EzineArticles - Expert Authors Sharing Their Best Original Articles


  Submit Articles
  Members Login
  Benefits
  Expert Authors
  Read Endorsements
  Editorial Guidelines
  Author TOS

  Terms of Service
  Ezines / Email Alerts
  Manage Subscriptions
  EzineArticles RSS

  Blog
  Forums
  About Us
  What's New
  Contact Us
  Article Writing Shop
  Advertising
  Affiliates
  Privacy Policy
  Site Map


Advanced Search


Report this author if you suspect they are involved in any fraudulent practices. Suggest a topic or article headline you would like the author to write about.

Thomas Fyrd - EzineArticles.com Expert Author  

[Display Categories] Sort By [Title] [Newest] [Oldest]

Displaying 1 - 250 of 392 [Prev] [Next]
  • One Man, One Plant For a Year
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] More and more home owners are buying a choice shrub for use as the Yuletide tree and then planting it in the garden following the holidays. This must be a part of the growing "green revolution" that is sweeping the planet.


  • Christmas Decorations in the Christmas Season
    [Home-and-Family:Holidays] Christmas will soon be here and you will be wanting to make up Christmas arrangements and Christmas decorations. It's so much more fun for most of us if we can go out into our own gardens and gather these materials. There is no reason why every one of us can't grow them. To be sure, some of the more tender broadleaved evergreens such as cherry laurel and Chinese holly can be grown only in the milder parts of this area.


  • Growing Education - Producing Plants From Seeds
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Most garden annuals need a long growing season to reach their full height and flowering, they are often given an early start indoors, or in the greenhouse, hotbed, or cold frame. For indoor growing, don't plant seeds earlier than six weeks before the average date of the last frost in your area.


  • Peat Sand, Perlite and More - Potting Media
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Cuttings don't need and can't use food while they are making roots, so rooting mediums contain no soil or fertilizer. Coarse, sharp builder's sand is the best-known type. It should be washed clean or, even better, sterilized by pouring boiling water through it before use.


  • Air Layering - Simple Rooting For Larger Plants
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Layering is a safe, sure, simple way to increase many types of plants, and particularly the climbers and danglers with which this book is concerned. The first requirement is that the plant have long, lax or drooping stems - which vining plants do. The rest is easy, because the stem is not severed from the parent until the new plant is well rooted and can survive on its own. Humidifying devices, bottom heat, and close protection are seldom called for.


  • Soil Requirements and Fulfilling Plant Needs
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] When growing plants such as azaleas the soil needs to be kept in a much more acid state. Different parts of the country can have a much more difficult time than others in maintaining acid soil and acid loving plants.


  • Flagstone Walkways - Classic Nature
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] The most practical and attractive permanent walks are made of flagstone or brick which can be set in either concrete or sand. Other materials which can be used include cross sections of tree trunks (properly treated to retard decay), wooden bricks, concrete, macadam, or blacktop.


  • Driveways and Landscaping - A Challenge to Master
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] Proper preparation of the permanent driveway and walk is important if a trouble-free job is desired. Drainage facilities, although they may seem costly at the start, are extremely important, especially if the soil is not naturally well drained. The better the natural soil drainage, the less important becomes the sub-surface drainage problem under your driveway and walks.


  • Walkways - The Calling Card to the Door
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] The question of how wide the main entrance walk should be often arises. The fact that about 99 out of 100 such walks are 3 feet or less in width does not mean that such a width is ideal, for two people cannot possibly walk side by side on a walk that narrow. The main walk to the front entrance should be at least 4 feet wide. On the landscape plan this may seem excessive, and you may wonder if the added cost of the extra foot of width is worth it.


  • Success With Vines Starts With Planting
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] If possible, perennial vines should be planted when they are not in a period of vigorous growth. In warm areas this means late fall, winter, or earliest spring; but if you can plant during the short time that the vine is dormant or semi-dormant (usually during December or January), so much the better. Spring planting is usually recommended for areas where soil freezes deep in winter. Plant as early as a hole can be dug and the ground can be prepared.


  • Landscape Vines - A Permanent Investment
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] Since perennial vines are a permanent garden investment, buy the healthiest specimens of the best available varieties. If you can't find the best of the variety you want, use annuals for a season or two until you can. Whether you buy perennials from a local nursery or one of many reputable mail-order suppliers is a matter of choice. Either way, be wary of low-cost bargain offers; they are often no bargain at all in the long run.


  • What Does Hardiness Mean For Your Plants?
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] How hardy a plant is happens to be an interesting question. This important consideration in selecting varieties of plants and growing them successfully is difficult to define accurately.


  • Training Vines - Going in Almost Any Direction
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Vines intended to disguise or hide unsightly walls and buildings can be left almost to their own devices, to make full and rambling growth. But others, planted for the tracery of their foliage, or colorful flowers, or to embellish an arbor or wall, should be checked regularly and tied up or pruned long before they become an unmanageable mass.


  • Fertilizing Vines - Know Thy Vine
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Despite the fact that they grow to great lengths and cover large areas, the majority of vines in soil of average fertility do not need especially frequent or heavy applications of fertilizer. In fact, too much food may cause growth so vigorous you can't keep the vine under control, and may even stimulate development of stems and foliage at the expense of flowers.


  • Moisture Control - Water and Mulch
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] Landscape vine stems and trunks are long and high, and the leaves are far away from the roots that send them moisture. For lush, green growth water regularly, thoroughly, and deep, moistening the entire area around the roots. It may take several hours to dribble water from a soaker hose to saturate the soil around a large vine, less for smaller plants - but they require watering more often.


  • Flowering Excitement - Greenhouse Vines and Flowers
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] There are few sights so satisfying as a vine growing and flowering lushly up and around a greenhouse door, or along the ridge. And how lushly they do grow! I have seen Plumbago capensis, which seldom outgrows a six- or eight-inch pot in my house, with its roots in a greenhouse bed and its sky-blue flowers spread out over a hundred square feet of wall.


  • Clean Plants - Healthy Plants
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Cleanliness is important to a plant's refreshing appearance and its good health. Washing or wiping leaves makes them look glossier and greener, and also prevents dust from clogging the pores through which they breathe.


  • Flowers and Fruit - Rewards For Good Growing
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Like any other garden plants, landscape flowers, bulbs, seasonal color and vines respond beautifully to good growing conditions and reasonable amounts of care. But because of their wide variety and widely varying environmental preferences, it would be misleading to set down concrete cultural rules.


  • Repotting Plants - A Promotion For Growth
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Indoor vines are usually grown in pots, in hanging baskets, or in built-in planters or similar gardens. In each case they are supplied with suitable soil - which, by the way, should be neither wet nor dry, but just moist at planting time - and replanted or repotted only when their roots are crowded or the soil nutrients are exhausted.


  • Fuller Hanging Baskets - Plant Achimenes on the Side
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Decorative, watertight hanging containers are similarly safer if the plants set inside remain in their pots. But standard types of wire or redwood hanging baskets are designed for good culture. They are lined with moss - sheet moss from the florist or peeled off tree trunks in the woods, or long-fibered sphagnum moss - and filled with soil.


  • Feeding Houseplants - A Problem Causer
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Feeding plants is one of the least of the indoor plant growers problems. So much has been learned about fertilizers, and there are so many excellent and inexpensive products on the market, the selection is mostly a matter of personal preference and convenience.


  • The English Holly - Nature's Creative Handiwork
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Progress in all the Arts is promoted in times of peace, and the history of gardening is an obvious manifestation of this fact. During the reign of Queen Victoria, when Brittania ruled the seven seas and the swords of war were sheathed, the gardens of England flowered as never before.


  • Rose Growing, French Style
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] For those who maintain that roses will not thrive in southern lands, because the mild climate allows them too little rest, have never visited the "Cote d' Azurr" in southern France. Varieties grown there are more fragrant, more beautiful in form and larger in size than when grown in colder climes. Acres of sun-kissed yellow, fields of velvety red thrive out of doors.


