Gardening Know How Ideas, Tips & Guides

When summer temperatures soar, heat-loving flowers will continue to thrive. Even heavy humidity won’t get them down. If you live in a warm climate, heat-friendly flowers are a necessity. If time is an issue, choose low maintenance, heat-tolerant flowers that don’t need deadheading or lots of water.

Most lawn maintenance chores coincide with the mowing season. If you live in Florida, lawn care can be a year-round task. Luckily, most other Southeast gardeners are able to take a break during the winter. Yet, no matter how many months of the year you tend the yard, proper lawn care is essential to grow lush, green turf in Southeastern US states.

You don’t have to buy baby food. You can make, and even grow, your own. With a home vegetable garden and some fruits, it’s possible to make delicious, nutritious, and safe baby food at home.

When it comes to irrigating your garden, a drip irrigation system can’t be beat. You can purchase a kit, buy separate pieces to assemble or try your hand at DIY drip irrigation for the garden. There are several types of DIY drip irrigation systems, none particularly challenging to assemble. Keep reading to learn how to make your own homemade slow drip irrigation system.

Although it is possible to get an accurate reading of soil texture in a lab, it can be expensive and time consuming. That’s why it’s a good idea to learn to estimate soil texture accurately by feel.

Back to Eden gardening is a simple but effective technique and philosophy for growing plants. It is sustainable, organic, and focused on soil regeneration. The idea is to recreate the natural conditions in which plants grow and thrive, which reduces the need to weed, water, and do other garden chores.

Natural precipitation rates vary around the world, but no matter how much rain a region gets annually, we all share the responsibility to use it wisely. Water-wise gardening – sometimes called xeriscaping – uses innovative conservation techniques and sound gardening practices to create a beautiful landscape while conserving water. For water wise landscaping ideas, read on.

Many gardeners know the value of mulch around plant roots. Mulches stabilize soil, enrich it, and can contribute to better biodiversity. There are many landscape mulch alternatives to standard bark mulch. Many of these are cleverly recycled items that prevent landfill waste and foster a sense of sustainability.

Many gardeners feel that mowing is a bit of a chore, but believe it or not, there are others that call it a sport. Both the U.S. and U.K. have been staging lawn mower races for decades. The brain child of various individuals and organizations, a lawn mower race is just what it appears. It all starts with the building of a race lawn mower: a vehicle that never really mows grass. Instead, it is built for speed, lightness, and agility, and fueled by the dreams of its driver.

A new awareness of ecological and conservation concerns has resulted in a rising interest in growing native plants and trees. Why are native trees important? One of the main benefits of planting native trees is their adaptability to their specific region. Living in their natural habitat means native trees require less water and fewer herbicides and pesticides to keep them healthy. Trees in their natural environments are also hosts to local wildlife, providing them with food and habitat.

If you have a garden, you likely have one or more members of the aster family (Asteraceae) growing. This is the largest family of flowering plants, with about 1,100 genera and more than 20,000 species. They range from sunflowers and daisies to dandelions, lettuce, and chicory. The only other family of flowering plants with a similar number of species are legumes and orchids.

There are many ways to make a raised garden bed. The cheapest raised garden beds are created using soil mounds to form the border, but there are several other cost effective methods that work well.

The benefits of mulch are so well known that the current question is no longer “should I use mulch?” but rather “how much mulch should I use?” This is a valid inquiry, since using too much mulch can hurt trees and plants. How much mulch is too much? Can too much mulch kill a tree? Read on for information on the disadvantages of mulching too much.

If you’ve been asking, “Is it illegal to dig up wild plants,” the short answer is “Yes.” However, you may obtain permission for scientific, personal, or educational purposes. Find out here what you need to know.

Community gardens take on many forms and serve as social, societal, learning and recreational spaces where participants can grow food and other plants. Usually, a plot of land is donated or rented and developed to serve the residents of the area. A community garden layout should present functionality, appearance, and maintenance aspects in a holistic connection with the participants. The design of such a space should first start with an understanding of its purpose, and a conversation with members of the neighborhood.

Roses are often a staple in the home landscape. Shrub and climbing roses are celebrated for their magnificent bloom and effortless beauty. Though many varieties are popular in flower beds, avid rose growers may find themselves looking for cultivars with more interesting and intriguing characteristics. Below, we have compiled a list of some of the most unique roses for you to add to your garden.

There are over 10,000 types of succulents in the world. They grow on every continent except Antarctica. They are a wildly diverse group of plants in form, color, and size. Plant collectors are always looking for unique succulent plants, and some of these can be found in this article.

Some of the best tasting tomatoes grow from vines. These semi-determinate to indeterminate fruits have no stopping point at the ends of the stems. This leads to tangled drooping stems if they are not supported. One successful way to make sure the fruit is above the soil is by using the Florida weave trellis. The Florida weave is a common field technique for trellising tomatoes. This method keeps vines upright, and fruit away from ground contact.

Growing vegetables in the South means you have to know your climate and your vegetables. Beyond just planting a warm-season vegetable, it’s important to know which vegetables can take the heat.

