A pre-emergent weed killer doesn't kill weeds that are already growing, it prevents them from ever coming up. A pre-emergent will give you weed free flower beds all season. And, volunteer plants, seeded from last year's garden, won't be coming up where you don't want...
Fruit trees need a lot of care if you want them to produce a bumper crop of insect free fruit. Fruit trees need to be pruned to really produce, and fertilizing is also a great idea if you want a high quality fruit. A low nitrogen fertilizer such as 16-16-16 is...
Pruning your fruit tree increases the yield of fruit and only takes a few minutes a year. When setting out a new fruit tree, do no pruning the first season. The next season, prune the length of the branches back by about a third to encourage new growth. The third...
Beautiful shade trees are valuable, long term assets in any yard and should be vigorously protected against insects that can damage and kill them. The very best defense against an insect attack is a healthy tree. If water is scarce, it is much easier to replace a lawn...
Spring is a good time to prune many types of shrubs, especially the deciduous ones, or the ones that lose their leaves every fall. Just before growth begins is the very best time to prune. Without all those leaves on the shrub, it's easy to observe the structure of...
The seeds of most annuals and vegetables are very easy to germinate. For the most part, all they require is a moist potting soil that maintains a temperature of seventy degrees. A regular potting soil is better to start seeds in than soil from your yard or garden,...
There are two main types of strawberries: June Bearers and Ever bearers. June bearers produce one prolific crop per year in early summer. Ever bearers will set on two crops per year- one in the early summer and a smaller one in the fall, with a dribble in between. All...
Many vegetables have best flavor and production when they are grown in cool weather. Spinach is one of these. Once up, thin spinach to every four to six inches so it won’t go to seed so quickly. Mulch it, too, to keep the soil moist and keep weeds down, because...
In our harsh climate, red raspberries perform the best and are the hardiest of the raspberries. Raspberries need a cool spring to reach perfection, so crops may vary from year to year. Well-drained soil is also essential to good raspberry yield- if you haven't planted...
Sometimes, despite our best efforts to fertilize, aerate, and pamper the lawn, it looks tired and dowdy compared to the vivid green of the new house next door. The problem lies in the very nature of the grass. Left to itself, un-mowed, it would naturally form seed...