Scale Insects

Scale are tiny parasitic insects that adhere to plants and live off the plant�s sap. They look like bumps on the plant�s stem and are often mistaken for a disease. There are some 7,000 species of scale insect, varying in color and size.

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

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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Dealing with Rose Diseases

Despite a gardener�s best efforts, roses can often become infected with fungus diseases. Luckily, few fungus problems will kill your rose bush and most can be handled with low toxicity and minimal effort. Here are the top four rose diseases and how to handle them.



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Flower and Garden Shows

Just when we need it most, horticultural societies across the country provide us with a breath of spring in the form of flower and garden shows. Whichever you attend, you can expect garden landscape displays, competitions, a vendor area, seminars by garden experts and floral displays. Here is a listing of some of the most popular spring flower and garden shows.

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

Cleaning the Inside of the Gourd

Gourd Bird Houses - Cleaning Out the Gourd

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Mint

Plants in the mint family are very hardy perennials with vigorous growth habits. Mint, left to its own devices, will spread quickly and become a nuisance. However, it is very popular as a flavorful herb and the plants can be grown easily. Just try to chose a spot where you won�t mind the rampant growth or grow it in a confined space.



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Adding a Coat of Paint

Painted Gourd Bird House

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Designing Herb Gardens

Herbs don�t need to be grown in a garden of their own, but a designated herb garden is a luxury for all the senses and working in an herb garden is as much pleasure as it is toil. Whether you want an iconic four-square herb garden, a scented herb border or a few kitchen herbs on the windowsill, here are some tips for creating an herb garden to enjoy.

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Garden Design - Color

Color is arguably the most prominent factor in a garden design and often the first one considered. Good garden design involves knowing how to combine colors so that the final product has a cohesive and pleasing effect. Here are some tips to train your eye to see color and for combining color in the garden.



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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, it�s also a lot of fun. Here are some basic recipes and some creative suggestions for hypertufa toughs and garden decorations.

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Bird House Gourds

Bird House Gourds

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Top Plant Varieties

Need a clay buster? A rose for shade? What to try growing some of those heirloom vegetables you've heard about? Wish your annuals would self-seed? These lists will give you some top plant varieties, whatever your garden needs.

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

Soilless Potting Mix

A soilless potting mix is preferable to using outdoor garden soil for several reasons. And there are many good soilless mixes on the market. However if you need a large quantity of mix or have a need for a special blend, it is often easier to simply create your own potting mix. Here are some basic recipes to try and to improvise with.

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Bird House Masterpiece

Etched and Painted Gourd Bird House

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

Gardening Basics

Starting a garden should be a pleasure. But it does help to have a little knowledge of how to go about making a garden. Here's a quic selection of articles to give you confidence in creating your won garden.

Read More...

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

Rose Gardening 101

Rose gardening basics are all you need to get started as a rose gardener. Growing roses doesn�t have to be a challenge. You can grow a prize winning hybrid tea rose, old fashioned cabbage roses, sprawling ramblers and climbers or the perfect fragrant rose if you know how to care for roses simply. Here are easy to follow planting, pruning and enjoying rose gardening tips.




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

Painting and Finishing Touches

Gourd Bird Houses - Painting Gourds

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Starting Small and Personal

Small Space Gardening - Flower Island

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

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. Here�s how to take an honest look at your garden site and what you can hope to plant there.


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

Next Year's Garden

Garden design starts with thinking about how and who will use your garden and what constraints time, money and nature put on you. That�s the basis of good site analysis. Then you can start to consider the garden design elements of color, texture and form. The fun of garden design doesn�t really begin until you know what you are working with and can start choosing plants, flowers, trees and shrubs to fill in the picture.


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

Seed & Plant Exchanges

Some people have a wealth of plant seeds left over at the end of the gardening season. Some folks can never find the seeds for the garden plants they want at the beginning of the season. It's a match made in heaven. Whether you have seeds to trade or a seed wish list that's gone unfulfilled, these Seed Exchanges are worth a look.

