Composting Ideas, Tips & Guides

When I was a child, my favourite season by a long shot was autumn. I loved the sight of it, the smell of it, the sound and sense of it. Especially the trees. Giant beech, oak and flushing gold and copper. The wild gales that sent their dying leaves swirling to the ground. The ripe, sweet, fungal smell of those same fallen leaves and the messy joy of wading up to my knees in a sea of arboreal confetti.

If you hate raking your yard during the fall, you might be in luck. The appropriately named «Leave the Leaves» initiative says it’s better to avoid touching the leaves in your yard, instead leaving them to decompose naturally over the winter.

Using manure in the garden can significantly enhance soil fertility and promote the healthy growth of your plants and veggies. Before learning when is the best time to put manure in your garden, let’s get a closer look at what is actually manure and what types you can find depending on your preferences. Below we also outline what flowers like and dislike manures and provide other useful tips, so keep on reading.

Native to the Mediterranean, parsley (Petrosilenum crispum) is a rich source of vitamin C and iron, and is said to cure bad breath and cleanse the skin. Parsley is a biennial, meaning it lives for two years, growing leaves in the first year, then flowering in the second, before setting seed. For this reason parsley is treated as an annual and it’s best to sow seed each year.

Q: Please can you tell me if a dehumidifier is bad for house plants? On the advice of a friend we recently got one as an eco-friendly, cost-effective alternative to a tumble drier. It’s great when it comes to drying the laundry and getting rid of condensation, but I’m worried that it might not be so great for my plants! M Pearse, Dublin

What are terrarium plants?

Moving Day is stressful on everyone, including your houseplants! And if you’re like us, you’re probably emotionally attached to many of them. Maybe you received them for a special occasion, or your Gram gave it to you years ago. Or perhaps you nurtured a plant from a single cutting, and now it’s a huge, lush specimen. But in order to survive a move successfully, your plants are going to need a little TLC. “Obviously, in nature, plants aren’t moving around, so any change is stressful,” says Justin Hancock, horticulturalist with Costa Farms. “But you can take a few steps to help prepare them for the trip.”

Most gardeners treat tomato plants like annuals. They are nurtured during the garden season and then tossed on the compost heap sometime in the fall, but what if you could overwinter tomato cuttings? Can you overwinter tomatoes? Overwintering tomatoes is possible but it does require some knowledge. Read on to learn how to overwinter tomato plants.

Our nearby town always puts a lot of effort into its floral displays, on approaches into the town and in the main park at the foot of the castle, and is regularly the winner in its regional category of Britain in Bloom. Most of the plants used are annuals, but they do use some perennials of which I have been known to take the odd cutting or two. One year I decided to regularise this and emailed the local council to ask what they did with their plants at the end of the season, and if I could take the occasional cutting. It transpired that there is no longer such a thing as a ‘parks department’ and no facility for growing on or protecting plants; young plants are bought in, planted straight out and composted at the end of the season.

You expect pests outdoors, but it’s exasperating when gnats flit around your face or end up in your beverage when you’re indoors. “’Gnat’ is a general term for a type of small fly,” says Matt Bertone, PhD, director of theNC State University Plant Disease and Insect Clinic. “They’re a diverse group, but people refer to a lot of the little flies as ‘gnats.’”

Home-grown peaches are well worth the extra effort involved in growing them, as their fuzzy, juicy fruits taste better than any peach you can buy in the shops.

Understanding amaryllis dormancy is key to helping your plant bloom consistently year after year.

Horse manure makes an extremely good soil improver for the garden. Often combined with stable bedding and allowed to rot down for a couple of years, horse manure is perfect for digging into planting holes or spreading onto the surface of bare soil. Fresh manure mustn’t be used directly on the garden as it can actually remove nutrients from the soil and scorch plants, but it can be added to compost heaps.

The sunflower is one of the nation’s best-loved flowers. Although most sunflower varieties have yellow flowers, you can grow varieties with rusty red, green and even white flowers.

Do you want to support wildlife in your garden – but you don’t want a ‘wild’ looking garden? You’d like beautiful borders and gorgeous pots? Even, perhaps, a short neat lawn?

Garden for long enough and you eventually come to the inevitable realisation that for several perfectly good reasons it’s not that easy to create a memorably good winter pot display. Why not? First and foremost is the fact that unlike its summer equivalent (a completely different creature) you can’t simply stuff a winter container full of lots of frothy annuals, heat-loving, dramatic foliage plants, gauzy grasses, and showy, frost-tender perennials and then hope for the best. Instead the planting must be chosen to be resilient in the face of cold winter winds, heavy rain and frost, as well as tolerant of short days and low light levels, while somehow still being decorative enough to justify its prime position for up to six months. It’s quite the ask.

The mums in my garden have been deliberately planted because of the colorful, cheery blooms they unveil in late summer and early fall. Even though they signify an end to summer, I love that they stick around through the up-and-down weather of autumn. All of my plants have come from planting the potted mums I bought for fall arrangements and then dug into the garden before winter. In this article, I’m going to talk about when to cut back mums during the growing season and whether you should prune them after the blooms fade in fall or wait until spring.

There are many benefits to adding plants to your living room – not only do they brighten the room with greenery but some also help to purify the air. Whether you add one or more plants, there’s a variety to choose from for every type of living room, from architecturally impressive palms to tiny succulents.

