It’s not easy being any plant in the deer-infested, clay-endowed, erratic-weathered, lanternfly kingdom known as central Pennsylvania. But the going is doubly tough if you’re a young plant facing the middle of one of our summers. A Harrisburg July and August can throw all kinds of extra challenges at a botanical newbie […]
The lawn-care pros who care for so many of our yards have no magic secrets on how to grow a nice lawn. They just know what conditions and measures lawns need to thrive – and when and how to deliver them. Any of us can do the same thing… if we learn […]
I hope you’re staying on top of the garden-watering. Yeah, water is expensive, and watering the plants eats up a lot of time. But the alternative in a dry, blistering July spell like this can be even more costly in terms of dead plants. When temperatures rise into the 90s day after […]
Joe Lamp’l, a.k.a. “Joe Gardener” and the host of PBS’s “Growing a Greener World,” is one America’s most trusted garden communicators because he’s such a practical guy who draws on what he’s learned from his own lifetime of hands-on gardening. Joe’s latest and maybe most prodigious effort yet is his attempt to figure […]
I came across a home gardening book recently (“Garden Enemies” by Cynthia Westcott) that was popular and well respected in the 1950s for helping gardeners figure out what to do about damage to their plants. Over and over again, it suggested DDT as a routine solution to the assorted caterpillars and other bugs […]
Gardeners have to overcome erratic weather, sidestep a laundry list of potential bug and disease threats, and beat back attacks by deer, voles, and groundhogs to grow a decent plant. So why would any sane gardener ever consider cutting a healthy tree or shrub to the ground? I can think of a […]
One antidote to the months of cold weather coming our way soon is blooming flowers. You could just go out and buy some blooms whenever you’re fed up with snow and dark. Or you could get some ready yourself via the botanical trickery known as “bulb forcing.” Forcing involves planting and chilling […]
Dividing perennials is easier than most people think. It basically boils down to digging up a clump, yanking them apart and replanting the pieces. A few more details…
Here’s a primer on how to get poinsettias to color back up for a repeat holiday show the next year.
Cheapie fluorescent tubes in the basement are useful for more than just starting seeds. They also allow you to overwinter tender plants, grow cuttings, and get a head start on spring by “forcing” summer bulbs.