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Garden Maintenance

Flower gardens require constant maintenance to look their best. Common garden chores like pruning, pinching and
deadheading are easy to master, as show here in this step-by-step photo tutorial.


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The Winter Landscap

Winter interest in Northern gardens is often left to evergreens. However there are many trees and shrubs that offer fascinating structure, bark and berries, to add a subtle interest through all four seasons. Wonders of the Winter Landscape explores the many choices available as winter garden treats, if you know where to look.

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Growing Rhubarb

Is rhubarb a vegetable? A fruit? An ornamental plant? It�s a very ornamental vegetable that is usually prepared and eaten much like a fruit. All that and it�s perennial in many areas. Rhubarb is a cool season crop that is grown for its fibrous leaf stalks, which are a wonderful sweet-tart treat. These tips should help you get your rhubarb started right and growing well.



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Muehlenbeckia axillaries (Creeping Wire Vine)

Muehlenbeckia axillaries (Creeping Wire Vine)

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Sagina subulata Aurea (Scotch Moss)

Sagina subulata Aurea (Scotch Moss)

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Growing Bromeliads at Home

Have you tried growing Bromeliads? Bromeliads are one of the best tropical plants to grow in your home. Bromeliads are extremely adaptable, tolerating a variety of home environments. By following a few basic techniques, you can watch these beautiful and brightly colored plants thrive and flower for years to come.

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

Cabbage & Kale

Cabbage and kale are among the hardiest and most nutritious vegetables a home gardener can grow. They are also very easy to grow, especially for home vegetable gardeners in cooler climates. Beautiful, in shades of pale yellow to wrinkled steel blue and ranging in flavor from sweet and crisp to tangy, cabbage and kale are versatile vegetables and there�s a variety suited to almost every garden.

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Ornamental Grasses for Winter

Ornamental grasses accent a garden any time of year, but they might just be at their most imposing in the doldrums of winter. Ornamental grasses provide structure, texture and drama to the gardenscape. Here are 10 of the best ornamental grass and grass-like plants for winter interest. Several are North American natives and all of them are very easy to grow. Many even do double duty by attracting birds to your winter garden, by providing shelter and food.

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Sedum pachyclados 'White Diamond'

Sedum pachyclados 'White Diamond'

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Wonders of the Winter Landscape

They've been talking about winter interest in the garden for years. Unless you live in Zones 7 or higher, you might not have appreciated what the fuss was about....

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[Source: About.com Gardening]

Garden Photo Gallery

garden photo gallery container gardening ideas fellow gardeners forum visitors color 000000: Garden Photos

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Viola labradorica 'Labrador Violet'

Viola labradorica 'Labrador Violet'

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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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Ways to Kill a Houseplant

More Houseplants are killed with kindness than neglect. The best thing you can do for your indoor plants is to learn something about the growing conditions your particular plants like and provide as close to those conditions as possible. If you see a problem developing, take action quickly.

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Edible Flowers

Edible flowers aren't a new phenomenon, 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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Tulips as Cut Flowers

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

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Thymus praecox 'Elfin' (Creeping Thyme)

Thymus praecox 'Elfin' (Creeping Thyme)

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Asparagus Feature

Asparagus is a sure sign that spring is here and the gardening season has begun. Asparagus,one of the few perennial vegetable crops, is a favorite garden vegetable around the world, in shades of green, white and purple. Here are some things to know for growing great asparagus in your backyard vegetable garden.

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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. Here�s how to apply cornmeal to treat fungus problems in your garden.


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Black Foliage Shrubs

Shrubs add four season stucture to a garden. They are considered the bones of a garden's design. Elderberries (Sambucus) have long been garden favorites because so many shrubs in the species Sambucus offer great foliage, fall color and wonderful berries. Sambucus Black Beauty (Sambucus nigra �Gerda� PP12305, Canadian BRAF) and Sambucus Black Lace (Sambucus nigra �Eva� ppaf) are two recent introductions that add depth and interest to any garden with their deep purple, almost black foliage.



