The role of manure, so beloved by gardeners, is much discussed. Homes quotes the traveller and chronicler the Reverend Arthur Young who, after a six-week tour through the southern counties, praised the farmers of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk: “I have never met with any place around which the farmers had such a spirit of purchasing manures.” A Carthusian monk writing in the early 18th-century recommended dung of wheat-straw, being careful to mix the “excrementitious balls with the straw”. Pliny described a vineyard owner made wealthy through thoroughly “dunging” his vines over an eight-year period.

Dung good

Germinating seeds hydroponically has several advantages over using soil. Many common diseases can be avoided because the hydroponic medium is clean while soil may contain fungus or insects that can harm vulnerable seedlings. Root rot can also be avoided by using a good hydroponic growing system.

The use of shredded wood mulch exists for reasons unknown to many of us. It is true and a good point that the mulch does in fact control erosion in a new planting prior to the roots taking hold of the soil. The wood mulch does retain more moisture and insulate the roots from extreme temperatures. Therefore the addition of a mulch is in deed beneficial for a newly installed shrub and tree landscape. The truth is folks have been successfully growing landscapes and gardens for centuries prior to this modern innovation commonly known as shredded mulch. So the mulch is put down initially to aid the plants in adjusting to their new home with less setbacks and repercussions. But the renewal of mulch is where the problems seem to begin.

“I don’t want any weeds to have to deal with.”

The infamous statement uttered by millions. That is a pretty tall order to attempt to fill. Over the years, I have discovered that many people believe the fallacy that rock mulch over plastic or landscape cloth will render their planting free of weeds forever and ever. Covering up the soil equals no weeds?

As you may have observed from your gardening experiences plants can be fussy things. The right location, amount of sunlight and 101 other factors influence your plant’s growing ability. One factor which is very beneficial in understanding before putting that new plant into the earth is soil pH.

What is Soil pH?

The secret of rooting cuttings can be summed up in two words. “Timing and technique”.

When you do your cuttings is every bit as important as how you do them. So if you do the right thing, at the right time of the year, your efforts are sure to bring success. Through this article you will learn both. “Rooting Hardwood Cuttings of Deciduous Plants”

Author: Loring A. Windblad

Common Name: Burdock

Botanical Name: Arctium lappa (LINN.)

Family: N. O. Compositae

Genus: Arctium, derived from the Greek arktos

Other common names: Lappa, Fox’s Clote, Thorny Burr, Beggar’s Buttons, Cockle Buttons, Love Leaves, Philanthropium, Personata, Happy Major, Clot_Bur.

Parts Used: Root, herb and seeds (fruits).

Habitat: It grows freely throughout England (though rarely in Scotland) and throughout North America’s temperate zone on waste ground and about old buildings, by roadsides and in fairly damp places.

The Burdock, the only British member of its genus, belongs to the Thistle group of the great order, Compositae.

HEATHER GARDENS - Mass plantings of heather, either planted with one of each variety or one hundred, can be ideal for a sunny area. Spaced appropriately, the plants will mature into a tapestry with drifts of foliage and flower color.

Like most people who grow deciduous fruit trees (apples, peaches, plums, cherries, apricots, etc.) I used to do lots of serious heavy pruning every winter.Each winter I would head back dozens of those long, tall canes that had grown the year before. On some trees, plums in particular, each year I’d often find myself cutting back a huge number of new branches, many of them well over six feet in length. I occasionally wondered: Isn’t this hard pruning cycle putting a big workload on the tree? Each summer the tree pours all its energy into growing those overly long new branches, and then each winter I’d chop them back, trying to keep the tree’s overall height under some semblance of control. And then too, despite my best intentions and hours of work spent pruning, each season the trees still seemed to be a bit taller than the year before. However, each winter for decades I kept up this hard winter pruning, working with the standard conventional wisdom that it was necessary in order to have a decent tree and a good set of fruit. At the time it made perfect sense to me. Because of apical dominance, when a tip is cut off, the next bud back from what is now the tip, this bud will normally sprout next. The topmost bud on any strong branch has high concentrations of the natural growth hormone, indole acetic acid (IAA). When we prune grapes (which unlike most pomes and stone fruits, set fruit only on new wood) we have to prune the last year’s wood hard. We cut back to a few large, strong buds. The lower down on the branch a bud is, the larger and stronger it is. Thus, heavy pruning makes plenty of sense with grapes, or others that bloom on new wood, figs, mulberries, and roses. But does this same sort of hard pruning make sense with most fruit trees, trees that do not set their fruit on the current season’s wood?

This article is dedicated to planning a successful herb garden. If you have planted herb gardens in previous years this will help to revamp and refresh one already have.

All too often, soil composition is neglected. Every season, our plants and gardens rob the soil of it nutrients. All gardeners are to be custodians of the soil, taking the time to replace food and other elements as they are used. Since our soil is so important, we need to treat it, as we want to be treated, not like dirt.

Japanese gardens have become popular choices when choosing to landscape a yard. The entire garden concept is designed to create an experience, invoke feelings and provide a haven where one can be relaxed, calm and peruse inner-thoughts. Therefore, it is important that the rocks and plants meld together within the landscape, and that the relationship and placement between rocks, plants and water is well thought out within the design.

When I was a child, I loved to pick Dandelions. The pretty yellow flowers were small, colorful, and looked nice tucked behind my ear! However, if one had popped up in the front yard, my hair accessory would have been considered an atrocity! I often feel sorry for weeds. They are plants too. In fact, if you flipped through a botany field guide, you may be surprised at the plants you find classified as weeds! But simply put, a weed is really defined as a plant out of place.

As you go through the history of Japanese bonsai trees (among others), you will note that this term is used to refer to a ‘plant in a pot’. As per the information provided on Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum site, “the ancient Chinese were the first to miniaturize trees for ornamental purposes, around A.D. 200. Later, the Japanese, who used it to create beautiful gardens, adopted the bonsai technique.

Summer is just around the corner, and your lawn could probably use a little maintenance before the summer season of backyard BBQs and swimming in the pool. So what are you doing now to get your lawn ready? Lawn care is often feared as a difficult and time intensive process, but with a few guidelines and tips, you can easily have a healthy green lawn in time for the first backyard party of the season.