Making Hypertufa

Hypertufa planters are a wonderful way to bring the look of stone into your garden, without the weight. Hypertufa is easy to make yourself at home. Although it can be messy, its also a lot of fun. Here are some basic recipes and some creative suggestions for hypertufa toughs and garden decorations.

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Self-Seeding Annual Flowers

Many annual flowers offer the bonus of being self-seeders. Self-sowing annuals will weave their way though your garden, year after year, giving it a natural, cottage garden feel. There's a wide choice of annual flowers that will self-seed and it takes very little effort to get them going.

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Growing Amaryllis

Most amaryllis will go dormant naturally and re-bloom sometime during winter. However, many people prefer to force their amaryllis into bloom for the holiday season. Many prepared bulbs are sold in the fall, ready to pot up and have in time for Christmas. Here are directions for forcing your Amaryllis for holiday display, as well as general care for your amaryllis plant.

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How to Keep Your Garden In Color All Season

Is sequence of bloom a myth? There are so many factors that influence when your flowers bloom and how good the show is. But there are also some...

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Choosing a Greenhouse

Its so tempting. The idea of building a greenhouse means gardening year round. Greenhouses are the ultimate fantasy for gardeners, but theyre also a big responsibility. One night without heat and all of your plants and seedlings could be goners. Your greenhouse will need heat, water, benches, venting, electricity. And thats just for starters. Here are some key points to ponder before you buy a greenhouse.

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Zinnias

Zinnias are a gift from Mexico. Their bold, hot-palette colors accent the flower garden, as soon as the temperature warms up. Zinnia flowers are usually deep, brilliant hues that work equally well in flower borders and flower pots.

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Gaura, Wand Flower

Gaura, Wand Flower Photo

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Grow Potatoes in a Trash Can

I recently blogged about growing your own food to save money and did not mention potatoes in that post because by a pure dollars per acre metric potatoes tend to not save you as much money at the market as other crops. However, what if you could grow potatoes without needing to sacrifice any garden [...]

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[Source: Backyard Gardening Blog]

Top Cut Flowers

Repeat blooming annuals are favored for cutting gardens, but many perennial flowers do wonderfully well as cut flowers. What makes for a good cut flower is a stem that is long enough and sturdy enough to hold the flower in an arrangement and a flower that lasts and looks good for several days. That gives the gardener a wide choice for choosing flowers to grow in a cutting garden. The following lists offer suggestions for great cut flowers.

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#8 - Liatris spicata 'Kobold'

Liatris spicata (Gay Feather, Dense Blazing Star) 'Kobold'

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Top 10 Air-Purifying Feng Shui Plants

Air quality is not a recent concern raised by the green movement. Feng Shui, the ancient art and science of balancing energy for better well being, puts great emphasis...

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[Source: About.com Gardening]

Consider A Cutting Garden

Cutting gardens or cut flower gardens are a great way to bring your garden indoors. Well planned cutting gardens can grow enough flowers to create bouquets for the entire growing season. Cutting gardens can include long flowering annuals, seasonal perennials and colorful foliage. Here are some plant ideas for your cutting garden.

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Corn: Ruby Queen

Corn: Ruby Queen

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Cauliflower 'Cheddar'

Cauliflower 'Cheddar'

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#11 - Balloon Flower

Platycodon grandiflorus - Balloon Flower

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Tomato 'Principe Borghese'

Tomato 'Principe Borghese'

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Squash Vine Borers

Squash vine borers find their way into the stem of squash plants, causing them to wilt suddenly and eventually die. There are signs to look for to avoid squash vine borer damage and ways to control the damage if squash vine borers do attack your vines.

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Bean: Italian Rose

Bean: Italian Rose

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Tomato: Yellow Magic

Tomato: Yellow Magic

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Beet: Chioggia

Beet: Chioggia

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Narcissis (Daffodils)

Narcissis (Daffodils)

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Backyard Frog Pond

Backyard Frog Pond

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Enhancing Your Landscape To Sell Your Home - Now or Later

The housing market has been a bit of a free-for-all lately. If you were hoping to sell and now find yourself facing a dwindling market, youve probably gotten lots...

