Making permanent beds.
Raised beds are popular because they are relatively easy to build, plant, weed, and maintain. Since the soil can drain sooner and warm up faster in spring, they enable you to plant earlier in the season. You can make a garden of permanent or ... [... more]
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How-To Project: Preserving Cut Flowers
There's nothing like fresh flowers around the house whether they come straight from your garden or from a florist. But when you take the time to put together an arrangement, you'd like it to last forever or at least for more than a few days! Here ... [... more]
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How-To Project: Dividing Perennials
When an established perennial produces fewer flowers, or the center of the plant looks sickly while the margins thrive, it could be time to divide the plant. Or even if the plant is healthy, perhaps you'd like to share it with a friend by ... [... more]
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Repellents.
There are quite a few products with flavors and odors offensive to deer that gardeners can spray on plants or spread on the soil. Some (fermented egg yolks) offend deer's sense of smell; others (predator urines) frighten them. More of these ... [... more]
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Inspect for pests and problems.
Perennial gardens require less maintenance than lawns, but they do need regular care to look their best and stay healthy. The following tasks are arranged in order of frequency from weekly to annually. Using scissors or hand pruners, snip off ... [... more]
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List your needs.
Landscapes that require minimum time and money to maintain require thoughtful planning and installation. Invest early in planning and structures, and you'll pay (and work) less later. Choose structures, plants, ground-coverings, and systems that ... [... more]
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Design principles.
Combine flowering plants and those with attractive foliage in window boxes to add color to decks, window sashes, and porch rails. Mix plants with trailing, spiky upright, and "fluffy" growth habits, as well as large, medium, and small leaves. .. [... more]
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Grow healthy plants.
It's no surprise that roses are among the most popular ornamental garden plants: they're beautiful, fragrant, and easy to grow in most climates. However, many popular roses are also susceptible to three fungal diseases, whose names black spot, ... [... more]
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How-To Project: Controlling Slugs
If there's one garden pest that's universally despised, it's slugs. Not only do they eat prized vegetables, herbs, and flowers at night while you sleep, but when you do catch them, they're so slimy and squishy that many gardeners won't even touch ... [... more]
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Choose the spot.
Eliminating weeds and getting the soil ready for your flowers and vegetables are important first steps in growing a successful garden. Time spent in preparation reduces the time you'll have to spend maintaining and weeding your garden over the ... [... more]
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Dig up Bulbs.
After a season of enjoying the blooms from your perennial flower garden, late fall is the time in cold-winter regions (USDA Climate Hardiness Zones 8 and colder) to prepare the beds for winter. Taking good care of beds in fall will help them ... [... more]
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Collect your equipment.
Prune your roses to increase blooming and decrease disease and pest problems. Do most of your pruning in early spring just before new growth begins, but remove spent flowers and dead canes whenever they occur. The goal is to keep the center of ... [... more]
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