Your Backyard Garden Information Source
Raspberries Most raspberries bear red fruit but a few have white or yellow berries. Most ripen in July, some in September or October, and some in either season according to when they are pruned. For varieties fruiting in summer, pruning is carried out immediately picking has finished, the old canes being cut out completely and replaced by the new canes […]
Blackberries Blackberries are vigorous and exceptionally spiny, hardy perennial cane fruits belonging to the genus Rubus .The species and hybrids listed below are grown for dessert, bottling, tarts, jam and wine. Blackberries prefer deep, moist and rich loam but are adaptable to light sands and stiff clays, given free drainage and freedom from perennial weeds. Incorporate bulky organics such as […]
THE FEW REQUIREMENTS for primroses are easily met and are found in practically every garden. They do require shade throughout Mid-America, but this is always available on the north side of the house or in the shade of shrubs, evergreens or trees. Primroses not only offer a variety of form, size, color, habit of growth, but bloom (depending upon the […]
Fall planting of strawberries has its advantages to home gardeners in some areas, particularly to those who want to have a bearing bed as soon as possible in their own back yard. We have been familiar for many years with the feasibility-in fact, even the distinct and feasibility in planting in some northerly areas. Fall planting of strawberries may be […]
Japanese Maples Landscape Planting If your soil is heavy, it should be an amended with sand, bark, or other material to improve drainage, and the soil should be mounded above grade to assure good drainage. Maples are very adaptable to soil types, so if drainage is good, the addition of compost for nutrients and tilth is all that is needed. […]
Named after a sixteenth-century Spanish physician and botanist, Nicholas Monardes (Labiatae). A small genus of annual and perennial herbs from North America, with fragrant leaves and flowers, related to Salvia. The leaves are nettle-like and the flowers have a spiky appearance and are clustered together in whorls: the colour ranges from white through pink, mauve and purple to red. Species […]
Beetroot This sweet salad-vegetable has a high food value. It needs good deep soil and is best suited to occupy a place where a previous non-root crop has been grown. Do not add fresh manure as this is inclined to cause forking of the root. If instead of growing vegetables in the kitchen garden, they are grown in the old-fashioned cottager’s […]
Even on the smaller home lots, there is usually a place for a few fruit trees. In many cases a small home orchard is possible. In smaller places, fruit trees can be worked in with the landscape planting. As a whole, fruit trees grow rapidly and if well cared for they are tidy and a desirable feature of the landscape […]
Few perennials can offer what the peony does–beautiful, prolific flowers in early summer and good foliage afterwards. Once established, peonies will flower for many years with minimum care. What’s more, they’re extremely hardy and can easily withstand cold northern winters. The basic types of peonies are herbaceous (Paeonia officinalis), which grow to heights of two to four feet; fern-leaved (Paeonia […]
Cherries Two main groups of cherries are cultivated for the merit of their fruit, the `sweet’, dessert (Prunus avium) and the `sour’, culinary (Prunus cerasus); a third group, the ‘Duke’ cherries, form an intermediate class. The sweets are subdivided into the ‘black’ and ‘white’ varieties. All fruiting cherries are hardy in the British Isles, though the blossom may be damaged […]