Plant Care Archives - Page 7 of 10

15 Myths About Seeds and Seed Germination

Starting plants from seed is a great hobby and a good way to increase your collection of plants. Most people only think about germinating vegetable seeds and much of the information on the internet is focused on these. But there is a whole other world out there. I am always surprised when people don’t understand that all of the perennials, trees and shrubs originally come from seed.

There is still a lot of mystery around seeds and for many species we still do not understand the best way to germinate them. This allows amateurs and hobbyists to do their own thing. This is great because it adds to the collective knowledge, but it also leads to many myths about starting plants from seed.

Sanguinaria seedlings Myths About Seeds and Seed Germination — Myths About Seeds and Seed Germination, picture of *Sanguinaria canadensis* by BotantyCa

If you like this post, please share .......

Best Potting Soil for Container Gardens

Container gardening has become extremely popular and there are all kinds of potting soils you can buy. Gardening in containers is very different than gardening in the ground so it is important to understand the special requirements for potting soil.

If you are looking for a simple solution, where cost is not a factor, and you don’t mind watering a lot, use a name brand potting mix. Almost all of them will produce healthy plants.

If you want a better solution – keep reading.

If you like this post, please share .......

10 Hacks for a Low Maintenance Garden

The Holy Grail in gardening is the perfect, beautiful garden that exists without any maintenance. I see titles for books and blog posts all of the time claiming to be “no-maintenance”. Any real gardener knows that is baloney, but there are things you can do to have a low-maintenance garden.

As gardeners age, maintenance becomes more of a chore, but we don’t want to give up our gardens. Making some simple changes in plant selection and attitude can reduce your workload significantly and allow you to keep the garden longer.

In this post, I will describe 10 things any gardener can do to reduce maintenance to a minimum.

Aspen Grove Gardens - a low maintenance garden — Aspen Grove Gardens – a low-maintenance garden

If you like this post, please share .......

Compost Tea NPK Values

Compost tea is reported to be great for growing plants, and some companies even call it a compost tea fertilizer. What is the NPK value of this magic potion?

I started this post about a year ago, and at that time, there were many products on the market, but I could not find one that provided the compost tea NPK value. I checked again today and was surprised that the number of compost tea products available is down significantly. Maybe it was too expensive to ship all that water around the country? Maybe it did not work, and people stopped buying the product?

Interestingly, the number of commercial DIY kits for making your tea is up significantly. When you click on Google Images for ‘bottles of tea,’ you are taken to pages selling kits. Even with kits, the same question needs to be asked. What is the NPK value of the tea these kits produce? Very few of the manufacturers I looked at provided such information, but many did say their compost ingredients were the best. Easy to say if you don’t give any data.

Even if you are not interested in compost tea, the following discussion will show you how companies are misleading consumers.

If you like this post, please share .......

Can Leaves be Used to Identify Nutrient Deficiencies?

There are lots of examples of people trying to use plant leaf characteristics to identify nutrient deficiencies in the soil. This seems to make a lot of sense. If the soil is lacking a specific nutrient, it should show up in the plant and it seems to follow that by examining the physical characteristics of the leaf you should be able to identify the nutrient deficiency.

How reliable is this method of diagnosis? Can you really identify a nutrient deficiency in the soil by looking at plant leaves?

Plant Nutrient Deficiency Symptoms by Permablitz

If you like this post, please share .......

Planting Perennials the Right Way

Planting perennials may seem easy but there is more to it than you realize. Planting correctly will ensure larger and healthier plants in the long term.

If you like this post, please share .......

Is Coir an Eco-friendly Substitute for Peat Moss?

In the search for a peat moss alternative, coir, also called coco coir, is the one that is most often discussed. Coir is made from the outer husk of coconuts and is a waste product from the coconut industry. Environmentalists are quick to point out that “since it is a waste product, its use is more environmentally friendly than using peat moss.” How can such common-sense logic be wrong?

Shipping coconut husks to a coir processing plant in Vietnam.

If you like this post, please share .......

Peat and Peat Moss Alternatives

The horticulture industry is being blamed for depleting peat reserves and environmentalists are calling for a stop on using peat for growing plants. What are the peat moss alternatives? Is there a suitable substitute?

The horticulture industry would have no problems switching to another product instead of peat. After all, most gardeners are quite aware of the importance of preserving our environment. In this post, I will look at several peat moss alternatives to see if there is a viable option.

Peat and peat moss alternatives — Closeup of growing peat moss

If you like this post, please share .......

Watering Plants Correctly – When and How to Water

Watering plants correctly is one of the easiest things to learn in gardening but many people find it confusing. The reason for this is that they want to use regular schedules. Regular schedules, like once a week, do not work. If you want to learn how to water your garden or house plants correctly you need to learn a little bit about plants and soil. This post will simplify the whole thing so that you will always know when to water.

If you like this post, please share .......

Growing Subshrubs Like Lavender and Russian Sage

Go into any nursery and try to find lavender and Russian sage; they will be in the perennial section. Check these plants online or in books, and most sources will tell you they are perennials. Lavender and Russian sage are subshrubs, a fancy name for a small shrub. Once you understand they are NOT perennials, they become easy to grow.

Lavender - a common subshrub — Lavender – a common subshrub

If you like this post, please share .......

Spring Cleanup Advice – Do it Right

Spring is the best time to cleanup your garden. What do you need to do? How should you do it? What should you not do? In this post I will discuss early spring cleanup and point you in the right direction.

Spring is a special time for gardeners. The world is coming to life, and the warm days get our blood boiling – we need to get out there and do something. The problem is that at this time of year many people do work in their garden that does not need to be done and some of it actually damages soil and plants.

If you like this post, please share .......

Growing Under Walnut Trees

There is a very common myth that says, “nothing grows under walnut trees”, but that is far from being true. If you have walnut trees in your yard or the neighbors yard, you can still have a very lush garden and grow most things.

Gardening Under Walnut Trees, Garden of Phil Reilly — Gardening Under Walnut Trees, Phil Reilly’s Garden

If you like this post, please share .......