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Magnetic Herb Garden As winter arrives, many gardeners are not ready to give up the fresh herb garden and, instead, start moving those herbs indoors. An indoor herb garden is pretty easy to create since many herbs overwinter best indoors. With an indoor herb garden, you can enjoy the bright flavors and health benefits of fresh herbs even as winter rules outdoors. If kitchen space in an issue, you can start an herb garden on magnets and build a refrigerator garden....

Flowering gardens are sometimes shared across a property line, improving the appearance of more than one landscape. Perhaps, you’re growing a cutting garden with plenty of blooms to supply fresh flowers for two households. While most garden sharing is for the food, keep in mind there are other reasons too. What is a Shared Garden? Communal gardening may spring from a community garden or simply from sharing and working a plot of land with one or more neighbors....

What is a Star Apple? If you look at pictures, you’ll find that this fruit is similar to a plum. When sliced in half, however, an unusual star pattern is visible in the center of the fruit, hence the name. This pattern makes the fruit popular for high-end desserts. The fruit is tasty, containing a milky juice used in smoothies and other culinary endeavors. Ripened fruit is yellow, golden, or purple on the outside, depending on cultivar....

What is a Virginia Pine Tree? Virginia pine trees in the landscape are primarily used as barriers, naturalized forests, and inexpensive, slow growing forests. They are scrubby plants with little ornamental appeal and become gnarled and bent in advanced years. Interestingly, the trees are grown in the south as Christmas trees. The Virginia pine is a classic, evergreen conifer. Most specimens reach between 15 and 40 feet (5-12 m.) in height with low branches and a pyramid shape when young....

Lavender Hidcote Info Plants that provide outstanding color and scent, are edible, and attract pollinators are a win-win for the garden. Lavender Hidcote is one such beauty. It is also deer resistant, a bonus in certain areas of the country, and you can dry the flowers for long lasting, scented bouquets. Sunny, well-drained sites are perfect for growing lavender Hidcote. In a massed planting it makes an astounding display, but it stands out sweetly as part of an herb garden or even a mixed container....

What is Mint Mulch? Mint hay compost is a byproduct of the peppermint and spearmint oil industry. The most common method for commercially extracting the essential oils from mint is by steam distillation. This process starts with the fall harvest of mint plants. Commercial mint crops are harvested in much the same way as grass and legume hay, hence the name mint hay. Mature plants are cut by machine and allowed to air dry in the fields for several days....

Why Won’t My Quince Tree Fruit? There are number of factors that can affect the fruiting of quince trees. Here are some of the more common ones: Age The reason behind a quince tree not fruiting may not be a complicated one. It could be simply that the tree is not mature enough to bear fruit yet. A quince tree can reasonably be expected to start bearing fruit when it reaches five or six years in age....

Hardy Cover Crops It’s late summer and you have reaped a bountiful harvest from your vegetable garden. Production of fruits and vegetables has drained the soil of its nutrients, so you decide to plant a fall cover crop to restore nutrients to the tired vegetable garden, essentially making it ready for the following spring season. Cover crops are often used to renew used-up beds. For this purpose, there are fall cover crops and spring cover crops....

Apricot Bacterial Canker Disease Apricots with bacterial canker are hardly rare, and the apricot bacterial canker disease is widespread in most places. This is a disease that often enters apricot trees and other stone fruit trees through wounds, often gardener-inflicted pruning wounds. You’ll know that your tree has apricot bacterial canker disease if you see necrosis girdling a branch or trunk. Keep your eye out for branch dieback and cankers in spring....

Balsam Fir Tree Info Balsam firs look very similar to spruce trees. You can tell the difference by the way the cones grow. Balsam fir cones stand straight up on the branches, while spruce cones dangle. You will never see a balsam fir cone on the ground because the cones break up into small pieces when they ripen. Balsam trees are commercially significant because of their use as Christmas trees. Historically, the trees were important for their resin, which was used to treat lung ailments....