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[Source: About.com Gardening]

Container Gardening Mistakes to Avoid

Its inevitable that you are going to lose a plant or two in the course of time, but its really frustrating when that plant is part of a container. ...

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[Source: About.com Gardening]

Cucumber 'Armenian'

Cucumber 'Armenian'

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Container Ornamental Grasses

Growing ornamental grasses in containers is a great way to feature grasses without the worry of them spreading or taking over the garden. The downside is that when growing grasses in containers, their hardiness is raised by about 2 zones. An ornamental grass hardy to Zone 5, when planted in the ground, will only survive to Zone 7 in a pot. However, you can always grow container grasses as annuals. Here are my top ten picks for ornamental grasses grown in containers.

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Garden Design Review

Fall is a great time to take stock of what worked in your garden and what was less than successful. A garden is a work in progress that should get better every year. The following 10 questions will help you evaluate your garden and garden design, so that you can plan for the garden you envision. Good garden design can be as easy as recognizing what made you smile and what made your knees hurt. This years garden is full of hints to make next years garden even better.

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Potatoes: All Blue

Potatoes: All Blue

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No Fruit on Your Fruit Tree?

There are many reasons fruit trees can take years to begin bearing fruit. Home fruit growers need to make sure their fruit trees are given the right care and growing conditions.gardening fruit apple trees home backyard orchard not setting fruiting gardens

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Wildflower Gardening

Gardeners have been led to believe that you can simply scatter some seeds and wind up with a self-sowing meadow of bluebells and lacecaps. In truth, even a wild and natural garden look requires some planning and effort. The good news is that most of the effort in wildflower gardening is in getting the garden started.

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Garden in a Bucket

To make gardening fun and accessible to kids, you need to make it personal. This is a gardening project from my local 4H organization that you can easily do with your own little clover buds. Garden in a Bucket lets kids create a personal, private garden that they can take with them, take care of, show off and enjoy. It takes only a few minutes of effort, but the junior gardener can enjoy his or her garden all summer.

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Zinnias Can Take the Heat

Its hard to classify zinnias. There are singles and doubles, small blossoms and large, brilliant hot colors and subdued hues. What they all have in common is...

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Carrot: Kaleidoscope

Carrot: Kaleidoscope

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Do You Sneak Plant Purchases Past Your Spouse?

I confess, I am sometimes too embarrassed to tell my husband Ive bought some more plants. I doubt he would mind, since I have to be reminded to shop...

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[Source: About.com Gardening]

Small Garden Focal Points

Focal points are used in garden design to draw and direct the eye. This can be difficult to accomplish in a small garden when every space is immediately visible and no space can be sacrificed. But its not impossible and creating a focal point (or 2) in a small space garden can actually make it appear larger.

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Featured Plant: Hot Peppers

The term hot pepper is relative. When Wilbur Scoville first devised a means to test the heat of peppers, back in 1912, his hottest entry was a Japanese Chili...

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[Source: About.com Gardening]

Photo of Passion Flower Plant

Photographs taken by About Gardening readers from around the country, of their own gardens in winter.

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Plants for Bees

Every garden needs pollinators and bees are among the best. Without them there would be limited flowers and even fewer fruits and vegetables. To attract bees and other pollinators to your gardens you need to select flowers and plants that are high in nectar and pollen and plant so that they are obvious and available to the insects. Here are some tips for luring bees to your garden and lists of good plant choices for bees.

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Small Flower Island

Small Space Gardening - Flower Island

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FeaturedHydrangeas

Hydrangeas are experiencing a resurgence of interest by both gardeners and breeders. Here are two recent introductions generating a good deal of interest are Hydrangea paniculata 'Limelight' and H. macrophylla Lady in Red.

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Planning a Small Garden

A good site assessment is vital to any garden design. When creating a small garden, every space is important. Where to put the garden, how large to make it and the choice of plants all must be edited, unlike with a small garden. Heres how to take an honest look at your garden site and what you can hope to plant there.

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Gardening Question of the Week: Organic Control of Squash Vine Borers?

pgbklyn (pgbklyn) wrote into the About Gardening Forum: When I went outside this morning to check on my garden I found an adult Squash Vine Borer laying eggs on my...

