Can you use too much compost? If you believe what you read, compost is the best thing for your garden. If that’s true, how can you have too much? The truth is that too much compost, especially manure and commercial compost, is harmful to your soil and plants.
A popular claim is that geraniums will paralyze Japanese beetles and keep them away from your other plants. The pest eats the leaves and flowers and a chemical in the plant intoxicates them and they fall to the ground. They then die or birds pick them off, thereby controlling them in your garden.
Does this work? Can geraniums be used to protect other plants in your garden?
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Streptocarpus seeds are some of the tiniest you will ever sow but they are also very easy to germinate if you follow these simple instructions.
How much fertilizer do you use? In North America, it is common to reply with something like “1/8 tsp of a 20-6-12 fertilizer. The problem with this answer is that it is difficult to compare the amount to someone using, for example, 1/4 tsp of 7-3-5 fertilizer.
Are either of these close to the recommended amount of 100 ppm nitrogen?
It is important to compare apples with apples and the best way to do this is to report and discuss fertilizer in ppm units. It is easy to do, it will make gardening communication much more useful and it will give you better insight into your fertilizer use.
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This question was asked in our Facebook Group: “How can I utilize my garden to save money on groceries? My garden always costs me way more than the amount of food I get from it.”
That is a great question and in this post, I’ll look at ways to keep costs down in the vegetable garden.
Streptocarpus are becoming popular houseplants and for good reason. They are relatively easy to grow, they don’t need high light and they bloom all year long in the right conditions.
How much light do they need?
Ideal conditions for Streptocarpus are at or above these values:
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Fertilizer prices have gone up quite a bit in the last few years and that is especially true for commercial gardening products. There is also a wide range of prices for similar looking products.
Are the higher prices worth it? Are you paying too much?
In this post, I’ll show you a simple way to compare the real cost of fertilizer so that you can make an informed buying decision.
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A recent post by the New York Times said “When some plants are dehydrated or under some other form of stress, they cry a mournful melody made of ultrasonic clicks” referring to some new research that collected sounds from stressed plants. CBS News reported that “Plants emit a “rather noisy” cry for help when under stress”. Can plants really cry?
Scientists have also tested moths to see if they can use these sounds to distinguish between healthy plants and those under stress.
There is a trend towards a more native gardening style and in general that is good for the environment and wildlife diversity. However, this has led to a number of myths about this style of gardening and many people are now over-hyping its benefits. What does science tell us about native wildlife gardens?
The term perched water table is being used more and more in gardening circles. What is it and how do you control it?
It’s a phenomenon found in pots and containers and can end up rotting plant roots. It should be understood by every gardener.
Fungus gnats – the little buggers that find your houseplants. They love to visit seedlings and can even infest your larger houseplants. They fly all over the house and drive gardeners crazy. The first step in getting rid of them is to understand their life cycle. Knowing how they live will help you avoid common mistakes that make them worse.
One of the hottest new additives for plants is silicon, which is also incorrectly called silica. It is claimed to reduce pests, improve growth and fend off diseases such as powdery mildew. Although there is some truth to the claims, there is also a lot of misinformation in the gardening community.