Mandevilla, also known as Dipladenia, Brazilian jasmine and rock trumpet, is a woody climber native to tropical Central and South America. It has gently scented, vibrant blooms and makes a fine conservatory plant in the UK.

Composting can seem like a minefield. Do you compost perennial weeds, what type of bin do you use, how often should you turn, and what composting method to try? These are just some of the common questions we’re asked. Many myths surround the process. It’s easy to think bagged and homemade compost are the same thing. But bagged compost has been commercially treated, and can contain peat, whereas your own home compost will be made up of a variety of traceable items. It will feel and look quite different from what you buy at the shops – but will be just as good, if not better.

Ornamental grasses are essential garden plants for their naturalistic beauty, year-round interest, fine textures, drought tolerance, and resistance to insects and pests. When planted in the right site, they’re also low-care perennials that require little more than an annual haircut. The timing of when to cut back ornamental grasses is important to ensure they’re trimmed before the new growth begins, but not so early that you forfeit winter interest. Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about when to cut back ornamental grasses.

In the fall, I saddle up my white steed, which happens to be a 2007 hatchback, toss in several plastic trash bags and a short-handled rake, and become the Leaf Ranger. I drive through subdivisions and neighborhoods in search of fallen leaves, determined to retrieve them so I can recycle them into my garden and landscape. Unlike the Lone Ranger who rode with Tonto, I have no faithful companion by my side. I don’t have any room. It’s just me and as many bags of leaves that I can fit into my car without hampering my ability to drive.

Why do plants get sick? The simple answer is for lots of reasons, many of them similar to the reasons why we humans do. Take, for example, poor diet. Just as it’s one of the root causes of disease, poor growth and reduced life expectancy in humans, so it is with plants.

Fall is a great time of year to think ahead to a new plot, and sheet mulching can get you started on that vision. Though it can be done at any time of the year, autumn is ideal because the area will have a chance to break down over the winter. I’ve used this technique to create a garden in my backyard after digging up invasive plants, to establish pathways between raised beds, and to keep weeds out of a new area on my front lawn for galvanized raise beds. The process of sheet mulching enables you to put yard waste, like lawn clippings, fallen leaves, and wood chips, to good use. And by spring, you should have a diggable area, ready for plants.

Have you always longed to make wine from tasty sun-warmed grapes gathered from your own backyard? While I live in the ideal wine-growing region (USDA Zone 9b) near the well-known Napa Valley, you’ll be amazed to learn that backyard viticulture is entirely possible anywhere within USDA Zones 4 through 10. Growing wine grapes isn’t hard, but there are a number of key requirements that guarantee success, beginning with growing the wine you love! If you adore a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon at the end of the day, plant Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. When Chardonnay is your preference, you’ll need to grow grapes that produce a full-bodied Chardonnay. The following are some viticulture tips for planning and planting your own personal vineyard.

As part of your Premium access, you can send your gardening questions to our horticultural experts each month. They will then answer a selection of the questions they receive, and share the advice at the end of the month.

If you’re looking for a budget-friendly alternative to expand your plant family, then you wouldn’t want to miss these ingenious, easy-to-follow DIY Plant Propagator Ideas!

There are several slightly unpleasant chores related to yard maintenance, like mowing and weeding. But at the season’s end, raking the leaves can be tedious, back breaking and a seemingly thankless gesture. The job can be made a bit easier with some tips on how to rake autumn leaves with less strain, proper tools, and a better plan.

If your garden in spring has the welcome sight of loud and colourful tulips brightening the place up, then it can feel like an exciting place to be again after the inevitable dull, wet moments of winter. For me, the main feeling is relief. Relief that I actually remembered to plant some. Bulb planting in autumn is one of those jobs that we can have in our minds to do, then before you know it it’s a last minute scramble to find the last bag in the shop, hidden away in a corner to make way for inflatable snowmen and reindeer stuffed to the gunnels with LEDs.

Today we’re off to Canada to visit with Bas Suharto.

Garden border maintenance in both autumn and spring is mainly about the plants.

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Nearly one third of the food produced in the world is thrown away. Much of it is damaged fruits and vegetables. If you have your own garden, you may be tossing away less than perfect or even slightly damaged vegetables. In our culture that is skewed toward perfection, even the tiniest pinhole on some kale is often considered food waste and is tossed into the garbage bin. Is it safe to eat kale with holes in it? It often depends on what made the holes rather than the holes themselves. Curious if you can eat vegetables with holes? Read on to learn about eating damaged produce.

Greenhouses are an excellent way for gardeners to create their very own microclimate and nurture crops such as tasty tomatoes, fragrant herbs and peppers that pack a punch. They allow you to create the ideal environment for a whole host of exciting ornamental and edible plants and extend the growing seasons, which is great news for garden enthusiasts. If you’ve been thinking about investing in a greenhouse, we’ve put together a handy guide packed with all the information you’ll need to choose the best greenhouse.

Terrariums are an attractive way to display house plants and bring more greenery into your home.  They’re a great way to experiment with plants and a fun creative project if you love indoor gardening. There’s a wide range of terrariums available to buy ready made, but you can make your own using any clear glass jar or bowl you have available. Whether you’re making one for your own home or to give away as a gift, a terrarium can be made any time and will look good all year round. Closed terrariums can be fiddly to set up, so if you’re a beginner, try starting with an open terrarium as these are easier to plant and need less aftercare.

Meet the Black Dragon Snake Plant: With its striking appearance and easy care, this plant is perfect for both beginners and enthusiasts.