  • Flowers in Public Areas
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] Earlier, we advised readers rather strongly against the use of flowers in the public area. Many, however, who have a deep and certainly understandable love of flowers, will insist on planting some there.


  • Taming Vacant Lots - Go Native
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Wildflowers succeed best when planted soon after the November rains start. If you're trying to "tame" a vacant lot by naturalizing it with wildflowers, this is the right time in Pacific Coast gardens.


  • 3 Flowering Garden Beauties - Gas of a Plant
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] From the first curled stems that push through in spring to the star-shaped seed pods in late fall, Dictamnus albus (Dittany, Fraxinella, Burning Bush or Gas Plant) is ornamental. Bloom stalks rise above foliage to present spikes of long-lasting, airy flowers. Depending upon the variety, these may be white, rose with purple veining or a bluish lavender that's rare. Stiff, shiny leaves are a rich, dark green and both foliage and flowers excellent for cutting.


  • Cyclamen a Joy in Autumn
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] In my garden one of the joys of autumn is Cyclamen neapolitanum, a small hardy relative of the larger florist's cyclamen. Dainty, soft pink to pale lavender pink flowers appear like a flock of butterflies in late August or early September and last until hard frost. There is also an ethereally lovely pure white, C. neapolitanum album.


  • November, Northwest Garden Call For Cleanup Sprays
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] With the coming of "winter" rains, arrival of bulbs in the stores and the beginning of the dormant season in nurseries, November becomes an action-packed month for Far West gardeners. It's time, also, to transplant overgrown shrubs and trees. In the Northwest it's time to use cleanup sprays. Wait until the latter part of November in California, though.


  • Southern Lilies - Get Ready For Planting
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Roses are best planted in late November, December and January. Many new varieties are not ready for shipment until after the first of the year.


  • Frost in the Air Calls For Veggie Starts
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Frost is in the air in the Middle and Upper South. This is the time to think seriously about planting the hundreds of different kinds of shrubs, trees and fruits, for after the middle of November these plants make their appearance in seed and garden center stores.


  • Steady Temperatures Grow Sturdy Plants
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Hyacinths, Paper Whites, and the prepared narcissus such as the reds can be started any time now. The first two do well in plain water but I think the easier method is to plant them in bowls filled with fine gravel.


  • Brighten the Garden With Late Blooming Chrysanthemums
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] English children chant the phrase "Remember, remember the 5th of November" - Guy Fawkes Day to them - but we could change that to "Remember, remember the chrysanthemums in November." At any rate my greenhouse is full of bloom right now and I hope yours is, too, for they bring much warm color to an otherwise drab month.


  • Extra Favors For Beautiful Healthy Orchids
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] If you ever get the chance to watch orchid nurserymen repot their overgrown orchid plants - do it! They have a special way of ramming fiber in with a stick until the pot is full and then of ramming in still more.


  • Watering Orchids - Vital Tuning For Best Growth
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] The pseudobulb, a green, banana-like object at the base of the leaves, is a very interesting and vital part of the orchid plant. In it the food and moisture obtained from the air and water (the orchid's sources of nourishment) are stored.


  • Orchids in Your Home - Growing the Exotic
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Some say you can, some say you can't. All I know is that we do grow orchids in our living-room. Quietly defying all the people who said we could never grow them at home, we brought some budding plants back with us from Guatemala after getting permission from the proper authorities.


  • Dry Brook Or Pool? A Landscape Water Substitute
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] Water and Water Courses are always desired in the Japanese garden, but as it is not always possible to have a pool or river, a dry brook or dry pool may be substituted. These are exactly what the name implies - a channel in the first instance, a depression in the second, where water would flow or rest if water were present, if the little stream or tiny lake had not "gone dry."


  • Where? A Question For Japanese Garden Design
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] An important fact that makes it impossible to say where a Japanese garden may properly be undertaken. Wherever a garden enthusiast who is capable of fulfilling the exactions of Japanese garden design and has a bit of ground that may be set apart and hidden completely from all conflicting sights, a Japanese garden is possible.


  • Japanese Gardens Each Tell a Story
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] It is necessary to think simply and very directly and naturally in order to arrive at such a truly naive result as is sought and intended in Japanese gardening. It is necessary to think in terms of meaning as well as in terms of appearance or looks.


  • Rapid Growing Trees - Southern Style
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] In the south shrub and tree planting projects are about to get under way. Everywhere people are beginning to recognize the economic and aesthetic values of shrubs and trees.


  • Garden Cleanup a Job For the Meticulous Gardener
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] November highlights garden cleanup for the meticulous gardener; winter protection for water-lilies; planting lilies and hardy spring-flowering bulbs; harvesting rhubarb in late winter. The garden is about ready to be put to bed. And doubtless you will be urged to clean up the flower beds, cutting back the perennials and mulching the beds with hay, straw or leaves.


  • Vines As Ground Covers
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Walls and fences of all dimensions are erected for any of many reasons - to define property boundaries, to create a center of privacy, to connect two areas or levels, even to break up small areas and make gardens seem larger. Fences can be used in place of trees and shrubs as background for a flower border, with spectacular vines as accent or subdued varieties for subordinate effect.


  • Supporting the Landscape Vine - Treillage to Tripod
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] A highly stylized, ornamental-on-its-own design usually made of one-inch round wood or metal pipe, attached in a formal design against a wall. (This is also a specific term for the wires to which tree branches are tied, in espalier.) When small-leaved vines, like ivy, are meticulously trained and pruned in geometric diamonds, squares, fans, or other patterns, this is treillage.


  • The Trellis - A Vine's Support System
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Trellis - A "lath screen" used to support ornamental vines against walls and other vertical surfaces where the vine can not or should not climb on its own. If not in front of a wall or building, a trellis should be adjacent to one; it is seldom used alone.


  • Supporting Vines - Consider Construction
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Which comes first - the vine, or the support it grows on? Sometimes one, sometimes the other; but ideally, both together.


  • Landscape Chaos - Out of Control Vines
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] In spite of - or perhaps because of - the many virtues that vines hold they should be planted with discrimination and respect. Too many vines are too much of a good thing. Misplaced, they are an eyesore. Growing rampant, untrained and unpruned, their disorderly conduct creates a bramble patch.


  • Landscape Vines For a Smoothing Transition
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] From a kerchief-sized city back yard to the rolling hills of a magnificent country estate, there is hardly a garden or landscape where vines can't be used to give the scene graceful beauty and vitality. And few other plants serve so many practical purposes as well.


  • The Science of Weed Control
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Tremendous progress has been made with chemical weed control in the last 30 years. While chemical weed control has been with us in some shape or form since the early 1900's, it hasn't been until the end of World War II that chemical weed control really come into its own.


  • Growing With Poor Light - Problem Spots
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Shady locations pose special problems when it comes to furnishing them with plants - problems that are challenging, but surmountable; problems that for happy solutions depend upon the selection of suitable kinds of plants. Around the home, on porches, patios and terraces and in sunrooms and window gardens there, are likely to be places where light is comparatively poor, but such places really need decorative vegetation to provide a homelike, lived-in atmosphere. Wisely chosen plants provide the answer for successful decoration of such problem spots.


  • Temperature - Lights Partner in House Plant Care
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Factors other than light affect the well-being of foliage plants grown in pots, tubs and other containers. To insure success you must make every effort to make the whole environment agreeable. Attention to one factor will not do.


  • Garden Finals For the Winter Rest
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] hese structures, while not elaborate, can play a vital part in an active garden program. November is a good month to build or repair them. Both structures are similar in construction, but vary in heat requirements. A hot bed has some type of generated heat, but a coldframe depends on the sun.


  • Prisoners of Big Cities Embrace the Smell of Soil
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Since I was a youngster - now many years ago - the face of Thanksgiving has undergone a great change in this good land of ours. But the spirit, under all the modern day camouflage, remains the same. We have quite as much for which to be thankful as had our forebears or the pilgrim fathers before them.