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Lighting for Houseplants

Determining how much light an indoor plant needs is about as vague as determining how much water it needs. However, most houseplants don�t like to be placed in the direct sun of a windowsill. Strong sunlight may actually burn their leaves.

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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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Basic Considerations When Choosing Plants for a Formal Herb Garden

Designing an Herb Garden

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Bay Laurel

Best known as a seasoning, bay laurel is an evergreen shrub or tree that is native of the Mediterranean area. Although bay can grow into a tall tree, it is often kept smaller by pruning or by confining it in a container. Bay is very easy to grow. In the spring, bay has small yellow flowers which develop into purple berries in the fall.

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

Soil Amendments

You've read you should amend your garden soil, but just what are soil amendments?

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Flowering Plants for Dry Areas

It�s a smart idea to study up on which plants can adapt to dry areas, because sooner or later every garden will experience a period of drought. While water is crucial to growing healthy plants, there are many perennials that can withstand periodic dry spells, if they are given a chance to become established before they are severely stressed.. Here are 10 perennials that may surprise you with their drought tolerant constitutions.



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Herb Gardening

Herbs are some of the easiest plants to grow and they grow effusively. Most require little maintenance, unless you have the notion of planting a tidy 4-square decorative herb garden. Most herbs are not tidy and the plants are meant for use, not decoration. Herb gardening comes down to what you want to do with the plants you grow - kitchen herbs, herbs for potpourri or dying, even medicinal herbs. Having a designated herb garden makes their care and harvesting more convenient.

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Merry Christmas!

Best wishes to everyone. May your days be merry and bright....

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[Source: About.com Gardening]

New Garden

By far the hardest part of making a new garden is digging and preparing the area. There are easier ways of starting a garden.

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

Iris

Iris (Bearded Iris)

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How to Grow Gourds

Growing gourds is easy and extremely rewarding. By drying ornamental gourds, you can keep them intact indefinitely and use them to make bird houses, containers, pots and silly, whimsical decorations. However gourds will require a good amount of space to run and they will probably take the entire growing season to mature. But growing gourds is something that the entire family can take part in and enjoy. Here�s how easy it is.



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Petunia Varieties

Petunias have done a 180 in recent years. They are much more tolerant of rain and many don't need any deadheading at all. They mound, they trail and they bloom their hearts out. How do you know what type of petunia to buy? Here's a petunia 101 on which types of petunias are best for your garden, hanging baskets and groundcovers.

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Saving Tomato Seeds

Many plant seeds can be saved simply by collecting them as they dry. Tomatoes take a bit more work. The tomato seeds are enclosed in a gel like sack that contains growth inhibitors, preventing the seeds from sprouting inside the tomato. The best way to remove this gel covering is to allow the fruits to rot and ferment. In nature this happens when the fruit falls off the plant. For seed savers, we're going to speed up the process.

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Water Garden in Winter

Behold! The water feature in winter! It lives!
To recap, this is my new water feature built last spring, want to learn more about it? Start here. This blog post though is about the winter.
What do you need to do with a water feature in winter? Well, what I did was first, I uninstalled the tubing [...]

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[Source: Backyard Gardening Blog]

Light Levels for Houseplants

Low light? Diffused light? How do you know how much light you have and what houseplants will be happy in it? The best indicator is the plant itself. If the houseplant looks good, the light is fine. But here are a few suggestions so that the houseplants you decide to buy will be happy in your house.

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Gardening Quiz: Latin Plant Names are Greek to Me.

Gardening quiz. Have some fun understanding the meaning of Latin plant names.

