Plants Ideas, Tips & Guides

Few things are as satisfying to a gardener as picking a homegrown, sun-warmed berry right off the plant and tossing it straight into your waiting mouth. If you’ve never grown your own berries because you think you don’t have enough room—or you think it requires too much effort—boy, do we have some great news for you! Growing berries in containers is the easiest and most foolproof way to grow your own small-space fruit garden. Plus, it’s fun! Why grow berries in containers? Berry plants are great candidates for container gardening, especially if you pay careful attentio

There's perhaps no flower that's inspired more poetry, art, and prose than a rose. From formal rose gardens surrounded by boxwood hedges to cottage gardens overflowing with roses, foxglove, and native flowers, these layered blooms are held up as the star of the garden. They're carefully pruned into formal arrangements and allowed to climb and cascade over charming trellises.

These hosta plant ideas are all worth copying if you want to invite lush tropical vibes into your home and garden, even if you live in a cold climate!

Plants thrive in various conditions in their natural habitat. Some love the occasional misting and won’t mind having wet leaves for some time, as it recreates their native tropical habitat and helps them cope with the dry air indoors.

Happy Friday GPODers, and welcome to our second installment of GPOD Vignettes! In case you missed it, check out our first installment of this series here: GPOD Vignette #1.

Plants need a certain amount of specific nutrients to grow well. Most of the time, garden and houseplants do fine without any help from you. But fertilizing actually gives plants a boost that helps them flourish. “Photosynthesis is how plants make food,” says Stacey Hirvela, horticulturalist withSpring Meadow Nursery andProven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. “But fertilizer is like giving them vitamins.”

We all know that it's pretty hard to maintain a flourishing garden and yard in the hot summer months. But of course, some outliers do bloom amongst the sunshine and continue to grow throughout the fall and winter months.

With everything you have to do on a daily basis, it's hard to remember when to water your plants, when the last time you watered them was, and how much you need to water each different plant.

Vines and climbers do wonders in sprucing up dull walls, empty fences, bare pathways, and barren entrances. Hence, we’ve curated a selection of plants that produce beautiful blooms and the sweetest scents while climbing up. Check out our list of the best fragrant vines for your garden!

Coffee wakes you up in the morning and might do the same for your plants! Well, not in the same way, but this quick homemade fertilizer does wonders and is the best way to put coffee dregs to good use!

Recently, the Home and Garden Information Center (HGIC) has been receiving photos of coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea) that are malformed and green. The plants are infected with aster yellows, a bacterial phytoplasma (a type of bacterium that does not have cell walls). Aster leafhoppers (Macrosteles quadrillineatus) carry the pathogen and infect the plant tissue when they feed on it. They are small olive-green to tan insects with wedge-shaped bodies. Adults are 1/8 in length and have three pairs of spots on their heads.

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Hi GPOD!

Without a doubt, there is one pot of flowers that is the most colorful on my patio right now. The surprising news is we just recently potted it despite the hot summer heat we're experiencing. I’m in steamy Alabama, with record humidity, so it’s a soupy, sticky, kind of hot here outdoors. Daily watering of many of my plants in the summer heat is simply is a must.

Are you passionate about gardening and looking to elevate your green space? Discover how a GardenAdvice.co.uk course can help you transform your garden into a vibrant, low-maintenance haven. In this GardenAdvice is helping an aspiring gardener with a garden in Hemel Hempstead after the gardeners owner attended a GardenAdvice gardening course in the garden.

Gardeners just getting into garlic have some decisions to make: there are dozens of different varieties, and choosing which one to grow can be difficult. But it’s hard to go wrong. Experimenting with various varieties can lead to a new appreciation of a crop you already love.

What left the fluffy, white deposit on this zinnia stem?

No matter what you’re growing, companion planting matters. From hydrangeas to hostas, roses to radicchio, setting your plants up for success starts with finding the appropriate garden fellows. While you might think sturdy broccoli is fine to go it alone, even this hardy veggie can benefit from some well-selected friends. Here two experts share the best plants for growing alongside broccoli, plus a few that are best to avoid.

Years ago, I was introduced to honeyberries (known to me as haskap berries) via a delicious jam from the province of Saskatchewan. Little did I know back then that growing honeberries is pretty easy. Though it’s not a fruit commonly known in North America, the shrubs thrive in most of the U.S. and Canada—even Alaska—and make a beautiful garden addition. Once established, the plants can produce for 30 years or more. With a flavor that can be described as a cross between a blueberry and a raspberry—with a bit of a zing—honeyberries are versatil

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Hi GPODers!

Tips for Growing Cast-Iron Plants (Aspidistra) Outdoors

Photography by Mangiwau / Getty Images

How to Identify and Prevent Sunscald on Tomatoes

On the United States Department of Agriculture's Plant Hardiness Zone Map, Zone 6 is a band stretching in latitude from eastern Massachusetts to northern Virginia, spanning much of the nation's midsection until it crosses the Rockies and heads north to the interior of Oregon and Washington. Zone 6 has an average annual minimum temperature of -5 to 10 degrees F, so plants need to withstand a solid freeze.

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Many varieties of fruit trees produce bountiful harvests even when grown on decks and balconies. Pick your favorite fruit tree for your patio from this list and get a supermarket-like yield with healthier, better taste.

Scattered rain fell over the weekend. Peppers and okra are coming as the watermelon harvest finishes up. Disease and insect pressure remains high, and planning for strawberry planting is beginning. See details below.

Homemade tonics do wonders for plant health. While there are many methods for caring for orchids, some gardeners use kitchen hacks like garlic water. This leverages garlic’s antibacterial and antifungal properties to promote healthy growth and blooms.

Not all plants need fertile, moist, rich soil to grow in. There’s a whole world of flora that has adapted and thrives in dry, arid climes with sandy, rocky, gritty soils that barely hold any water. Perfect for xeriscapes and busy gardeners alike, check out these plants that prefer dry soil!

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There is no plant in the landscape as stunning as hydrangeas. There, I said it, and I stand by it. They're a truly show-stopping (yet surprisingly low-maintenance) option for so many different environments, from coastal to mountainous.