  • Keep Window Boxes Bright and Exciting All Winter
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Roses need to be "winterized" for the season. The bushes should be checked closely for dead or diseased wood which should be removed; competing branches that cross or rub need to be corrected; it is also wise to remove or shorten unusually long canes that might be injured by high winds or snow and ice.


  • After Care of Garden Bubs
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] Dutch Iris are one of the most colorful of all fall-planted bulbs. They have been propagated heavily in Oregon and Washington for the Pacific Coast market. The flower is excellent for cutting and a generous crop may be expected.


  • Get Growing Works For October Too!
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] The sooner you get something planted in your garden, the sooner it will start growing there. This applies in October as well as other times of the year.


  • Fall Leaves Make Natural Mulch
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Leaves - Falling leaves keep us busy raking but don't destroy them. Leaves and pine straw can be used to advantage for mulching shrubs. Cap the loose leaf mulch with a light layer of pine straw to keep it from blowing away in windy weather.


  • Southern Roses - Make a Planting Date
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Lilies are making their appearance in garden center stores in ever-increasing numbers during October. The southern strains of Easter lilies are now ready for planting. These are hardy in southern gardens and produce great quantities of pure white blooms every spring. Plant them 6 to 8 inches deep in rich, well-drained soil.


  • Southern Style - Bulb and Veggie Planting
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] October is the month for planting many kinds of bulbs, perennials and vegetables in the South. Lawn planting, too, is at its height, especially preparing lawns for winter color with over plantings of rye grass.


  • Lifting the Landscape During October
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] October may provide brilliant color in the landscape but it also signals an end of another growing season. Let's look at some of the things needed to be done in the landscape.


  • Storing the Crop Overwintering Vegetables
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] October is a time of brilliant color. Scarlet maples and yellow beeches, golden pumpkins and bronze chrysanthemums invite us to pause and enjoy the beauty around us. October is a satisfying month, too, with its harvest of vegetables ready to put into storage and a sort of "case closed" feeling about the end of another growing season.


  • Chrysanthemums in Small Spaces
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] My gardening activities are interesting, I suppose, not only because I have grown some prize-winning chrysanthemums but also because I pack them by the hundreds in a small plot of ground and do it in my spare time. I am a motorcycle patrolman and many people don't expect a police officer to be so fascinated with growing hardy chrysanthemums and are surprised when they hear of such goings on.


  • Plant Christmas Roses Now
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] When the Christmas roses come to you for fall planting the flower bud is already formed deep down among the black roots. To enjoy blossoms that winter, the plant must be set in a hole much deeper and wider than the roots, generally 18 inches deep and a foot wide. At the bottom, place five inches of crushed rock plus a little rotted manure and compost.


  • The New York Aster - A Lesson in History
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] "Europe has no asters at which an American would look twice." Those words by Donald Culross Peattie startled and then shocked me. I put the book down and looked out across the autumn borders in an English garden, massed with superlatively lovely aster bloom.


  • Garden Exercises For October
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] With October, there comes a sharpening of the air and the pungent fragrance of ripened fruit. A glorious month of brilliant color, it is time to clean up gardens of fallen leaves, as well as to shear tops of perennials, prune shrubs and trees and pull up dead vegetables and annuals.


  • Miniature Greenhouses - Wardian Cases
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Can orchids be raised in the average home? Yes, if one wants to grow them badly enough and will be content with those which will thrive and bloom under home conditions.


  • Mixing Flowers and Foliage
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] When putting together a flower design you want to display them to the their best advantage. Face it, flowers look best when they are combined with green foliage, get real that is the way they grow.


  • Life Insurance For Flowers - Deep Soaking
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Flowers from the florist! A gift box is always a delightful surprise and the moment of its opening is fraught with eager anticipation of colorful beauty and cool fragrance. The selected group we buy bespeaks a need fulfilled, either that of decorating for a party or simply satisfying the inner urge to enjoy flowers.


  • Home Greenhouse Disease and Pest Control
    [Home-Improvement:Security] Growing in a home greenhouse and in general greenhouse gardening is a lot more fun now than it was 50 years ago. Since then there have been many drastic changes in greenhouse management.


  • The Dirt on House Plant Soil
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] For the best house plants you should have the best possible soil for them. This may sound like a big order, but actually it isn't.


  • Spring Flowers Start With Fall Planting
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] In most sections of the country fall is garden building time, and in all parts of the country it is spring bulb planting time too. Here are some ideas adapted from gardens seen at several of the large spring flower shows.


  • Landscaper Wanted - Execute the Garden Plan
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] Before undertaking the execution of a garden plan, you should analyze your resources with an eye on the amount of work you can do yourself with the help of your family. In some cases you will find that you can afford to spend more money in order to save time and energy.


  • Landscape Symbols - Shorthand to Planting and Design
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Every good garden is the result of a landscape plan. It is just as important for you to have a plan of your proposed garden on paper before you start to work, as it is for carpenters, plumbers, and electricians to have a blueprint of a house they intend to build. Since few of us have ever come in contact with a landscape plan in our everyday lives, it may be necessary for us to discuss in detail the methods of making and using one.


  • Creating a Award Winning Iris
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] A special frenzy afflicts iris lovers. A new iris grower immediately becomes convinced that he can breed a prize-winner, and starts right in trying. The result is an amazing harvest of beauty which is bewildering even to those who follow such things closely. Out of this flood of new creations promising few start the on climb up the rainbow arch toward the Dykes Memorial Medal.


  • Home Naturalizing - A Home Project
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] I would like to tell you about my wildflower garden, which has become quite a hobby with me. I find it to be a most satisfying hobby, and although I have worked on it for several years, I never seem to tire of it.


  • Saying Goodbye to the Growing Season
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Have you been enjoying the late fall vegetables from the second planting? One year when the bean row was all dried up, I went down it with the mower. This left just stubs of the bean stalks sticking up. To my pleasant surprise these sent out new green shoots, and we had a second crop of beans from the one seeding.


  • Nature Shares Her Brilliant Array of Colors
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] In many parts of the West region, a couple of frosty nights damaging to many tender garden plants will be followed by a long warm, fall period called "Indian Summer." It is a shame that so many plants are lost in this first short period of frost, for if protected, they might go on blooming for as long as a month or more.


  • Harvesting Bulbs
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Many of the shrub roses like rugosas and the Scotch rose are perfectly hardy in the West and require no covering. Hybrid teas, polyanthus, and climbing roses are quite tender and need winter protection. If the roses are planted in beds, place a mound of soil around each plant to a depth of at least six inches and then cover over the bed entirely with straw.


  • Putting on the Mulch - Protecting Landscape Perennials
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Although it is necessary to have somewhat drier conditions in late summer and fall to induce maturity in perennial garden plants, most perennials should not go into winter in extremely dry condition. A good watering around freeze-up time, after the plants begin to mature, will put the plants in better shape to survive the winter. Watering should be thorough.


  • Chrysanthemums - October Brings Bloom For Queen of Fall Flowers
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Perennials should be cut back after blooming and reset this month (October). Perennials set now will be established and ready to grow in the spring.


  • Make This Year a Time For Bright Flowers and a Greener Lawn
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] Put those dreaded memories of spring flood conditions behind you. Determine now to make this the year for a topnotch garden with bright flowers, finer shrubs and greener lawns.


  • The Old and New Hybrid Tea
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Squatting in admiration before a particularly beautiful and promising rose seedling, I was startled by a friend walking up behind me. Naturally he was curious as to "what" I was so intently studying but his first question really jarred me.


  • Landscape Lighting As a Home Improvement
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] Landscape lighting is a design trend that has recently gained popularity. One explanation for this popularity is that landscape lighting has the ability to increases your property's value, by preventing nighttime theft and vandalism.