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Heliconia collinsiana

Heliconia collinsiana

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Viola labradorica 'Labrador Violet'

Viola labradorica 'Labrador Violet'

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

Getting a Perennial Poinsettia to Bloom

Poinsettia Shrub in Bloom

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

Heliconia wagneriana "Rainbow"

Heliconia wagneriana "Rainbow"

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Poinsettia Shrub in a Hawaiian Garden

Poinsettia Shrub in Hawaii

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Red Heliconia Caribaea

Red Heliconia Caribaea

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Yellow Heliconia caribaea

Yellow Heliconia caribaea

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Check Out This Poinsettia Shrub's Woody Stems

Poinsettia Shrub with Woody Stems

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Poinsettia as a Perennial

Poinsettia as a Perennial

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Backyard Frog Pond

Backyard Frog Pond

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

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

Organic Gardening Essentials

p]The key to organic gardening is keeping a healthy balance in your garden. Prevent problems, rather than treating for them after the fact. Healthy plants are better able to withstand pests than stressed plants. And your plants will be healthy if they are given what they need to grow well and if you are growing a diversity of plants. Here are some more tips to help you garden organically:


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Herb Blends

If you�ve saved and dried your herb garden bounty, consider giving some away as gifts. After all, not every cook has access to an herb garden. You can either package up individual herbs in lovely canisters, jars or bags or mix your herbs for a custom blend that will have your chef friends naming recipes after you.


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Veronica repens 'Sunshine' (Golden Creeping Speedwell)

Veronica repens 'Sunshine' (Golden Creeping Speedwell)

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Sedum spurium 'John Creech'

Sedum spurium 'John Creech'

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Growing Caladiums

Caladiums are tropical perennials grown for their spectacularly colorful foliage. Who needs flowers when the leaves are splotched and speckled with rose, cream, burgundy and flame red? Caladiums are heat lovers, but they can easily grow in cooler climates in summer and even make great houseplants. Learn the in and outs for caring for your colorful Caladiums.



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Trifolium repens Atropurpureum (Bronze Dutch Clover)

Trifolium repens Atropurpureum (Bronze Dutch Clover)

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Gardening Basics

Starting a garden should be a pleasure. But it does help to have a little knowledge of how to go about making a garden. Here's a quic selection of articles to give you confidence in creating your won garden.

Read More...

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

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.


Read More...

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

Flower and Garden Shows

The choice of spring flower and garden shows continues. Whichever you attend, you can expect garden landscape displays, competitions, a vendor area, seminars by garden experts and floral displays.

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

Scented Herb Garden

Scented herbs brings to mind the pleasant fragrances of lavender, sage and lemon balm. Fragrant herbs plants can be used for potpourri, oils and lotions, cooking or just to enjoy a heady whiff as you work in the garden. Often the fragrance of herbs is in their foliage, so planting your herbs where you will brush by them is an easy way of enjoying a scented herb garden. Here's a list of easy to grow, heavily scented herbs to enjoy.

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Choosing Your Christmas Tree

Christmas Trees. Pre-cut, cut your own or live, which is better? And what do you do with it when you get it home, so that it doesn't drop needles all over the carpet?

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December in the Garden

In the warmer zones, December is the start of pleasant weather and a chance to enjoy planting cool season vegetables and flowers that don�t tolerate your summers. Northern gardeners should use this period without leaves to scout for egg masses and other signs of trouble on trees and shrubs. Here are some more regional gardening tips for the beginning of winter.


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Herb Seasoning Blends - Christmas Gifts from the Garden

More often than not, herb gardeners are avid cooks. If you love to cook for your friends, consider letting them in on a few of your secrets by presenting...

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[Source: About.com Gardening]

Kitchen Herb Gardening

Probably the most popular herbs to grow and use are the culinary herbs. Growing culinary herbs is very similar to growing vegetables. The two most important considerations are to harvest at full flavor and to never use any fertilizer or pesticide on them that isn�t labeled for use on edible plants. Here are some more tips for growing flavorful culinary herbs.

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

Garden Design - Color

Color is arguably the most prominent factor in a garden design and often the first one considered. Good garden design involves knowing how to combine colors so that the final product has a cohesive and pleasing effect. Here are some tips to train your eye to see color and for combining color in the garden.



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

What Does Full Sun Mean?

Garden plants usually come labeled with required sun exposure. The definitions of these terms can vary some, but here are the generally accepted meanings of Full Sun, Partial Shade, etc..



