Praying Mantis Guards Tomato. Photo by VladUK.
When holes or spots start appearing on plant leaves, a lot of gardeners’ knee-jerk reaction is to reach for a chemical spray, and set out to eradicate the pests. But this “solution” doesn’t really address the systemic issues that led to infestation in the first place. Natural methods of pest control are not only better for the environment, but they are more viable in the long run. An unhealthy garden will continue to be plagued by problems and require more and more chemical help, while a well-designed and healthy garden will keep pests and diseases at bay the natural way, with little need for help from you.
Read More
Garden space is a rare commodity today—so few of us are operating out of our patio with little or no land to work with, which makes it more important than ever to make use of all your garden space. The best way to do this is to grow your garden upwards, filling that Y axis with fine flora.
A vertical garden has many advantages over a traditional (flat) garden. First and foremost, it lets you fit many more plants into a small space. Vertical gardens also put plants right up to eye level, which makes their beauty and fragrance easy to admire. And bonus—this also makes them easy to inspect for pests, easy to tend, and easy to harvest. Since they don’t require stooping or hunching to deal with, they are easy on the gardener’s back and perfect for the elderly or disabled.
Read More
A lot of you might be considering composting, but just haven’t committed to it. You’ve got plenty of kitchen scraps, yard trimmings, and old cardboard—isn’t it silly to send that all to the landfill when you could use it to make plant food instead?
That’s what I was thinking about a year ago when I started my own pile. So I started collecting my kitchen scraps (except for meat and dairy products) and heaping them up with cardboard, twigs, and yard trimmings. I sprinkled some soil on the pile, to introduce soil micro-organisms, and I let the pile start working.
Delicious Compost
Armani Peony
Check out the latest press release for a rundown on how to grow you own cut flowers, and soon you will be supplying your friends and loved ones with gorgeous and fragrant flower arrangements all season long!
Read our 7 Cutflower garden tips here.
Read More
When you are shopping for fertilizer, the main thing to compare is the N-P-K ratings on the front of bag. The N, P, and K are all elemental symbols for the three primary nutrients: N for Nitrogen, P for Phosphorous, and K for Potassium. The numbers represent the total percent of the fertilizer’s weight in those available nutrients. For example, a balanced 10-10-10 fertilizer contains 10% Nitrogen, 10% Phosphorous, and 10% Potassium by weight. Fertilizers have different compositions based on what they are trying to achieve. For example, tomato food is usually 3-4-6 (3% Nitrogen, 4% Phosphorous, and 6% Potassium), while lawn fertilizer is 4-1-2 (4% Nitrogen, 1% Phosphorous, and 2% Potassium). To know whether your plants need more Nitrogen, more Phosphorous, or more Potassium, we have to understand a little about how plants feed.
Read More
“Don’t cripple your Clematis! Make sure that you are pruning your vine properly based on its blooming habit. Clematis can either bloom on old wood (Group I), new wood (Group 3), or both (Group 2), and you must be sure to prune accordingly, because improper pruning can set your bloom show back a year or more!”
Read more of this Wayside Gardens Press Release to learn proper Clematis pruning techniques.
Read More