  • Fall Planting, Pruning, Watering
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] It is too bad that more gardeners don't realize the value of fall planting. All too many feel that they must wait until spring. Actually, in most parts of the Midwest where we often have dry summers that start surprisingly early in the spring, fall planting is usually more satisfactory than spring planting.


  • Peonies Flowers Or Foliage Depends on Placement
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] When planting Peonies plant as soon as they are obtained, being careful to set the division so that the top of the buds will be from 1-1/2 to two inches below the final soil grade after the plants are watered and have finished settling. If planted too deep you will probably get pretty foliage with a few or no blooms, and if too shallow, the buds will be exposed and are likely to get broken off by Old Shep when he serves notice on a stray cat or rabbit.


  • Peonies - More Than Pretty Flowers
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] The bloom is not the only attractive part. Few perennials are so colorful in May and June and then retain such fine, abundant foliage throughout the growing season as do the peonies.


  • Peonies - America's Favorite Perennial Flowers
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] September finally arrives after a normal hot, dry August when we did not care much whether school kept or not. But now September is as welcome as April in the spring.


  • Fall Leaves Potential Organic Material
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] It's a shame to see autumn leaves go to waste every fall. They are an excellent source of organic material and should be placed in the compost pile along with other discarded plant parts. When cleaning up the garden, don't destroy any potential organic material that can be placed on the compost pile and eventually be returned to the garden as humus.


  • September - A Most Important Gardening Month
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Unfortunately not many gardeners know that September can be one of the most important gardening months of the year. Too many gardeners consider this month just one of the last of the growing season, offering little opportunity to do more than wait sadly for the coming of winter.


  • Protecting Plants For Winter Starts Now
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Winter injury in herbaceous and woody perennials may be caused by a number of things. One factor is that many of the plants go into winter in a "green" or immature condition.


  • Fall - Great Time For Bulb and Lily Planting
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Fall is bulb planting time. Most lily species are planted now. The lily bulb is very sensitive to drying out and should be planted as soon as received. Plant bulbs four to six inches deep according to the species. Most lilies enjoy fertile soils, richly supplied with organic matter.


  • Garden Color - Starting Flowers in the Open
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] When weather conditions are favorable flower seeds can be sown outdoors. The topsoil should be raked level and all stones, clods, and roughage raked from the seed bed. Make sure that the topsoil is raked thoroughly so that it is quite fine and into- this sow the seeds in drills.


  • Getting Fancy With Grasses
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] There are many grasses grown through out the country. It all depends on the climate and soil conditions your piece of real estate can provide. Here's a quick look at 5 grasses used in the landscape.


  • Knowing Your Plant Bugs For Control
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Plant bug insects can be divided roughly into two groups, namely : (a) those that bite and chew their food and (b) those that possess a sucking tube through which they extract their food by means of piercing the leaves of plants. Too bad they are not equipped with a loud speaking tube too, then we'd know when the pesky critters were at work.


  • The Glasshouse Castle - The Greenhouse
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Down at the south-west corner of his lot, which incidentally is a double lot, snuggles a friend's glasshouse. Partially screened off from his dwelling by a hedge of purple lilacs it is his haven of refuge, from the bustle and troubles of a restless world. A castle within an estate, lacking but the moat and drawbridge.


  • Rules For the Kitchen Garden
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] When selecting a spot to plant a garden decide on a place where the soil is deep, where drainage is good and where the vegetables to be grown will have full exposure to the sunshine. A gentle slope to the south or to the south-east is ideal.


  • What to Do With Your December - Garden Calendar
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] In many parts of the North it is not necessary, nor even desirable, to place Winter covering over plants until the latter part of December. Most surely don't do this until the ground has frozen permanently to a depth of a few inches...


  • The Beauty of Spring Bulbs Starts in the Fall
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Late summer and early fall weather also is ideal, as a rule, for the planting or transplanting of evergreens. Evergreens are now in a state of semi-quiescence so far as top growth is concerned. Root activity is stimulated by the moisture and lower soil temperatures.


  • Plant Daffodils in Drifts For a Natural Landscape Look
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] So that they will make a strong root system plant them outdoors early. Before planting dig fine peat into the soil and apply at the same time bone meal or any good complete fertilizer. Planted informally in "drifts" Hyacinths will scent the spring garden with a perfume, delicious, intoxicating, almost overpowering. They are especially valuable for bedding and for pot culture.


  • Direct Sown Annuals For Colorful Summer
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Here are 5 Half-Hardy annuals which are easily grown and an be started or sown outdoors during May. They are the Antirrhinum, Aster, Pansy, Petunia, and Zinnia.


  • Same Season Bloomers With Easy Gown Annuals
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] These annuals which are easily grown can be sown in the open and have flowers the same season. Here are 5 easy grown annuals today.


  • Potted Bulbs For Patio Color
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] One friend of mine has a passion for growing potted bulbs. She loves the ability to have "moving color" wherever she wants it. Here's some tips from her on how she pots and grows her flowering bulbs.


  • Gardening Tools - You Only Need a Few
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] The tools required for a modest gardening operation are surprisingly few. They should be of good quality however, if you want to save time, trouble and labor.


  • Planting Hardy Perennials and Biennials
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Unlike annuals, perennials are more or less permanent, flowering annually from the same plants, and do not require to be resown or replanted each season. Seedling perennials, as a general rule, are more vigorous than plants propagated by means of divisions, cutting, etc.


  • Your Yard - The Living Carpet
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] There is no perfect substitute for a well-kept lawn. It's a living carpet of green, blending and delicately enhancing the beauty of nature's innumerable creations.


  • The Time For Transplanting Evergreens
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Since most evergreens have completed their summer's growth by this time they may be transplanted successfully during this month, provided they are handled quickly with proper sized balls of earth and watered thoroughly in their new locations. If the weather is hot and dry and there is no particular reason for immediate planting, a delay of planting for a few weeks until the arrival of cooler weather is recommended.


  • Hot and Dry Gardens - What to Do?
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] August weather is generally a continuation of the same - hot and dry with an occasional cooling, refreshing shower that makes folks glad they are still alive to enjoy it. And, too, we are not so far from September, when the weather is scheduled to turn over to a new page.


  • Tree Death by Root Strangulation
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Self-strangulation happens more often to those trees growing in narrow parkings and near buildings or walls where the space for root growth is restricted to a small area. Trees with well-buttressed trunks are almost invariably free from root strangulation, while the absence of buttress roots on one side of a tree may indicate choking below the surface.


  • RX For Shade Trees
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Do shade trees have high blood pressure? Well, not exactly, but high pressure does develop in the heart-wood of the trunks of some trees and fermented sap is forced out through wounds where branches have been cut off, through cracks in the trunk, or through a split at the crotch where two large branches unite.


  • Keep Glads Growing in August
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Gladiolus plants respond to generous watering during their growing season. Water should penetrate the soil several inches. Waterings at five to seven day or longer intervals may be necessary, depending on soil and weather conditions.


  • Blooming Keys to Flowering Annuals
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Annuals such as zinnias, marigolds, snapdragons, scabiosa, salpiglossis, China pinks, petunias and many others during August reach the peak of their flowering and will be benefited by a side dressing of a complete fertilizer early in the month. Also, to keep them flowering continuously it is necessary to remove spent blooms before they set seed.


  • Border Patrol - Do it With Annuals
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] By August many gaps have developed in the flower garden, especially in the borders. Some annuals that provided seasonal color have died out, and need replacement.


  • August - The Month For Reestablishing the Lawns
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] There are two types of lawns to consider at this time of the year - the old lawn that has been established for some time, and the new lawn that is being developed. Consider the latter... many new home owners are faced with establishing a lawn after moving into a new home during the summer months. It is entirely possible to establish a lawn that will survive the winter if there are as many as six weeks of growing weather left in the late summer.