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Carrot F1 'Purple Haze'

Carrot F1 'Purple Haze'

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Pepper F1 'Carmen'

Pepper F1 'Carmen'

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Featured Plant: Black Shamrock

So called black plants are never really black. It would be cool if they were - just imagine them next to a hot color like lime green or scarlet...

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[Source: About.com Gardening]

Choosing Planters & Containers

With so many plant containers and pots available for use in gardens, on decks and porches and indoors, how do you choose the best one? Too often we are guided by our taste alone. However to keep your container gardens growing happy and healthy you should give some consideration to the plant's needs when choosing a planter. Here are some things to think about.

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

Bromeliads

Bromeliad

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

Pressing Flowers

Pressing flowers and foliage from your garden is a wonderful way to preserve its beauty. You don't need a lot of expensive tools to get started with pressed flowers. You might also be surprised at the variety of flowers, leaves and even weeds, that press well. Here are some tips from an expert at pressing flowers, to press your own flowers and use the pressed flowers to their best advantage.

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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 it�s not impossible and creating a focal point (or 2) in a small space garden can actually make it appear larger.


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

Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum floribundum)

Peace Lily

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Forcing Bulbs

Many spring blooming bulbs can be forced into bloom in the winter months. Some tropical bloomers,like paperwhites and amaryllis, take little effort at all.

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

Next Year's Garden

Garden design starts with thinking about how and who will use your garden and what constraints time, money and nature put on you. That�s the basis of good site analysis. Then you can start to consider the garden design elements of color, texture and form. The fun of garden design doesn�t really begin until you know what you are working with and can start choosing plants, flowers, trees and shrubs to fill in the picture.


Read More...

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

Holiday Greens and Decorations

Here are several suggestions for how you can use greens from your garden, garden center or nearby craft store to make lovely decorations this holiday season.


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

Hellebores

More and more species of Hellebores are available in garden centers and catalogs. The Christmas Rose, the Lenten Rose and the Stinking Rose are all relatively easy care perennials for your winter and spring garden.

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

Sweet Scents, Nectar and Abundance

How to Design a Butterfly Garden

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Lavender Rosemary Vodka, Anyone?

Who wouldn't welcome a bottle of 'homemade' flavored vodka, as a hostess gift? Your garden will become the talk of the party. About's Guide to Cocktails (now there's a job)...

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[Source: About.com Gardening]

Agastache is as Varied in Appearance as in Pronunciation

Agastache (Hummingbird Mint)

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Starting Small and Personal

Small Space Gardening - Flower Island

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

Turning a Garden Bed Down for Winter

I’ve been a bad blogger. I’ve been procrastinating. At least a month ago, probably more like 6 weeks, I took some photos to build a blog post around, and then fall happened, and as well business stuff happened where a lot of my time was consumed, and the holidays happened, and well, this advice I’m [...]

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[Source: Backyard Gardening Blog]

Soil pH

Gardeners are often told that a key to growing great plants is to check the soil's pH. What is meant by soil pH and why should it matter so much in the garden? Here's why...

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

Growing Catmint (Nepeta)

Catmint (Nepeta) is extremely hardy, drought tolerant and virtually maintenance free. All this and nepeta repeat blooms sporadically throughout the summer. Such a wonderful garden plant should be more widely appreciated and used by gardeners. Take another look here, at the pleasure of growing nepeta and its usefulness in any garden design.

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

Clivia or Kaffir Lily (Clivia Miniata)

Clivia or Kaffir Lily

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Plant Virus Problems.

Cucumber Mosaic Virus

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Loppers - Pruning Tools

Loppers are a step up from hand pruners. Loppers are basically hand pruners with long handles. While the longer handles will give you added reach to prune higher branches, that's not their true advantage. The handles on loppers give you leverage, so you can pruner can handle larger branches; up to 2" in diameter, depending on the lopper. Here's what to look for when shopping for a lopper and some notable products.

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Sweet Peas - Perfect for the Start of the Gardening Season.

