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Unconventional garden gifts are an excellent way to make gift giving this season, and every season, more meaningful. Choosing Unique Garden Gifts Choosing gifts for gardeners who have everything can be extremely difficult. This is especially true when considering the needs of long-time growers, like parents and/or grandparents. Fortunately, several ideas for unique garden gifts exist, which are sure to excite. Among these are items that assist in the creation of wildlife habitat, products for self-care, and help with tasks around the yard....

What is a Weed Barrier? Attaining popularity in the mid 1980’s, garden weed barriers composed of these geotextiles are usually covered with mulch for not only aesthetic reasons but to also hinder the degradation of the fabric weed barrier from the sun and to help maintain consistent moisture beneath the weed barrier cloth. A fabric weed barrier, whether poly propylene or polyester, is a burlap-like fabric that will last a minimum of five years with a weight of at least 3 ounces (85 g....

Read on for descriptions of sorrel varieties and tips for growing these low-maintenance herbs. Sorrel Plant Types You can’t go wrong by including sorrel in your garden. The different sorrel plants are not only easy to grow but are also cold-hardy perennials. This means they die back in fall but reappear the following year in late winter. The two most popular varieties of sorrel for veggie gardeners are English (garden) sorrel (Rumex acetosa) and French sorrel (Rumex scutatus)....

What are Spring Peas? The Spring pea variety is a shelling pea. There are several other types of peas that are early producers but only this cultivar is called Spring pea. By all accounts, this is one of the sweetest pea varieties available. This is an easy-to-grow, low maintenance plant that offers a lot of flavor and yield. The pea Spring plant is a medium sized variety with heart-shaped leaves and classic legume flowers....

What is a Catasetum Orchid Catasetum is a genus of orchids native to Central and South America. In their native range, many of the species grow in the open canopies of trees where it is sunny, warm, and moist. Some grow at the base of palm trees, while others actually grow on rocks and on the ground. The catasetum orchid type is unique in that it mostly produces separate male and female flowers but can also have hermaphroditic blooms....

What is a Darwinia Plant? Darwinia plants are evergreen, somewhat scrubby bushes that are only found in the wild in Western Australia. Two types exist, distinguishable by the Darwinia flowers. One group offers spectacular, bell-shaped flowers while the other grows smaller flowers and is known as the rose-type Darwinia. Popular Darwinia hookeriana shrubs grow to about three feet (1 m.) tall with small, terminal flowers surrounded by brilliant, red bracts that make the plant attractive....

What is a Hybrid Hicks Yew? Homeowners looking for evergreen shrubs might want to consider growing a Hicks yew. This tall, evergreen shrub with flattened needles and scale-like foliage is perfect for privacy hedges. The Hicksii yew, commonly called the Hicks yew, can play many different roles in your backyard, however. It is tall and narrow, and its columnar shape works well in any type of foundation planting. According to Hicksii yew information, the shrubs have dense needles, dark green and glossy....

What is Garden Fleece? Horticultural or garden fleece is a sheet of material that can be used to cover plants. It is similar to plastic sheeting that is often used for similar purposes, but there are some significant differences. Limitations of plastic sheets include that they are heavy and difficult to manipulate and that they tend to overheat during the day and fail to insulate enough at night. Using horticultural fleece as an alternative to plastic has become more popular with gardeners....

Grape Dead Arm Info What is grape dead arm? For about 60 years, grape dead arm was a widely recognized and classified disease known to affect grapevines. Then, in 1976, scientists discovered that what had always been thought to be a single disease with two distinct sets of symptoms was, in fact, two different diseases that almost always appeared at the same time. One of these diseases, Phomopsis cane and leaf spot, is caused by the fungus Phomopsis viticola....

What is Katuk? Katuk (Sauropus androgynus) is a shrub, indigenous to Southeast Asia that is cultivated in Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and India. It thrives in tropical climates in lowland rainforests where it grows between 4-6 feet (1 to 2 m.) tall. Additional Katuk plant info describes it as an upright bush with multiple stems and dark green, oval-shaped leaves. In tropical climates, the plant stays green year-round, but in cooler climes, the bush will likely lose leaves in the winter only to regrow in the spring....

