Gardening Articles

Cheat Sheet / Updated 02-23-2024

Once you know what makes houseplants happy, growing them is a snap. If you start with one of the 10 easy houseplants I suggest and then follow the guidelines and tips in this Cheat Sheet, you’ll have a green thumb before you know it. You can then join the large and growing clan of dedicated houseplant lovers, and you may even decide to branch out with more difficult plants or crafts, such as creating your own corsage. Good luck and welcome to the club!

Article / Updated 02-22-2024

A corsage is a wearable flower arrangement. Although some people think corsages are unfashionable (or even corny), I guarantee that if you make one for yourself or your partner for a special occasion, you’ll get loads of compliments. Many houseplants’ flowers and foliage make stunning and long-lasting corsages, and you can create one yourself relatively quickly. Some examples are anthuriums, various ferns, many orchids, and gardenias. Follow these steps: Remove the flower you want to use from its plant, keeping about 3 inches (7.6 cm) of the stem. Wrap the stem with florist’s wire as shown in the first photo. Start at the top and work your way down to the base of the stem. Two or three passes are sufficient. Cut the excess wire with wire cutters or utility scissors. Wrap florist’s tape around the flower stem as shown in the second photo. You can purchase this tape at craft stores, online, or from florists. As with the florist’s wire, start at the top and work your way down to the base of the stem. Cut the excess tape with utility scissors. If you want, you can add a fern frond or some other delicately textured green foliage to the corsage (see the third photo). Hold the frond against the stem and at the back of the flower. Fasten the foliage to the flower stem by wrapping them both with another layer of tape. For a decorative touch, you can add a ribbon, and don’t forget to provide a florist’s pin like the one shown in the fourth photo. Now you’re ready to go to the ball! Place the finished corsage in a sealed rigid plastic container or in a plastic bag and keep it in your refrigerator until it’s ready to be worn. For more houseplant know-how, check out the Houseplants & Succulents For Dummies Cheat Sheet or buy the book.

Article / Updated 08-03-2023

After you choose a good sunny spot for your vegetable garden and draw a plan on paper, you need to clean up the area so the soil will be easier to work. You can clear your garden area any time during the year, but the season before planting works best — clear in the fall for spring planting, or clear in the spring for summer or fall planting. You can clear the area the day before you plant, but you may have more weed problems later. Here are the basics of initially clearing your garden spot, which I explain in more detail in the sections that follow: Outline the areas of your garden plot that you want to clear. You outline the areas depending on how you want the plots to be shaped. Follow these guidelines: To get your edges straight for a square or rectangular vegetable plot, stretch a string between sticks and mark the line with a trickle of ground white limestone, which is available at garden centers. For a round garden, use a hose or rope to lay out the area, adjusting the position to create a smooth curve. If you want several individual beds separated by permanent paths, outline each bed independently with string, sticks, and limestone so you don’t waste time improving soil that you’ll never use. But if you think that you may change your garden layout from season to season or year to year, work the entire area within the outline. Clear the surface by first removing plants, weeds, brush, and rock. If necessary, mow the site to cut back the grass and weeds close to the surface of the soil. (See the next section for how to handle weeds.) Dig out the roots of small trees and tough weeds with a hoe, shovel, or pick ax. After the vegetation is manageable, remove any sod. (See the section, “Stripping sod,” later in this article for details on how to do this.) Properly preparing the soil before planting is an all-important first step toward a bountiful harvest. To learn how to test and adjust the pH of your soil, read "How To Test and Improve Your Soil." Don’t take shortcuts with your soil. You’ll be cheating your plants at their roots, and they won’t like it. You feed your soil, and your soil feeds your plants. Killing weeds and aggressive grasses If your garden area contains a lot of perennial weeds — like quack grass, that come back year after year — or if you need to clear an area of a warm-season lawn composed of vigorous grasses (like Bermuda grass), make sure that you first kill these weeds or grasses. You can pull out or heavily mulch over seedlings, but many aggressive weeds and turf spread by underground roots as well as seeds; these underground roots can haunt you forever. If you have an existing garden, you have to be diligent about weeding, or you may need to start all over again with tilling and removing as much of the weed’s root system as you can. You can kill weeds and aggressive grasses two ways: Hand dig and sift: For a small garden, dig up the earth and carefully sift the soil, removing sod and root parts that may come back next year as weeds. Apply a covering: An easy, chemical-free way to clear your garden is to cover it with clear or black plastic, cardboard, or even old rugs. After a month under these impermeable coverings, existing plants die from the lack of sunlight. You must plan ahead to use this method, and it may not look pretty, but it works like a charm — especially on annual weeds. For perennial weeds, you may need to dig out their roots, too, after applying the plastic. You can buy plastic in rolls at hardware stores or home improvement centers; check department stores for old pieces of cardboard. Use the thickest plastic or cardboard you can find — it should be at least 2 millimeters, but 4 millimeters is even better. Controlling weeds and grasses by applying a covering to your garden area is easy. Just follow these steps: Spread the covering over your entire garden area, securing the edges with spare rocks, bricks, or boards. Let neighboring pieces overlap by several inches so light can’t penetrate. If you’re using old rugs, place them nap side down. After a month, remove the covering and strip off any grass or weeds. Use a shovel to cut off any grass or weeds at the root level (just below the soil surface). If they aren’t too thick, rototill them into the ground. Wet the area and wait about 10 days for weeds to sprout. Leave the covering off; you want weeds to sprout. You should get some growth because you haven’t removed weed seeds. Use a hoe to kill the weeds. Hoeing the weeds down is sufficient to kill annual weeds, but if you have perennial weeds, you need to dig out the roots. Check out the National Gardening Association’s Weed Library for help identifying the weeds in your garden. Organic approach to killing weeds For an organic approach to killing weeds while also building your garden soil, try a no-till layered garden technique (see the figure below). It’s like making lasagna: The season before planting, lay down cardboard over the garden area. Water the cardboard generously to keep it in place. Cover the cardboard with a 6-inch-thick layer of hay or straw. Top that with a 1- to 2-inch-thick layer of compost. By the next planting season, the layers will have killed the grass and most of the annual and perennial weeds in your garden. You can hand pull any tenacious perennial weeds that survived. Earthworms will have munched up much of the cardboard, turning it into valuable compost. You can plant your seedlings right into the mulched layers, and they’ll grow like weeds (even better). Stripping sod If you don’t want to try the techniques in the preceding section, you can immediately remove the lawn grass by stripping the sod (grass and roots) before planting. If your lawn consists of bluegrass and other less-spreading grasses, you can strip the sod without first killing the grass; most lawns in the northern United States consist of these types of grasses. But you should kill weedier grasses, like Bermuda grass, before you strip the sod (see the preceding section for details on killing weedier grass). Stripping sod takes a lot of effort, but it works. Just follow these steps, and have your wheelbarrow or garden cart handy: Water the area that you want to clear for 15 minutes for each of the 2 days prior to digging up your sod. I suggest watering this way because stripping sod is easier when the ground is slightly moist. Starting at one end of your plot, slip a spade under the grass and slide it under the sod. An easier method is to precut the sod into square or rectangular sections and then loosen each section with a spade. Either way, don’t dig too deep; you just want to remove the sod and 1 to 2 inches of roots. You also can use a rented sod stripper to cut the sod into rows that you roll up and remove. Pivot your spade up and let the sod flip off the spade and back onto the ground; use your spade to slice off the sod section, toss the sod into a wheelbarrow or garden cart, and take it to a compost pile. If your sod has healthy grass with few weeds, and you don’t want to compost it, use it to patch bare spots in your lawn. Keep it well watered, and it should root and blend in with the existing grasses. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 until your garden is cleared of sod. These steps should clear all the grass in your garden. You’ll get new growth only if you have an aggressive grass like Bermuda and don’t kill all the roots.

