Controlling Animal Pests in the Flower Garden

Although insect pests and plant diseases are generally easy to control in the flower garden, animal pests are not. For one, much of our wildlife is protected by law and can’t be indiscriminately eliminated. You may have variable success with […]

Herbal plants offered today

The plants offered to gardeners or non-gardeners at nurseries, garden centers and the corner store vary immensely.  They may be culinary herbs suitable for all sorts of savory dishes, or valued for their blooms or can be used medicinally. In […]

Gardening Guidance for Growing Orchids

Orchid cultivation Orchids seem to do best if a greenhouse is devoted solely to their cultivation, though some types such as Odontoglossum grande and Coelogyne cristata will succeed very well in a general collection of plants. At the outset, it […]

Designing a Herbaceous border

The herbaceous border, which is a comparative newcomer to the garden scene, is still one of its most popular features. Introduced at the turn of the century by Gertrude Jekyll as a protest against the monotonous formality of Victorian garden […]

What is Beetroot

Beetroot This sweet salad vegetable has a high food value. It needs deep soil and is best suited to a place where a previous non-root crop has been grown. Do not add fresh manure, as this is inclined to cause […]

Growing facts for Beans and Peas

BEANS Beans include many types of snap beans, pole beans, and Southern peas, such as black-eyed types. Plant these in spring after all danger of frost has passed. Because they grow so fast, start beans from seed directly in the […]

Tree identification Broadleaf trees

Information pertaining to broadleaf trees.  Listed below are common trees with care facts. ACER Most maples thrive on lime and chalk, including British natives and those commonly planted. The Chinese species, such as AA, capillipes, davidii, ginnala, griseum and rufinerve, […]

Growing corn and Sweet corn – what are the facts

SWEET CORN No other vegetable captures the succulence of summer like sweet corn. Whether you like your kernels white, yellow, or with both colors on the same ear, new hybrids offer incredibly delicious flavor with very little effort. A warm […]

Sorting Seeds

Since confession is good for the soul, I feel compelled to say that I always order too many seeds.  And since making excuses is one of the hallmarks of the human condition, I will also say that my seed surplus […]

Mulching – Protect plants from the hot weather

Summer Mulching. An even temperature around the roots and a steady supply of moisture in the soil are all important to growing plants. A mulch, applied in early summer after hot weather begins, tends to maintain these conditions as well […]