Your Backyard Garden Information Source
Learn the August garden tasks for your gardening hardiness zone. Do you know what your hardiness zone? Once known, then find the required task. Zone 1 Sow seeds of wildflowers and fall veggies Aerate, dethatch and fertilize the lawn As first frosts threaten, pick mature green tomatoes to ripen in a dark, cool place indoors Purchase containerized trees and shrubs […]
August is generally a month to harvest, not plant, crops although it’s not too late to put in one last crop of lettuce, as well as spinach, chard, and kale for fall picking. It’s also a good time to plant perennials in pots to add late-season color to the garden. Check with your local garden store or perennial nursery to […]
EVERY gardener knows that Sweet Alyssum, variety Little Gem, is among, if not the best, plant to use to outline beds or borders. In this month it needs a good shearing or cutting back at least half way, so that new growth is encouraged and the blooming season is prolonged until frost. In August one begins to make new seedbeds […]
Composting is an environment-friendly way of nourishing your garden. A great many benefits of composting are no longer a secret to gardeners and homeowners. In fact, people are coming up with new ways to compost their biodegradable waste all the time. By recycling kitchen waste and other biodegradable materials into compost, either as a soil amendment or fertilizer, you are […]
Gardening has been described as ‘interfering with nature’, because in our gardens we try to make plants grow where they do not normally thrive and remove all those plants which distribute themselves naturally. In the wild state each plant grows in positions best adapted to it, and there, together with its neighbors, it covers the ground with a mantle of […]
These are low-growing plants used for the front of flower beds, either annuals raised under glass and bedded out in the spring, or sown in the open where they are to flower or perennials. Although they are seen more often in public parks these days, rather than in private gardens, they can nevertheless be most colorful. The contrast of colors […]
There are thousands of species of beetles and weevils (Coleoptera) in our garden world. They vary greatly in size, appearance, and habits. A number of them are garden or household pests, but others are useful predators on other insects and soil creatures. These include the carabid beetles, the devil’s coach horse, and tiger beetles. Ladybirds are well-known predators of greenfly. […]
Fertilizers Fertilizers provide plants with nutrients; they are commonly listed in catalogues under: Straight fertilizers, Compound fertilizers, Liquid fertilizers. Straight fertilizers These are used to supply a specific nutrient. If you wish to make your spring cabbages grow away more quickly in the spring you could top-dress with Nitro-chalk. If your tomatoes are not ripening quickly enough in dull weather […]
Vegetables To enjoy vegetables at their peak of freshness, grow your own. Even if you have only a small space, or a container garden, there are many selections available that yield bountiful harvests from dwarf, compact plants. Most vegetables are fast-growing annual plants that will be ready to harvest in 1 to 3 months after planting. Some vegetables, such as […]
In regions of cold winters, Roses need protection. Hybrid Tea and Floribunda bush Roses will withstand a temperature of about 12 degrees F. but are likely to be damaged by alternating mild and cold spells. They can be protected by mounding soil, buckwheat hulls, or peat moss around the base of the plants, covering them to a height of at […]