This post, Fungi in Wood Chips, was prompted by a picture and discussion on a Facebook group called Australian Native Plant Enthusiasts (ref #3). The discussion was about the harmful fungi that appeared in wood chip mulch used in children’s playgrounds. Of course they posed no real danger—but people were scared. There are a lot of misconceptions about fungi growing in the garden, and this post will look at the truth about fungi in wood chips.
Blossom End Rot (BER) is a disfiguration found in fruiting vegetables, like tomatoes, peppers, watermelons, egg plants and apples. This problem is usually blamed on a shortage of calcium, but this turns out to be a myth.
The genus Amsonia is a collection of herbaceous plants that are not well known in gardens, but they should be more popular. They are great plants, flower well, are North American natives and some are very drought tolerant. They are also more cold tolerant than believed. The various available species are similar and very often misnamed. It is quite common to find pictures in books and on the net that are misidentified. In today’s post I will try to sort out the differences to help you identify plants.
Companion planting is a standard recommendation for growing vegetables. One of the most commonly recommended plants for this is the marigold, which is supposed to be good for preventing various pests from eating the vegetables. I will limit the discussion in this post to using marigolds to reduce or eliminate nematodes in the garden.
People are starting to understand that microbes (ie microorganisms) are very important to a healthy soil. This knowledge has led to a disturbing trend where people feel the need to add microbes to soil, and manufacturers are responding with an increasing number of products. In this post I will look at the misconceptions behind this trend.
It is getting warmer and the Hostas are growing. It is time for the slugs and snails to come out and do their damage. There is a lot of advice on the net on how to get rid of slugs and snails including; beer traps, diatomaceous earth, egg shells, salt and copper tape. I’ve examined copper tape in How to Get Rid of Slugs with Copper. In this post I will look at killing slugs with beer.
Last week I showed that it does not make sense matching a fertilizer formulation to a plant type. For example, a 1-2-1 fertilizer for tomatoes does not make sense. In part this is true because every manufacturer has their own recommendation. But there is a more important mistake being made by anyone who recommends a certain formulation for a specific type of plant–read on.
Last week I pointed out that the concept of a balanced fertilizer did not make sense. When scientists measured the amount of nutrients in plants they found that the levels of N, P and K were not equal.
This is the first in a series of posts on fertilizer nonsense. I’ll look at some traditional fertilizer myths and explain why some recommendations for commercial fertilizers do not make much sense.
When transplanting trees, shrubs, or perennials, you tend to damage the root system. Common advice suggests that you should reduce the amount of top growth to match the root loss. This reduces the ratio of leaves to roots and helps keep the plant in relative balance, making it easier for the plant to recover from transplant shock.
Is this sound advice? Does it apply to all kinds of plants?
When the leaves of a plant wilt it is a sign that the plant needs water, and therefore it is a good time to water–right? Maybe. The plant might need to be watered, but it is also possible that water will harm the plant.
In a previous post I discussed wrapping a tree to keep it warm. I looked at the physics and concluded that wrapping a tree, or any other plant, does not keep it warm. I had never seen any data to support this position, but it certainly follows basic laws of physics. I decided that this winter I would measure the temperature under a wrapped evergreen.
