Soil Ideas, Tips & Guides

While most fade as fall ends, we handpick hardy flowers that blossom and fill your winter garden with mesmerizing hues even as the mercury drops to freezing levels! With some autumn planting, your garden will enjoy beautiful blooms from fall through winter. So don’t wait; grab your tools and get digging!

Unless you're planting flower or vegetables that grow in the winter, you shouldn't expect much out of your garden when the cold weather arrives. But, that doesn't mean there aren't a few tasks to complete at the end of summer that helps keep your garden in excellent condition for the following spring.

When blankets of green suddenly pop into a canvas of colors with the prettiest flowers, it is truly a sight to behold! The ground covers on this list aren’t just easy to grow; they thrive in the shade and produce mesmerizing blooms even in dimly lit spaces! Let’s dig in.

Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page.

If you love experiencing life through dreamy, rose-colored glasses, grow these pink-leaved outdoor plants in your garden for year-round color! Emerging in all shades of pink, your garden will look like something straight out of a fairy tale! Check it out!

Fungus gnats are a common pest among houseplants. These small flies tend to go unnoticed at first, slowly building their populations by laying eggs on the soil of our container plants. Their larvae feed on fungi and organic matter in our potting soil and nibble on plant roots as well. As much as we'd like, they don't go away on their own. Over time, their numbers grow, and you begin to notice the adults hovering above the soil surface when you water your houseplants.

Of course, your area’s climate plays a major role in how your garden will turn out. However, that does not mean the heat can prevent you from having a beautiful one. All you need are tough and durable plants to thrive in the full sun and extreme heat. So, here are the plants to grow if you get a lot of sunny days and extreme heat.

Don’t put away your gardening tools just yet! Once the weather moderates, there’s still plenty of time to plant. In fact, fall actually is an ideal time for adding new perennials and shrubs to your garden to add beauty, privacy, andpollinator-friendly plants.

Chrysanthemums or mums are a must-have for autumn décor. They are perfect for pairing with pumpkins and gourds, and steal the spotlight with an explosion of blooms in fiery red, orange, and yellow hues that echo the autumn foliage. You’ll also find vibrant pink, lavender, and even white mums to dress up containers and gardens. Mums are easy to care for but require regular watering to keep them flowering for many weeks. How much water plants need and how often you should water mums varies depending on where the plant is growing. Follow these simple tips to determine when to water mums and keep them looking their best all season.

Most of these plants grow in the wild, and some have ornamental value due to their aesthetics. To make your garden a hub of beneficial insects and pollinators butterflies, grow some of these weeds that attract the most pollinators but with care so they won’t invade other plants.

When and How to Fertilize Jasmine

Planting milkweed seeds is a great way to get a lot of milkweed plants for your garden. Milkweed isn’t difficult to grow from seed and the plants are beautiful, long blooming, and support many species of pollinators, including monarch butterflies. In this article you’ll learn four easy techniques for planting milkweed seeds and get tips on caring for the seedlings. Why grow milkweed? Gardeners know the value of growing milkweed in their gardens. These are beautiful perennial plants that add b

Pruning Lavender

Most flowering plants bloom once a year or less. Some even take decades to produce a single flower that lasts for a day before withering away. But with our selection of perennials that bloom multiple times a year, your garden will never lose its floral charm.

Green leaves are the energy engines that fuel our gardens. Without them there would be no flowers, no sugars for summer tomatoes, and no cooling or oxygenating the air while growing the mighty trees that give landscapes a sense of time and permanence. A gardener’s admiration of leaves can quickly fade, however, when faced with brown leaves blanketing everything from azaleas to annuals, and patios to pools. Leaves are suddenly a problem, something to manage—in other words, work.

When the season changes, your indoor plants’ needs also transform. So, why reduce watering in fall and winter? This modification benefits your plants and helps them confront the oncoming cold and less bright days. Let’s explore the details.

Weeds are party crashers—they are not invited, take up space and resources, and are not dressed for the occasion. However, some are extremely useful in the garden. You don’t have to empty your wallet on pricey plant food when you can use these weeds that make good fertilizers!

We’ve gathered tips and tricks that you can follow to extend the life of your orchid while keeping it healthy and thriving! Do this after buying an orchid, and you’ll be surprised. Let’s take a look!

