Native plants are a hot trend lately. But how local does a native plant need to be? Cumberland County Master Gardener Susan Skender came up with detailed lists of plants native just to the six counties around Harrisburg.
There’s a difference between fall cleanup and sanitizing the yard. Here’s a “honey-don’t list” to help figure out what to do — or not — after frost ends the growing season.
Why do we pay to have our leaves hauled away and then turn around and buy mulch, soil amendments and fertilizer? It makes more sense to me to keep our leaves on site…
Composting is the single most important thing you can do to become a better gardener. Piles shouldn’t be stinky eyesores if you know a few basics, such as…
We’ve sterilized our landscapes to the point where there’s much of use to birds, butterflies and other wildlife. Dr. Doug Tallamy explains why this is not a good thing and what we can do to reverse it.
A large majority of people say they want to care for their yards in an environmentally responsible way, but only half say they know what that involves. Here’s a checklist…
If you want to get really local with your native-plant selections, this is a must-read based on research by Manada Conservancy. Included is a lengthy list of perennials and woody plants that are native to south-central Pennsylvania.
Rain barrels and their early cousins have been around for 4,000 years, but they’re becoming a “new idea” as people try to conserve water and be more enviro-friendly. They make sense in a lot of ways. See why and get details on where to buy barrels or how to make your own.
One of the latest trends that both adds beauty to landscapes and solves flooding and runoff problems is a rain garden. These are gardens built in slight depressions and planted with wet-soil-tolerant plants that are intentionally planned to keep rainwater on site instead of going into the storm-sewer systems (or the neighbor’s basement below you). Here’s a story on one built at West Hanover Twp.’s Fairville Park.
Lawns aren’t the low-care vegetation they’re usually cracked up to be, and aren’t terribly environmentally friendly or helpful to wildlife either. There are ways to reduce the lawn without spending a fortune or creating a ton of new work. Here’s what one gardener did…