennial weeds continue growing for a number of years but have far-reaching roots, making them harder to control.
Best of all, mulch can be made – for free! – in your own garden. Most plants will thrive with a mulch of compost. They'll feed the lawn, ensuring it keeps producing more healthy growth for you to cut and use.
I love the way plants stack up in a hillside garden, layer upon layer, so that it looks even more lush than it really is. The author's hillside garden in late summer Steel panels are trendy now, and they can last forever, as can some types of plastic...
Fall-sown legumes like winter peas boost soil nitrogen when allowed to grow until they begin to bloom in spring 3. Cool-season Cover Crops Parts of the garden that won't be planted until late spring are prime spots for growing cool-season cover crops...
Tomatoes, for example, need a minimum temperature of 10°C (50°F) to fully develop. This odorless, tasteless gas is the vital catalyst that turns under-ripe green fruit to red, yellow and many a color in between.
This is healthier for the tree, unless there is a recurring issue with silver leaf or other diseases. Bacterial canker affects plums, cherries and other trees in the Prunus family.
The thin walls of the fruits make them quick and easy to dehydrate, ensuring a ready supply of crinkle-dry chilies to enjoy right up until next year's harvest. Fellow GrowVeg blogger Barbara also has a truly scrumptious recipe for chili paste – it comes...
You can use taller crops to shade shorter ones, but in scorching weather drastic action may be needed. The best setups use drip irrigation or soaker hoses to deliver water right at the base of plants, near the roots.
Potato foliage can be kept snug with an insulating layer of fleece, removed during the day to allow maximum sunlight penetration. Now prepare to unearth your spuds – a joyous moment indeed! Container-grown spuds can be upturned and the compost torn...
The main benefit of thinning to the gardener is to give those fruits that remain the space they need to grow into bigger, healthier fruits. Early summer offers us a tempting taste of what's to come in the fruit garden.
They appear from seemingly nowhere and colonize plants fast – they're certainly contenders for the most efficient-at-reproducing-and-spreading pest! How to Identify Greenhouse Whitefly For those unfamiliar with whitefly (lucky you!) here's a quick description...
Water-stressed plants quickly slow down. A regular liquid feed will result in better quality fruits for longer 4. Plants Related to this Article Zucchini Grow Guide Beans (Bush Snap) Grow Guide Pepper Grow Guide < All Guides
Horticultural fleece can also be used. Also try trap-cropping using a pest's favorite food to make your crops less appealing to them. Plants Related to this Article Broccoli (Purple Sprouting) Grow Guide Broccoli Grow Guide Cabbage (Summer) Grow Guide...
When you sow depends on what type of cabbage you're growing. Savoy cabbages are exceptionally hardy Where to Grow Cabbage Many cabbage varieties are incredibly hardy and will tolerate below-freezing temperatures.
Avid gardeners are busy gardeners. They contribute to light pollution and diminish our ability to admire nature's light show, the stars. Sit the smaller pot inside the larger pot, levelling up the rims by pouring sand into the base of the big pot till...
Photo courtesy of All-America Selections Award Enter the Dragons – Colorful Chinese Radishes Often called Chinese radishes and introduced to western home gardeners a only a few years ago, ‘Red Dragon' and ‘Pink Dragon' are refinements of the old...
Chutneys are simply magnificent, capable of storing in the cupboard for many months. There are, of course, many other ways to preserve some of the growing season's generosity (a kinder word than ‘glut', which sounds a little ungrateful!).
The most stalwart members of the turnip tribe, rutabagas are a rustic cross between wild turnip and cultivated cabbage that came about in Scandinavia, Russia or perhaps Lithuania in the late Middle Ages.
Scrape out the seeds from ripe chili peppers then dry them before storing Saving Pepper & Tomato Seeds The seeds of tomatoes and peppers are ready when the fruits themselves are good for eating.
It begins blooming almost as soon as it emerges from the ground, and it stays in bloom until frost kills it.In a search for possibilities, I visited a nearby nursery. Even though these students progressed to the seventh grade, I found a few of them sneaking...
The 'mother' plant with the smaller babies surrounding it is how the common name 'hens and chickens' came about and the various sizes of the plants in a grouping is very attractive, either in the garden or in a container.
If you have your heart set on giant red flowers or the neon combination of purple and chartreuse, chances are, it is available.Zinnias are surprisingly drought-hardy when established.
Nicking seeds before planting helps the seeds absorb water, which signals the plant embryo inside to begin the germination process. It's important to know how to nick flower seeds as well as other plant seeds before starting your garden.So, why should...
Enlarged seeds, and cracks on the seed coat, also indicate sprouting.You cannot dry and store seeds that are in different stages of germination. Tan or black seeds hold more promise.
Seeds fall or get scattered by animals, birds and wind. If they land in a favorable location, all that is left is to wait for the warm season and they germinate and make more of the original plant.
You can make your ownCut a few new shoots from a willow and slice them into 1 inch (3 cm) pieces.Steep the willow pieces in water for a few days to create a willow tea.Dip your cuttings in the tea directly before planting them, and their survival rate...
How long it takes the container to degrade, climate, soil, and cost.freestar.queue.push(function() { googletag.display("div-gpt-ad-300x250-ATF-1"); });Plantable pots for gardening make transplanting quicker and easier and can be used for ornamental and...