Even if you aren't fortunate enough to live next to a meadow of wildflowers, you can still capture their untamed beauty in a container or garden this summer by planting cosmos. Cosmos come in various colors, from burgundy to pink to white. Mix them up for a more natural look, like a wildflower meadow. Bonus: this colorful flower, native to tropical America, attracts birds and butterflies with its cheery blooms. Because of their wildflower characteristics, cosmo flowers are considered invasive in some environments. Cosmos are prime not only for containers but for creating a mass of color in borders or backgrounds or as a filler among shrubs.

Your soil may not need it, your plants may not want it, and it's possible to use it incorrectly. But when properly applied, wood ash can be good for plants. This guide explains how to add wood ash to your garden for optimal plant growth.

From minimalism to sci-fi fandom, this plant’s symmetrical, coin-like foliage, slender stems, and glossy, lush green hues satisfy all sleek decor needs.

Venus fly traps (also called Venus flytraps or just a flytrap) are among the coolest plants you can grow. In their native habitat, Venus fly traps live for years. Unfortunately, they are often short-lived plants in cultivation, but this is only because most people don’t care for them properly. In this article, you’ll learn all the essential basics of Venus fly trap care. Varieties of Venus fly traps There is only one species of Venus fly trap, Dionaea muscipula, and it is native to a small

Perhaps your lush summer blossoms have begun wilting, and you dread a barren garden as winter approaches! However, with our list of the best flowers to plant in September, you’ll have a garden teeming with deep, warm blooms—some as early as fall and some through spring!

Looking for something unusual to grow in the garden? Look no further than chocolate cosmos, a tuberous perennial with velvety blooms and a decadent fragrance. With showy wine-red blossoms that perfume the garden with the distinctive aromas of chocolate and vanilla from mid-summer through fall, chocolate cosmos entices butterflies and curious gardeners alike. The blooms make fragrant cutting for the vase and plants perform beautifully in containers, where their scent can be enjoyed on patios and balconies. Bring the beauty and aroma of chocolate cosmos to your own garden by learning how to grow and care for these unique bloomers.

Some shade is essential in warmer zones, but even in the North, Virginia persicaria (P. virginiana) appreciates afternoon shade and wind protection.

Rock gardens are an attractive way of displaying a variety of small plants including alpines, dwarf shrubs and low-growing perennials. They can be adapted to suit any space – an alpine trough, old stone wall or sunny border can all be used to create a form of rock garden. One of the first rock gardens was built at the Chelsea Physic Garden in London in the late 1770s, and they became a popular feature in Victorian and Edwardian gardens, providing a way to display alpine plants from around the world.

Veronicastrum (Veronicastrum virginicum) is a hardy, herbaceous perennial that has been in garden cultivation for hundreds of years but has only gained popularity in the last couple of decades, thanks to a revival of naturalistic planting styles. Its vertical branching stems are excellent for architectural impact in sunny borders, and its long tapering blooms, made up of many tiny flowers, are a magnet for insects.

Given how pricey they are in the market, growing this fruit may seem challenging! But with attention to a few details, it’s fairly easy and super rewarding! Homegrown fresh blueberries are a delight, especially when you have endless buckets to relish. Follow these tricks to double your blueberry harvest in containers or your garden!

Dead and forgotten? Far from it! These perennials have a life cycle that barely lasts a few years. Most of them bloom in the first few years of planting itself—and then they perish! So, what’s the point in growing such short-lived specimens? Won’t it mean more work? You have the questions, and we have the answers!

Spinach is a cool weather favorite, with leaves that sprout up and grow rapidly in both spring and fall. It has a relatively short growing season, but its yield is impressive—if it has the right companion plants by its side to help it thrive.

You've likely heard that burying banana peels in your garden is a good way to add important nutrients to the soil to grow healthy plants. Banana peels do contain nutrients, but not as many as you may think. Plus, it's not as simple as placing them in the soil and skipping fertilizer or compost.

How to Identify and Manage Willow Galls

Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page.

Collaborative post

As you test out new varieties of storage vegetables for your home garden, you’ll benefit from learning when to harvest acorn squash. These winter squashes get their name from their acorn shape. They’re close cousins to Hubbard, pumpkins, buttercup, kabocha, delicata, spaghetti squash, and butternut squash. Here, I offer advice for growing acorn squash, indicators of squash maturity, how and when to harvest acorn squash, and all-important storage tips. Harvesting acorn squash is a straightforward task. Winter squash of all kinds are harvested and eaten as mature fruit, when the s

Do African Violets bloom all year round? You can make them! Here are a few tips and tricks to coax your flowers to appear throughout the year, lighting up your home even on the gloomiest days!