Article / Updated 08-03-2023

To get all the best flavor and highest nutritional value from your vegetables, you need to pick them at just the right time. Some vegetables taste terrible if you pick them too early; others are tough and stringy if you pick them too late. And after you pick your vegetables, what if you can’t eat them right away? When properly stored, most vegetables last a while without rotting or losing too much flavor (of course, eating them fresh picked is always the best). In fact, you can store some vegetables, like potatoes and winter squash, for months. So in this article, I discuss harvesting and storing your fresh vegetables. You put in too much work not to do the final steps just right. When are vegetables harvested? Vegetable harvest times vary, but generally, most should be picked when they’re young and tender. That often means harvesting the plants, roots, or fruits before they reach full size. A 15-inch zucchini is impressive, but it tastes better at 6 to 8 inches. Similarly, during the growing season carrots and beets tend to get woody (tough textured) and bland the longer they stay in the ground. The table below provides specific information on when to harvest a variety of veggies. For more about harvesting and preserving what you grow, and all the phases of vegetable gardening, including preparing the soil, planting, maintaining, and much more, check out Vegetable Gardening For Dummies, 3rd Edition. Other plants are continuously harvested to keep them productive. If you keep harvesting vegetables like snap beans, summer squash, snow and snap peas, broccoli, okra, spinach, and lettuce, they’ll continue to produce pods, shoots, or leaves. When to Harvest Vegetables Vegetable When to Harvest Asparagus When spears are 6 to 9 inches long Beans, snap Start about two to three weeks after bloom, before seeds mature Beans, dried When the pods are dry and crack open easily Beets When 1 to 3 inches wide Broccoli When flower heads are tight and green Brussels sprouts When sprouts reach 1 inch wide Cabbage When heads are compact and firm Carrots When tops are 1 inch wide Cauliflower While heads are still white but not ricey (the florets are splitting apart) Celery When stalks are large enough to eat Corn When silks are dry and brown; kernels should be milky when cut Cucumbers For slicing, when 6 inches long; for picklers, when at least 2 inches long Eggplant Before color dulls; flesh should bounce back when pressed lightly Garlic Pull up stalks when the bottom leaves yellow Kohlrabi When 2 to 3 inches wide Leeks When the stalks are at least 1 1/2 inches in diameter Lettuce and other greens While leaves are tender Muskmelons When fruit slips off vine easily; while netting (raised area on skin) is even; when fruit is firm. Fruit aroma is present through the skin. Okra When pods are soft and 2 to 3 inches long Onions When necks are tight and scales are dry Parsnips When roots reach desired size, possibly after light frost Peanuts When leaves turn yellow Peas While pods are still tender Peppers When fruits reach desired size and color Potatoes When vines die back Pumpkins When shells harden, before frost Radishes When roots are up to 1 1/4 inches wide Rhubarb When it shows red streaks on the stalks Rutabagas When roots reach desired size Shallots Harvest mature bulbs when tops wither and turn brown Spinach When leaves are still tender Squash, summer When 6 to 8 inches long Squash, winter When shells harden, before frost Sweet potatoes When they reach adequate size Tomatoes When uniformly colored (varies by variety) Turnips When 2 to 3 inches wide Watermelons When undersides turn yellow and produce a dull sound when thumped A good vegetable harvesting rule for many of your early crops is to start picking them when you have enough of a vegetable for a one-meal serving. Spinach, Swiss chard, scallions, radishes, lettuce, and members of the cabbage family certainly fit the bill here. These veggies don’t grow as well in warm weather, so pick these crops in the spring when temperatures are cooler. After you start harvesting, visit your garden and pick something daily. Take along a good sharp knife and a few containers to hold your produce, such as paper bags, buckets, or baskets. Wire or wood buckets work well because you can easily wash vegetables in them. The vegetable harvest information in the above table is based on picking mature or slightly immature vegetables. But many vegetables can be picked smaller and still have excellent flavor. Pick baby vegetables whenever they reach the size that you want. The following vegetables can be picked small: beets, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, cucumbers, lettuce and other greens, onions, peas, potatoes, radishes, snap beans, summer squash, Swiss chard, and turnips. In addition, some small varieties of corn and tomatoes fit the baby-vegetable mold. Be sure to avoid harvesting at the following times: When plants, especially beans, are wet. Many fungal diseases spread in moist conditions, and if you brush your tools or pants against diseased plants, you can transfer disease organisms to other plants down the row. In the heat of the day, because the vegetable’s texture may be limp. For the freshest produce, harvest early in the day when vegetables’ moisture levels are highest and the vegetables are at peak flavor. After harvesting, refrigerate the produce and prepare it later in the day. In the fall, wait as long as you can to dig up root crops, such as carrots, rutabagas, and beets, if you intend to store them in a root cellar or cold storage room. However, remember that while root crops can withstand frosts, you should harvest them before the ground freezes. They’ll come out of the ground easiest if the soil is still slightly moist. Also, don’t wash crops that are going to the root cellar; instead, just gently brush away soil crumbs. Use any blemished or cut vegetables within a few days. Putting away your vegetables You have only two choices when you harvest your crops: Eat the veggies right away, or store them to use later. Specific vegetables need different storage conditions to maintain their freshness, such as: Cool and dry: Ideally, temperatures should be between 50 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit (10 to 15.5 degrees Celsius), with 60 percent relative humidity — conditions you usually find in a well-ventilated basement. Cold and dry: Temperatures should be between 32 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit (0 to 4.5 degrees Celsius), with 65 percent humidity. You can achieve these conditions in most home refrigerators or in a cold basement or garage. Cool and moist: Temperatures should be between 50 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit (10 to 15.5 degrees Celsius) with 90 percent humidity. You can store vegetables in a cool kitchen or basement in perforated plastic bags. Cold and moist: Your storage area should be 32 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit (0 to 4.5 degrees Celsius), with 95 percent humidity. You can create these conditions by placing your veggies in perforated bags (vegetables in bags without ventilation are likely to degrade faster) and storing the bags in a fridge. You also can create cold and moist conditions in a root cellar. An unheated basement works well as a root cellar. However, these days, most homes have heaters or furnaces in the basement, which make the conditions too warm for storing vegetables. But if you don’t have a heater, or