Nexus December 17th, 2006
Long before the first daffodils of the year come into bloom, seed catalogs are delivered to our mailboxes to herald the arrival of Spring. A good seed catalog contains so much information, it can sometimes be overwhelming for a novice gardener to decide which seeds to buy for their garden. Today I’ll explain how to interpret catalog descriptions for vegetable, herb and flower seeds. Continue Reading »
Nexus December 17th, 2006
If you own a home, then sooner or later you are going to be ready to sell that home. Maybe you’ve already sold a home or two. People tend to move more often than our parents did. Continue Reading »
Nexus December 17th, 2006
Tis the season when lots of people drag a real tree into their house and decorate it. Some people buy live trees that are balled in burlap instead of a cut tree. A live tree is a great idea, but many people make serious mistakes when it comes to handling a live tree, and they end up losing their money. The information in this article also pertains to any live tree you are planting, be it now during the winter, or during the summer. Continue Reading »
Nexus December 17th, 2006
Summer gardening tips . . .
Don’t be afraid to trim those flowering shrubs and trees that need it. Failure to prune is probably the biggest gardening mistake a person can make. I spent 20 years landscaping homes and businesses, and I watched people make the investment in my services, then they failed to prune when the plants needed it, and before you know it their landscape looks terrible. Continue Reading »
Nexus December 17th, 2006
Spring means that the garden centers are packed with people, and car trunks are packed with plants. Everybody has dirt on their knees, dirt under their nails, and are excited about gardening. To make certain that this excitement yields positive results, let’s discuss the basics in this article of spring planting tips. Continue Reading »
Nexus December 17th, 2006
Mulching beds has become extremely popular these days, and mulch can be really beneficial to your plants and the soil in your planting beds, but there are things you need to watch for. Continue Reading »
Nexus December 17th, 2006
Do you have one or more areas in your yard that hold water after a rainfall? This is a common problem, and sometimes difficult to solve. Over the years I’ve talked with dozens of people trying to battle this problem, and on several occasions I have been hired to solve the problem. So what can be done? Continue Reading »
Nexus December 17th, 2006
Early spring is a great time for transplanting trees and shrubs, but you must do so before they wake up. Transplanting a plant is a very traumatic experience for the plant if it is awake. It’s like doing surgery on a person while they are awake. Dormancy starts in the fall as soon as you experience a good hard freeze, and the plants remain dormant until the weather warms up in the spring. This is when you should transplant, while the plants are dormant. Continue Reading »
Nexus December 17th, 2006
The secret to making your flowering trees, shrubs, annuals, and perennials bloom more is in the numbers. All fertilizers have analysis numbers on package.
These numbers represent the percentage of each chemical the contains. Continue Reading »
Nexus December 17th, 2006
A beautiful lawn does not come without some effort. Depending upon what type of soil you have, the amount of effort will vary. For instance when raising trees and shrubs, sandy or a gravel base soil is great. Landscape plants like well drained soiled. A lawn on the other hand is different. Lawn grasses grow constantly throughout the growing season, and need an ample supply of both nutrients and water. Continue Reading »
Nexus December 17th, 2006
There is nothing more beautiful than a flowering shrub in full bloom, except maybe a flowering shrub in full bloom that has been trained to grow as a single stem tree. Imagine having a fragrant Viburnum Tree next to your patio or outside your bedroom window, waking up to such a wonderful aroma. Continue Reading »
Nexus December 17th, 2006
Azaleas can be either evergreen or deciduous. Deciduous Azaleas are known as Mollis or Exbury Azaleas. They bloom in the early spring with vivid orange and yellow colors. They can be grown from seed if the seeds are collected in the fall and sown on top of moist peat at about 70 degrees F. Continue Reading »
Nexus December 17th, 2006
What do the terms grafting and budding mean?
Budding is a form of grafting. Grafting is the art of attaching a piece of one plant to another plant, creating a new plant. Grafting is usually done because the desired plant is extremely difficult if not impossible to propagate through other means. Dogwoods, for example, are easily grown from seed, however, it is next to impossible to grow a pink dogwood from seed. The seeds from a Pink Dogwood will produce seedlings that are likely to flower white. Continue Reading »
Nexus December 17th, 2006
There are two kinds of winter gardening. The first method usually starts in January as the gardening catalogs begin to arrive in the mail. This type of gardening is as easy as sitting in your favorite chair, browsing the catalogs, and either dreaming about what you’re going to do this spring, or actually drawing designs for the gardens you intend to work on. Continue Reading »
Nexus December 17th, 2006
If you are preparing beds for landscaping around your house this article should
simplify the process for you. I say that because of everything that is written about this subject, some of it is accurate, some of it is just plain wrong, and much of it is much more complicated than it needs to be. I like to think of myself as Simple Simon. I find the easiest, yet most effective way to do things, and they work. Continue Reading »
Nexus December 17th, 2006
Ornamental grasses have become extremely popular in the past ten years or so, and if you buy them at a garden center they are kind of pricey. Learning how to grow them yourself is actually quite easy. They can be grown from seed, but I won’t pretend to be an expert at that for several reasons. One, I don’t know anything about growing them from seed, and two, I have no desire to propagate them from seed because seedlings require too much care. Continue Reading »