Butterfly conservatories are a favorite tourist attraction in any city lucky enough to have one. You don’t have to wait for a vacation to a far-off place to enjoy bountiful displays of butterflies! Planting a backyard butterfly garden is easy and fun. The key to raising your own butterflies is to grow plants for the larva to eat, for holding the chrysalis, ...
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Photo by Randy Son of RobertVines are climbing or trailing plants that must have support to grow vertically. They may be annual or perennial, evergreen or deciduous, herbaceous or woody. Vines can fit into the tiniest spaces , provided their roots are firmly planted in the soil, and grow vertically and/or horizontally with great flexibility.
Clinging Vines
Clinging vines can attach themselves almost anywhere by ...
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Choosing what flowers to put where can be a fun and exciting part of gardening. That said, it can also be one of the most frustrating experiences you'll ever have. With a huge selection of seeds, plants, and bulbs available, how do you decide what's best for you?
Research is the best way to figure out what you want and if it'll work in your garden. There are a ton of ...
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After moving into a new home in a new or established neighborhood, many gardeners are disappointed to discover their flowering plants struggling for survival due to poor soil. The soil may be full of clay or stones, too acidic, compacted, or lacking in organic matter. Some home-owners may resort to simply adding fertilizer. Don't do this!
With a little knowledge and a bit of determination you can use soil amendments ...
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To grow great-looking, healthy blooms, take a look at your garden soil. Flowers grown in poor soil make for sad plants. Always have a little pile of composted manure in some outer corner. This is very convenient when you may be planting just a few plants at a time. A pile of manure is priceless when it comes to soil improvement. Use an inch of this black gold as ...
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In order to have a good display of bulbs in your garden, you first have to make sure that the bulbs you are going to rely on for that display are healthy.
Buy only dormant bulbs that show little if any, root development and no top growth other than a pale fat bud. (Lilies, however, are never really dormant; their bulbs often have fleshy roots attached.)
Look for bulbs that have their ...
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Every minute of every day, the plants in your yard are defending themselves from their natural enemies. When a gust of wind breaks a tree branch, chemicals concentrated at the base of the plant mobilize into a protective wall to prevent pests from invading the healthy parts of the tree.
A shrub that is being attacked by insects nibbling on its leaves will respond by changing its leaf chemistry, ...
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Along with snowdrops and daffodils, early-flowering shrubs are one of the first signs of spring. Since there is little color in the garden so early, plant them together to form spring 'cameos' that stand out better in a landscape that is still looking winter-bleak.
Later shrubs, such as Forsythia, Star Magnolia and Bridal Wreath, flower shortly after the new foliage emerges, giving a fresh green halo to the blooms. As spring proceeds, a succession of ...
Posted in Seasons | 1 Comment »
I love Hostas. They just seem so elegant as they grow in their shady part of the garden.
I have not long moved house, coming from a very sunny site, to find that it is very shady in the front garden of my new home. So, what to do? buy hostas!
Sales of these plants has been increasing over the years, and I have lost count of how many varieties ...
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 I received a question the other day about soil being
 acid or alkaline, as it relates to flowers.
Cultivated flowers fall into two groups based upon
soil preferance. One group will grow only in acid
soil with a pH below 6.5, while the others prefer
or will tolerate only alkaline soil, pH 6.5 or above.
Acid lovers are plants that thrive on raw humus,
such as their ancestors found in the woods, where
leaves drop from the taller trees.
Leaves, leafmold, peat moss, or other humus should
be incorporated in soil where they are to be planted.
Especially recommended are oak leaves, which produce
an acid humus.
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