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Viruses represent some of the toughest diseases to manage in cucumber, squash, pumpkin, and melon plants. Often the disease doesn’t kill but does reduce the size and number of leaves, which in turn decreases fruit production. Cucumber mosaic, cucumber green mottle mosaic, watermelon mosaic, zucchini yellow mosaic, and squash mosaic are some of the viruses... Continue Reading →
Do you have beautiful herbs in your garden and want to preserve them for use this winter? August and September are the time to get started drying your herbs. Harvest herb stems for drying from stems that are in the bud stage, but have not yet flowered. This is the stage at which leaves contain the highest amount... Continue Reading →
Gooseberries are one of those unusual fruits not grown by many home gardeners. But they certainly are worth consideration for home fruit production, especially if you’re creating an edible landscape and need plants with good ornamental appearance as well as food production. Gooseberry plants can be used as a foundation shrub or hedge, having nice... Continue Reading →
Have you ever thought about saving seeds from your own vegetable garden to grow next year? It can certainly be done and isn’t as hard as you might think. However, before you get started there are a few important things to keep in mind when selecting plants from which to save seeds. Avoid Hybrid Plants Many, if... Continue Reading →
Due to extremely frequent spring rains, some vegetable gardeners may not have been able to plant all the vegetables they would have liked. You might think “vegetable gardens can only be planted in spring, right?” Wrong – you can go on planting vegetables throughout summer and even into August if you choose your crops and... Continue Reading →
As a long-lived perennial, it's not uncommon for asparagus plants to live for 12-15 years or longer. So it's worth your time to take care of your plants, keeping the crowns healthy and vigorous to ensure a bountiful harvest each year. Follow these steps to ensure the health of your asparagus and next year's crop. Time to... Continue Reading →
Fruit trees in the home orchard often set abundant crops if spring pollination conditions are good and most home gardeners do not thin fruit trees enough or at all. Only 10% of peach flowers are needed for full crop set and peaches are particularly prone to branch breakage under heavy crop load. Very heavy fruit loads,... Continue Reading →
Gardeners enjoy the beauty and fragrance of flowers, but from a plant’s standpoint flowers have one very basic and essential function – to ensure the production of seeds and thus the next generation. For a plant to produce seeds its flowers must be pollinated, either through self-pollination or cross-pollination, and most plants have evolved to... Continue Reading →
Earlier this spring, we looked at three ornamental plants promoted this year by the National Garden Bureau – dahlia, snapdragon and hybrid sage, Salvia nemorosa. It’s getting warm enough now (at least most days!) that we can begin planting their final “Year of the…” feature – pumpkin. Pumpkins are a fun plant to grow, especially when gardening with... Continue Reading →
One of the most easily recognized insects in the home landscape is the white grub. Almost every gardener has seen white grub larvae in the soil, while installing new plants or tilling the vegetable garden. The term "white grub" actually encompasses the larval stage of several scarab beetles, the most common, and most damaging, being... Continue Reading →
Fruit trees will soon be blooming, marking the beginning of another growing season. Many diseases become active during blooming, so it’s time to prepare to protect your trees and ensure a good harvest. Brown Rot After harvesting, gardeners are often disappointed to find apricot, peach, cherry or plum fruits quickly develop a soft fuzzy brown... Continue Reading →
Even though this year’s flooding occurred in March before most garden crops were in the ground, there is still cause for concern when considering harvesting perennial crops and planning this year’s garden. Flood waters many be contaminated by any combination of sewage, river or creek water, farm run-off or industrial pollutants. Bacteria, parasites, viruses and... Continue Reading →
