Colorful ferns can be an excellent addition to any garden or indoor plant collection. These plants are characterized by their beautiful, vibrant fronds ranging from shades of pink, red, yellow, and even purple.
11.07.2023 - 07:37 / gardenerspath.com / Helga George
The Benefits of Using Soil Inoculants and Microbes in the GardenHopefully you don’t think of soil as just dirt.
Soil is actually an incredibly complex ecosystem, with billions of organisms found in a single teaspoonful. These organisms range from fungi and bacteria to earthworms, nematodes, and insects.
Good soil health is critical for plants to survive and thrive, so the survival of humans indirectly rests on the health of the soil.
This is so important that there are government programs working today to improve soil health. A number of these projects are specialized for urban areas and include funding to study heavy metal toxicity in the ground in New York.
We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission.
Some of the many benefits of good soil health include:
Improved moisture retention. Reduced soil erosion. Improved nutrient absorption. Protection against pathogens and insects.Soil that is composed of aggregates (smaller fragments) will be less likely than individual particles to be blown away by the wind or taken up by water – both major causes of soil erosion.
Ideally, these aggregates stick together, and fungi can make this happen. They do so by secreting a sticky gel that glues the organic particles and the minerals together, helping to form humus. In addition, their hyphae thread through the small particles.
The fine roots of plants also help aggregates form by growing through the smaller fragments and helping them stick together.
A major advantage of humus is that it holds onto nutrients as water travels through the soil. This benefits both plants and the environment.
Adding soil inoculants like mycorrhizae will help ensure that your plants grow in
Colorful ferns can be an excellent addition to any garden or indoor plant collection. These plants are characterized by their beautiful, vibrant fronds ranging from shades of pink, red, yellow, and even purple.
A pothos at Patch Plants
2020 Master Gardener Training Course registration is OPEN
Want to add a tropical flair to your garden this spring? Elephant ears will add a bold statement to a filtered sun or high shade spot. These striking “drama queens” of the garden may be either in genera Colocasia or Alocasia. The easiest way to tell these beauties apart is that colocasias (Colocasia esculenta) will have leaves that point downward, and alocasia (Alocasia species) leaves will point upward. Depending on the species or cultivar of each genus, the size can range from 3 to 10 feet tall and 2 to 10 feet in width. Both types of elephant ears are native to the tropical regions of Southeastern Asia.
In a year when many of our favorite sporting events have been postponed or even canceled, the garden marches on! As gardeners, we have our own backyard competitions each year, keeping mental notes on which varieties we will plant again or replace due to their performance on our ‘home court’. But choosing which varieties will be in our starting lineup each year can become a daunting task.
I PROMISED I WOULDN’T ADD EVEN AN EXTRA TRIP TO THE CURB WITH THE TRASH to my schedule, with all the mowing I have to do, but (big surprise) I layered on a couple of events, and I want to make sure you know about them, in case you are in the Hudson Valley/Berkshires vicinity this summer. Another container-gardening class, a 365-day garden lecture with an extra focus on water gardening and the frogboys, and a tour here in August (that last one you already might know about). Details, details:Sunday July 12, Containing Exuberance, container-gardening workshop, with Bob Hyland at Loomis Creek Nursery, near Hudson, New York, 11 AM to 1 PM, $5.
His garden was not so far away from where I live, and were he here to welcome spring this year, I suspect that he, too, would be hoping for the best while poking about in the dirt as he cleaned up the beds.Every spring since then, in memory of Geoffrey Charlesworth, and of all the garden’s great creatures who haven’t made it to the newest season, I make a tradition of sharing a poem of his: “Why Did My Plant Die?”more about geoffrey charlesworth‘WHY DID MY PLANT DIE?’ is just one piece of the wisd
I LEFT HOME LAST WEEK (without telling Jack first!) for a lecture in Baltimore, the farthest I’ve been from here in more years than I can recall. Besides a great crowd at the event held by the Maryland Horticultural Society, there was an extra treat: I got to meet Susan Harris, one of the four bloggers who collaborate on the wildly popular site called Garden Rant.
I talked about watering best practices with New York Botanical Garden instructor Daryl Beyers, author of “The New Gardener’s Handbook” (affiliate link). The popular course that Daryl teaches at NYBG is called Fundamentals of Gardening. And now Daryl, who has more than 25 years’ professional landscaping experience besides his teaching role, has put all the fundamentals into “The New Gardener’s Handbook.”Read along as you listen to the June 29, 2020 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) or Spotify or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).Plus: Enter to win Daryl’s new book by commenting in the box at the b
Wherever you garden, he has advice to help you think about what to look for in a garden-worthy native and more, and how to really define native, anyway. I learned the concept of ecoregions—about choosing plants not because I live within a particular county line on a manmade map, but instead guided by larger forces of geology and natural habitat.Read along as you listen to the July 23, 2018 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here). Plus: Enter to win a copy of the new book, by commenting at the bottom of the page.selecting garden-worthy native plants, with dan jaffeQ. I haven’t been to Garden in the Woo
Brad has held top horticultural positions at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York, at the New York Botanical Garden, and on a private estate. He’s currently a trustee at Innisfree Garden in Millbrook, where he’ll give a virtual talk on Wednesday afternoon, February 23, on effective solutions for dealing with deer.Read along as you listen to the February 21, 2022 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) or Spotify or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here). (Photo of white-tailed doe and fawn grazing, above, by Raul654 from Wikimedia.)deterring deer in the garden, with brad r