garden-tour aftermath: the asked-about plants

As we continue to break heat records in many different regions around the world, gardeners have to think more than ever about how they can create gardens that can stand the heat.

Plants have unique natural abilities to emit different chemical substances. With them they repel or attract specific insects. Flowers bring a pretty sight and a pleasant fragrance for us. However, for pests they often pose a life threat. That’s why such plants can perfectly serve as a replacement for the synthetic insecticides, as long as you know how to use this to your advantage.

Rainy weather can dampen the enthusiasm of any gardener. They say that God created rainy days so gardeners could do all of the house work.

In the cold wet winter it is a good time to plan where to visit as the year improves. The South West is the obvious place to start your visiting tour of gardens containing exotic plants.

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Tested by Marti Neely, FAPLD

Red maples, lavender henbit, and yellow dandelions are blooming, all early signs that spring’s explosion of color is merely one month away. Why is spring so colorful? What mysterious force drives plants to develop so many different flower sizes, shapes, colors, and fragrances? The primary answer is their pollinators.

When plant problems occur in the landscape, gardeners often blame insects or diseases. While some plants are more susceptible to pest problems than others, many issues arise when plants are planted too deeply.

WHO VISITED: We met Twitter friends like @GardenGuyKenn (all the way from Michigan) and other blog-commenters like Bobster (all the way from Rhode Island) and Leslie (from Connecticut) and Ailsa and Patti, from Ottawa, Ontario.We met Joyce from Iowa and Michelle from Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania (31 miles from Wilkes-Barre, apparently) and Sandra from Clarks Summit (also Pennsylvania, 8 miles from Scranton) and Julie from Reston, Virginia, and Stephanie from Bainbridge Island, Washington, and Stephanie from Seattle (both Stephanies, both from prime garden country…a coincidence?). Someone signed in as being from Scotland, but can that be so? And all of you, thank you, whether from a mile down the road or a country or ocean away…or whether you just visited our virtual tour yesterday.Some of t

THE FROGBOYS CAN’T BELIEVE IT, EITHER: Another warm-weather season is drawing to a close, and with it the “everybody into the pool” mindset that pretty much sums it up around here will be traded for something involving snowsuits, not swimsuits. Everywhere I look this week, there’s a frogboy on the edge of the colder reality ahead.

SOMEONE FELL ASLEEP IN A CHAIR LAST NIGHT AT 8, but this toad (loyal old tight-lipped friend that he is) is not saying who. In fact, he’s not saying much today other than good morning, before hopping away to hide behind the big pots in case carloads of people arrive at the gate for any more garden tours.

WHAT FLOWERS DO YOU PLANT in the vegetable garden to encourage good pollination of your food crops? That was the great question raised the other day in the Urgent Garden Question Forum by member NanZ.