Earthworms have long been a gardener’s friend – aerating the soil with their tunneling, decomposing organic matter, and leaving behind nutritious “castings” in the process. But there’s a new worm in town, and this one is as destructive to the soil as good ol’ earthworms are helpful. The newcomer is commonly known […]
Doctors can ask patients where and how it hurts to zero in on a diagnosis. It’s not as straightforward in the landscape when you’re trying to figure out what’s going wrong with your plants. Although plants can’t talk or point, they are good at giving us clues. We just have to pay […]
This is the time of year when gardeners get outside to grapple with plants that are growing beyond their intended space – or growing where they aren’t wanted at all. But since gardeners tend to be kind, benevolent, and nurturing souls, they often have a hard time digging and tossing these “surplus” plants. […]
Did you ever feel like the deck was stacked against you on a yard project? All the time, eh? For me, I got that feeling when I started tackling the 60-foot-long, steep bank that lines my driveway. This area was a mess when we bought the place. Earlier owners obviously […]
One day earlier this month while down on my knees doing battle with the oxalis, it occurred to me that a lot can go wrong in a gardener’s weed-fighting efforts. A lot can go wrong anywhere in the garden, for that matter. But narrowing it down to weeds, it’s easy to get overwhelmed […]
I’ve long suspected that deer have some sort of sophisticated, yard-monitoring network that lets them take maximum advantage of the plants that gardeners set out. Now I’m sure. There’s just too much efficiency going on to assume that simple-minded deer happen to wander by and find certain target plants for dinner almost […]
Tree leaves that brown around the edges, develop spots, shrivel, and even drop prematurely worry a lot of gardeners. After all, healthy leaves are supposed to stay on our trees until they turn color in fall and drop naturally, right? When that doesn’t happen – as it did in a lot of […]
Plants sometimes just aren’t happy where you put them. Good plants just sit there and seemingly sulk, barely growing or worse – starting down that road to a slow death. Once you realize you’re dealing with a “failure-to-thrive” situation, the best thing you can do (usually) is dig up the plant and […]
New plants often look like they’re having a near-death experience almost as soon as we put them in the ground. They’ll wilt, yellow, turn brown around the leaf edges, and maybe even drop leaves and needles, scaring us into thinking we’ve killed the poor things right off the bat. And that sometimes […]
This is a classic tale of a good guy turned bad… except the star is a tree instead of a movie villain. It’s about the ornamental or “callery” pear, that hard-to-kill spring beauty that blooms white in yards, parking lots, and along streets all over Pennsylvania and beyond. When it came to […]