if you can section off a portion of your basement and keep temperatures just above freezing, you can store vegetables like root crops and even cabbage for long periods of time. Make sure your vegetables are well ventilated in the root cellar; you can store onions, potatoes, and other root crops in mesh bags. Shoot for a humidity level that’s as high as you can get. To increase humidity, spread moist wood shavings or sawdust on the floor but keep the vegetables elevated on wooden boxes. In the table below, I provide specifics on how to store your vegetables so that after you pick them, you quickly know what to do with them (that is, if you don’t eat them right away). The table also includes information on whether you can freeze, dry, or can vegetables, topics that I cover later in this article. Storing Fresh Vegetables Vegetable How to Store Expected Storage Life Comments Asparagus Cold and moist Two weeks Store upright. Freeze, dry, or can. Beans, snap Cool and moist One week Pods will scar below 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4.5 Celsius). Freeze after blanching. Can. Beets Cold and moist Five months Store without tops. Freeze, dry, or can. Broccoli Cold and moist Two weeks Freeze or dry. Brussels sprouts Cold and moist One month Freeze or dry. Cabbage Cold and moist Five months Freeze or dry. Carrots Cold and moist Three weeks Store without tops. Freeze, dry, or can. Cauliflower Cold and moist Three weeks Freeze or dry. Corn Cold and moist Five days Freeze, dry, or can. Cucumbers Cool and moist One to two weeks Will scar if stored below 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4.5 degrees Celsius). Can be stored in a cool kitchen in a perforated bag. Don’t store with apples or tomatoes. Can. Eggplant Cool and moist One week Prolonged storage below 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) causes scarring. Freeze or dry. Kohlrabi Cold and moist Two months Store without tops. Freeze. Lettuce and other greens Cold and moist One week Freeze greens such as spinach and Swiss chard. Muskmelons Cold and moist One week Freeze. Onions Cold and dry Four months Cure (let dry) at room temperatures for two to four weeks before storing. Keep green onions cool and moist for one to four months. Freeze, dry, or can. Parsnips Cold and moist Three weeks Will sweeten after two weeks at 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius). Freeze. Peanuts Cool and dry Four months Pull pods after plant has dried for several weeks. Store dried in bags. Peas Cold and moist One week Freeze, dry, or can. Peppers Cool and moist Two weeks Will scar if stored below 45 degrees Fahrenheit (7 degrees Celsius). Freeze, dry, or can. Potatoes Cold and moist Six months Keep out of light. Cure at 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit (10 to 15.5 degrees Celsius) for 14 days before storage. Freeze, dry, or can. Pumpkins Cool and dry Two to five months Very sensitive to temperatures below 45 degrees Fahrenheit (7 degrees Celsius). Freeze, dry, or can. Radishes Cold and moist One month Store without tops. Freeze or dry. Rutabagas Cold and moist Four months Freeze. Spinach Cold and moist Ten days Freeze. Squash, summer Cool and moist One week Don’t store in refrigerator for more than four days. Freeze, dry, or can. Squash, winter Cool and dry Two to six months Freeze, dry, or can. Sweet potatoes Cool and moist Four months Cure in the sun. Freeze, dry, or can. Tomatoes Cool and moist Five days Loses flavor if stored below 55 degrees Fahrenheit (13 degrees Celsius). Don’t refrigerate. Freeze, dry, or can. Turnips Cold and moist Two to four months Freeze. Watermelons Cool and moist Two weeks Will decay if stored below 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius). Can the juice or rind. If you want to store vegetables, make sure you harvest them at their peak ripeness. Also avoid bruising the produce, because bruises hasten rotting. The storage times in the table are only estimates; they can vary widely depending on conditions. Store only the highest quality vegetables for long periods of time; vegetables that are damaged or scarred are likely to rot and spoil everything nearby. If you live in an area where the ground freezes in the winter, you can actually leave some root crops — including carrots, leeks, rutabagas, and turnips — in the ground and harvest all winter long. After a good, hard frost, but before the ground freezes, cover your vegetable bed with a foot or more of dry hay. Cover the hay with heavy plastic (4 to 6 millimeters) and secure the edges with rocks, bricks, or heavy boards. The plastic keeps rain and snow from trickling down through the hay and rotting your vegetables, and it also keeps the soil from freezing solid. You can harvest periodically through winter, but be careful to re-cover the opening after each harvest. Freezing, drying, and canning veggies You can preserve vegetables three different ways — by freezing, drying, or canning them — to make your harvest last longer than if you stored your vegetables fresh. (Refer to the table "Storing Fresh Vegetables," above, for information on whether a particular vegetable can be frozen, dried, or canned.) I don’t have room to cover all the details about these different methods, but the following list gives you a thumbnail sketch of each technique: Freezing This is probably the easiest way to preserve vegetables. Heck, if you want, just puree up some tomatoes, put them in a container, and throw them in the freezer — they’ll last for months. The mix is great to use in spaghetti sauce or soups. You also can freeze some vegetables, like beans or peas, whole. But usually you have to blanch them first to preserve their color and texture. Blanching is simply the process of dipping the vegetables in boiling water for a minute or two and then placing them in ice water to cool them off. Then you dry the vegetables with a towel and freeze them in labeled plastic freezer bags. Simple. Drying This technique can be pretty easy, but it must be done properly to prevent spoilage. Basically, you dehydrate the vegetables by laying them out in the sun to dry, by slow baking them in the oven, or by using a commercial dehydrator, which you can buy online and in many mail-order catalogs (see the appendix). In hot, sunny climates like California, you can dry ‘Roma’ tomatoes by slicing them in half and laying them out in the sun on a screen. Spoilage is always a concern, so before drying your vegetables, you may need to get some additional information. You usually need to store dried vegetables in airtight containers; lidded jars work well. You can use dried vegetables to make soups and sauces. Canning Of all preserved vegetables, I like the taste of canned tomatoes the best. Nothing tastes better in the middle of winter. But canning is a delicate and labor-intensive procedure that can require peeling, sterilizing jars, cooking, boiling, and a lot of other work. I usually set aside a whole weekend to can tomatoes and other veggies. I don’t want to discourage you, but you need some good recipes, some special equipment, and probably some help if you want to can vegetables. For more help with preserving canning and preserving, check out Canning and Preserving For Dummies by Amelia Jeanroy. Your local Cooperative Extension Service office also is a good source of information on preserving vegetables. Finally, the Learning Library at the National Gardening Association’s website has a treasure trove of veggie preserving knowledge.

