Articles Index

Vinegar (Acetic Acid) as a Herbicide

Household vinegar and other concentrations of acetic acid are effective, inexpensive, organic weed killers, if used properly. Here are some tips for getting the best weed control.

Preventing Weeds

A better idea than pulling weeds is to keep them out of your garden in the first place. You can't stop every bird from dropping a weed seed here and there, but there are several things you can do to limit the amount of weeds brought into your garden and prevent weeds from getting out of control.

How to Grow Moss

Moss looks wonderful in the garden, especially on rocks and rock walls. It gives any garden a sense of age and weight. Getting moss to grow on rocks or on the ground in your garden simply requires you give the moss the growing conditions it needs and have some patience while it gets established.

Growing Tomatoes - Does Red Mulch Help Tomatoes Ripen Faster?

If you’re a die-hard tomato grower, you’ve probably heard about using red plastic mulch to improve your tomato yield and get your tomatoes to ripen earlier. Some early testing did show a considerable benefit from mulching tomato plants with a specific shade of red plastic. But like all things scientific in the garden, there are still a lot of variables that prevent the results from being conclusive.

Undestanding Late Blight Disease of Tomatoes and Potatoes

Late blight is a serious problem of tomato and potato plants. You can't cure late blight, but there are steps you can take to prevent and control it in your garden.

Companion Plants for Tomatoes

Companion planting for tomatoes can improve the tomatoes growth and flavor and repel insects and diseases. Choosing companion plants for your tomatoes should be easy because companion plants for tomatoes include many of these popular garden vegetables.

Interplanting Flowers and Herbs in the Vegetable Garden

Vegetable gardens benefit greatly from the addition of some flowers and herbs. It's not just aesthetics, interplanting flowers and herbs creates some benefits that can protect your vegetables from insects and even make them more productive.

Garden Design Principles

Garden design is often broken down into design principles: Order/Balance/Proportion, Harmony or Unity and Flow, Transition or Rhythm. These categories contain the basic elements that, when combined together, constitute the generally accepted version of good garden design.

Keep Lettuce Growing in the Heat of Summer

Summer is thought of as a cool season crop, bolting with the first hint of heat. Here are a few tricks to prolong the lettuce harvest throughout the summer season.

Watering Deeply

Every gardener has heard the term "water deeply". It's better to water deeply once a week than to water shallowly more often. What does it mean to water deeply and how can you tell if you've accomplished it? Here's a simple test.

Is Cornmeal a Fungicide

Researchers at Texs A&M have discovered that cornmeal has powerful fungicidal properties and is effective on all kinds of landscape fungus problems, from turf grass to black spot on roses. Here’s how to apply cornmeal to treat fungus problems in your garden.

How to Tell the Difference Between Lilies and Daylilies

We may use the name Lily interchangeably with both true lilies and day lilies, but there is a difference and it matters, when it comes to how to care for your plant. Here’s how to tell the difference between daylilies and true lilies.

Damping Off

Damping off is a term used for seedling death by any of a handful of fungal diseases, including several root rots and molds. A few easy preventative measures can improve your seedlings chances of avoiding damping off. Here are some tips to control and avoid damping off when you start your seeds this year.

The Money Garden

Starting a home vegetable garden can be a great way to save money. Home grown vegetables cost a fraction of what you would pay in a grocery store. By choosing vegetables that are easy to grow, you’ll have fresh vegetable flavor and save money.

Tulips as Cut Flowers

Tulips just don't seem to behave as cut flowers. They bend and bow and contort. How do you deal with tulips in a vase?

How to Renovate Strawberry Beds

Strawberry plants produce the most strawberries in their early years. Renovating your strawberry plants every couple of years will keep them productive. Easy steps for growing strawberry plants.

What is the Hottest Pepper in the World?

What's the hottest pepper in the world? How would you like to grow the world's hottest peppers and find out?

Preventing Late Blight

Late blight is a rapidly spread disease that affects mainly tomatoes and potatoes. There is no cure for late blight, but here are some tips for preventing late blight in your garden.

How to Harden Off Plants

Young, pampered seedlings will need a period to adjust and acclimate to outdoor conditions, prior to planting in the garden. This transition period is called "hardening off". Hardening off plants gradually exposes the tender plants to wind, sun and rain and toughens them up. There are 3 approaches to hardening off plants.

What is the Scoville Scale?

The Scoville scale is used to measure the 'heat' of hot peppers. Here's how it works.

What’s Safe to do with Potatoes and Tomatoes that had Late Blight?

Although plants infected with late blight tend to die quickly, you will probably be able to salvage some tomatoes and potatoes before the plants are gone. Are they safe to eat? Can you still store them? Should you risk replanting next year? Here are some answers.

What Can’t I Plant Under a Black Walnut Tree?

Black walnuts (Juglans nigra L.)are valuable landscape and lumber trees, but black walnut trees are not always good companions for other plants. They produce a chemical called "juglone", which can be allelopathic to many common plants. Here are some tips for gardening near a black walnut tree.

How to Grow Strawberry Plants in Pots

How to grow strawberries in containers. Tips for getting the most from strawberry plants grown in pots.

Should You Prune Out Tomato Suckers?

Tomato suckers, or side shoots, are the growth that appears in the crotch between the stem and a branch. If left to grow, tomato suckers will become another main stem with branches, flowers, fruit and more suckers of their own. Sometimes that’s good, sometimes not so good. Here are some guidelines for when to prune your tomatoes and how much.

How to Plant Roses

How to plant and transplant roses. Tips for getting your rose plants off to a great start.