  • Delphinium Seeds - Fresh & Ready For Planting
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Specialists will have delphinium seeds available at this time of the year. These will be fresh, viable, hand-pollinated seeds harvested from this year's crop of flowers. If you have never tried Delphiniums you should give them a try for some garden color.


  • Western Landscapes Love Madonna the Lily
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Although most lilies can be transplanted in September, it is desirable to plant Madonna lily bulbs in August. Madonna lilies start rooting at once and develop a small rosette of leaves before winter sets in, and these remain green throughout the winter.


  • 3 Unique Plants For Dressing the Landscape
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] When I asked for suggestions on using Colchicums in the garden, not many could tell me how to avoid the bad effects of the plant's ample foliage. Recently, however, a belated note came telling of one gardener's method of enjoying the plant - not as a garden subject, to be sure, but still a way to enjoy it without messing up the garden with a lot of yellow foliage.


  • Hot Summer Temperatures Hammer Landscape
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] August, to the farmers throughout the South of Mid-America, means that crops are "laid by," and the time for taking it easy has arrived. This is true to a large extent of the gardener, also. Much of the hottest part of the summer has passed, and only a few more days of extreme temperatures will remain to sear the garden flowers.


  • Cold Frame Plant Management
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] If you live in the south you probably won't need a cold frame. In the north, a cold frame is desirable until you can get your plants well along before freezing weather.


  • Tree Time Treating Troubles
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Since most trees may be pruned satisfactorily at any month during the year, the time selected can be governed by practical consideration. Maples, walnuts and birches, which bleed from pruning cuts made during late winter or early spring, should be pruned when in full leaf.


  • Extend Blooming Season With Some TLC
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Everyone wants to increase the bloom time in their landscape. With Fall right around the corner there are ways to squeeze more color out of your annuals.


  • A Growers Surprise Delphinium
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] A yard full of delphiniums! How does that prospect strike you? I tried such a scheme 10 years on in my city lot, with only a 43-foot frontage, grew so many I literally sent a truckload of them to a trade show for decoration and still had so many left that it was almost impossible to tell any had been cut.


  • Finding Credit Cards is Easy
    [Finance:Credit] There are a lot of credit cards out there and finding the right one is not always the easiest task. If you have less than perfect credit or other issues, it may be even harder.


  • Landscaping a Home With Roses
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] In the beginning there were no roses, just the house set among oaks on a sloping hill. They were not interested in landscaping but something had to be done. So the couple called in an energetic nurseryman who planted the grounds with honeysuckle, Bridalwreath, lilacs, spirea and evergreens. In a few years his plants far outgrew their allotted space and the grounds were no more pleasant than before.


  • Poppy the Garden Flower - A Decoration Item
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] The beauty of the Oriental Poppy as a garden flower is recognized by all, but many fail to appreciate its value as a cut bloom. With a simple treatment of the stem, it can compete with any flower for home decoration and at shows; either by itself or in combination with other flowers, it is a consistent winner of blue ribbons.


  • New Plants For the Landscape
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] How many new plants have you added to your garden this year... that is, plants that you have never grown before? Have you ever given yourself the thrill of going through the pages or online of one of the seed catalogs and ordering a packet of this and a packet of that that you have never tried? It"s amazing how much adventure you will find in the expenditure of a dollar or two. There is still time to sow the seeds of many annuals and see them bloom this year.


  • Growing Prize Winning Mums - Feed Them
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] All prize-worthy mums need about the same feeding routine. They like lots of organic fertilizer such as horse or cow manure and even compost.


  • Container Grown Material to the Rescue
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Potted annuals, perennials, and shrubs can still be successfully transplanted, but with the approach of hot and frequently drier weather, the season for bare root transplanting is about over. Some shrubs, especially spireas, which have compact fibrous root systems, can still be transplanted if they are dug with balls of earth, moved quickly and kept thoroughly watered until well established.


  • Seed Fascination - Creating Your Own Hybrids
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Almost everyone who grows daylilies and irises for any period of time eventually tries their hand at hybridizing, one of the most fascinating phases of gardening. Most gardeners, especially those sowing seeds for the first time, have a tendency to sow too thickly. Properly handled seeds of daylilies and irises will germinate almost 100 per cent.


  • Come Outside, the Garden is Calling
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Activity has definitely slowed down during mid-day. Scarcely a leaf stirs. One of the pleasures of the July garden is the tree-shaded patio or terrace where the outdoor garden enthusiast may relax and survey the results of their labors.


  • Garden Gold - Compost
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] With summer in the West, your garden will soon show how well you've taken care of your soil. If you have plenty of humus in it, there will be plenty of moisture to keep everything growing fine without constant watering in spite of the heat.


  • Mulching a Great Labor and Moisture Saver
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Lawns Need Attention in hot weather. Mower blades should be set at least 1-1/2 inches high but 2 inches is better. The grass shades the ground and protects the roots from hot sun and drying winds.


  • Water and Planting Still Tops in Southern Landscape
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] Hot July weather always brings on that languid feeling in the South making us seek ways of doing chores without physical exertion. In fact, some of these dreams of gardening by remote control are a reality.


  • Landscape Color Found at the Trials
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] Two hundred years ago, we all like to believe life was less hectic. A man could have a lot of time to read and think, to talk with friends and walk over the countryside, to learn the important news of the day and work in his garden.


  • Barnyards For Flowers
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] It took perseverance and hard work to carry out the ambitious planting scheme. The grounds appeared quite hopeless at first.


  • Black Spot Control - Start Treatments Early
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] The large-flowering chrysanthemums which were set out in March or April and should be 6 or 8 inches high by now may be cut back within 3 or 4 inches of the ground. If you wish to increase your stock root the tips which you removed


  • Plant Those Bare Root Roses Now
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] May is the time when the air is still cool enough to make digging a pleasure in Mid America, yet warm enough for all seeding and transplanting. In the northern parts of the Midwest May is about the last chance to plant magnolias. In areas along the Ohio River it is already too late.


  • Gourds - Small, Ornamental and Quite Unique
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] The pioneer mother, long before Civil War days, did not have aluminum or copper containers for sugar, salt or coffee. The fact is, she did not even have the old fashioned tin clipper! The housewife of her time was trained to make such utensils herself. Yes, she was the original "do-it-yourself woman." How did she make such things she needed for her large family? Easy and simple... by raising gourds.


  • Color Coordination in the Landscape
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] Every tree, shrub and flower takes on added beauty when it is our own. Like the volunteer sunflower seed dropped by the birds that came up in front of my bedroom window. It became a mass of yellow flowers, and grew to the top of the gable. After blooming it was three or four inches across at the base, and it took an ax to cut it down.


  • Dig and Divide - Rule For Mum Propagation
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] By now in the East you should know whether your chrysanthemums are dead or alive. Some springs you cannot help but wonder if there is such a thing as a hardy chrysanthemum. Those developed in northern areas such as Minnesota are not necessarily any hardier but are merely earlier blooming and thereby escape the early Northern freezes.


  • Your Lawn - Feed Every Inch
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] May is the month for fertilizing your plants. If you did not have a chance during the past months then you should do it now.


  • May Landscapes - The Pause That Refreshes
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] Do you remember the slogan of a popular soft drink... "The pause that refreshes." Well, here it is - May - the season between the seasons. We've got the first early rush of planting work done, now trying to catch our breath, and get started on the next round. Maybe some of you feel that you are entitled to a little pause between rounds.


  • Seedlings Need Thinning Lessons Too
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] We seem inclined to sow seeds too generously rather than too sparingly in order to insure full rows without vacant spots. When germination conditions are not the best, as for instance a crusted surface over the seed bed, the seeds find that in number there is strength. Together they are able to push through the soil when individual seeds would find it almost impossible.


  • The Dependable and Hardy Butterfly Iris
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] The Spuria iris, long relegated to the neglected back of the perennial border, emerged as the glamorous "Butterfly Iris" in the 1950's with development of new hybrids. The familiar white, blue, or yellow spurias, dependable and hardy though they were, were not far removed from the wild Species. Almost unnoticed, a few breeders patiently worked for the development of new varieties, added new colors, form, and true branching.