Article / Updated 06-06-2023

Before you reach for the insecticide sprayer to attack pests in your vegetable garden, try some of these lower-impact methods to reduce problems from harmful insects and diseases. Often, a pest problem in a garden can be averted before it actually becomes a problem. Plant your vegetables in the proper locations. Many pests become more troublesome when plants are grown in conditions that are less than ideal. For example, if you grow sun-loving vegetables in the shade, mildew problems are often more severe. Choose resistant plants. If you know that a certain disease is common in your area, choose plants that aren’t susceptible to that disease or that resist infection. Some vegetable varieties are resistant to specific diseases. For example, some tomato varieties resist verticillium, fusarium, and nematodes. Know the enemy. The more you know about specific pests and diseases common to your area — when they occur and how they spread — the more easily you can avoid them. For example, some diseases run rampant on wet foliage. If you know that fact, you can reduce the occurrence of these diseases simply by adjusting your watering so you don’t wet the plants’ leaves or by watering early in the day so the plants dry out quickly. Keep your plants healthy. Healthy plants are less likely to have problems. Water and fertilize regularly so your plants grow strong and more pest resistant. Keep your garden clean. By cleaning up spent plants, weeds, and other garden debris, you eliminate hiding places for many pests and diseases. Encourage and use beneficial insects. Beneficial insects are the good bugs in your garden — the insects that feed on the bugs that bother your vegetables. You probably have a bunch of different kinds of beneficial insects in your garden already, but you also can purchase them to release in your garden. In addition, you can plant flowers that attract these insects. Rotate your plants each year. Avoid planting the same plants in the same location year after year, especially if you grow vegetables in raised beds (any planting area that’s raised above the surrounding ground level). Rotation prevents pests and diseases that are specific to certain plants from building up in your garden. Avoid harm to beneficial insects and animals If an insect or disease does get out of hand, treat it effectively without disrupting the other life in your garden, which includes everything from good bugs to birds. Control measures may be as simple as handpicking and squashing snails, or knocking off aphids with a strong jet of water from a hose.