Long blooming and fragrant, with an almost unparalleled range of colors, Sweet Peas (Lathyrus odoratus) seem at home in any garden. I like to plant them with my pole...

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Make Scented Sachets

Your garden may be good enough to eat, but those wonderful fragrances can be put to use on less fattening senses. Dried flowers and herbs tucked into bags and pillows have a fragrance that will let you travel back to the glory days of your garden. Herbs, especially, hold on to their fragrance. Use you sachets to scent a draw, the clothes in the dryer or tuck one under your pillow. They make great gifts too.


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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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Using Holiday Greens and Decorations from Nature

Botanical gardens are great places to visit and get ideas about what to grow in your garden. They showcase the brand new and the tried and true. ...

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Herbal Jelly

Herbs and fruit are a seasonal treat that can be carried into the winter months by making herbal jellies and jams. Don�t want the fuss of making your own jam? Don�t let that stop you. You can flavor store bought jams and jellies and turn them into personal statements from your garden.

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'Chicago Peace' Rose

Photo of 'Chicago Peace' Rose

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Gardening Gifts for Kids

Kids love to garden and play in the dirt. There are so many wonderful gardening kits and child-sized garden tools that they feel right at home in the garden with Mom and Dad. Here are 10 gardening gifts that you can enjoy along with your kids.

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When to Plant Bulbs

The perfect time to plant spring blooming bulbs depends on where you live and what the weather is like that season. Spring blooming bulbs need several weeks in the ground to get their root systems growing before the ground freezes. But even if you don�t get your spring blooming bulbs in on time, there are a few thing you can do.

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Summersweet (Clethra alnifolia)

Summersweet (Clethra alnifolia)

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Flower and Garden Shows

Just when we need it most, horticultural societies across the country provide us with a breath of spring in the form of flower and garden shows. Whichever you attend, you can expect garden landscape displays, competitions, a vendor area, seminars by garden experts and floral displays. Here is a listing of some of the most popular spring flower and garden shows.

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Herbal Sugars

Herbal sugars can be made easily and used to flavor things like baked goods and drinks. Just as herbal butters, oils and vinegars infuse your cooking with flavors from the herb garden, herb infused sugars will make your fresh herbs go even farther.

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The Christmas Rose is a Rose is a Rose - or is it?

The Christmas Rose is actually a buttercup. Hellebore niger, known as the Christmas Rose, also has the frustrating tendency of not blooming until Easter - making it all the more...

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Dripping Leaves

Do plants in your home sometimes seem to leak water from their leaves? Leaves dripping water is a natural occurrence, like people sweating. Natural, but messy, and there are some things you can do to control dripping leaves.

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Garden Focal Points

The purpose of a garden focal point is to bring the garden into focus. What may start out as just a grouping of plants is given definition by a focal point. Viewers instantly know where to bring their attention. We'll demonstrate some techniques in the following photos, but placing a focal point, like garden design in general, is largely a matter of trial and error. The more you do it, the better trained your eye will become.



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Making Garden Candles

Candles make any day a special occasion. Candle making is a messy, time-consuming endeavor and there�s no limit of candles readily available everywhere. But you can take a store bought candle and add a personal touch from your garden. Here�s how to imprint your candles with pressed flowers and leaves preserved from garden treasures. They make great gifts too.

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Choosing Your Christmas Tree

Live trees are great for Christmas. With a little planning and attention, they will survive long after the holiday.

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Sweet Corn F1 'Honey Treat'

Sweet Corn F1 'Honey Treat'

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Container Gardening

The following photos demonstrate the diversity of gardening in containers.

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Annual Garden Plants

Annual flowers and plants only live for one growing season. But not all plants that are killed by frost at the end of the season are annuals. An annual plant must complete its life cycle in one growing season.

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Gardening - QuickTips

An index of QuickTips for the Gardening guide site.

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Featured Plant: Poinsettia

December 12th is National Poinsettia Day. That's right, the US Congress actually gave the Poinsettia an official day of recognition. They are hard to resist at this time of year,...

