How to Choose a Tree Surgeon
Over the last couple of weeks, we have been looking at tree care. Winter is a good season for this, because the lack of leaves makes it easier to see what needs doing,…
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Should I Trim My Trees?
Trees are great to have on your property, bringing beauty and shade, cleaning the air and removing CO2 from the atmosphere – we should all be planting more of them. Older trees, though,…
Grow Versatile Tree Roses in Your Garden
There are many kinds of roses – Hybrid Tea, Floribunda, Landscape Rose, and many more – but the same rose can come in different ways too. Typically, they are grown to produce stems…
Insect Pests of Pine Trees
Pines – big and small – were the subject of a recent blog, and they are beautiful trees that bring a unique look to any garden, with so many to choose from. Pine…
7 Top Tips for Spring Clean Up in the Garden
Once warmer weather returns, and the days start to grow longer, the garden tempts up back into it, after a winter of rest, perhaps buried beneath snow. The early-spring garden can look sad,…
Protect Your Evergreens the Way the Pros Do
Protecting newly-planted trees – especially evergreens – in their first winter is a real issue for gardeners who live in cold parts of the country. Every fall and winter it comes up and…
5 Steps to Better Soil for Fall Planting
Now that fall is beginning, this is prime planting season for trees and shrubs. Planted now, rather than in spring, they will establish roots over winter – even in the coldest areas –…
Fall – The Ideal Planting Season
Somehow, over recent years, the gardening year got turned around. Today everyone rushes into their garden at the first sign of spring, and immediately starts planning and planting for the best garden ever….
Summer Tree Problems – What Counts, and What Doesn’t
There is a cycle to the growth of a garden through the seasons. After the silent wait of winter, spring arrives full of promise. The fresh, new growth of trees and shrubs is…
Diseases of Crape Myrtles
Crape Myrtles (Lagerstroemia) are very popular shrubs for warmer areas, and no wonder. They have spectacular blooms for an extended period, grow well in poor soil, and are heat and drought resistant. They…
Why We Stake Trees
Planting a tree is always a great moment – most trees have longer lives than we do, and although a newly-planted tree will be a beautiful addition to our gardens after just a…
Get the Most from Your Mulch
New gardeners quickly hear about this thing called ‘mulch’, but often all that hear is, ‘mulch regularly’, or ‘use mulch for weed control’ – without getting any real idea of what it is,…
Diseases of Pine Trees
Planting a tree is an action full of hope. We hope that our tree will grow and flourish, living out its life – which will certainly be decades, and perhaps even a hundred…
It’s Plant a Pine Tree Time
Spring is the big season in the garden, and this is when we all go out and look at our gardens, to see what we can grow that will make them more beautiful….
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…
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…
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…
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 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…
Summer Care of Japanese Maple
Everyone loves Japanese maples, with their diversity of leaf color and form. Some are upright, some weeping, while some cascade elegantly over rocks and walls. Leaves may be green, or the coveted rich-reds…
Tips on Pruning Shrubs and Flowering Trees
The succession of flowering shrubs through the seasons is a large part of the beauty of a garden, bringing interest to every part of the year. Yet in many gardens the shrubs are…
What Shrubs Should be Pruned in Spring?
As the warmer weather arrives, and our plants start to show signs of waking from their winter sleep, we start to wonder how to get the best from them in the coming season….
The Fiddle Leaf Fig – the Latest Indoor Hit
Flip through the pages of any interior décor magazine these days, and the chances are you will see a tall plant, with large leaves, being used as an accessory to the latest furniture…
Protecting Your Hedges In Winter
If you live in colder parts of the country, where winter is a time of snow and ice, fall and early winter are good times to be thinking about protecting your hedges from…