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[Source: About.com Gardening]

What are Rose Hips?

Rose hips are the seed pods of roses. We dont often see them anymore, because we tend to prune the faded rose blossoms to encourage more flowers. However if you leave the spent flowers on the rose bush at the end of the season, you should see these small, berry-sized, reddish seed balls, left on tips of the stems. Rose hips are actually very ornamental and birds enjoy them too. They are also edible and a good source of vitamin C. Heres how to harvest and use your rose hips.

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Egyptian Walking Onion

Egyptian Walking Onion

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Wildflower Gardening. Gardening with Nature?

Gardeners have been led to believe that you can simply scatter some seeds and wind up with a self-sowing meadow of bluebells and lace caps. In truth, even a...

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[Source: About.com Gardening]

Garden Structure in B & W

A great way to see the bones and structure of your garden is to view it in black & white, without the distraction of colorful flowers and foliage.

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Hydrangea Colors

Hydrangeas have a reputation for being chamaeleons, but not all hydrangeas change color. Generally you will need to grow Big Leaf Hydrangeas, Hydrangea macrophylla, to get the pink or blue color you are seeking. You neednt become a chemist, but you will need to understand why your hydrangeas change color. Here's why.

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#9 - Hummingbird Mint

Agastache (Hummingbird Mint)

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Sambucus nigra. Black Lace Elderberry Update

So here we are about 9 months after I first planted this bush and I thought I’d give an update, because really, I have so much more to say. I first blogged about Sambucus “Black Lace” when I first got it, so while I could talk about the colors whatnot, I couldn’t tell you much [...]

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[Source: Backyard Gardening Blog]

Beer, Beans, and Slugs

Due to the rising cost of food I’ve been adding a lot more edibles to my garden this year, and am growing some for the first time, including, bush green beans.Having never grown green beans before I did not know what to make of damage that was all but killing my young sprouts. The leaves [...]

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[Source: Backyard Gardening Blog]

Edible Flowers

Edible flowers aren't a new phenomonon, but garnishes of fresh flowers tend to intimidate diners. No one is really sure if the flowers are there for decoration or to be eaten. It's hard to find edible flowers to purchase, but quite easy to grow most of them in your garden. Since flowers are best when eaten soon after harvest, growing your own edible flowers makes even more sense. Here are some tips.

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Growing Phormium

Phormium is a spiky, sword-leafed evergreen perennial that is used as a garden focal point or specimen plant. Some are small enough to use in containers, others can reach several feet in diameter and 7+ feet tall. Phormium arent hardy in many areas, but can be brought indoors for the winter. Growing Phormium is easy, if you give the plants what they want.

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Create the Sound of Water in the Garden

The temperatures are heating up and many of us are thinking, Wouldnt the sound of water be nice in the garden?. Putting in your own pond and fountain is...

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Busy Bee

Busy Bee in Yellow Rose

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Cabbages

Cabbage can be grown easily in the home vegetable garden. In fact, two crops a year of cabbage are possible. There are hundreds of varieties to choose from. Cabbages are classified by head shape, round and flat-head being the most commonly seen, and come in white, green and purple.

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Raised Bed Gardening

Raised bed gardening refers to gardening in soil that has been mounded or contained higher than the surrounding soil. Raised bed gardening is an old gardening practice, but its currently growing in popularity again because it offers several advantages to simply growing your plants in level ground. Here are some tips on why raised bed gardening should be considered and how to get started with a raised bed.

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Front Yard Gardens

Small Space Gardening - Front Yard Gardens

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Ornamental Grasses for Fall Co

Ornamental grasses add interest and texture to a garden at any time of year. Fall foliage and colorful plumes make ornamental grasses standouts in a fall garden. The following list of ornamental grasses will add bold accents to your fall garden.

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Plants for Fall Containers

Create stunning fall containers with unusual foliage and flowers in the shades of autumn. Many fall blooming garden plants make wonderful container plants. Move them from your overgrown garden or shop for something new. You can create wonderful unique fall container gardens using foliage and flowering plants in the colors of autumn, if you just look around and notice what catches your eye in the landscape. Here are some favorites.

