Garden advice, tips & tricks for the home gardener

Ground covers grow exactly as their name describes, they cover the ground, and are a perfect solution to many landscape problem areas.
Ground covers come in blooming and non-blooming forms are the perfect plantings for areas of your landscape that are awkward to mow, or you just don’t want to mow. Ground covers also prevent weed growth, prevent soil erosion and help keep the soil cool.
Ground covers are ideal for planting between stepping stones, on slopes or in the border of flower beds. Shade loving ground covers will grow under trees when nothing else will, giving your lawn a well manicured appearance, and the ground cover won’t have to be mowed.
Phlox and verbena are two popular ground covers that are easy to grow.

Container gardening does not have to be an expensive undertaking, with the buying of new containers. Use what you have on hand to grow a container garden in.
Any container that is water proof and study enough to hold soil can be used as a container for container gardening.
Yogurt cups, cottage cheese cups, old buckets, old tires and trash cans will work great in container gardens.
The depth of the container much match the plant you wish to grow, obviously a yogurt cup will not work for growing potatoes, but a couple of old tires works perfect.
Hanging flower baskets are great for growing tomatoes, strawberry pot are perfect for growing herbs.
Look around at what you have before you spend money on containers. For container gardening, the money is better spent on a high quality soil mixture.
Don’t forget to make drainage holes in the bottom of whatever containers you use and use your imagination for your container garden.

Yucca plants are a low maintenance perennial that just needs a little pruning to stay neat looking and a little fertilize to stay strong and healthy.
As soon as the yucca plant drops it’s blossoms, cut back the canes (called candles) to the inside of the nest. Yucca plants bloom on alternate roots (called carrots) each year, and the old dried nest portion should be cut out about every 3 years.
During the yucca plant’s blooming season, feed every 3 weeks with a water soluble plant food.
There are many species of the yucca plant, ranging in sizes from small plants to tall trees, with some yucca plant bearing fruits. The one thing that all yucca plants have in common, they all produce white flowers.

If you don’t want the cabbage worms to eat the cabbage heads in your garden, sprinkle flour on the cabbage heads. No chemical insecticides to worry about, and best of all, no more cabbage worms.
Early in the morning while the cabbage is still wet with dew, liberally sprinkle flour on each cabbage head. It does not matter if the flour is plain or self-rising, it’s the mixture of the moisture from the dew and the starch in the flour that kills the cabbage worms.
When the cabbage worms crawl out of the cabbage head, the flour will cover them and when the dew dries, the cabbage worms will become stiff and die.

The best time to plant azaleas is in the spring or fall. Choose a location in your landscape that receives filtered sunlight for your azalea, too much sun or shade will kill an azalea.
Azaleas grow their best in soil that has a pH between 4.5 and 6. Plant your azalea in well drained soil that contains some organic compost.
Don’t plant the azalea too deep in the soil, only to the base of the plant or the soil will smother the azalea roots, killing the azalea. Mulch the azalea well, the roots of the azalea grow near the soil’s surface and will need to be protected from the sun’s ray and from the winter’s cold.
Feed your azaleas after the plant blooms. A fertilize designed specifically for azaleas is best.
Prune azaleas when needed just after they have finished blooming in the spring. Azaleas set their buds for next year during the summer, so forgo any late season pruning or your azalea won’t bloom next year.

If you plant a clematis vine in the right location and care for it properly, the clematis vine will reward you will prolific blooms on strong vines that will cover a arbor or free standing mailbox.
Tips for growing clematis include choosing a slightly shady location for planting the clematis vine, as most clematis vine varieties are burned when planted in direct sunlight.
Never let the soil dry out where you have planted a clematis vine. Clematis vines prefer moist soil at all times.
For a newly planted clematis vine, cut the stems back to promote new growth. Find a healthy set of leaf buds that are about 7-12 inches above the surface and clip the stem of the clematis vine right above this point.
Don’t prune the clematis vine when it is in the flowering stage, it will cause too much stress on it. Wait till after the blooms drop to prune your clematis vine.

You have to keep melons off of the garden soil if you don’t want them rot while they’re still developing on the vine.
One way to keep your melons from rotting in the garden is to put them on straw. Straw placed beneath a melon puts a barrier between the melon and the garden soil. As the melons start to grow just gently lift them up and place straw under each melon.
Rolled up chicken wire works to keep the melons off of the garden soil. You can also use cardboard to keep melons off of the garden soil.
Old pantyhose can be recycled in many ways in the garden, including keeping melons from rotting. Take an old pair of pantyhose and cut off the legs. When your melons start to form, gently place a melon into the foot of the pantyhose. Be careful when you handle the melons that you do not break them off of the vine. Only place one melon into one foot of pantyhose so you keep the melons apart. Tie the other end of the cut off pantyhose onto a stake to keep the melons off of the garden soil.

Apple trees require several overall sprayings during their production seasons with liquid fruit tree spray to prevent disease like apple scab, black rot, leaf spot and sooty blotch.
A host of insects are drawn to the developing apples on the apple trees as well, like apple maggots, tent caterpillars, aphids, codling moths, fruit tree leaf roller, leaf hopper, etc.. Spraying your apple trees will prevent these insects from destroying your apples. The first time to spray apples trees with liquid fruit tree spray is when the apple blossom buds begin to show color, but are not fully open.
The second spraying with liquid fruit tree spray should be when 90% of the apple blossoms have fallen off the apple tree.
Following those 2 initial praying, apple trees should be sprayed every 2 weeks up until 7 days prior to harvesting the apples.

Air is vital to root health for any living plant, that includes your lawn. Soil compaction, caused by constantly walking on your lawn and/or grass clippings not being removed smoothers your lawn. Aerating your soil will provide oxygen to grass roots so you can have a healthy green lawn.
One of the easiest ways to aerate your lawn is to wear golf shoes every time you walk on it. The spikes on the bottom of the golf shoes will poke holes into the soil and aerate it.
Rake your lawn to remove the thatch build-up while wearing golf shoes to promote the growth of a healthy green lawn.
For a small lawn, you can use a slim object with a pointy end like a screwdriver to aerate your soil. Probe the pointy end into your lawn at various locations throughout your lawn, creating openings in soil so oxygen can reach the grass roots.

Even if you have zero outdoor space, you can still grow some fresh vegetables and herbs in hanging baskets.
Gardening with hanging baskets is as easy as growing a flower plant in a hanging basket. A sunny window and a couple of hanging baskets can produce an abundance of fresh cherry tomatoes and cucumbers for salads. If you also have a sunny window sill, you can grow lettuce and have the beginnings of a great salad, fresh and right at your finger tips.
When gardening with hanging baskets, look for seed varieties that are the ‘bush’ variety, like bush cherry tomatoes or bush cucumbers. Bush varieties of plants don’t grow as large as regular varieties and are more suitable for gardening with hanging baskets.