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Bypass Pruners

Bypass garden pruners make an easy, clean cut. A professional quality pruner will make pruning easier and cuts cleaner.

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Oriental Lily - Lilium orientalis

Lily 'Casa Blanca'

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Gardening Question of the Week: What Do I Do with Unplanted Bulbs?

This question comes up every year. Sooner or later, we all buy more bulbs than we can reasonably get planted. Who can resist? But there really is...

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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. Here�s how to apply cornmeal to treat fungus problems in your garden.


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The Language of Flowers

Flowers have held meaning for centuries. You know a rose says love, but how about expressing yourself with violets for modesty, peonies for shame or daisies for innocence? The language and meaning of the flowers in you garden or bouquet can be as involved or as fun as you choose to make it.




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Garden Photo Gallery

garden photo gallery container gardening ideas fellow gardeners forum visitors color 000000: Garden Photos

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Garden Design Principles

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


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Pruning Evergreens

Evergreens such as fir, pine and spruce trees require little pruning, except to control their size or improve their fullness. Evergreen pruning should be done at the right time, while the tree has candles or new growth or the tree could end up misshapen.

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Mint

Plants in the mint family are very hardy perennials with vigorous growth habits. Mint, left to its own devices, will spread quickly and become a nuisance. However, it is very popular as a flavorful herb and the plants can be grown easily. Just try to chose a spot where you won�t mind the rampant growth or grow it in a confined space.



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Rose Gardening 101

Rose gardening basics are all you need to get started as a rose gardener. Growing roses doesn�t have to be a challenge. You can grow a prize winning hybrid tea rose, old fashioned cabbage roses, sprawling ramblers and climbers or the perfect fragrant rose if you know how to care for roses simply. Here are easy to follow planting, pruning and enjoying rose gardening tips.




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Fibrous Rooted Begonias

Begonia Flowering Houseplant

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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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Bugleweed - Ajuga

Ajuga is a fast growing groundcover that can take over, if you're not careful. However, when it is in bloom in the spring, there's nothing to top it. If you have the space to let it roam, it's well worth growing.

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From the Garden of Debbie Nissen

Winter Water Garden

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Shasta Daisy - Leucanthemum x superbum

Shasta Daisy Photo

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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 it�s 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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Dealing with Rose Diseases

Despite a gardener�s best efforts, roses can often become infected with fungus diseases. Luckily, few fungus problems will kill your rose bush and most can be handled with low toxicity and minimal effort. Here are the top four rose diseases and how to handle them.



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Dividing Bearded Iris

Bearded Iris are tall, elegant additions to the flower border, but they are also relatively high maintenance. You can help cut down on the incidence of soft rot and borer damage through regular division of the iris rhizomes, every 2-3 years. This will also keep bearded iris performing and blooming at its best. Dividing iris isn't hard. Start by carefully digging and lifting the rhizomes, as shown here.


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What are Plant Tubers?

What do they mean by plant tubers? Are these like flowering bulbs?

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Choosing and Caring for A Live Christmas Tree

Are you thinking of getting a live Christmas tree this year? (And by live I mean a tree that is still growing.) When getting a tree that will...

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Garden Design FAQ

Gardening is often called the only living art form. Like any form of art, designing a garden is subjective. Although gardening successfully requires learning certain skills, in the end, a garden�s beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There are no fixed rules to garden design. But there are a few elements of composition that will serve the garden designer well, when combining plants. And the only way to get good at garden design is to do it.

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Seed Starting FAQ

Starting plants from seed is a great, inexpensive way to get exactly the plant varieties you want to grow. Seed starting indoors requires the same basic elements as growing plants outdoors. Maintaining seedling indoors will take a bit more diligence though, since you can�t rely on rain and sun to do the work for you, and your seedlings will need the right nutrients to get off to a good start. This FAQ covers everything you�ll need to know to start plants indoors, from seed.

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Gardening Question of the Week: What Plants Would be Good for Planting Letters, Words and Pictures?

raychael left a post on the About Gardening Forum, asking for suggestions of plants to use for spelling out words. She worked with kids on a project where the...

