Put coffee grounds and filters to work improving your garden’s beauty and productivity. Recycle these morning discards in your compost pile or worm bin. The worms and microorganisms will break them down into wonderful compost. Or occasionally sprinkle the grounds on the soil surface of your indoor and outdoor container and in-ground gardens. Avoid adding large amounts at one…
Enjoy the biggest harvest, best flavor and most nutritional value from your garden vegetables with proper harvesting. Harvest tomatoes when they are fully colored. Leave them on the plant for an extra five to eight warm days for even better flavor. You can harvest as soon as they start to show color and finish ripening them indoors if needed…
The compact size and bright yellow flowers as well as its heat and humidity tolerance won Goldsturm rudbeckia the title Perennial Plant of the Year in 1999. Include one of the taller varieties, like Golden Glow, at the back of the border. This statuesque beauty blooms in mid to late summer and tolerates heat and drought once established. Surround…
Don’t forget the trees, even old established ones, when extended dry periods and droughts move in. In fact, these should be a high priority since it takes many years to replace an established tree. Always moisten the top 12 inches of soil under the dripline when watering deciduous trees; and the same depth, but three to five feet beyond…
Your plants look great, loaded with healthy leaves and flowers, but there is still no fruit. This is a common complaint from gardeners growing squash, cucumbers and other vine crops. Start by taking a closer look at the flowers. The first set of flowers produced is all male flowers. The next set of flowers is a mix of male…
They are rapidly disappearing from our ecosystem and they do so much to keep our outdoors vibrant. Now you can help this morning. Keep pollinators happy and healthy by planting just a few things in your garden. Melinda Myers tells us what works best in this week’s Garden Moment. Give nature and your garden a helping hand this season by…
Try uncommon trees for disease resistance and variety. The Katsura tree’s blue-green leaves flutter in the wind and turn a clear yellow in fall when you may even notice a faint smell of cookies. The musclewood is a small scale shade tolerant tree. Its smooth gray bark, unique flowers and fruit along with the yellow, orange or red fall…
Brown buds that fail to open on peonies and some roses, especially the white and pink flowered varieties is likely the result of Botrytis Blight also known as Gray Mold. This fungal disease is most common in cool rainy as well as humid weather. The disease attacks a variety of ornamental and edible plants and often is specific to…
Mulching new plantings helps conserve moisture and suppress weeds that compete for water and nutrients. But spreading mulch around small transplants can be a bit tedious. And if not done carefully can end up damaging your plants. Make it easier with one of these two techniques. Start by preparing the soil and removing existing weeds. Cover the area with…
Invite some guests to your home that you won’t mind spending time with while we’re social distancing. We tell you how to bring hummingbirds to your yard in this week’s Melinda’s Garden Moment. Bring the hummingbirds into your garden and keep them happy with a season-long supply of their favorite nectar plants. Early blooming lungwort is a shade tolerant…
