Pollinate Your Citrus Trees for a Bumper Crop
Growing oranges, lemons, limes or other citrus fruits in pots is a popular activity. Planting them in a container means you can grow your own citrus, no matter where you live. They spend…
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Useful Tips for Pruning Fruit Trees
As winter moves hesitantly into spring, and the worst weather has passed in your area, its time to turn your thoughts to preparing the garden for another season. If you are lucky enough…
5 Steps to Help Your Indoor Plants Through Winter
Winter can be a drain on us all. Short days, heavy cloud, rain and snow – these all work to bring us down, even though we have a warm, dry home. The same…
Easy Winter Pruning for Great Summer Flowering
In some parts of the country the first signs of spring are already showing. In colder places there is some time to go yet, but it is not too soon to start some…
5 Amazing Shrubs That Flower in Winter
If you live in warmer parts of the country, where winter is shorter, and days above freezing are common, then your garden doesn’t have to be a blank canvas of twigs and leaves…
4 Things to Know About Your Garden Soil
No two places on the planet have exactly the same soil, although sometimes similar types of soil can cover large areas. Plants growing in a particular place have adapted over millions of years…
Making Compost at Home, Part 2
In our last blog we talked about the basics of compost making. Making this ‘black gold’ from garden and kitchen waste is not only a fantastic way to put goodness into your soil,…
Make Your Own Compost – Part 1
The word ‘organic’ has many meanings these days, and most people probably think of ‘food grown without chemicals’ when they hear it. An older meaning is, ‘made from something natural’, and that meaning…
5 Steps to Know Your Garden Better
This quiet time in the garden, when not much is happening, is the perfect time to check out your garden, and learn more about it. The biggest stumbling-block in creating a beautiful garden…
5 Trees That Make the Perfect Gift
Gift-giving is a big part of the holiday season. Besides family and friends, it is common to give gifts to pets too – a bone for the dog, a catnip mouse for the…
7 Great Evergreens for Winter Interest
As the first snow settles in northern areas of the country, and the fall colors become a memory everywhere, the smart gardener has by now cut down or dug up their flowering plants,…
Garden Plants for Holiday Decorating
The ideal garden is one for all seasons, and that includes the most important one of all – the Holiday Season. Many people decorate a spruce or fir in their garden with lights…
The Star Magnolia – Star of the Cold Garden
Even the name has a magical ring, and magnolia trees are among the most beautiful trees in the garden. Sometimes they can be confusing, because there are two distinct groups. So when a…
Tips on Overwintering Patio Trees
One of the pleasures of gardening is growing plants from outside your hardiness zone. There are many trees and bushes that will grow happily for most of the year, but in winter your…
Tips on Protecting Your Evergreens for Winter
In the north the snow is already beginning to swirl, and the first heavy falls are not far away. New gardeners are often surprised to see that their evergreens can look fine all…
5 Ways to Give Your Trees Their Brightest Fall Colors
As the days shorten, and the weather becomes cooler, the grim prospect of winter is softened by the glories of fall. For a short time, our trees surrounded us in the brilliance of…
Trees in Containers – Perfect for the Smaller Garden. Part 2
When we started talking about growing trees in pots and planters, there was so much to say about choosing a container, soil, planting and pruning, that we never got around to looking at…
Growing Rhododendrons on Alkaline Soil
Rhododendrons, and Azaleas too, are loved by everyone for the brilliance and variety of their spring flowers. Nothing rivals the beauty, range of colors, and abundant display of these plants. Among many people…
Trees in Containers – Perfect for the Smaller Garden. Part 1
Trees have an almost mystical fascination for many people. Their silent lives, spread over decades or centuries, and even millennia, speak to us of survival and endurance. The almost magical experience of a…
Making Compost at Home
These days, recycling is everywhere. We recycle everything from newspapers to car tires. But our gardens give us one of the most worthwhile opportunities around to recycle and get the benefits for ourselves….
Flowering Evergreens for Year-Round Interest
Winter is a time when the garden is quiet. Few shrubs or trees bloom, although in warmer areas there are a number that do – the fascinating Paperbush (Edgeworthia) for one. But for…
Holly Berries for Every Garden
As fall arrives, and the holidays are just a short few months away, red berries in the garden start to look like a great idea. There must be a million pictures out there…
Japanese Maples for Fall Color
Fall color is one of the great highlights of the year. Tourists come from around the world to see the colors of eastern North America, and almost everywhere, as the summer comes to…
Grow the Ideal Lemon, Wherever You Live
If you can only grow one citrus tree, the lemon is the ideal choice. It takes a lot of oranges to make a pint of juice, and not everyone loves grapefruit, which anyway…