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Gaura, Wand Flower

Gaura, Wand Flower Photo

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Garden Shrubs for Fall Color

Garden shrubs and vines offer a vast array of fall color with rich toned fall foliage, bright red and orange fruits and berries and even some late blooming fall flowering varieties. Many shrubs and vines come into their own at the end of the season and put on a great fall display.

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Coreopsis 'Golden Showers'

Coreopsis verticillata 'Golden Showers'

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Long Producing VeggieGarden

You can have a long producing vegetable garden with minimal effort. Keep harvesting in your vegetable garden into the fall and maybe even winter months. A long producing vegetable garden is possible, if you heed some simple, but key gardening rules.

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Coreopsis Grandiflora 'Heliot'

Coreopsis Grandiflora 'Heliot'

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Carrot F1 'Purple Haze'

Carrot F1 'Purple Haze'

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Coreopsis 'Moonbeam'

Coreopsis verticillata 'Moonbeam'

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Getting Kids to Love Their Vegetable Garden

If your kids already love their vegetables, you may not need to tempt them with cauliflower that looks like it was baked in cheese or beets that look like peppermints....

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Lettuce

Salad greens are easy to grow and there are literally hundreds of varieties. That pale green head you see at the grocery store is just the tip of the iceberg. From curly to oak leafed, here's a look at growing and choosing the best lettuce.

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Saving Tomato Seeds

Seed saving is the only way to make sure you have seeds of your favorite plants to grow each year. Tomato seeds need special handling to ensure good germination. Here's how to begin saving tomato seeds.

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Summer Flowering Bulbs

Bulbs are not just for spring flowers. There are many summer flowering bulbs, corms and tubers that add color and a touch of the tropics to the peak season garden. In warmer climates, many of these summer flowering bulbs can be left in the ground all year and some will even naturalize.

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Organic Rose Gardening

Can roses be grown organically. Of couse. Growing roses organically is really no different than growing any type of plant with organic techniques. Organic rose gardening means more than just not using chemicals. It means giving the plant what it wants and needs to grow well. Do that and youll have a healthy plant, better able to withstand pest attacks. Here are some tips.

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Controlling Japanese Beetles

p]Japanese beetles can create havoc in a garden by feeding on the leaves of a number of different plants, skeletonizing the leaves and eventually defoliating the plants. An individual Japanese beetle doesnt do that much damage while feeding on a plant, but they tend to congregate in large numbers and can easily defoliate shrubs and trees. If the problem beomes severe, try one of these control suggestions.

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The Year of the Chile Pepper

Growing hot chili peppers is easy and possible almost anywhere. But the real enjoyment of growing your own hot peppers is harvesting them and using them. Here are some tips.

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Featured Plant: Lavender

Is there a more evocative plant than lavender? Lavender says summer and the south of France. So why do those of us in climates very unlike the...

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Ripening Green Tomatoes

There are always green tomatoes left on the vine in the fall. Deciding whether to pick green tomatoes is a tough call. And then theres the problem of how to get green tomatoes to ripen. Here are some tips to keep your tomato plants healthy into the fall season and for getting those green tomatoes to ripen on the vine or how to salvage the obstinate green tomatoes you actually have to pick while still green.

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Choosing a Greenhouse

Its so tempting. The idea of building a greenhouse means gardening year round. Greenhouses are the ultimate fantasy for gardeners, but theyre also a big responsibility. One night without heat and all of your plants and seedlings could be goners. Your greenhouse will need heat, water, benches, venting, electricity. And thats just for starters. Here are some key points to ponder before you buy a greenhouse.

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Photo of 'Chicago Peace' Rose

Photo of 'Chicago Peace' Rose

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Preserving Vegetables

How to preserve fruits and vegetables by drying, canning, pickling and making jams and jellies. Keep the freshness of the harvest by preserving your own garden vegetables at home. Theres a method safe and easy enough for everyone, as well as tips for success and recipe suggestions.

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Easter Lilies

Easter Lilies are a beautiful, fragrant symbol of the Easter season. A few simple tips will keep your lily plant blooming through the season and maybe even keep it going a few season longer. It is possible to plant your Easter Lily outdoors in the garden and have it rebloom. Success isnt guaranteed, but what do you have to loose by trying. Here are some Easter Lily tips for caring for your lily plant and keeping it going.