Article / Updated 04-27-2023

If you're trying to conserve water for your yard and garden, it's worth looking into the various ways you can grab and save this precious resource — thereby not having to turn on the house spigot. Water collection is easy, convenient, affordable … and smart. The two main options are rain barrels and cisterns. You may hear these projects referred to as rainwater harvesting. The main source of water is rainwater routed from your home’s gutter system, so you want good gutter coverage of your rooflines, complete with screens or filters. Make a practice of cleaning out the gutters yearly, ideally in a dry season (because it’s easier). Other possible sources include runoff from other impervious hardscape in your home landscape, such as an elevated patio or deck where you can route and collect that runoff. Before proceeding, find out if the government in your area has limitations — that is, limits on how much water you can collect from your own home and landscape. Colorado’s regulations are a case in point. Presently, most homeowners in that state are limited to a maximum of two rain barrels with a combined maximum storage capacity of 110 gallons. Permitting may apply. You might want to check whether there are local tax incentives, rebates, or discounted equipment suppliers. Many municipalities offer incentives to encourage water conservation and stormwater control in their communities. Rain barrels Not all rain barrels are created equal — they’re usually made of some kind of heavy-duty plastic; some are larger, some are smaller. Colors and styles, as well as capacity, varies. Household barrels are typically 50 gallons (though larger ones are available). They range in price from about $100 to $400. Look around at what your neighbors are using and shop around locally and online to locate the many choices. You get what you pay for. The best rain barrels are made of UV-resistant resin, with seamless rotational molding and spin weld fittings. They aren’t cheap, but they’re long-lasting and work beautifully. You can also make your own rain barrel. Use a large, clean, sturdy plastic barrel and install a lid (with an opening for the incoming gutter water) and spigot. Heed the following information — features that good, purchased rain barrels should also have. Figure 2-2 shows a good example of a rain barrel. Unless your area is fortunate enough to receive regular rainfall (uncertain or unlikely, to be honest, for most households in water-scarce areas), rainwater collection isn’t a dependable or year-round source of water for your home landscape. Consider it supplemental and, of course, make the most of it. Recycled barrels may be tempting, but you must find out what the original use was; solvents, oils, and farm chemicals are all no-nos. Old garbage cans may be leaky or not strong enough to support a full volume of water without buckling. Seeking certain features Rain barrels work best when they have the following practical features: A sealable lid: A securely fitted lid keeps out debris, bugs (including mosquito larvae, definitely unwelcome), and animals (including birds and snakes). Screening may not be sufficient because pollen and dust can still get through (and if the water will be directed into an irrigation system, tiny materials like those items can clog emitters). Use a solid lid such as a board, piece of metal, or plastic. A good, non-flimsy, secured cover is also a safety matter, if you have a curious outdoor cat on the premises or small children playing outdoors. Outlet spigot: It needs to sit low-down on the side of the barrel. Otherwise water sits below it and becomes stagnant. Overflow pipe: When a barrel gets really full, it will overflow. A pipe inserted near the top can carry off excess water — it should be long enough to be routed to a nearby plant or bed. Thus no water is lost or wasted! Sturdy construction and fittings: These prevent leaks. Some store-bought ones come with a flat side/flat back, making it easier to wedge against a wall of your house — a nice option. Installing your rain barrel When you install your rain barrel, remember these pointers: Place your rain barrel on an ample and level spot, ideally a concrete pad or pavers. If you can elevate it, gravity will help with water pressure. (However, not too high — you don’t want it to topple.) Site it in a spot that’s handy to your garden and plants. Make sure the spot is comfortable and accessible for you (checking on it, hooking up a hose, filling a watering can, and occasionally cleaning it). Route a downspout or downspouts into it; add a filter/filters if there’s the potential for lots of debris. Consider multiple barrels because if all downspouts lead to just one barrel you have the potential for overflow/wasted water. Using the water from your rain barrel When you’re ready to use the water in your barrel in your yard, keep the following in mind: You can hook up a hose to the spigot. You can simply fill a watering can at the spigot and make repeated trips into the garden or to your potted plant collection. You can even hook up an inground irrigation system to it Don’t hook up a soaker hose to a rain barrel’s spigot. There isn’t enough water pressure for the soaker hose to operate effectively, particularly at its farthest reaches. Maintaining your rain barrel Clean out your rain barrel and perhaps replace the spigot, and any filters, once or twice a year. Otherwise silt may build up in the bottom, and/or the interior may get a stinky film. If your winters have freezing weather, completely empty the barrel beforehand. Freezing water in a spigot can ruin it, and residual water in a frozen barrel expands and can damage it. Store it in a garage, shed, or barn over the winter months. Water that runs off your roof, into your gutters, and then into your rain barrel is untreated and may pick up chemicals and debris from your roofing material. It may also be contaminated by anything from bird droppings to microbes, or contain impurities absorbed from the air, such as arsenic and mercury. Even if you have filters in place or flush off the first few collected gallons, don’t drink it. Only use this water on your plants and lawn! Supplemental water for your rain barrel What if there’s a period of no rain? Your rain barrel stands empty and unused, which is unfortunate. You can supply it with household water, then. Collect kitchen-sink water, veggie-rinsing water, bathtub/shower water, even dehumidifier water. Avoid water that has particles in it or soaps that may contain microbeads. Use pitchers or buckets in the house, and once they’re full, make a delivery to the rain barrel, replacing the lid afterward. Cisterns and tanks Cisterns are large tanks for storing as much as 20,000 gallons (75,708 liters) of water. Many farmers and market gardeners, as well as public parks and gardens, use such things, but residential homeowners can use cisterns to stockpile water for later use, too. A homeowner-size cistern is about 10 feet by 20 feet and 3 feet deep (3 x 6.1 and 0.9 m), with a capacity of around 4,000 gallons (15,141 liters). Check with your local authorities to see if cistern use is permitted or regulated in any way. Areas with severe water restrictions ban these. If you do get the green light, new challenges lie ahead, including location, materials, cost, delivery, and setup. You also want to consider how you can protect it from heat and sun (overheated water or algae growth being the problems) and what types of filters and pumps to use, if any. If you’re determined to proceed, consult the supplier — whether a home-improvement store or an ag-supply outlet. Other ideas Water directed from downspouts from your roof, or an upper deck or balcony area, and routed directly into your garden can bring needed water to your plants — assuming it rains. Although this isn’t a viable year-round watering strategy, it’s safe and legal. You may want to consider a rain garden. Chapter 16 discusses rain gardens in greater detail. Another option is a relatively new technology called rain walls. They’re basically slender vertical water-storage tanks, made of strong, UV-stabilized, food-grade plastic. Pioneered in Australia, they come in building blocks, so they're stackable or can be set up as interlocking forms. You can fit one or more into a very narrow side yard, for example, or make a fence or wall out of several or many. Installation is straightforward. One example of these is Rainwater Hog. Is using gray water a good idea? Gray water (sometimes spelled “grey”) may be another source of water you can collect and give to your landscape plants. Gray water is water from inside your home, basically anything but toilet-flushed water bound for the sewer or septic tank. Also avoid collecting utility-sink water. Gray water is wastewater from household sinks, showers and tubs, and laundry. Utilizing it is, indeed, water-wise. You’ve paid for it once if you get your water from your municipality, yet you’re using it twice (for those with well water, similar point: you’re using it twice). Thus you’re conserving water and conserving energy. By not sending this wastewater into the sewer or your septic tank, you’re lightening their load, too. There may be incentives to use it, or there may be restrictions. Check your city, county, or state websites and/or confirm with phone calls before proceeding. Here are the best ways to get it into your garden, where it’s needed: Collect in buckets and pitchers. Leave them in the tub and sinks at all times so everyone in the household gets in the habit of dumping gray water in them. Route directly. An outflow pipe from the kitchen sink or washing machine goes straight out to the yard. An on-off valve is a good idea, for those days when you run three loads of wash, which may be too much water for your plants, especially if you’re growing drought-tolerant natives. Rig an irrigation system, complete with storage tank, filters, and outgoing lines. This sort of thing takes some expertise, and some municipalities don’t allow DIY installations; you must hire a trained and licensed professional to install it. Because people use soap products in all of these areas, and some soaps are harmful to the environment (to soils, to plants, and to groundwater), find out what’s allowed and what’s best. Basically, you want to favor soap products that don’t contain microbeads, phosphates, salts, boron, or oils. You may have to change brands in order to collect maximum gray water. Also, use common sense: don’t reuse household water that contains bleach or cleaning products, or laundry water that rinsed diapers or a mechanic’s work clothes. Out of an abundance of caution, don’t use gray water on certain plants, including anything you’ll eat — for example, salad greens and melons. However, watering tomato and pepper plants, berry plants, and trees (including fruit and nut trees) with gray water is considered okay.