  • Mother Nature Gets a Hand With Watering the Garden
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] In the West the landscape and garden cannot depend on natural rainfall to supply adequate water. So it is necessary to water artificially. There are many ways in which this is done. Long gone are the days of furrow irrigation, but... it does work well good where a garden is fairly level.


  • The Northern Garden Guide For May
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] he May garden is a constantly changing picture of new life... bulbs coming into bloom, perennials changing from lifeless looking stumps to healthy green growth, new-sown seeds developing into young plants, and trees in full bloom. All of which means a great variety of jobs must be done this month.


  • Garden Tours - What to Look For in the Landscape
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Garden Tour, is its formal name, "garden-hopping" its affectionate nickname. Even if we call it "garden pilgrimage" we will be describing a delightful practice that happens across the country, in small communities as well as large, and providing the gardener with an almost royal road to learning.


  • Garden Hopping Essentials - Notebook Pencil and Tape Measure
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] You need never hesitate to ask questions of the various owners while on a garden tour, garden owners are noted for their willingness to share their knowledge, and sometimes their plants! The roses that are so perfect... what is the spraying schedule... and what kind of sprayer is most satisfactory? How often is the lawn fertilized? Were the chrysanthemums started from divisions or cuttings?


  • A Color Turn on With Daylilies
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] My experience with Daylilies began for me in my West Virginia garden. Although there had been gardening of the most delightful nature during the ten years we lived in Chile, South America, there had been no daylilies. When we returned to West Virginia the only daylilies I found at that time were the common roadside one and the sweet old lemon lily treasured for very early flowers. Each year they were among the first to bloom and will mingle sweet scented, light yellow flowers among nodding bells of snowflakes, spikes of white fraxinella and blue-starred spikes of camassia.


  • Going Green in the Northern Landscape
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] By now the weather has broke and the garden and landscape are ready to get their attention for those in northern areas. What are some of the things you could begin to do in the world of plants?


  • Mulch Time is the Month of June in the South
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] In June we should think seriously about summer gardening. With less frequent rains and the ultimate drought periods not far away we must think of ways and means of offsetting them with mulches and artificial watering.


  • Call Me Colorful in the Northern Landscape
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] In the North the bright colors of iris, peonies, lupins and roses are once more proclaiming the month of June and the spring flowering shrubs with their wealth of pastel shades have again had their day. With the passing of the blooms on the shrubs comes the go ahead signal to start pruning and so help them to make strong growth that will bear next year's bloom.


  • Pest Control is June Garden Job
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] In the southern landscape and garden nature is in full swing. This article is about azaleas and different garden jobs for June.


  • Barnyards Flowers and Outdoor Living
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] A colorful garden and landscape was designed and hammered out of old barn yard on the countryside of Pennsylvania. With outdoor living already built in the owners loved the the open fields and the special appeal it provided. The outdoor living had its real start with the construction of the swimming pool.


  • Planning Your Own Vegetable Garden
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Unless your garden spot is covered with at least a thin layer of topsoil containing humus, it is worth postponing your plantings for a year and devoting your time to making compost and creating soil with it. But once you have soil, and the season for planting approaches, you should have two things ready: the seed and a complete plan of where you expect to plant it.


  • The Easiest of All Fruits to Grow
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] If you want to taste the true strawberry flavor, don't expect to find it in a commercial berry. Picked green colored but not ripened in shipment, and abused all the way to market, these bare imitations of a strawberry bought at the corner store are hardly worth the effort of eating.


  • Chinese Chestnuts - The Most Desirable For Planting
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Chestnut Tree - A local business man sampled his first Chinese chestnut at a produce dealer's booth. He purchased 5 pounds and said, "I am buying these for my father. He never got over the loss of the native chestnut and these are the first I've found with the old time flavor."


  • Planting Peas in Hot Summer Weather
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Out West April starts the first flurry of outdoor garden activities to be evident this month. The winter snows are receding and the soil is warming and mellowing with the advent of spring.


  • Bermuda Grass For Your Lawn
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Continued pleasure of the beautiful color in your garden will surely give you many activities. In order to insure that your garden will display its beautiful color you'll need be aware of all garden activities.


  • April Means Water Gardens For West Coast Nature Lovers
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Just because Pacific Coast gardeners live in a very favored climate, where winters are mild and the ground rarely freezes, many are under the impression that you can plant most things the year around and expect them to grow like magic. Nature has provided certain seasons for successful growth of each kind of plant.


  • Prized Roses Come From Peatmoss Bonemeal and Cow Manure
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Perhaps roses are like humans, a little hardship in the beginning, when not too harsh, makes for success in later life. This article will help you how to grow wonderful roses.


  • Feeding the Landscape Carpet - Grass
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] May is still a good month to get a lawn started, but the earlier the better. As the days grow longer and warmer, seed germination and seedling growth is not so good as when milder weather prevails.


  • Planting Dahlia's - Watch Out For Late Frost
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Plant dahlia roots about a week before danger of late frosts is past. Make sure the tubers contain eyes or buds at the top of each division.


  • Gorgeous Display - Calling the Mexican Shell Flower
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] May is fast approaching and if your planning to have a garden and have no time for it, summer bulbs is the answer. Summer bulbs have many varieties to choose from and one the most favorite is the gladiolus.


  • May is Dinner Time For Pests
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] May is the month when garden pests in the east start to raise their ugly heads. Also this is the time of lawn weeds to spread.


  • Sawdust - A Replacement For Peat Moss
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Have you discovered the usefulness of sawdust? Although we long felt that it was too acid, if not completely injurious to plants, we now know that it is neither. For a mulch it is better to get the coarse sawdust from outdoor sawmills.


  • Planned Freak Show - The Double Glads
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] In spring many ardent gladiolus fans will turn to the exotic hybrid double-flowering varieties. These unusual glads bring fresh sparkle, distinctive quality, and an extra late-summer beauty to their gardens.


  • Making the Move From Winter to Spring
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Plant kalanchoe seeds for bloom next Christmas. February is a good month for starting leaf cuttings of your favorite African violets.


  • Climate Makes Choice of a Garden Spot
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Gardeners know better than most people, that everything man has came out of the earth. Therefore they respect earth. But if you have decided to make a garden, you must first remember that on the face of this earth there are many places with no soil and that a garden can be made only where there is soil. If you live in a city or a town, I am thinking of your back yard.


  • Be Thorough When You Water
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Blow Wind Blow and go garden go! Wind always creates problems in the garden but in March in the South the problem becomes acute. All gardeners know of the damage that results from plants whipping back and forth, being bruised or crushed against each other, the cutting action of the fine soil, and the silting action of the blowing dust. All these are bad enough, but the real damage comes from the drying action of the winds the dehydration of plant tissues.


  • Lawn Clean Time For the Northern Yard
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] What does the home gardener in the North do during March? Very little can be done outdoors other than to uncover the beds where the spring flowering bulbs are growing.


  • Is Your Garden Soil Workable? - Keys to Building Good Earth
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] If the ground is at all workable, get your plowing or digging started. Light, sandy soils can be put into shape sooner than heavier soils.


  • Old Seeds, New Garden
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Old seeds may still be ready to bring the color or produce food. But how can you tell if old seed is still worth planting? Read on and learn how.


  • Building Good Soil Starts Now
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] There is a lot of misinformation about house plants, landscaping and gardening. The most reliable source available for garden information is your county agricultural agent, who gets his information from the Agricultural Extension Service and the Agricultural Experiment Station of your own state university.


  • Make Plans Instead of Resolutions
    [Self-Improvement] Another year has come and gone. And so we find ourselves upon the threshold of a brand new 365 days days which we cannot hoard or save but must spend, wisely or otherwise, each as it comes along.


