Articles Index
What are Cotyledons, Monocots and Dicots?
Plants are classified as monocots or dicots, based on the number of cotyledons, or seed leaves, they develop in their embryo.
Annual Garden Plants
Annual flowers and plants only live for one growing season. But not all plants that are killed by frost at the end of the season are annuals. An annual plant must complete its life cycle in one growing season.
What is Organic Matter and What Does it Do For My Garden Soil?
Every garden book talks about the importance of adding plenty of organic matter to your garden soil. But what is organic matter and just what does it do that's so wonderful? Is it compost? Manure? Cover crops? Organic matter is all those things and what organic matter can do for your garden soil is nothing short of a miracle.
Soil Fertility and Growing Plants
Gardening starts with good soil. Good soil is basically soil that has the proper fertility to satisfy a growing plant's needs. What does that mean? Well, I'll tell you.
How to Get Rid of Scale Insects
Scale are tiny parasitic insects that adhere to plants and live off the plant’s sap. They look like bumps on the plant’s stem and are often mistaken for a disease. There are some 7,000 species of scale insect, varying in color and size.
Succession Planting - Four Ways to Grow More Vegetables in Less Space
Succession planting is used in vegetable gardening as a way to extend your harvest by staggering or successively planting crops or planting varieties with staggered maturing dates. There are basically 4 methods of succession planting outlined here.
Stratificiation - Fooling Seeds into Thinking It's Winter.
Stratification is a means of simulating the chilling and warming that seeds would endure if left outdoors in their native climate, for the winter.
Scarify Seeds
Scarification means scratching or cracking the hard outer coat of a seed to help it germinate.
How to Determine Sunlight Levels for Houseplants
Low light? Diffused light? How do you know how much light you have and what houseplants will be happy in it? The best indicator is the plant itself. If the houseplant looks good, the light is fine. But here are a few suggestions so that the houseplants you decide to buy will be happy in your house.
Mother Plant - What Does a Mother Plant Refer to When You're Taking Cuttings?
What is a mother plant and what do you do with it when you make plant cuttings?
Plant Cuttings - What Does it Mean to Take Cuttings of a Plant?
By taking cuttings of a plant, you can create dozens of identical plants for growing.
Dormancy - What Does it Mean When a Plant Goes Dormant?
Dormancy is often defined as a state of sleep and that's pretty much what your plant is doing when it goes dormant.
Deadheading Garden Flowers
Deadheading flowers is a garden maintenance task that must be done if you want to have flowers throughout the garden season. The more you deadhead your flowers, the more new flower buds will be set. Deadheading all makes your whole garden look better.
Allelopathy - When One Plant Stops a Neighboring Plant from Growing
Allelopathy is a term to describe the ill effect a plant can have on a neighboring plant's growth and development.
What Does Indeterminate Tomato Variety Mean?
Most of the tomato varieties grown in home gardeners are considered indeterminate varieties, or vining tomatoes. They continue growing until they are killed by frost and keep setting fruit throughout the growing season.
What Does 'Determinate Tomatoes' Mean?
Determinate tomato varieties tend to reach a fixed height and ripen all their fruit in a short period of time.
Herbicides - Controlling Weeds and Unwanted Plants with a Pesticide
A herbicide is a product used to kill unwanted plants. Herbicides can be broad spectrum, selective or even pre-emergent. There are also organic herbicides and synthetic herbicides.
Soil pH
Gardeners are often told that a key to growing great plants is to check the soil's pH. What is meant by soil pH and why should it matter so much in the garden? Here's why...
Loosening, Teasing or Tickling the Rootball of Plants
Teasing or tickling the roots of a plant refers to loosening pot bound roots. If you place the plant into the ground or into another pot without first loosening the balled up roots, they will continue to grow in a circle, rather than reaching out into the soil, developing and anchoring the plant. It may seem like a harsh thing to do as you are plantin, but as explained here, teasing the roots is just tough love.
R Values and Insulating Your Greenhouse
A greenhouse needs to have excellent insulation or your plants won't survive. The R value is a commercial measurement used to compare the thermal insulation of different materials.
Compost - Black Gold for Your Garden Soil
Compost is often called black gold because of its value in improving garden soil. Compost, when used as a soil amendment, can transform almost any type of soil into good garden soil. Compost is inexpensive and easy to use too.
Manure - Adding Manure as Organic Matter, to Amend Garden Soil
Manure, or decomposing animal waste, doesn't sound like it would be something you'd want to throw on your garden soil, but yes you would. Manure is one of several options for adding organic matter to your garden soil, to make it richer and more nutritious for your plants.
Green Manure - What is It and What Does It Do for My Garden Soil?
Green manure isn't some new trend. The term green manure just refers to an old practice of growing a quick crop to feed the soil and then turning in under, to decompose and become fertilizer. Here are some suggestions.
Winter Interest in the Garden
Winter interest is a concept employed by some gardeners in cold climates who still want to have something of interest in their garden when it goes dormant and when it’s covered in snow.
What Does Plant Texture Mean in Garden Design?
Plant texture is generally consider the perceived surface structure of the plant.