What comes next is a story of determined lovers, along with tips for what to do if your flowers aren’t as romantic as mine. To me, pumpkins are the paragon of autumn, my favorite season. So this last winter, I decided to grow a few varieties indoors in early spring for a summer transplant into the garden. But the gourds began to flower while they were still inside. Frantic, I researched pumpkin pollination....

One landscaping assignment I had to tackle recently was to plant a perennial flower garden in an area that was shaded. To further complicate the matter, this area was out by the road so the plants needed to also be salt tolerant in addition to being able to grow in the shade. I had to research what salt tolerant shade perennials I could work with. Salt Tolerant Shade Perennials that Grow Well by the Roadside 1....

Deer have favorites when it comes to the vegetation on which they like to browse. And they prefer tender new growth and foliage. Young landscape trees that are well fertilized will generally have lots of new, juicy growth, making them a tempting target. There is no surefire way to rid your garden of the possibility of a deer buffet. As the evening falls, the four-legged rats – ahem, cough, cough – majestic creatures leave their shelters and search for food, and many times your garden or landscape looks like a drive-through fast food joint to them....

Something like your average hoe or cultivator may be too large – and probably lacks the finesse you need for such a job. It’s time to do some weeding in the garden. You’ve seen a few unwanted sprouts popping up here and there, and you want to a little touch-up in some of the smaller areas, and in tight spaces around your plants. The weeds you want to remove aren’t all that large either – small, tender shoots that are easily popped out with just a few passes of the perfect tool....

Read on to increase your knowledge of this plant even more as we explore potting mixes and the ingredients that are most beneficial for your Christmas cactus plant. Christmas cactus, Schlumbergera spp., is an easy-care houseplant that rewards with a profusion of holiday blooms. In our Christmas cactus growing guide, we talk about best practices for indoor cultivation. Additional articles address inducing dormancy to encourage blooming, as well as understanding aerial root development....

This article will take a closer look at the nutritional composition and potential health benefits of eating raw kale, plus a comparison to its cooked counterpart and some additional items to keep in mind. Often referred to as a superfood, kale is a popular leafy green that’s packed full of essential nutrients. Despite often being grouped in with and compared to spinach, it is actually part of the cabbage family. It’s also considered a Brassica or cruciferous vegetable, along with broccoli, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts....

Firebush plants thrive as perennials in USDA Hardiness Zones 9 to 12. Gardeners in more northern climates can grow them in containers to bring inside for the cold months, or plant these fast growing shrubs as annuals. Hamelia patens For a drought-tolerant, woody shrub with blooms the color of fire, you can’t go wrong with Hamelia patens. This plant goes by other aliases such as firebush, hummingbird bush, and scarlet bush… but whatever you choose to call it, H....

Instead of true leaves, this plant has flattened segments called phylloclades, or cladodes, that are fleshy and, unlike many cacti, have no thorns. On Christmas varieties, the margins are rounded. Thanksgiving types have serrated edges. Tropical Christmas cactus is an easy-care houseplant with blossoms in shades of pink, red, white, and yellow that open during the fall to winter holiday season. The name is a catch-all term that includes a number of Schlumbergera species and hybrids, including S....

Native wildflower P. reptans has lavender-blue blossoms. It’s endemic to the eastern United States, but numbers are dwindling. Polemonium spp. Jacob’s ladder, Polemonium spp., is a hardy ornamental perennial for USDA Hardiness Zones 3-8 that blooms in late spring to early summer in shady locations. It’s not one flower, but an entire genus in the Polemoniaceae or phlox family that contains 25 species with origins in eastern North America, Europe, and northern Asia....

You’d be most likely to find them in your grandma’s garden, and unless she was a talented or dedicated gardener, the shrubs were usually covered in aphids and powdery mildew. Rosa ‘Knock Out’ While David Austin may have set the standard for modern rose growers, Knock Out roses totally changed the landscape. Those of you who remember gardens in the ‘80s know that roses had fallen out of favor. People saw them (justifiably, sometimes) as fussy, difficult, and ridiculously tender....

