Search Results for: label/drought

Ten Ways to Help Plants Survive Drought

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Coneflowers, black-eyed susans and bee balm are all relatively drought tolerant, once they’re established. Gardens and landscapes nationwide are facing the one-two punch of record-breaking heat and drought. Although there’s nothing you can do to change the weather, there are a few things you can do to help your plants survive this challenge. Some of the effects of drought are obvious: brown lawns, crispy leaves, smaller flowers an…

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After the (Drought, Flood, Fire, Pest Outbreak)

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5 Steps to Creating Resilient Gardens and Landscapes Record-breaking droughts, floods and wildfires, as well as outbreaks of diseases and insects, have taken their toll on garden and landscape plants nationwide. Although it’s impossible to fully insulate your gardens and landscape against damage, there are steps you can take to rejuvenate affected plantings and build more resiliency into your plantings. Embrace Diversity and Avoid Monoc…

1 Million People Want to Know

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…nd what went into producing it. So how come I can’t have the right to know what’s in the food I buy in the store? That’s the goal of the Just Label It campaign, which last month submitted a record-breaking 1.1 million signatures to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in favor of labeling genetically engineered (GE) foods. And in polls by ABC, MSNBC, NPR, the Washington Post, Consumer Reports and others, consistently…

2010 Survey Results

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Last year, we asked people to rank the season on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being very poor. Most folks say 2010 was just OK. Average rank: 6. The region that had the worst gardening year was in the South, specifically Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky and Tennessee. They ranked the season 4.9. Folks in New England (RI, VT, NH, ME, MA, CT) had it best, giving a rank of 6.9. We’ve looked at the results from the 2010 How Did Your Garden…

Meet Ira, the Green Man

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Gardener uses plants instead of paint to create a green portrait. The photo at right was sent to us by one of our customers in Virginia. Maureen and her husband purchased a Living Wall Panel from our web site and used it to create the best version of a “green man” that we’ve ever seen! Here’s her story: “My husband and I always scan through the Gardener’s Supply catalog when we receive it,” said Maureen. “This past…

Make Room for Parsley

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Flat-leaf parsley I used to do much more canning and freezing than I do now. With our household down to just two, we’re cooking smaller meals and don’t need to have as much food around. But there are still quite a few garden crops that I squirrel away in my freezer or pantry, and one of those is parsley. I can chop and freeze a huge basket of fresh-picked parsley in about 15 minutes. With a half-dozen sessions like that throughout the…

What’s Your Fertilizer of Choice?

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Over the years, I have become a firm believer in the importance of fertilizing plants. One of my favorite pots this season (see plant list below) with two of the three fertilizers that I’m applying and one of my trusty watering cans. Over the years, I have become a firm believer in the importance of fertilizing plants. Now, when there’s a pest problem in my garden, I run for a fertilizer rather than a pest control. In most cases, I…

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What to Do With Horticultural Plastic

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…tes hosts a trailer, brings it in when it is full, and returns with an empty one,” Cline says. Steve Cline sorts plastic pots and cell packs at the Missouri Botanical Garden’s recycling program, where they collect 100,000 to 140,000 pounds of horticultural plastic every year. Cline, former director of the Garden’s Kemper Center for Home Gardening, started the program in 1998. The botanical garden’s Pots to Planks program s…

Spinosad: a New Option for Control of Lily Leaf Beetles

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…en the earth-friendly ones. At first, I tried neem, a relatively harmless spray that does wonders on aphids and controls blackspot on roses. It worked to control the larvae the first year, but I had to spray frequently (every 10 to 15 days). The second year, I couldn’t keep the larvae under control. My lily crop was hit hard, and I got few blooms. Last year, I decided to resort to a systemic called imidacloprid. The results were instantaneo…

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Report Links Pesticides to Children’s Health Problems

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Though cold winds chill the air and snow blankets much of the U.S., pesticide use remains a hot topic — and not only among gardeners. The most recent comments come from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Council on Environmental Health, whose December 2012 policy statement makes a clear link between pesticide exposure and children’s health problems. Published in Pediatrics, the official journal of the 60,000-member AAP, “Pesticide Ex…