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Gardening Quick Tips

Great gardeners seem to know all the little secrets for making plants happy. Luckily, gardeners love to share almost as much as they love to talk about their gardens. Here's a collection of quick gardening tips and ideas to make your garden better. Feel free to share your gardening quick tips too.

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Gardening Question of the Week: What Does "Balanced Fertilizer Mean"?

This question came to me from a co-worker who has just started gardening. She wanted to know what I meant by a balanced fertilizer. Well, the standard definition...

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[Source: About.com Gardening]

Planning for a Great Fall GardenPlant Now, to Dazzle Later

Fall gardening may be the best of all worlds. There's no rush to get things planted and pruned, like in the spring. And the weather is pleasant enough...

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[Source: About.com Gardening]

Plant Pruning FAQ

Most plants benefit from some sort of regular pruning and maintenance. The trick is in know when to prune what. Its confusing, but rarely fatal. Pruning at the wrong time of year may result in less flowers and fruits, but it usually wont harm the plant in the long run To help you take the guess work out of pruning, here is a series of articles to help you learn when to prune the plants in your garden.

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Butterfly Gardening

A true butterfly garden is not just designed to attract adult butterflies, but also to afford a place for them to hibernate and lay eggs and for the larva, or caterpillars, to feed. Different species of butterflies have different preferences in plants.

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It's Sweet Corn Season. Is it Worth Growing Your Own? Oh, Yes!

Corn takes up a lot of space in the garden for a long time, yet gardeners are happy to accommodate it. If you've never tasted just picked sweet...

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[Source: About.com Gardening]

Growing Kale

Growing kale is an easy and very rewarding crop for the home gardener. This cooking green is as beautiful to look at as it is tasty to eat and it attracts very few pests or problems. The secret to growing great kale is cool temperatures and plenty of water. Heres how to have your best crop ever.

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Garden Design Tip: Using Plants for Texture and Form

Theres a lot of talk about plant texture, but a picture is still worth a thousand words. Abouts Landscaping Guide has put together a beautiful photo gallery showcasing plant...

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Botritis on a Peony

Peony Botritis

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Cactus & Euphorbia

Euphorbia plants are good choices for dry areas. Their foliage looks good all season and the flowers are as succulent as the leaves.

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Planning a Small Garden

A good site assessment is vital to any garden design. When creating a small garden, every space is important. Where to put the garden, how large to make it and the choice of plants all must be edited, unlike with a small garden. Heres how to take an honest look at your garden site and what you can hope to plant there.

Read More...

[Source: About.com Gardening: Most Popular Articles]

Lilium orientalis - Lily

Lily 'Casa Blanca'

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#9 - Hummingbird Mint

Agastache (Hummingbird Mint)

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Cucumber Bacterial Wilt

Cucumber vines that mysteriously wilt and die off are probably infected with bacterial wilt. Cucumber bacterial wilt is transmitted by the cucumber beetle. Theres not much you can do once the vines are infected with cucumber bacterial wilt, but you can take some measures early in the season to protect your young cucumber plants. Heres help for cucumber bacterial wilt.

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Featured Plant: Coreopsis

Walking into a garden center can be overwhelming. It seems there are new plants to tempt you every time you blink your eyes. So its easy to overlook...

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[Source: About.com Gardening]

Organic gardening

What does it mean to have an organic garden? Does organic gardening mean you have to put up with insects eating your plants or unattractive flower beds? Actually, organic gardening just means trying to working with nature and to replenish as you deplete resources. Here are some basics...

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Drying Flowers

Save your garden's beauty by drying and preserving your flowers. Methods include air drying, speeding the drying process with silica gel and even easier, microwaving flower buds. Drying flowers is an easy way to extend your garden season.

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Container Ornamental Grasses

Growing ornamental grasses in containers is a great way to feature grasses without the worry of them spreading or taking over the garden. The downside is that when growing grasses in containers, their hardiness is raised by about 2 zones. An ornamental grass hardy to Zone 5, when planted in the ground, will only survive to Zone 7 in a pot. However, you can always grow container grasses as annuals. Here are my top ten picks for ornamental grasses grown in containers.