1. DIY Copper Plant Stand Ordinary and cheap plant stands transformed by the makeover, using ropes and metallic paint. Visit Sarah Sherman Samuel to find out! 2. DIY Coastal Rope Garden Border Easy and nifty, this coastal rope garden border is perfect for the gardeners looking for the backyard makeover. Visit H2O Bungalow to learn more! 3. Rope Tire Ottoman Create an expensive looking ottoman out of an old tire to use outdoors and sit back in style....

Let’s change that. Like roses, fuchsia plants might produce stunning floral displays, but they can serve double duty. Not only can you eat the flowers, but the berries and leaves are edible as well. Finding flowers in your food isn’t as surprising as it used to be. Marigolds and pansies are a pretty common sight in salads, and candied rose petals and violets decorate all kinds of desserts. But I have yet to order a dish at a restaurant and find fuchsia flowers – or berries, for that matter....

No longer limited to the simple blossoms in white, pink, yellow, and purple found in the wild, they now come in orange, salmon, red, maroon, and a combination of multiple colors. Echinacea spp. Coneflowers are the ultimate triple threat. They add beauty to the garden, can be used as food and medicine, and are about as unfussy as they come. It makes sense, then, that this popular perennial has transitioned from a humble prairie flower to a mainstay across the country....

Sometimes called tunas or cactus pears, they take a few extra steps to harvest due to the spines that appear on most species. What’s the best way to harvest prickly pears, you might ask? It’s not quite the same as plucking a ripe apple from the tree, after all, but it’s not as difficult as it may appear to be either. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products....

These insects are a particular problem with young plants, and those that are flowering. Anasa tristis The squash bug is a pernicious insect, one of the most common and serious pests of cucurbit plants like squash and pumpkins, as well as cucumbers and melons, though typically to a lesser degree. Unfortunately, these bugs are widespread throughout the US and southern Canada. These insects can suck out a plant’s juices so aggressively that the plant will wilt and die, injecting toxic substances that only exacerbate the problem....

There are also the potted types that you can pick up at the home store. Sadly, many of these lovelies are treated as annuals and tossed out when winter rolls around. Despite the fact that they come from subtropical regions that rarely, if ever, have to face the threat of frost, fuchsias have found their way into gardens across the globe. These versatile flowers can lend color to a shady corner of your patio or show off a riot of blossoms in a sunny patch of your garden....

The bacteria that cause this disease are very common in the soil and highly effective at dissolving pectin – the substance that holds the plant cells together. That is why your produce dissolves when it suffers from soft rot. No doubt you are familiar with pervasive bacterial soft rots of produce in storage – some of the most damaging diseases throughout the world. While potatoes are the most high-profile victims of this menace, a variety of stored products can be afflicted, ranging from carrots to tomatoes....

Take lining the bottom of a container with rocks, staking young, newly-planted trees, or using coffee grounds to alter soil pH. All of these practices have been (and continue to be) incredibly popular and all of them have been at least partially debunked. There are lots of gardening practices that we follow without knowing whether they truly work or not. My mom taught me to spray my zucchini with a water and milk mixture to prevent powdery mildew, and I have always done it without questioning whether it’s based on good science or not....

And you can enjoy them almost year-round if you choose a selection from each of the three different flowering times – those that bloom in late winter/early spring, mid to late spring, and summer into fall. Clematis are showy, versatile vines that are well-known and beloved for their beautiful flowers. They’re outstanding for adding vertical accents with bright, bold colors climbing to the sky. But they’re also highly adept in containers, as ground covers or specimens, and to add secondary color weaving through deciduous trees and shrubs....

Planting during the fall can be very rewarding to a lot of gardeners. Most annuals can be planted during the fall to yield beautiful flowers throughout the year. Annuals can be defined broadly as a type of plant that completes its full life cycle in one year or one growing season. These plants go through the different stages from being a seed to growing roots, stems and leaves, then flowering, then returning to a seed in one year....