The Best Flowering Vines and Climbers to Grow in Garden & Containers can add vertical interest, frame doorways, or even create privacy screens. And the best part? They’re really easy to take care of.
03.05.2024 - 14:15 / thespruce.com / Ashley Chalmers
The amount of gardening info at our fingertips these days is as exciting as it is overwhelming, and this is especially true if you’re still in the early years of planting veggies.
Tomatoes, in particular, seem to inspire a long list of questions. To prune or not to prune? How much space? Does the soil really matter?
We turned to two of our favorite gardening experts who happen to know a ton about tomatoes. Here’s what they said they wish they knew back when they first started.
The Spruce / Colleen & Shannon Graham
According to Nikhil Arora of Back to the Roots, he wishes he knew more about how to keep his plants happy.
“Something I wish I knew before I started growing tomatoes is the importance of proper support and pruning techniques,” he says.
From cages to stakes, different varieties have different support needs, and this is something your local garden center should be able to help you with. The same goes for proper pruning shears and techniques based on your plant.
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If Cullen Boudreaux of American Meadows could go back in time, she’d tell herself that tomatoes need to be protected from swings in temperatures.
“These can prevent them from setting fruit,” she says. “Protect them from cold drafts if they are inside, harden your seedlings off before planting outside, and make sure not to plant them out until nighttime temperatures are at least 55 degrees.”
I wish I knew how much more delicious a freshly picked tomato is than one from the grocery store—that makes it all worth it.
The Spruce / K. Dave
One thing Donna Letier of Gardenuity wishes she knew from the start was how
The Best Flowering Vines and Climbers to Grow in Garden & Containers can add vertical interest, frame doorways, or even create privacy screens. And the best part? They’re really easy to take care of.
Twenty-five years ago when my wife Kathy and I started searching for a new home for our growing family, she focused on all the qualities one looks for in a new house. I, of course, looked at what every gardener considers imperative—the lot. Thanks to Kathy, we ended up with a wonderful new place. And much to my delight, the property had one particularly important feature—good soil. The other nice bonus was that the backyard bordered a small city park, with lots of open space for the kids to play, so my garden design did not have to include an area for kicking a soccer ball. Plant-wise, however, there wasn’t much other than invasive shrubs and trees. So after removing all the nasty invasives, I had a clean slate to work with.
Starting a new garden from scratch can be daunting, but it’s also a fantastic opportunity to create exactly what you want. The vision I had for my new garden (two decades ago) was based on the many small English gardens that I was lucky enough to visit—not the gardens with impeccably maintained lawns and neatly clipped hedges, but those that had plants spilling out of every nook and cranny. Since its inception, the landscape has been slowly undergoing a transformation over the past decade, from a traditional shade garden to a more naturalistic one that embraces an ecology-first mindset. This evolution, however, hasn’t sacrificed the original intention of my dream garden—that it be a visually appealing space with plenty of activity.
Spring cleanup can be a real mess. If you cut your own ornamental grasses, that’s especially true if it’s a windy day and you’re dealing with taller grasses (e.g., Miscanthus, Panicum) blowing everywhere as they’re cut and fall over.
Cucumbers are among the most popular crops for home gardeners. They’re easy to grow and just a handful of vines can provide enough cucumbers for fresh eating from mid-summer through late fall. But proper cucumber plant spacing can mean the difference between healthy, productive plants and disease ridden, low yielding ones. Let’s take a look at how far apart to plant cucumbers based on your growing technique and the method you use to plant them. Why properly spacing cucumber plants matters Before we dive into the details on proper plant spacing for cucumbers, let’s take a
Bridgerton is coming to Chelsea this month, as Netflix makes its debut at the flower show, with a garden themed around its popular TV show. First time Chelsea designer Holly Johnston has created a garden based on the personal journey of the show’s main character, Penelope Featherington. The Bridgerton Garden is part of the Sanctuary Gardens area at the show.
Small bathrooms don’t have to pose a design dilemma. Although they may be short on space, a small bathroom can encourage you to get extra creative, flexing style and function in interesting new ways.
Are you planning to install a pergola to enhance your outdoor space? Whether it's creating a shady retreat in your backyard or adding an architectural element to your patio, installing a pergola can be a great way to improve your outdoor living. But before you start building, there are some key things to consider to ensure your project is successful.
Chives (Allium schoenoprasum) are among the most popular herbs for home gardeners to grow. They are easy to plant and care for, and since they are a hardy perennial, they return to the garden year after year. The fragrant and flavorful leaves of the chive plant are delicious to people, but the deer and rabbits leave them alone. To add yet another benefit, chive flowers are a favorite nectar source for many of the pollinators who also help pollinate other edible crops. Learning how to harvest chives for use in the kitchen is key to enjoying this easy-to-grow herb. Let’s take a look at several different ways to harvest chives for both fresh use and for preservation. The best time to harvest chives Before we get to the information on how to harvest chives, it’s important to understand
To have the most glorious calathea roseopicta, you need to ensure it gets the proper dose of sunlight, water, and fertilizer. However, the combination of just three won’t cut in and you’ll need a little more than this to make it thrive. What are those? Well, keep reading to find out!
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