What is Lemon Basil? Fans of basil rejoice. Growing lemon basil provides devotees with a tangy, nose happy flavor and scent that is excellent in many international and regional cuisines. It is also a pretty plant that adds dimension and texture to the kitchen garden. As an added bonus, lemon basil care is simple, straightforward, and easy. Picture silver tinged leaves on an erect, bushy plant with heavenly aroma and the lemon basil plant is the paintbrush to that picture....

What is Tomato Buckeye Rot? Buckeye rot on tomatoes is caused by three species of Phytophthora: P. capsici, P. drechsleri and P. nicotiana var. parasitica. Phytophthora species vary by tomato-producing region. Tomatoes with buckeye rot most commonly occur in the southeast and south central regions of the United States. Tomato buckeye rot typically follows prolonged warm, wet conditions and the disease is important wherever there is high humidity and abundant soil moisture....

Is My Peach Tree Still Dormant? When peach trees go dormant, they produce growth inhibiting hormones that prevent them from growing or producing leaves and flowers. This keeps the tree from breaking dormancy before spring arrives. Cold weather breaks down the growth inhibiting hormones and allows the tree to break dormancy. The amount of exposure to cold weather required to break dormancy varies, and it’s best to choose a variety suited to winter temperatures in your area....

Reasons a Morning Glory Has Yellow Leaves Why do morning glory leaves turn yellow? Yellow morning glory foliage can be caused by a few different things. Morning glories are, for the most part, hardy plants that can grow in a variety of conditions. Move it too far out of the plant’s comfort zone, however, and it will not be happy. This is usually evidenced by yellowing leaves. A likely cause is too much or too little water....

Zone 3 Deciduous Trees The USDA developed a zone system. It divides the country into 13 zones according to the coldest annual temperatures. Zone 1 is the coldest, but zone 3 is about as cold as it gets in the continental U.S., registering winter lows of minus 30 to minus 40 degrees F. (-34 to -40 C.). Many of the most northern states like Montana, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Maine include regions that are in zone 3....

Peach Trees for Zone 4 The hardiest peach trees for cold climates tolerate temperatures as low as –20 degrees F. (-28 C.). Zone 4 peach tree varieties won’t perform well in warmer areas. That’s because warm spring weather stimulates the flowers, and if the warm spell is followed by a cold snap, the buds die. These trees need a climate where the temperatures stay cold well into spring. Here is a list of peach trees suited to the area....

Zone 4 Vegetable Gardening Spring can be short-lived in U.S. hardiness zone 4. Some years it can seem like you blinked and missed spring, as cold freezing rain and snow showers seem to turn overnight into hot, muggy summer weather. With an expected last frost date of June 1 and a first frost date of October 1, the growing season for zone 4 vegetable gardens can be short too. Starting seeds indoors, properly utilizing cold crops and succession planting can help you get the most out of the limited growing season....

After the Bareroot Tree Transplant Arrives When your bareroot tree arrives, it will be in a dormant state. You can think of this as like suspended animation for plants. It’s important to keep the bareroot plant in this state until you are ready to plant it in the ground; otherwise, the plant will die. In order to do this, make sure to keep the roots of the plants moist by leaving the wrapping on the roots or packing the roots in damp peat moss or soil....

Growing Apples in Zone 5 If you live in USDA zone 5, winter temperatures dip below zero most winters. However, you’ll find lots of apple trees growing in this zone, a region that includes the Great Lakes and the northwestern interior of the nation. In fact, many of the classic apple varieties thrive in USDA zones 5 to 9. From a list of those varieties, you should choose apple trees for zone 5 based on other important tree features....

Why Remove Fruit Salad Tree Fruit? The breeding programs for fruit trees are so advanced that you can now have a wide variety of fruits on the same tree. In the first few years, you should thin fruit on a fruit salad tree to avoid stressing young limbs. Fruit salad tree thinning will allow the plant to spend more energy on developing strong limbs and a good scaffold that will support future crops....