Vegetable Gardening for Beginners

Vegetables are easy to grow and are very rewarding at harvest time. The most important requirements are sunshine and watering. Other requirements are a loosened soil, some fertilizer, and a little bit of weeding. If you have an area in your yard that gets sunshine most of the day (6-8 hours in summer) then you can have a vegetable garden. […]

Growers Guide for Aucuba Japonica

Evergreen shrubs, 5-6 ft. high, with large, glossy, laurel-like green or variegated leaves and clusters of red fruits, each containing a single seed. The flowers are small and not showy, and male and female flowers are borne on different plants. They grow wild in Japan, China, and the Himalayas, and belong to the Dogwood family, Cornaceae. The word Aucuba is […]

Drought Tolerant Plants

Drought-tolerant plants have become increasingly popular as eco-conscious individuals and gardeners seek sustainable landscaping solutions. These resilient plants are designed to thrive in arid conditions, requiring minimal water input while still adding vibrancy and beauty to your garden or landscape. With climate change and water scarcity concerns on the rise, the demand for drought-tolerant options has surged. Incorporating these plants […]

How to make a Hypertufa trough

Hypertufa is a cast “rock-like” material which can be used for relatively inexpensive bonsai pots and slabs for plantings. It looks like rock, can be cast into almost any shape, is very lightweight and also strong enough to withstand the freeze/thaw cycle of most northern climates. The American Rock Garden Society uses the following basic recipe to create alpine troughs. […]

Gardening with Shade Flowers

When acquiring plants for a shade garden, remember that plants grow slowly in the shade, so get large plants. Plants often grow differently in the shade and some experimentation with size and blooming times are in order. The following plants grow well in deep shade. While the common Bleeding Heart will take some shade, the Fern Leaf Bleeding Heart (Dicentra […]

Water Garden Aquatic Fiberglass pool

Since the introduction of fiberglass pools, tremendous interest has been shown in medium-sized garden pools. Sitting the pool Before constructing any pool careful thought should be given to the sitting. To create a successful bog garden or water garden, it must be situated right out in the open, in full sun. Although not essential, it is advantageous to give protection […]

How to Shade Your Big Pumpkin for the Weigh-Off

Additional Pumpkin Pages HowTo Grow –Records – Clipart – Seeds – Poems – Phantom – Carving – Pumpkin Recipes – FAQ’s – How Big is it? Shading your pumpkin By Jack LaRue I prefer a large, dry, well ventilated shade structure over the pumpkin. The materials needed to build one of these covers are: 3 – 10 foot pieces of […]

Hollyhock: A Perennials Guide to Planting Flowers

A constant, old-fashioned garden favorite! Hollyhocks have been universally admired for hundreds of years. They are stately, majestic, towering plants that add beauty wherever they are grown. What other plant has such a stately habit or so many transparent, lovely colors In single plants or masses against walls or buildings, in groups at the back or rear of the perennial […]

Primrose: Perennials Guide to Planting Flowers

Hardy Primroses are showy plants which fit in well with any Spring bedding design. The small flowers are graceful and dainty and the varieties can be so chosen that they will be in bloom from April for a month. Primroses grow from 6 inches to 18 inches high and have light green, hairy leaves. The colors of the hardy sorts […]

Early Summer tips for the vegetable garden

EARLY SUMMER TIPS FOR THE VEGETABLE GARDEN Mulching, staking, pest and disease control, and succession planting are some of the early season tips for vegetable gardens. Reduce the weeds in walkways in your garden by covering the soil with some type of mulch. Several sheets of moistened newspaper topped with hay or straw are attractive and work very well, especially […]