Growing Black-Eyed Susan Vines Rapidly growing black-eyed Susan vines quickly cover a fence or trellis for perky summer flair in the landscape. Thunbergia alata may be grown as an annual in USDA zones 9 and lower and as a perennial in zones 10 and above. Those in cooler zones can overwinter black-eyed Susan vines indoors, in a greenhouse or as a houseplant. Be sure to bring interior plants outside in summer as an important part of the care of black-eyed Susan vines....

What is Boxwood Blight? Boxwood blight is a fungal disease caused by the organism Cylindrocladium buxicola. The organism also goes by the pseudonyms Cylindrocladium pseudonaviculatum or Calonectria pseudonaviculata. The disease is called box blight in the U.K., and you may also hear it referred to as boxwood leaf drop in the U.S. Discovered in the U.K. in the mid 1990’s, the disease didn’t make its way to the U.S. until October 2011, where it was detected in a nursery in North Carolina....

It has also earned another name, Table Fern, due to its ability to grow easily indoors. The foliage is fairly delicate so be sure to place it somewhere where you won’t brush up against it too much. Brake ferns can grow up to 2 feet (0.6m) tall and wide in good conditions. There are many cultivars available including Pteris cretica ‘Albolineata’ which has cream colored stripes in the middle of the leaves....

Can You Grow Impatiens Indoors? Though most commonly grown as a tender annual bedding plant due to their inability to tolerate frost, impatiens plants that have to be brought indoors can easily and reliably be grown throughout the winter months. This relatively simple process will offer gardeners lush growth and blooms during the coldest times of the year. How to Grow Impatiens as a Houseplant The first step in the process of growing these plants indoors is bringing impatiens inside....

Who is Dr. Griffith Buck? Dr. Buck was a researcher and professor of horticulture at Iowa State University until about 1985 where he hybridized around 90 rose varieties along with his other duties there. Dr. Buck was a highly respected member of the rose growing community and member of the American Rose Society for 55 years. What are Buck Roses? Basically, a Buck rose, as they have become known, is one of several roses hybridized by Dr....

If you have a large property, you might consider growing one of these evergreens. Read on for information on how to get started as well as tips on California red fir care. What Is a California Red Fir? Native to Oregon, Nevada and California, the evergreen known botanically as Abies magnifica is truly magnificent. This conifer grows in the wild to over 200 feet (60 m.) tall with a trunk diameter at breast height of 6....

About Growing Peppers Indoors Fruit from a pepper plant grown inside will never get as large as those grown outdoors; however, they will still pack the same amount of heat. The best pepper plants to grow inside are smaller peppers such as pequins, chiltepins, habaneros, and Thai peppers, or small ornamental varieties. Indoor pepper plants need the same requirements as those grown outside. They need enough space in a container for their roots to grow....

Naturally, maple tree sales have increased because not only do they provide good shade but, like ash, they put on spectacular displays of fall color. However, maples oftentimes have problematic surface roots, which make them unsuitable as street or terrace trees. A more suitable option is the Aristocrat pear (Pyrus calleryana ‘Aristocrat’). Continue reading to learn more about Aristocrat flowering pear trees. Flowering Aristocrat Pear Tree Info As a landscape designer and garden center worker, I am often asked for suggestions of beautiful shade trees to replace ash trees that were lost to EAB....

Black Walnut Tree Info Black walnut trees are native to the central and eastern United States and until the turn of the century, quite common. These trees can live up to 200 years of age and are one of six walnut species found in the United States. In a natural setting, black walnut trees can be found growing alongside: Elms Hackberry Box elder Sugar maples Green and white ash trees Basswood Red oak Hickory...

Homemade Planters Many gardeners use terracotta flowerpots, nude or glazed, because these are the easiest low-cost alternative out there, other than simple plastic. However, if you expand your definition of what “container” means when it comes to plants, you’ll find hundreds of options for creative containers. Mother Nature sites most plants outdoors under the blue sky with their roots deep in the dirt, from which they extract moisture and nutrients. Plants can also look terrific on a patio or inside a home where there is no garden bed....