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Tips on Heated Birdbaths The shape and where you place the bath are important. A gentle sloping basin will allow you to more easily clean the bowl. This is important because fecal matter, feathers, feed, and other foreign objects will make the water unclean to drink. Some advocate putting sand or rocks in the bottom of the basin, so bird’s claws have a purchase, but this is negotiable. What is important is having a non-slip surface like terra cotta....

Leaf mold compost is a simple process that allows you to break down your fallen leaves for future use in gardens and flower beds. Keep reading for more info on using leaf mold for soil. About Leaf Mold Compost Using leaf mold as a soil amendment is a common and productive practice. Use it as mulch or incorporate it into the soil, or both. Spread a three-inch (7.5 cm.) layer around shrubs, trees, in flower beds and gardens, or any spot that will benefit from a biodegradable covering or amendment....

Read on to find answers to these questions and other tips on taking care of a newly planted tree. Transplanted Tree Watering The process of transplant is hard on a young tree. Many trees do not survive the shock of a transplant and the top reason involves water. Too little irrigation will kill a newly planted tree, but so will excess water if the tree is allowed to sit in it....

Hurricane Protection in Gardens Coastal residents should prepare for the worst, and this begins at planting time. Some plants are more easily damaged than others. Choose your trees carefully because a mature tree has the potential to damage your home if it breaks in the wind. Plant saplings that will become large trees in areas with plenty of soil to stabilize the roots. The topsoil should be at least 18 inches (46 cm....

An understanding of how Pulmonaria grows outdoors is key to understanding lungwort plant care indoors. Indoor Lungwort Plants Pulmonaria naturally grow in cooler areas, likes to be in partial shade to full shade, and prefers rich, moist soil. It grows 1-2 feet (30.4-61 cm.) wide and only grows about 6-12 inches (15-30 cm.) tall. Keeping these things in mind gives us important clues on how to grow indoor lungwort plants....

Jostaberry Cultivation Gardeners in Europe have always planted more gooseberry and black currant bushes than gardeners in North America. American gardeners may be put off by the tart flavor of the berries and the susceptibility of currant bushes to diseases. Jostaberries (Ribes nidigrolaria), on the other hand, don’t share these issues. The berries are sweet and luscious when ripe, tasting like sweet gooseberries with a slight flavor of black currant. And caring for jostaberries is easy since those who developed the shrub included a built-in resistance or immunity to most berry diseases....

What is Komatsuna? Komatsuna (Brassica rapa var. perviridis) is an incredibly hardy green sometimes referred to as Japanese mustard spinach, although it really isn’t spinach but a member of the Brassica family. It is a biennial that is tolerant of very cold temperatures as well as the heat, although extreme heat may cause it to bolt. It matures in just 40 days, is drought tolerant, and can be sown and grown year-round in many climates....

How Many Calories Do I Burn Gardening? Among the many health benefits of gardening is that it can help you lose weight or maintain a healthy weight by burning calories. The number of calories burned gardening depend on several factors, like your weight and the intensity of a particular activity. Here are some examples of yard and garden activities and the number of calories they burn in 30 minutes: Digging – 150 to 197Planting – 135 to 177Weeding – 138 to 166Push mowing – 150 to 200Raking – 120 to 157...

Can You Hand Pollinate Limes? Bees fascinate me. All summer I have been watching some big black bumblers crawl in and out of the air intake grate covering for under our house. Some days they have so much pollen hanging from them they can’t crawl through the tiny hole and they flutter around looking for a larger gap. I like them so much that I don’t even mind they are building a tiny Taj Mahal under the house....

The solution to this problem may also be found in the addition of native perennial foliage plants. Ostrich ferns are just one example of visually interesting plants which will thrive under more difficult growing conditions. In fact, many of these ferns grow so incredibly well, that growers often seek solutions for containing them within the flower bed. By incorporating a few simple techniques, you can easily maintain a tidy and well-behaved planting of ostrich ferns....

Master garden training is a lengthy process with annually required retraining hours. It also involves up to 50 volunteer hours per year, but if you like helping others and have a passion for gardening, becoming a master gardener may be for you. Extension services in your area are government run organizations that train master gardeners and provide opportunities to serve. What is a Master Gardener? A master gardener is a citizen that is interested in gardening and can fulfill the training and volunteer hours necessary....

What is Milky Spore? Long before horticulturalists coined the terms “integrated pest management” and “biological controls,” the bacterium Paenibacillus papillae, commonly called milky spore, was commercially available to control Japanese beetle larvae, or grub worms. Although it isn’t new, it is still considered one of the best methods of control for Japanese beetles. After the larvae eat the bacteria, their body fluids turn milky and they die, releasing more of the bacterial spores into the soil....

Some Fruit Drop in Avocado Trees is Normal An avocado tree will typically drop some of its unripe fruit in the summer simply because it has grown more fruit than the tree can reasonably support. This is normal and allows your tree to better support and develop the remaining fruit. Regular thinning of fruit can often help alleviate this. The fruit that drops may be very small, no bigger than a pea, or a little larger, like a walnut....

Northeast Gardening Chores in August It may seem like it’s about time to slow down on the garden to-do list. After all, it’s been a long summer of babying fruits, veggies, lawns, and other plants but now is not the time to quit. For one thing, it’s still hot, and keeping up on watering is of primary importance. If you haven’t been doing so all summer, set your mower to a higher length to allow the lawn to stay hydrated....

Northwest Lawn Options Here are some suggestions for alternative lawns in the Pacific Northwest you might like to try: Clover is no longer considered a weed and works beautifully for lawns in the Pacific Northwest. It is inexpensive, requires very little water, and no fertilizer. Since it takes nitrogen from the air, clover is also good for the soil. Clover attracts beneficial pollinators, but if bees are a problem, consider microclovers, extremely tough little plants that have smaller leaves and no flowers....

Growing Oleanders in the Garden The first thing you should know if you want to grow an oleander plant in the garden is that you need to avoid growing oleanders in home landscapes where children and pets play. All parts of oleander shrubs are poisonous and the smoke from burning oleander debris is toxic. Ingesting even a small amount of foliage, flowers, or shoots from an oleander plant can be fatal....

Pansy Orchid Growing Pansy orchid growing is mostly a matter of changing the plant’s environment to most closely resemble how its ancestors grew, with temperatures that aren’t too hot in the daytime and plenty of moisture to encourage floral growth. Study its habits throughout the year and you’ll learn how to grow a Miltonia orchid plant. These plants will bloom early in the spring and the flowers will last up to five weeks in most cases....

If you are looking for a plant that complements your water bill, look no further than Chasmanthe. This drought tolerant bulb produces eye-popping flowers in almost every hue. Keep reading for tips on how to grow Chasmanthe and what winter care might be necessary. About Chasmanthe Flowers Chasmanthe is native to South Africa and one of the true heat seeking plants. In the wild, the plant grows in rocky outcrops....

Daffodil Flower Bulbs Not Growing If your daffodil bulbs did not come up, there are a number of things to consider. Did you plant the bulbs upside-down? Daffodil bulbs should be planted with the pointy side up. Did you plant too late in the season? The best time for planting daffodil bulbs is fall, between September and Thanksgiving. If you forgot to plant, you can put the bulbs in the ground later, but you probably won’t see much growth the first year....

Suggested Plants for the Dining Room Here are a few tips for selecting and growing plants in the dining room. Cactus plants or succulents are ideal if you have plenty of bright light. Consider the location carefully, however, when it comes to prickly or thorny cacti and be sure to keep them out of reach of children. Water cacti and succulents whenever the fleshy leaves begin to look wilted – usually about once a month (and probably less during the winter)....