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David Austin English Rose & Rosa x centifolia (Cabbage Rose, Provence Rose)

Rosa (Rose)

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Obedient Plant - Physostegia virginiana

Physostegia virginiana (Obedient Plant)

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A Backdrop for Roses

Photo of Pakistani Rose Garden

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Palmate Leaves

Leaves that are distinctly lobed, like a maple leaf, are called palmate. Their shape is evocative of an open palm with the fingers outstretched.

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Passion Flower - Aida A.

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

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Winterberry Holly

Ilex verticillata, Winterberry Holly, or Winterberry is our native, wetland holly that loses it leaves each autumn. This beautiful shrub is all the more showy because its lack of winter leaves makes its berry display all the more showy. After the leaves have turned yellow and have fallen off, you are left with a breathtaking view of thousands of brightly colored berries clinging to every stem. What a joy to have such color in the middle of winter.


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Indeterminate Tomatoes

Most of the tomato varieties grown in home gardeners are considered indeterminate varieties, or vining tomatoes. They continue growing until they are killed by frost and keep setting fruit throughout the growing season.

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Five Poisonous Plants

There are many plants we've all been warned to avoid, like caster bean, foxgloves and Datura. But there are many common garden and house plants that can cause poisoning problems, from contact dermatitis to death. Use extreme caution when gardening around small children and pets. There are many excellent web sources you can turn to, listing which plants are poisonous and what problems they cause. Here are 5 common plants you may never have considered as poisonous and dangerous.

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Making Gifts from the Garden

Gardeners love to share their gardens and there seems no end to the gifts we can create with our bounty. Here are 12 quick and easy gifts made from the garden, like herbal jellies, potpourri, leaf imprinted candles - even flavored vodka. Even your non-gardening friends will love to share this part of your garden with you.

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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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Russian Sage - Perovskia

Perovskia (Russian Sage)

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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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Garden Books

Next to actually working in their gardens, gardeners love to read and learn more about gardening. There are dozens of new gardening books each year. The following garden book reviews can help you find some of interest to you and your gardening needs.

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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 isn�t 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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Petunia Varieties

Petunias have done a 180 in recent years. They are much more tolerant of rain and many don't need any deadheading at all. They mound, they trail and they bloom their hearts out. How do you know what type of petunia to buy? Here's a petunia 101 on which types of petunias are best for your garden, hanging baskets and groundcovers.

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Pink Promise 2009 AARS Hybrid Tea Rose

2009 AARS Winner 'Pink Promise' Rose

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Rose Bud Unfurling

Rose Bud Unfurling

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Digitalis 'Candy Mountain' (Digitalis purpurea)

Digitalis 'Candy Mountain' (Digitalis purpurea)

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Flowering Plants for Dry Areas

It�s a smart idea to study up on which plants can adapt to dry areas, because sooner or later every garden will experience a period of drought. While water is crucial to growing healthy plants, there are many perennials that can withstand periodic dry spells, if they are given a chance to become established before they are severely stressed.. Here are 10 perennials that may surprise you with their drought tolerant constitutions.



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Loppers - Pruning Tools

Loppers are a step up from hand pruners. Loppers are basically hand pruners with long handles. While the longer handles will give you added reach to prune higher branches, that's not their true advantage. The handles on loppers give you leverage, so you can pruner can handle larger branches; up to 2" in diameter, depending on the lopper. Here's what to look for when shopping for a lopper and some notable products.

Read More...

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Xeriscape Gardening

Xeriscaping doesn�t mean deserts and cactus or even a drought plagued, barren landscape. Xeriscaping is a method of gardening that involves choosing plants that are appropriate to their site and creating a landscape that can be maintained with little supplemental watering. Here are the seven steps of xeriscaping, common sense guides to gardening in harmony with your site that can be applied to any type of garden design.

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Gerber Daisies, Transvaal Daisy, African Daisy - Gerbera jamesonii

Gerbera jamesonii (Gerber Daisy)

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