Sustainable gardening is all about methods and concepts that have social, economic, planetary and personal impact. Practicing sustainable gardening at home might mean making a few simple changes in our gardening methods and, perhaps, some basic shifts in our thinking. You may already be practicing sustainable methods, but it’s always worth reviewing and learning some new ideas. In this article we’ll discuss:

Knowing how to start a garden cheap is important for improving access to a hobby that can be expensive. Don’t let the costs of gardening or the expertise of master gardeners intimidate you. Gardening is truly for everyone, even newbies and those on a budget.

Natural herbs have been the cure and prevention for many health issues for centuries. These were often delivered in the form of teas, tinctures, and balms. The medicinal properties of mint have been lauded through the years, with many benefits touted. In the modern age, however, we may wonder, is mint good for you? Mint health benefits encompass aromatherapy, digestive enhancement, and as a decongestant, among others. Mint is readily available as an oil, dried tea, and is very easy to grow in the garden.

One of the great benefits to living in a more rural area is watching wildlife. As charming as deer and elk might be, plant damage from elk is no joke. Yes, an elk needs to eat, but most gardeners would prefer it not to occur within their landscape. So, the question becomes how to keep elk from eating plants, and out of your yard. An elk fence and deer and elk resistant plants are the place to start.

Community gardens are shared spaces for neighbors to grow vegetables and other plants. There are ways everyone benefits from these spaces. One important benefit and goal of these gardens is to promote sustainable gardening. Sustainable community gardens beautify neighborhoods, support, wildlife, and benefit the health of participants.

Gardeners often select plants for their landscape that are attractive to bees, the world’s top pollinator. Have you ever stopped to wonder about bee vision though? It’s interesting to think about how a bee sees a flower and what factors make that plant attractive to it.

Many gardeners are fans of hydrangeas, hard-working shrubs with enormous blossoms and easy care ways. Hydrangeas are incredibly tolerant of different growing conditions as long as they have well-draining soil and the occasional drink.

Many of us are doing our part, big or small, to be mindful of sustainability, especially when it comes to our gardens. There are numerous ways we can reduce waste and encourage biodiversity while gardening organically. One way is in the selection of eco-friendly vegetables we choose to grow. Not every veggie crop is considered sustainable. The most sustainable vegetables are those that can be grown year after year, relying on local resources while minimizing their impact on the environment. Read on to learn about the best vegetables to grow for sustainable gardening.

As gardeners, we all know the thrill of wandering through a garden centre, our eyes widening at all the pretty plants that would add color and interest to our landscapes.

There are hundreds of different species of aster, each ranging greatly in terms of growth habit, and varying in their specific needs. Though the Aster genus is quite large, the term “aster” is often used to describe a much smaller number of common plants. While annual asters are a popular choice among cut flower growers, flower gardeners also make use of perennials within the landscape and in naturalized wildflower beds and meadows.

Invasive English ivy causes a lot of problems in North America. It spreads rapidly, harms trees, and outcompetes native plants. If you have ivy in your garden, consider removing it. Using native vines or groundcover to replace ivy, you can transform your garden and make it friendlier to the ecosystem in your area.

Retaining walls are important safety and soil conservation features in unstable sites. While some areas may require a professional or even an engineer to ensure sturdiness, less pitched and potentially dangerous areas will benefit from DIY retaining walls. You can build a retaining wall with many objects, often using ones that are found in the landscape such as rocks. Building a retaining wall on a slope should start with an assessment of landslide potential, steepness of the angle, and necessary height of the wall to contain soil. Walls in flat locations require less planning and are easier to construct safely.

Do plants scream when distressed? Do plants scream when you cut them? The thought of a plant that screams is distressing for gardeners, but new research hints that it might be a real phenomenon. A recently published study found that a screaming plant isn’t exactly a thing, but that plants under stress do make specific noises undetectable in normal human hearing.

It’s easy to understand why Japanese barberry is so popular: it’s a small shrub with pretty leaves, bright red berries and easy-care ways. What’s not to like? Quite a few of its qualities are on the downside list, however, and any one of them should be sufficient to make you want to eliminate Japanese barberries from your backyard. If you’ve been asking “what can I substitute for barberry bushes,” read on for some tips.

We live and learn as gardeners. It is unlikely that those who fell in love with Japanese spirea (Spiraea japonica) when it was imported to the United States a century ago had any idea that the gorgeous ornamental, with its showy pink flowers, would be a threat to native ecosystems today. Yet it clearly is, and responsible homeowners should find an alternative to Spirea.

It’s time to plan this year’s garden, but knowing how many of each vegetable to plant can be tricky. Unfortunately, overplanting is a common and costly mistake that even experienced gardeners make. When you can’t sell, give away, or donate unwanted produce, it often ends up in the trash or on the compost pile.

Hydrangeas have exploded in popularity in recent years and so has the number of cultivars available. One group of hydrangeas, developed by plant breeder Dr. Michael Dirr and released in 2004, changed the complexion of the hydrangea industry. Previously, hydrangeas bloomed on either old wood or new wood, but the Hydrangea macrophylla Endless Summer series blooms on last season’s wood and the current season’s wood, providing repeat blooming for an extended period.