  • Lawn Keys For Being Grass Happy
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] I don't think our lawn has ever gone through the winter in better shape, and SOON it will get another light feeding. In spite of everything, there always seem to be a few spots that show up bare this time of year.


  • Hardy Succulents For Hot Texas Summers
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Heavy clay soil is excellent soil but the soil particles are so small they tend to run together and make the ground very hard to work. To improve clay for gardening, first spade or till the ground in the late fall or early spring, as deep as possible. Leave it rough for a time so that freezing and thawing can break it down.


  • Stop the Planting, Wait Until March
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] February in the North is an exceedingly trying month for "the home gardener" The days are growing longer and winter seems to be on the wane, but little can be done along with a great desire to be doing something. Some gardeners can't wait to get started and do things that should not be done.


  • Landscape Vine Options of Northeastern Homes
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] Which vines are the best options to use in a Northeastern landscape.... find them in this article. ENGLISH IVY - From Massachusetts southward this plant, called Hedera Helix in scientific circles.


  • Lawn Fertilizer Essential For Shallow Rooted Plants
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Do not sow seeds on bare areas that are packed down hard and smooth in the Midwest during March. These areas should be loosened four or five inches deep, pulverized (and raked even before seeding. Grass seeds sown on snow are usually wasted unless the ground was prepared for accommodating the seeds before the snow arrived.


  • How to Care For Your Plants
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Sunscald is an injury prevalent in the prairie sections of the country. It appears as dead sunken areas of bark on the trunks of trees particularly on the south and southwest sides.


  • Save Space With Succession Crops
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] People who loves plant always want to save space. They have different methods how to save. One of this is by succession or companion crops.


  • How to Have a Dried Flowers
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Dried flower are best for decorations and bouquets. The process of drying is not difficult but it needs proper care and attention.


  • Landscape With Annuals For Outdoor Color and Beauty
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] What can we plant in our gardens this spring that will insure plenty of material to fill our vases, bowls and other flower containers this summer? The answer is annuals.


  • Using Outdoor Lighting to Highlight Your Garden
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] Outdoor lighting is not only functional, but also beautiful. Add safety lighting to stairs and paths while highlighting your most impressive garden features.


  • How to Manage Your Own Tropical Garden
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] You do not have to live on an island to have a gorgeous botanical garden; with considerate planning and some maintenance, almost anyone can have their own tropical paradise. Gardening is a rewarding experience, most people find it a satisfying, yet frustrating adventure that many people are intimidated by.


  • Brighten Up Your Landscape With Pool Lights
    [Home-Improvement:Swimming-Pools-Spas] A swimming pool is an excellent landscape addition that will enhance and beautify your property and increase its aesthetic appeal. This article will concentrate on the types of swimming pools available and the ones that will really be valuable to the landscape.


  • Your Lawn Has Needs Too
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] Just as you need food to survive, so does your lawn. There are, in fact, sixteen needed elements for a lawn to survive and thrive in green glory. Most of these elements are a part of nature and need little from you to help your lawn's success. Others, however, definitely need your attention and should be attended to.


  • How to Make Beautiful Use of Houseplants
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Someone can learn a great deal about flowers by looking through an indoor planting. It is wise to consult with a plant catalog for ideas about blooming flowers and various greenery needed to create an indoor floral garden.


  • Growing a Lovely Jade Plant
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Jade plants are wonderful indoor plant. They can easily grown and care for.


  • The Rewards of Having a Garden Pond
    [Recreation-and-Sports:Fish-Ponds] This article was about a lady who built her own backyard pond. It also talks about the different types of pond lights that are available.


  • What You Need to Know Before You Purchase an Air Purifier
    [Home-Improvement:Appliances] The article talks about which types of air purifier works the best. It also help you how you can find one.


  • How You Can Grow a Lovely Container Garden
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] The article is about raising plants indoors with limited space. It also gives people the options available to them.


  • How to Use Outdoor Solar Lights
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] The article talks about solar lights. It also talks about how to make the most of your landscape with them.


  • How to Make the Most of Your Indoor Garden
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] This article was about growing different plants indoors. How you should arrangement them for maximum enjoyment by you and guests in your home.


  • How to Have Beautiful House Plants
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] The article was about many different aspects of plants and plant care. It can help you if you want to have a beautiful plant for your home and garden.


  • How to Grow a Beautiful Sansevieria
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] If you desire a plant that is both beautiful and easy to care, these lovely species will be a great addition to your indoor plant garden. There are different species to choose from.


  • Different Types of Safety Glasses
    [Shopping-and-Product-Reviews] Safety glasses are always recommended for people dealing with high levels of laser activity. Optical protection devices is the first line in the defense of protecting ones against harm that may be caused due to exposure to laser beams.


  • All You Need to Know About Begonias
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] If you like to have a plant that is different among others, the Begonia plants is the one you are looking for. Here are some information about different kinds of begonias and what they need to grow, how to feed them, how to propagate.


  • Taking Good Care of Your Houseplants
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] If you love plants and like to start a garden you need to know first how to care for plants. Here is an article that talks about taking care of your plants, growing bulbs in fiber and how to water them when you are on vacation.


  • Growing Lovely Plants by Leaf Propagation
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] There are many plants that can be propagated by leaf cutting and division. Here is an article that tells about some of this plant.


  • How to Grow Healthy Houseplants
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Plant needs proper care in order to show its beauty. This article stresses the importance of proper plant care.


  • How to Grow Heirloom Plants Without Any Space
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Even if you don't have any space in your garden, you can grow a classic heirloom plant in your window. There are many varieties that do not take up a lot of space.


  • Various Types Safety Gear For Motorcycle Riders
    [Automotive:Motorcycles] Before you decide to take to the road on your Harley-Davidson, Honda, Yamaha or Ducati, you should really consider the purchase of a number of items of protection. It is extremely risky to ride your motorcycle without at least some type of protection for your eyes and face.


  • Why it is Important to Repot House Plants
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] This article was about repotting house plants, choosing the right pot size and what to do when you cannot repot a delicate plant. Read on and learn how to properly report even the most sensitive plants.


  • Planting Indoors and Out
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Plants are beautiful addition to any home or patio. But proper care is essential.


  • Make Your Garden Beautiful
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] This article talks about the different types of plants that you can grow in your flower garden. Mix and match or go with one particular group, the idea is you will surely have a beautiful garden if you properly choose the kind of plants to grow.


  • Lighting and Landscaping
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] When you landscape your yard, you usually have a vision in your mind of what you want it to look like when you're done. When you include lighting in this vision, it really can turn into art and be beautiful. It also shows people how much thought and work you've put into your outdoor living space.


  • Designing and Planning Your Landscape
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] Planning your landscape is the most important step towards making your dream a reality! Here are simple tips that can surely help you beautify your home.


  • Using Flowers and Containers to Add a Decorative Touch
    [Home-Improvement:Interior-Design-and-Decorating] To use plants in the decor of your home, consider the color and style of your new plants and their containers. Choose ones that will fit in the decor of your home.


  • Is Fertilizing House Plants Necessary?
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Fertilizers and plant food both do the same thing for your houseplants. Plant food is simply a more concentrated way of adding nutrients to the soil than manure or other fertilizers. Feeding your plants is necessary, but there are several ways to accomplish this.


  • How to Repot Plants
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] This article is about why it is important to get the right size of pot when transferring plants from one pot to another. Why you shouldn't over water and how to test a pots drainage system.


  • Flowering Cacti For Your Home
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Growing flowering cacti can be fun, intriguing, and unique. These beautiful plants are hardy, interesting, and beautiful. As a solo or as part of a larger landscape, they are a sure attention-getter.


  • How to Control the Shape of Your Plants
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] There are many ways to prune a plant, including simple cutting, pinching, and air layering. Each is used to achieve a specific result.


  • Being Soothed by Running Waters
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] There are several things you can do to relieve stress during the course of the day. One of this is the water fountain. This article was about indoor water fountains being used as a stress reliever.


