Garden Medley

No matter your determination to keep things organic in your garden, the time may come when you have to look at buying a fungicide. Even the healthiest of plants will sometimes succumb to a fungus, and you need to control it quickly.

The first thing you need to do is remain aware of the general condition of plants in your garden. If you do this, you can notice and remove problems before they become widespread. This will often keep you from needing to use a fungicide. (more…)

Even though you don’t eat most flowers, keeping things organic in your flower beds is a good idea. If you know what you’re doing, you can control many pests without buying harmful poisons.

One of the most important things is to choose flowers that will grow strong in your area. No matter how much you love a particular flower, if it is going to have a lot of trouble staying alive or is prone to disease, it’s going to greatly hamper your organic gardening efforts. You are better off sticking to flowers that are stronger and more suited to your area. (more…)

Some fruit trees are quite susceptible to disease. This is particularly true of pitted fruits, such as plums, peaches, nectarines and cherries.

Brown rot is one very common disease to fruit trees. This fungus is quite the troublemaker, growing on fruit left on the tree. It can travel from fruit left to rot on the tree to fruit just ripening, ruining the fresh fruit. (more…)

I love annuals. They look great, and they die back when the weather gets cold. However, by that point they have dropped seeds, and you might get them to grow again next season.

Annuals need good soil. OK, so all plants like good soil. Does it really hurt to state the obvious? (more…)

It’s really hot out this year, which is a great reminder of how wonderful a shade tree can be in the back yard. It helps to keep your home cooler in times like this. It can also be good for those parts of your garden which do not want full sun.

You will probably want something that grows fast and gives a good amount of shade. Of course, if a tree grows quickly it is more likely to be short lived. You’ll have to pay attention to where you plant it too, as the roots may be rather aggressive. You don’t want to plant it near anything you don’t want the roots to get into. (more…)

As for many of you with gardens, this has been a very challenging summer for my garden. It has been unusually hot, even for my area, which is generally pretty warm.

Every day it has either been extremely hot, very humid (for the area) or a bit of both. We were over 100 every day for about three weeks, which is quite unusual. (more…)

Bugs. The word alone can make many people’s skin crawl. You picture spiders, ants, aphids and other pests that destroy your plants and make growing a beautiful garden much more work. However, there are many bugs you want your garden to have. They may keep away the problem bugs or otherwise help your garden.

The ladybug is popular with children, and is one example of a beneficial bug. You probably picture them as having a red body with black spots, but they may also have an orange or yellow body. They eat certain other insects, including aphids. Similarly, the aphid midge also eats aphids. (more…)

If you’re an avid gardener, you know how important worms are to your garden. You may also have had trouble getting what you feel to be enough worms into your garden. Worms help to aerate your soil, break down organic matter so that plants can use the nutrients and break up clods of dirt.

Have you ever considered farming your own worms? It’s actually not that hard. (more…)