Article / Updated 04-24-2023

After clearing your garden area in preparation for planting, you need to take a close look at your soil — give it a good squeeze, have it tested, amend it, and then work it out to make sure it’s in shipshape. Good soil gives vegetable roots a balance of all the things they need: moisture, nutrients, and air. And knowing your soil type enables you to counteract problems that you may face when gardening on that piece of land. I explain the basics in the following sections. Distinguishing different types of soil Three main types of soil exist, with a lot of variations in between. Hard clay is at one end of the spectrum; soft, sandy soil is at the other end; and loam is in the middle. Being familiar with your soil helps you know what to expect when gardening. Clay soil tends to have a lot of natural fertility but is heavy to work with and doesn’t drain water well. Sandy soil, on the other hand, drains water well (maybe too well) but doesn’t have a lot of natural fertility. Loam, the ideal soil, is somewhere in between the two. Here are general characteristics of the three basic types of soil: Sandy soil is composed of mostly large mineral particles. Water moves through this soil quickly, taking nutrients with it. Sandy soil is well aerated, quick to dry out and warm up, and often lacks the nutrients that vegetables need. Clay soil consists of mainly small particles that cling tightly together and hold water and nutrients. It’s slow to dry out and warm up, and has poor aeration, but it’s fertile when it can be worked. Loam soil is a happy mixture of large and small particles. It’s well aerated and drains properly, but it can still hold water and nutrients. This is the soil to have for a great vegetable garden. The squeeze test To find out what type of soil you have, grab a handful of moist soil and squeeze it. Then use these guidelines to determine what type of soil you’re working with: Sandy soil falls apart and doesn’t hold together in a ball when you let go. It feels gritty when you rub it between your fingers. Clay soil oozes through your fingers as you squeeze it and stays in a slippery wad when you let go. Rubbing clay soil between your fingers feels slippery. Loam soil usually stays together after you squeeze it, but it falls apart easily when you poke it with your finger. If you have sandy or clay soil, don’t despair; you can improve your soil and make it more like loam by adding organic matter, such as compost, sawdust, animal manure, grass clippings, ground bark, and leaf mold. To learn more about this, check out my book Vegetable Gardening For Dummies, 3rd Edition. Testing your soil's chemistry Vegetables are kind of picky about soil chemistry. Too much of this nutrient or too little of that nutrient, and you have problems. If you don’t believe me, see what happens when tomatoes grow in soil that’s deficient in calcium; they develop blossom-end rot. Yuck. Sometimes too much of a nutrient, such as nitrogen, causes lots of leaf growth on plants (such as peppers) but few fruits. Getting the levels just right is important for the best harvest. In addition to nutrient levels, soil pH also is an important factor in plant growth. The right pH enables vegetables to use nutrients from the soil. Soil is rated on a pH scale, with a pH of 1 being most acidic and a pH of 14 being most alkaline. If your soil’s pH isn’t within a suitable range, plants can’t take up nutrients — like phosphorus and potassium — even if they’re present in the soil in high amounts. In addition, if the pH is too low, the solubility of certain minerals, such as manganese, may increase to toxic levels. Most vegetables grow well in a slightly acidic soil with a pH between 6 and 7. Potatoes, including sweet potatoes, prefer a slightly more acidic soil, in the 5 to 6 range. But in general, if you aim for a soil pH between 6 and 7, your vegetables should grow well. The only way to find out whether your soil will be to your vegetables’ liking is to test it. Don’t worry; analyzing your soil isn’t complicated, and you don’t need a lab coat. Here are two ways that you can test your soil: Use a do-it-yourself kit. This basic pH test measures your soil’s acidity and alkalinity and sometimes major nutrient content. Buy a kit at a nursery, follow the instructions, and voilà — you know your soil’s pH. However, the test gives you only a rough picture of the pH and nutrient levels in your soil. You may want to know more about your soil. Have a soil lab do a test for you. A complete soil test is a good investment because a soil lab can thoroughly analyze your soil. Here’s what you can find out from a soil lab’s test in addition to the pH level: Your soil’s nutrient content: If you know your soil’s nutrient content, you can determine how much and what kind of fertilizer to use. In fact, many soil tests tell you exactly how much fertilizer to add; see Chapter 15 for more on fertilizer. Soil problems that are specific to your geographic region: A soil test may help you identify local problems. The soil lab should then give you a recommendation for a type and amount of fertilizer to add to your soil. For example, in dry-summer areas, you may have salty soil; the remedy is to add gypsum, a readily available mineral soil additive. Of course, soil labs charge around $20 to $30 for their basic services. Your local Cooperative Extension Service office or a private soil lab can conduct a complete and reliable soil test. To locate a private lab, search the Internet for soil test labs around the country. You also can ask your Cooperative Extension Service office for recommendations. Fall is a good time to test soil because labs aren’t as busy. It’s also a good time to add many amendments (materials that improve your soil’s fertility and workability) to your soil because they break down slowly. To prepare a soil sample to use with a do-it-yourself kit or to send to a soil lab, follow these steps: Fill a cup with soil from the top 4 to 6 inches of soil from your vegetable garden, and then place the soil in a plastic bag. Dig six to eight similar samples from different parts of your plot. Mix all the cups of soil together; place two cups of the combined soil in a plastic bag — that’s your soil sample. After you’ve collected your sample, consult the instructions from your soil test kit or the testing lab. If you’re testing a soil imbalance — a known problem that you’ve identified in either pH or nutrients — you may want to test your soil every year because changes in pH and most nutrients are gradual. A home testing kit is a good way to test a pH imbalance. For nutrients, you may want to do a yearly test at a lab until the imbalance (high or low levels of a nutrient) is fixed. To maintain balanced soil, test it every three to five years. Adjusting soil pH Most garden soils have a pH between 5.5 and 8.0. This number helps you determine when and how to adjust your soil’s pH level. The following guidelines help you interpret this number: If the number is below 6, the soil is too acidic, and you need to add ground limestone. If the measurement is above 7.5, the soil is too alkaline for most vegetables, and you need to add soil sulfur. In the following sections, I explain how to figure out how much lime or sulfur you need to add to your soil and how to apply the materials. Calculating how much lime or sulfur you need All Cooperative Extension Service offices, any soil lab, many lawn and garden centers, and the National Gardening Association website have charts showing how much lime or sulfur to add to correct a pH imbalance. The charts tell you how many pounds of material to add per 1,000 square feet, so you need to measure the size of your vegetable garden first. Then use Tables 1 and 2 to figure out how much lime or sulfur you need to add to your soil. Pounds of Limestone Needed to Raise pH (per 1,000 square feet) pH Pounds for Sandy Soil Pounds for Loam Soil Pounds for Clay Soil 4.0-6.5 60 161 230 4.5-6.5 50 130 190 5.0-6.5 40 100 150 5.5-6.5 30 80 100 6.0-6.5 15 40 60 Pounds of Sulfur Needed to Lower pH (per 1,000 square feet) pH Pounds for Sandy Soil Pounds for Loam Soil Pounds for Clay Soil 8.5-6.5 45 60 70 8.0-6.5 30 35 45 7.5-6.5 10 20 25 7.0-6.5 2 4 7 In general, soils in climates with high rainfall — such as east of the Mississippi River (particularly east of the Appalachian Mountains) or in the Pacific Northwest — tend to be acidic. West of the Mississippi, where less rainfall occurs, soils are more alkaline. But regardless of where you live in North America, you should easily be able to find the lime or sulfur that you need at your local garden center.

