This has been a bad year in our garden for Japanese beetles. We planted two heirloom plum trees last spring, and this year they seem to be magnets for attracting the beetles. I stopped counting after dunking more than 300 into soapy water. The beetles enjoy eating the leaves of more than 200 different...
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By Lorraine Hunter If you have garden space to spare or a fruit tree that produces more apples, pears or plums than you can use, there may be an organization near you eager to plant vegetables in that space or pick that fruit to distribute or sell in your community. Connecting locally grown food...
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By Karen York The collapse of honeybee populations is devastating, as practically every fruit and vegetable we eat relies on bees to pollinate the flowers. No pollination means no delicious edibles. But don’t despair. Solitary bees, especially mason bees (Osmia lignaria), are buzzing to the rescue. Resembling metallic blue flies, these small native bees...
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Much has been written about how to dig a proper hole for a tree: make it at least twice the diameter of the rootball and don’t amend the soil. Mulch is good. Using a weed whacker near the trunk is bad. What’s often overlooked is how important it is to plant a tree at...
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By Judith Adam As winter fades and spring is finally imminent, a gardener’s thoughts turn to seed catalogues. Seeds are all about life, and people who sow them have an important role in perpetuating a plant species. At least, that’s the altruistic reason for growing plants from seed. I act from more primitive urges—to...
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Raised beds—beds with soil higher than the surrounding area—are a popular way to corral the chaos in vegetable or cutting gardens. Making a raised bed can be as simple as mounding soil up and then planting in it. However, without some sort of barrier to keep the soil in place, the depth of a...
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There are people who coach people in sports, business and many other activities. Garden coaches help people become better gardeners. A coach is an extra tool for people who like to garden, but need some expert guidance to help them make the most of their landscape. Coaching is a collaborative process with personalized advice...
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Meet my nemesis: Convolvulus arvensis, commonly called field bindweed. I commonly call it something much, much worse. Related to the lovely annual morning glory, field bindweed is a creeping perennial with roots that can penetrate up to 5 metres and produce more than 500 seeds per plant per year. If that doesn’t scare you,...
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By Judith Adam What gardener can resist providing a little treat to help plants grow vigorously? If you’re installing new plants, growth stimulants help them to become established more quickly. Or you may want to enhance the performance of a plant already in the garden. Natural growth stimulants increase the performance of your plants...
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We threw out our sticky cans of pruning paint after learning that sealing tree wounds with the paint increased the risk of insect and disease infestations, and the trees healed faster without it. When research showed that planting new trees in deep holes, backfilled with heavily enriched, amended soil actually hindered new roots from...
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