  • How to Find the Right Leaf Blower
    [Home-Improvement:Tools-and-Equipment] There are several options you should consider before purchasing a leaf blower. The most common type is a backpack blower, which is used by many professionals. This particular type gets its power from a 2-stroke gas engine. The harness, is worn on your back and the blower fits into it. The fan and engine are on the backpack as well, and a hand held hose directs the airflow in the direction you choose. This type of blower is very powerful and easy-to-operate. It has a more efficient fuel tank and air filter which means a longer duty cycle capability.


  • How to Grow Orchids Successfully in Your Home
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] It's easy to grow orchids in your home. It can be a beautiful hobby, and orchids have been a symbol of love and commitment for centuries. Traditionally used in wedding bouquets and corsages, they can add an exotic touch to any room.


  • How to Tell the Difference Between a Cactus and a Succulent
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] There are different types of cactus plants and they are proven to be a great houseplant. This article is about cactus and describes what they look like.


  • Gardening More Than One Plant
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Growing several plants at once can make for real beauty if done correctly. If your planning to grow more than one or two plants at a time it is advisable to grow for a foliage plants.


  • When Tropical Gardening Works
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Knowing how to grow a tropical garden is the key to success with these livid and beautiful plants. Learn to do it easily!


  • Having a Beautiful Lawn
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] If you want to make a good impression on your friends and neighbors, then your lawn and garden may need some attention.This article is about garden mulch and various ways to improve your garden, yard and ways you can use mulch.


  • Surrounding Your Apartment With Beautiful Plants
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] Growing your own herbs has lots of benefits. Here are some benefits of growing your own herbs and the beauty they can add to your environment.


  • Insects That Attack Houseplants and How to Get Rid of Them
    [Home-Improvement:Pest-Control] If your plant has attracted insects or become diseased, you may need to throw it out to avoid infecting your other plants. Some common insects, however, can be effectively removed from your favorite houseplants.


  • Fickle Ficus Care
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] There are many beautiful variations of the ficus species. You just need to know how to care for a them.


  • Growing a Flower Bed With Beautiful Blooms
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] You can grow beautiful flowers in a bed or border all year long if you choose your plants wisely and care for them properly. Pay attention to the soil in the flower bed, as well as the varieties of flowering plants you are choosing.


  • Peace Lily Ivy and Pothos House Plants For Low Light Conditions?
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Unless you have a great number of windows, many areas of your home are probably considered low light areas. Generally this is defined as being eight feet or more away from a large window, with no direct light. Many areas of the typical home do not receive enough natural light.


  • Information About Rock Garden Habitats
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] One of the most cost effective ways to beautify your landscape is to add a rock garden. Rock gardens are often thought of as being representative of the British Isles, the climate is so harsh it does not allow delicate plants and flowers to grow. Rock gardens are often thought of as having little or no flowers or vegetation, however, this is not true when making your own.


  • Choosing the Right Vine Species For Your Garden
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Vines are an excellent choice for a new garden. They are fast growers, and can grow to cover an arch or pergola almost before the start of summer. They are an easy way to soften the harsh lines of new buildings, and can provide shade when grown on an arch or other decorative element.


  • Dry Climate Landscaping
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] Proper watering especially during summer time is crucial in the growth of many plants. Here are some practical suggestions regarding landscaping in dry areas or in times of drought.


  • Adding Color to Your Garden Or Home With Geranium Flowers
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Geraniums are bright and colorful flowers, and they are very popular. However, there are many choices to make when purchasing a geranium. Although geraniums are very easy to care for, make sure you understand how to care for geraniums before you purchase one.


  • Choosing the Right Soil For Your Herbs
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Growing herbs outdoors or in container gardens requires the right soil type for the herbs you are growing. You also need to watch for pests which may attack your herbs.


  • Tips For Growing Spider Plants
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Spider plants are easy houseplants to grow, and they require very little maintenance. You can also grow many spider plants starting with just one plant. With proper care, even beginning gardeners can grow a beautiful group of spider plants.


  • A Tropical Paradise You Can Grow
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] Growing tropical plants and flowers is not difficult. As exotic and tropical plants grow in popularity, so do the easy, do it yourself options for growing them! Find out the basics of tropical plant growth and care.


  • Growing Foliage Houseplants
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Foliage plants add beauty to home and landscape gardens. They have beautiful foliage with different colors and shapes.


  • Indoor Gardening is Easy
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] You have probably heard how easy it is to grow houseplants or an indoor garden many times. I'm sure you've been regaled with how simple it is to do. If you're afraid you don't have a green thumb, don't worry because you can grow indoor plants easily.


  • Advantages of Good Landscape Design
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] Various ways of good landscaping can be of benefit. Discover how good landscaping can be to your advantage.


  • Beautiful Indoor Plants
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Carefully chosen indoor plants add glitter to your home. Here are the basic tips regarding growing indoor plants successfully.


  • Popular Types of Orchids
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] One of the most exotic and beautiful flowers is the orchid. Knowing which ones are most popular and easiest to care for is key to success.


  • Propagating New Plants
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] If you're seeking to expand your garden, and you'd like to use existing plants to do so, consider these propagation techniques. Grow new plants using various propagation techniques.


  • Design Tips For Landscaping
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] Are you planning to revive your garden and old landscape design? Here are few simple tips when designing a landscape.


  • Potted Plants Can Beautify the Indoors and Clean the Air
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] The addition of potted plants in your home will provide decoration and a healthy atmosphere. However, there are some challenges when growing potted plants.


  • How to Look After Your Bamboo Plant
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Are you having some problems taking care of bamboo indoor plant? Here are some helpful tips for successfully growing bamboo as an indoor plant.


  • Gravel As a Design Medium
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] Discover the versatility of gravel in landscape designs. See how they can be incorporated correctly into many landscape designs.


  • Landscape Trees in the Garden
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] The structure of a tree. Methods of caring for the tree in a lawn or as a specimen.


  • A Gardner's Guide to Super Seedlings
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] If you love the look of a luscious garden, but you don't have the natural green thumb you need to get one. Consider the tips and tricks in the following article and find lots of information on how to grow strong, gorgeous plants from scratch.


  • How Much Water Does an Indoor Plant Need?
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Watering indoor plants should be done properly in order to maintain their beauty and for them to stay longer. Here are effective methods to check whether you have supplied enough water to your indoor plant.


  • Bonsai Tree Making - Ficus Trees
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] The ficus tree is the most popular tree used in the art of Bonsai and is the one most associated with it. Choosing the right ficus and using the right pot and soils will bring out the best in your miniature masterpiece.


  • Adding Decorative Flagstone Walkways, Water Features, and Pools to Your Landscape
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] Adding more relaxing to your features can be very tedious although rewarding. Discover how you add more elegance and relaxing ambiance to your home through decorative landscaping.


  • Pest Control Options For Your Garden
    [Home-Improvement:Pest-Control] Here are some ideas as to how to rid your landscape of pests and reduce the chances of a re-occurrence. Find ways on how to get rid of pests using organic and other sources.


  • What Plants Should I Choose?
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] Find out how plants can be used in landscape design. Learn to choose the right plants for your garden to suit your landscape designs.


  • Enchanted Garden Design Elements
    [Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] Discover various garden elements such as statues and solar lighting that can be incorporated into an enchanted garden. Learn how you can come up with an enchanting garden.


  • A Garden Design to Suit Your Needs
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Good garden design requires planning and a personal touch. Find out which garden design suits your personal preference.


  • Grow New Plants Easily
    [Home-and-Family:Gardening] Cuttings that have successfully developed into small plants will need be transferred from small pots to 5 inch pots as they grow. Ideally, this should be performed just as the roots reach the side limits of the pot and before the plant becomes "pot-bound".


Displaying 1 - 250 of 392 [Prev] [Next]


© EzineArticles.com - All Rights Reserved Worldwide.