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Fall Perennial Pruning

It can be nice to leave some perennials standing for winter interest. But many perennial plants dont survive rough weather well. Many plants have recurrent problems with pests and diseases, which will over winter in their fallen foliage and surface in the spring. The following list of perennial flowers survive and thrive better if pruned or cut down in the fall.

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Butterfly Herb Gardening

Gardeners and cooks arent the only ones who enjoy herb gardens. Many herb plants are irresistible to butterflies too. What a treat to be surrounded by all the...

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Busy Bee

Busy Bee in Yellow Rose

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Garden Tool Storage

Gardening is easier with the right tools, but there are a lot of them. You need a way to store your garden tools so that they're still handy when you need them. These products will help your organize all your garden tools, so you can find them when you need them. Some even let you take the organizer and the tools with you.

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Growing Lettuce in Summer

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

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Egyptian Walking Onion

Egyptian Walking Onion

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Roses from Cuttings

Ever wonder if you could root and grow branches from your favorite rose bush? With a little care, roses root very easily. You won't always get exactly what you started with, but it's fun trying. And here's how.

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A Colorful Garden All Season

There are several ways to keep you flower gardening in colorful bloom all season long. Knowing how to prune, what to feed and a couple of ways to fool the eye will give you a garden of abundant flowers throughout the summer. Here are some tips to keep your garden in color all season.

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Gardening Question of the Week: Wilting Cucumber Vines

This weeks question comes from Lou, but I know a lot of you have encounter this same problem. I would like to know why my cucumbers seem to die...

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Hemerocallis (Day Lily)

Hemerocallis (Day Lily)

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From the Garden - Drying Your Flowers

For some people, it's very hard to cut flowers from the garden to enjoy elsewhere. But if you have prolific blooms and your vases are running over, remember it's...

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#3 - Garden Phlox 'David'

Phlox 'David'

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Consider A Cutting Garden

Cutting gardens or cut flower gardens are a great way to bring your garden indoors. Well planned cutting gardens can grow enough flowers to create bouquets for the entire growing season. Cutting gardens can include long flowering annuals, seasonal perennials and colorful foliage. Here are some plant ideas for your cutting garden.

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Tomato Leaf Spot

Tomato Leaf Spot

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Mosaic Virus

Cucumber Mosaic Virus

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Pole Tree Pruners

Sometimes there's a damaged branch, just out of reach. Or maybe you need to open the canopy or snip off crossing branches. It's frustrating when there's a branch you can't get to it. Ladders are fine, but pruning requires stability and balance. Some clever person came up with pole pruners. How brilliant to attach a long handle to a saw blade. Here's some advice and suggestions on what to look for in pole tree pruners.

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Small Space Garden Design

Gardening in a small space.

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Eggplant: Summer Heat Means Heat Loving Vegetables

There are a few good things to say about the extreme summer heat. First, it doesnt last long. Even better, certain vegetables just love it. Eggplants have...

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[Source: About.com Gardening]

Small Flower Island

Small Space Gardening - Flower Island

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Fragrant Abelia

Fragrant Abelia

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My Monet Weigela

My Monet Weigela (Weigela florida 'Verweig')

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Spittlebug

Spittlebugs are so named because the nymph can whip up a frothy covering to protect itself. All you are likely to see of spittlebugs is the foam on a plant leaf or stem joint. Spittlebugs look unsightly, but they dont really do much damage. To control spittle bugs,

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Hydrangea Types

There are many new hydrangeas on the market that take the guess work out of when or if you need to prune your hydrangea. However many of us have old hydrangea shrubs in our yards that can cause a lot of frustration when they don't bloom. Bloom on an older hydrangea usually depends on when it was pruned. To know when to prune your old fashioned hydrangea, you'll need to know what type of hydrangea it is. Here's some help in identifying your hydrangea.

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Organic Rose Gardening

Can roses be grown organically. Of couse. Growing roses organically is really no different than growing any type of plant with organic techniques. Organic rose gardening means more than just not using chemicals. It means giving the plant what it wants and needs to grow well. Do that and youll have a healthy plant, better able to withstand pest attacks. Here are some tips.