Article / Updated 03-22-2023

Knowing how to care for an orchid can sometimes seem difficult. Orchids may look very delicate, but in reality, they are not that difficult to grow or keep alive. According to the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families there are approximately 26,570 accepted orchid species. Even though there are so many different types of orchids, like all plants, they require these three things to survive: Growing medium Sunlight Water In addition to the basic needs, there are a few more things you might need to know to help your orchid thrive. What are basic care instructions for an orchid? On a basic level, most orchids need the following to survive: A well-draining growing medium At least six hours of indirect sunlight (bright shade) a day Moist, but not waterlogged, soil Once-a-month fertilizer feedings (quarter strength) A humid environment Pruning, as needed Keep in mind, some of the more delicate species of orchids require more light, less water, lots of humidity, and so on. If you’re growing orchids for the first time, you may want to start with a common species that doesn’t require special conditions. You can use any plant food or fertilizer to care for your orchid, but you should only use one fourth of the amount directed on the package. You can provide extra humidity to the area around the orchid by either spritzing only the leaves with a mist of water a few times or by setting the plant on top of a dish filled with moist or wet gravel. Do not nest the orchid down in the gravel as it might soak up the moisture into the growing medium and waterlog the root structure. Also, do not mist the flowers. This may cause them to mold. What growing medium do you use for an orchid? The growing medium is subject to your preferences. Typically, most growers will use either moss or ground-up tree bark. And special orchid potting mixes can be purchased. Do not use regular potting soil for your orchid. It will suffocate the roots and kill the plant. If you want to be creative, you can mix mediums or you could even grow an orchid in a wad of wet paper towel. (With the paper towel method, the plant would need watered and fed fertilizer constantly. It is not recommended.) How much sunlight does an orchid need? In nature, orchids like partially shaded areas. When growing an orchid indoors, it is recommended that it receive six hours of indirect sunlight a day to stay healthy. East-facing windows provide morning sunlight and the orchid will not overheat or dry out directly in the sun. South-facing windows provide sun exposure all day, but the heat is too intense for an orchid to stay healthy. With this kind of light, the plant will usually dry out and die. West-facing widows provide evening sun and, similar to south-facing windows, are too hot for an orchid to sit directly in the sun. North-facing windows do not provide enough light to keep the plant healthy. The plant will likely become droopy and will die. If the plant starts to look like its drying out and getting too much sun, try filtering the sun with a sheer curtain or moving the orchid further away from the window. If the plant starts to look droopy and over-watered but the growing medium isn’t wet or soggy, try moving the plant to a room with better sun exposure or rotating the plant from indoors to outdoors. How much water is too much water for an orchid? Watering an orchid is as easy as watering any other plant. You can tell an orchid is getting too much water if the leaves start turning yellow. There is no recommended schedule for watering an orchid. If you take a regimented approach, you will likely end up with a dead plant. The water requirements for orchids can vary based on the environment the plant is living in, its size, and the time of year. When watering the orchid, make sure to water the soil and not the plant directly. If water goes down between the leaves, it can cause crown rot. When crown rot occurs, the leaves fall off and eventually the whole plant will die. Instead of creating a water schedule, try checking the orchid to evaluate whether it needs water. Stick your finger in the growing medium or soil, and if it feels dry, water the plant. If the soil feels wet, then wait and check again in a day or two. Always water the plant just before it goes completely dry. How do you get an orchid to flower? Orchids only produce flowers once a year and the flowers bloom continuously for about a month. Some varieties bloom in winter and some in spring, but the bloom period for most orchids is around August or September. Towards the end of the bloom period you can trick the plant into blooming again by pruning the flower portion of the plant away at the node just below the first flower. If you take note of the light and water conditions and duplicate the environment, you can actually keep trimming the node to keep the plant blooming all year. What does it mean if an orchid goes dormant? If your orchid drops all of its flowers, do not be alarmed. It will bloom again in one year. If it does not bloom again, it means the plant has gone dormant. Likely, the roots are stifled and the orchid needs new growing medium. Dead roots and stems need pruned before you pot the plant. This process usually needs to be done every two or three years. The orchid should send out a new stem and flower again during blooming season. You can speed up the new growth by feeding the plant a quarter strength of fertilizer with every watering. Once the orchid is back to normal, you can cut back to regular feedings.

