Every gardening book and web site recommends that you get your soil tested and one of the main tests is for pH. You can get a professional lab to do the test, or you could use one of the convenient soil pH test kits made for gardeners. How useful and accurate are the results of such tests? It is more complicated than you think. Let’s have a close look.
In my previous post, Plant Seed Basics, I described the germination process in very general terms. A seed lands on the ground, absorbs water, and germinates. It is all so simple – or is it? In this post I will have a closer look at something called seed dormancy. What causes it and how do you overcome it so the seed germinates.
Watering indoor plants seems to be one of the most complicated things for new gardeners to learn, which is surprising since it’s really simple. The problem is that a lot of the information out there makes the subject complicated and it gives new gardeners bad advice.
In this post I am going to give you some simple rules that work for any houseplant and makes watering easy. I’ll help you decide when to water and show you the best way to do it.
Citronella is a great plant for the garden, containers, and window boxes and it even makes a good houseplant. It has lots of pink blooms and interesting lacy leaves. Its best feature is the lemony scent that fills the night air. It is easy to grow from seed or cuttings and can be overwintered from year to year. Here’s everything you need to know about growing citronella plants.
I had the pleasure of being a guest on the Joe Gardener Show Podcast where we discussed my new book, Microbe Science for Gardeners.
Join Joe and myself as we discuss interesting things about microbes and their interaction with plants.
Listen to the Joe Gardener podcast now
Wasps can be dangerous during the day, but what about at night? Do they sleep? Do they come out of the nest after dark? Are you less likely to get stung at this time of day? A better understanding of wasp activity at night will help you deal with nests.
Mini-forests are popping up all over the world and even my own town planted one in this past summer. I wanted to learn more about this new trend and the book, Mini-Forest Revolution: Using the Miyawaki Method to Rapidly Rewild the World, by Hannah Lewis, (Amazon affiliate link) seemed like a good place to start. It describes a movement to restore biodiversity by transforming empty spaces and degraded land into mini-forests. Here is a review of the book.
Rock dust is a very popular soil additive especially with organic and permaculture groups. It is full of nutrients and it is claimed that adding it to soil will replenish all of the nutrients that agriculture has taken out of our soil. This process of adding nutrients back to soil is known as mineralization.
This seems to make a lot of sense. We remove food from the land, and the food contains lots of minerals. At some point we need to put them back into the soil or else we will have soil that won’t grow anything. This seems logical but is it really true? Is our soil losing fertility? If it is deficient, can rock dust be used to solve the problem? How effective is rock dust and which type of rock works the best? Time to crush some myths about rock dust.
Everyone loves poinsettias at Christmas but are they toxic to cats and dogs? What about people? Many websites include the plant on their “toxic Christmas plants list.
I had the pleasure of listening to a seminar given by Dr. Hafiz Maherali, Director of the University of Guelph Phytotron, about the latest mycorrhizal fungi (mycorrhizae) news. This post summarizes some of this fascinating new information about this important group of organisms that every gardener should understand.
Fall leaves are a great resource for the garden, but there are some problems with the way they are used. Should they be left on the lawn? Should you compost infected leaves, like maples with black spots? Will too many leaves kill your plants? Do leaves rob soil of nitrogen? Let’s have a look at these and other myths.
Sugar added to Christmas tree water is claimed to keep them fresh longer. Is this true?