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Cucumber Beetle Eggs

Cucumber Beetle Eggs

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Raised Bed Kits

Raised bed gardening refers to gardening in soil that has been mounded or contained higher than the surrounding soil. Raised bed gardening is an old gardening practice, but its currently growing in popularity again because it offers several advantages to simply growing your plants in level ground. Here are some easy kits for building your own raised bed.

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Rose Growing Problems

Choosing the right type of rose and giving it the care that it needs are common sense approaches to carefree plants. Planting your roses in combination with other plants, rather than in an exclusively rose garden, can further cut down on problems. However we are often drawn to the beautiful prima donas in the rose world and these will require more attention. The best remedy for rose problems is a good defense.

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Self-Seeding Annual Flowers

Many annual flowers offer the bonus of being self-seeders. Self-sowing annuals will weave their way though your garden, year after year, giving it a natural, cottage garden feel. There's a wide choice of annual flowers that will self-seed and it takes very little effort to get them going.

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Front Yard Gardens

Small Space Gardening - Front Yard Gardens

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Gardening In June

By June, the garden is in full swing. Everything is planted and growing. Now is the time to begin monitoring your garden, to catch problems early and to keep your plants growing healthy. Here are some timely tips for regional gardening in June.

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Squash Bugs and Eggs

Squash Bugs and Eggs

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Garden Insect Pests

Plants need insects for pollination, so no garden should be insect free, but there's no denying some insects are garden pests. Learning to identify which insects to worry about and which to welcome is part of the learning process of gardening. Here are a handful of common garden insects. Some are garden pests, some are beneficial and some are just passing through. Always assess the situation before spraying. But when you must treat the problem, the info offered here will be helpful.

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Using Cornmeal as 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. Heres how to apply cornmeal to treat fungus problems in your garden.

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Growing Phormium

Phormium is a spiky, sword-leafed evergreen perennial that is used as a garden focal point or specimen plant. Some are small enough to use in containers, others can reach several feet in diameter and 7+ feet tall. Phormium arent hardy in many areas, but can be brought indoors for the winter. Growing Phormium is easy, if you give the plants what they want.

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Train Clematis up a Post

File this under “other things you can do with fencing other than actual fencing.” Like my trick for saving shrubs from the ravages of rabbits I like to use fencing to form little cages, trellises really, around posts.Posts, poles, supports, columns, whatever you want to call them, we all have them, we all need them. [...]

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[Source: Backyard Gardening Blog]

Growing Amaryllis

Most amaryllis will go dormant naturally and re-bloom sometime during winter. However, many people prefer to force their amaryllis into bloom for the holiday season. Many prepared bulbs are sold in the fall, ready to pot up and have in time for Christmas. Here are directions for forcing your Amaryllis for holiday display, as well as general care for your amaryllis plant.

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Soilless Potting Mix

Starting plants from seed is a lot of fun, but its not so much fun to watch them wither and die shortly after germination. One way to gain an advantage is to use a sterile potting mix, because you never know what problems come along with soil from the garden. If youre going with a potting mix anyway, you might want the further advantages a soilless mix brings. Heres a rundown on whats in the potting mix if you leave out the soil, and why youd bother to in the first place.

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Garden Photo Gallery

Garden Photos

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Cabbage Worm Damage

Cabbage Worm Damage

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Got Shade?Fast-Growing Shade Trees

Right about now, I'll bet you're wishing you had planted a shade tree or two - 20 years ago. Large shade trees are invaluable in a landscape. They...

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Pruning Lilacs

If lilacs are left to grow and spread on their own, without maintenance pruning, you will get shrubs reaching 15 - 20' in height and all the blooms will be way above your head. Lilac plants that have a balance of new shoots and older stems, will bloom best. Older lilacs can have stems as thick as small trees and will flower only on the top most branches. Fortunately, it is pretty easy to rejuvenate an old lilac, in about 3 years time. How to Prune Lilacs...