Article / Updated 02-09-2023

Rosaceae is the third-largest plant family. This family includes many ornamental landscape plants, fruits, and berries, including apples, cherries, raspberries, and pyracantha, characterized by the shape of the hypanthium (the part of the flower where the seeds develop) and by petals in groups of five. Roses are members of the plant genus Rosa. Within that genus, roses are grouped into classifications based on the characteristics that each particular plant displays. Your choice of rose depends on how you plan to use it and on your personal preferences. Some rose gardeners grow only one or two types of roses, and others grow many types. Try growing one or two in each class and see which rose types you prefer. The following list shows you the basic differences among the various types of roses. Hybrid teas: These roses bear large flowers that commonly grow one to a long stem and bloom continually throughout the growing season. The bush can grow quite tall, with an upright habit (a term rosarians use to describe the shape or look of a plant). Hybrid tea roses are usually budded onto a vigorous rootstock, and are a great choice if you like large flowers with a pleasant rose form and if you like to make rose arrangements or have cut flowers in the house. Grandifloras: These are upright plants with hybrid tea-type flowers. The flowers often grow in clusters, but the stems on each flower within a cluster are long enough for cutting. Grandifloras normally grow to between 3 and 6 feet tall. They're almost always budded and are a good choice if you like lots of blooms for color in the garden and stems for cutting, all on the same plant. Polyanthas: A forerunner of modern floribundas, the plant itself can be quite large, covered with small flowers. Their usual habit is compact, hardy, and generous-blooming. The variety you see most often is 'The Fairy' — a wonderful variety, covered with small pink flowers on a plant that can spread to several feet in height and width. Floribundas: These plants have flowers that are smaller than hybrid teas and which grow in clusters on short stems. The bush is usually quite compact and blooms continually throughout the growing season. Most floribundas are budded, but commercial growers are beginning to grow them on their own roots. Choose floribundas if you need fairly low-growing plants that produce great numbers of colorful flowers. Miniatures: Extremely popular small plants, miniatures are usually between 6 and 36 inches in height, with their leaves and flowers in perfect proportion. They customarily grow on their own roots, and aren't budded, which makes them hardier in cold climates. Most mini varieties bloom profusely throughout the growing season and are a great choice for lots of color in a small space. You also can grow miniatures indoors in pots under a full-spectrum fluorescent light or grow light. Merely putting them on a windowsill won't work—they won't get enough light to thrive and blossom. Recently, the American Rose Society classified roses thought to be too large to be miniatures and too small to be floribundas as "mini-floras." The name hasn't yet been completely accepted by nursery workers, so these varieties are grouped as miniatures. Climbers: These plants don't really climb like clematis or other true vines that wrap around or attach themselves to supports. They do, however, produce really long canes that need to be anchored to a fence, trellis, or other support. Otherwise, the plants sprawl on the ground. Flowers bloom along the whole length of the cane, especially if the cane is tied horizontally, such as along a fence. Some climbers bloom only once in the spring, but many modern climbers produce flowers throughout the growing season. Shrubs: Because most are quite hardy and easy to grow, and great for landscaping, shrubs have become very popular in recent years. They're generally large plants, and most, particularly the modern shrubs, bloom profusely throughout the season. If you want to fill a large space with color, the shrub category offers a great many choices. Old garden roses: Often referred to as Antique roses, these roses were discovered or hybridized before 1867. The classification "old garden roses" is made up of many subclasses of roses, including alba, bourbon, China, hybrid perpetual, damask, and the species roses. Many old garden roses bloom only once during the growing season. Old garden rose aficionados enjoy the history and study of these lovely and often fragrant plants. Tree roses, or standards: These aren't included among the basic categories because nearly any rose that is grafted (or budded) onto a tall trunk is a tree rose. Most often, hybrid teas, floribundas, and miniatures are used as tree roses. These plants really aren't even trees. Most just have that lollipop tree look, as shown in Figure 1, but are only 2 to 6 feet high. They're wonderful either in the ground or in containers but are very susceptible to winter damage, and in cold climates, you must either bury the entire plant in the ground or bring it into a cool garage. When you go to a garden center to choose your rosebushes, knowing which classification of rose you want is important. The classification gives you hints about how you can use it in your garden. The variety you choose depends on your personal preference as to color, hardiness, and so on. You don't want to plant a once-blooming old garden rose in a spot where having season-long color is important.

Article / Updated 02-09-2023

Just like people, roses need water to be healthy and bloom beautifully. No water? No rose bush. You just end up with a dried-up dead stick poking through parched soil. Roses need more water more often in hot weather than in cool weather, and even steady rain may not provide enough water to keep your roses healthy. Also, roses growing in sandy soil need more frequent watering than roses growing in clay soils. Following are some watering rules to keep in mind: Water deeply, so that you wet the entire root zone. Light sprinkling does little good. Get down and dig in the dirt. If the top 2 to 3 inches of soil are dry, you need to water. Reduce disease problems by watering the soil, not the leaves. Roses can benefit from overhead watering once in a while, especially in dry summer climates where black spot isn’t usually a problem; however, make sure that you water early enough (in the morning on a sunny day is ideal), so that the foliage can dry before nightfall. Mulch! Mulch! Mulch! Theoretically, you can’t overwater a rose. Of course, if you have no sun and steady rains for ten days, your roses won’t be thrilled. But if drainage is good, the extra water usually won’t hurt them, either. Start with a watering schedule: Water once every five or six days, for example. If you live in a hot, dry climate, make it every two or three days. Watch the plant carefully and check the soil often, especially when you get to the end of the period. If the soil is bone dry about 2 to 3 inches below the surface at the end of your test period, you need to water. If the soil is still moist, wait a few days and check again. If the rose’s foliage ever starts to look dull or droopy, you’ve definitely waited too long. Water deeply, so that the entire root zone gets wet — for roses, that means to a depth of at least 18 inches. How far a given amount of water can penetrate into the soil depends on the soil type. Two tools can help you fine-tune your watering schedule. The first is a soil probe — an approximately 3-foot-long hollow metal tube about an inch in diameter that removes a small core of soil from the ground. By examining the soil core, you can tell how deeply you’re watering or how dry the soil is. The second useful tool is a rain gauge. It can tell you exactly how much rain has fallen, and you can adjust your watering schedule accordingly. You can purchase soil probes and rain gauges through the irrigation supply stores listed in your local telephone directory. You can use a number of methods to water roses. The key is to apply the water only over the soil where the roots are at a slow and steady pace: Build a basin: Build a 3- to 6-inch-high basin of soil around the plant and fill it using a handheld hose. Make sure that the basin is wide enough to hold the amount of water your rose needs. The basin should be at least 18 inches wide for new plants, and at least 36 inches wide for really big roses. You may have to fill the basin twice to get the water deep enough. Use sprinklers: Many types of sprinklers are available. Use drip irrigation: Drip irrigation is a particularly useful watering system for areas that are dry in summer, for areas where water shortages are common, or for busy gardeners who don’t have time to water as often as they should. Most drip irrigation systems are built around 3⁄8- to 1-inch black tubing and specifically designed emitters. The emitters drip or spray water slowly — no faster than the soil can absorb it — and only wet the root area. Less wet ground means fewer weeds.