Glorious vines to delight the gardener

All gardens look wonderful with various perennials and low growing shrubs, but consideration must also be given for plants that provide height. When plants are grown at all the same height it looks like something is missing, yet when a […]

Growing and Care Bottle Brush Tree. Callistemon

CALLISTEMON—Bottle-Brush Tree (Calliste’mon). Tender evergreen flowering shrubs from Australia which belong to the Myrtle family, Myrtaceae. They are well adapted for growing outdoors in California and in similar mild climates and for greenhouse cultivation elsewhere. They have narrow, dark-green, leathery […]

Desperation

It pains me to admit it, but for once my sister is right. I am becoming wimpy in my old age. When I was growing up in a snowy slice of New York State, 30 miles east of Buffalo, it […]

The Backyard Different thinking for container gardening

There are many great containers that are useful for container gardening. Plastic being the fastest to manufacture, the cheapest to purchase, many colours available to suit everyone’s tastes and easiest to handle makes it the most popular choice. The second […]

Groundcovers are the true workhorses of a garden

There are not many plants that can be truly called a workhorse in a garden, yet many groundcovers are exactly that. Once established, they require no care, instead providing a large, weed-free mat of their vegetation and flowers. The choices […]

How to grow Turnip plant from seed

Turnip This root vegetable, Brassica campestris rapa (syn. B. rapa), has been grown in Britain since the sixteenth century. The roots are global or flattish round. A well-drained sandy loam is suitable for both types—summer and winter. But if the […]

Organic Gardener’s Toolkit

For any gardener who still hasn’t been convinced about the need to garden organically, here are some statistics that may help change your mind. In March of 2001, the American Cancer Society published a report linking the use of the […]

Salad Recipe – Let’s Plant!

These are crops grown especially for salads and those which, although suitable for other use, may also be added to the salad bowl. You should create your own salad recipe of plants. Lettuce is the foundation of most salads and […]

Common Boxwood Shrub Planting and Care

BUXUS — Boxwood (Bux’us). Evergreen trees and shrubs, found wild in the temperate parts of Europe and Asia, which belong to the Box family, Buxaceae. They are of neat habit of growth and have small, leathery leaves. The Box has […]

Bottle Garden

BOTTLE GARDEN A bottle garden is a special type of terrarium, an arrangement of growing plants contained within a large bottle or carboy. It is desirable that such containers have one or more holes drilled in their bottoms (this can […]