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Growing Spinach

Leafy vegetables always taste better fresh from the garden. Spinach, like lettuce, grows best in the cool weather of spring and fall. Spinach also grows extremely quickly, which means you dont have to wait long to enjoy it, but youll also have to keep planting new spinach to extend the harvest. Getting spinach to grow is easy. Keeping your spinach growing takes some finesse. Tips for growing spinach in the home garden.

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Spider Mite Damage

Spider Mite Damage

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Front Yard Gardens

If there is one place that small space gardening should be more widely practiced, it is in front yards. We have surrendered the front of our homes to foundation plantings of overly pruned evergreens and uninspiring dots of geraniums. It is intimidating to experiment in full view of every passer-by, but the pay off is great and I think youll find most people, neighbors included, will be delighted.

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Dividing Perennial Plants

The idea of dividing perennials can scare new gardeners. Division of perennials is an easily mastered gardening technique that is good for the plants and your garden. Most perennial flowers will need to be divided to remain vigorous and continue blooming season after season.

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Summer Squash

Summer squash should be in every home garden. Summer squash grows easily, tastes best freshly picked and comes in varieties from acorn to zucchini. The only trick to growing great summer squash is choosing the right varieties. If you love zucchini, there are dozens to try. But summer squash doesnt stop at zucchini. This profile of summer squash should convince you to try a few vines in your home garden.

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Polygonatum

Solomons Seal (Polygonatum) is an elegant Native American woodland plant. The small, tubular white flowers of Polygonatum dangle underneath the leaves. But it's the plant form that makes Solomon's Seal such an interesting plant. Once established, Polygonatum slowly spreads out and creates a nodding blanket of foliage that turns a golden yellow in autumn. Here are some tips on getting Solomons Seal to grow in your garden.

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Garden Magzines - Top Picks

Gardening magazines are monthly garden inspiration. They tell us about new plants, garden design ideas and gardening techniques. Gardening books are like old friends. Garden magazines offer endless new gardening possibilities. Here are my picks for the top gardening magazines.

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Tomato Hornworm with Predator

Tomato Hornworm with Parasitic Wasps

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Aphids

Aphids

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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.

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#11 - Balloon Flower

Platycodon grandiflorus - Balloon Flower

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#12 - Oriental Lily 'Maywood'

Pink Oriental Lily 'Maywood'

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Tomatoes Not Ripening Fully

Tomatoes that do not ripen fully, leaving the stem end green or yellowish, are said to have green shoulders. What can be doen to prevent this happening? Are the tomatoes wit green shoulders still good?

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Butterfly Gardening

A true butterfly garden is not just designed to attract adult butterflies, but also to afford a place for them to hibernate and lay eggs and for the larva, or caterpillars, to feed. Different species of butterflies have different preferences in plants.

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Growing Hot Peppers

Chili peppers have the distinction of being welcome I both vegetable gardens and flower borders. While hot peppers may seem exotic, they are very easy to grow almost anywhere, even indoors. The assortment of hot peppers, whether Jalapeno, Serrano, Cayenne, Habanero or Thai, offers something for every garden and every pallette.

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10 Tips for Cutting Roses

Roses make exceptional cut flowers. Selecting rose buds at the right stage and conditioning the roses once cut will extend their vase life and your pleasure. Whatever your rose preference, enjoy your blooms even longer with these tips for cutting roses.

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What is Mulch

Mulch is any type of material that is spread or laid over the surface of the soil as a covering. It is used to retain moisture in the soil, suppress weeds, keep the soil cool and make the garden bed look more attractive. Organic mulches also help improve the soils fertility, as they decompose. Here are the pros and cons of various mulch materials.

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Tomato Hornworm

Tomato Hornworm

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Photo of Passion Flower Plant

Photographs taken by About Gardening readers from around the country, of their own gardens in winter.

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What to Do in the Garden in JuneA Regional Gardening Almanac

June is a month for graduations, weddings and garden pests. As beautiful as June can be, no sooner do your plants peak than the bugs find them. Its...

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[Source: About.com Gardening]

FeaturedHydrangeas

Hydrangeas are experiencing a resurgence of interest by both gardeners and breeders. Here are two recent introductions generating a good deal of interest are Hydrangea paniculata 'Limelight' and H. macrophylla Lady in Red.

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