What Is Compost Tea? As the name implies, this is a liquid derived from ‘steeping’ or ‘brewing’ compost in water. It is nutrient-rich, especially in nitrogen and has beneficial micro-organisms in it. Gardeners know compost will enrich their garden soil and aid their flowers and vegetables to thrive. You can also make a tea from the material that is easy to brew and has many benefits for the garden and indoor plants....

Snails! They’re cute, but most gardeners don’t get excited about slugs and snails eating their plants. They’re often treated as pests because snails feed on foliage and can remove tender leaves quickly. Some see little difference between snails and insects. But is a snail an insect? Table of Contents Well, the short answer is no. They’re members of the animal kingdom, like bugs. But they’re in a different phylum altogether — the phylum Mollusca to be exact — unlike insects who are in the phylum Arthropoda....

Keep your garden simple Keep your garden simple; apply low maintenance landscaping and designs. Eliminate all the fancy and fragile stuffs from your garden. Be selective on water features: A pond requires lot of maintenance, either design it for easy care or remove it. Don’t flood your garden with lot of plants growing hither and thither, grow them in appropriate conditions. Mulching Do mulching, it helps to retain moisture in soil that means less watering....

Why does this happen? I’ll suggest three possible explanations and give you pointers on how to cope with each. Growing vegetables involves an element of mystery, but not always a positive one. Case in point: When zucchini drop their blossoms instead of producing squash to harvest and eat. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission....

Sweet potato plants are a nutritious option to keep the cellar full during winter! Gardeners growing large harvests will need to keep a few things in mind when harvesting sweet potatoes to prolong the life of their delicious bounty. Table of Contents While the growing season is full of high humidity weather, in order to make them last all winter, they prefer cool and moisture free environments for storage. Storage can only happen after a process called curing, during which the starches in the sweet potato turn into sugars, and the tuber forms a second skin that makes it more resistant to injury....

A true charmer, these long-lasting pinks are a must-have for borders, raised beds, containers, rockeries, and cottage gardens. And they make an appealing ground cover, flowering over summer and remaining evergreen for winter. Dianthus gratianopolitanus ‘Firewitch’ Among the most fragrant and profuse bloomers in the Dianthus genus, ‘Firewitch’ is a delightful and popular hybrid belonging to the Cheddar pinks species, D. gratianopolitanus. A low-growing cultivar with small, rosy-pink flowers and an aromatic, spicy fragrance of cloves, the flowers rise on slim stems from dense mats of silvery, blue-green foliage....

Every gardener instinctively knows that puttering around with your plants can have a profoundly uplifting effect! The mental health benefits of gardening tend to be underestimated, but are definitely present. Table of Contents Our gardens confer a special kind of serenity upon us which is often hard to come by in our frenetic, pressured world. It is only in recent years that doctors and mental health professionals have begun to truly delve into the healing potential of gardening....

Even though asparagus is dioecious – with plants that are either male or female gendered – both the males and females produce foliage and flowers. But only female plants produce seed. Growing asparagus in the home garden takes patience. Depending upon which option you choose at planting time – seeds, crowns, or starts – it can take several growing seasons before the bed you’ve lovingly prepared will play host to those tender, delicious springtime spears....

Succulents are plants that thrive on neglect. However, the majority of them die due to is improper watering techniques. Learning How often to Water Succulents is an essential aspect of keeping these plants healthy. This article will share tips you need to apply to water them correctly! Check out our article on best types of Succulents you should grow here How to Water Succulents Indoors? In indoor space, water succulents until it start to drain out from the bottom of the pot....

Self-fertile, each flower is equipped with both male and female reproductive parts. So, with just a few minutes of extra effort a week if conditions are less than ideal, you can be sure of an abundant, fruitful crop! With their lush green foliage, pretty yellow blossoms, and rich, red fruit, tomato plants make a beautiful and functional addition to the garden, deck, or patio. But if something goes wrong and the fruit fails to set, it’s a major disappointment!...

In this guide, we’ll talk about when and how to harvest caraway seed at the peak of their flavor for consumption and future crops. Caraway, or Carum carvi, is a biennial herb that is entirely edible. It’s best known for its pungent fruit, or seed, that is used to flavor classic rye bread. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission....

What if I told you that the secret to unlocking more productivity could come in the form of a plant? Yes…a simple houseplant. In a study performed by Exeter University, office workers who filled their work spaces with houseplants experienced a 15% bump in productivity. This means that during an average eight-hour workday, you essentially could be finished after six hours and 48 minutes due to the rise in plant-generated productivity....

Table of Contents While growing microgreens is relatively simple when compared to a lot of hydroponic plants, you can still run into a lot of different problems. In the microgreens business that I have recently started, I’ve found that it’s been a challenge to control for all of the different things that can go wrong when growing restaurant-ready microgreens. Here are all of the microgreen problems I have run into, along with how to solve them!...

Aloes are quirky-looking plants that every gardener should try at least once. These succulents are great for beginners because they thrive on neglect. Aloes also help clean the air and are highly medicinal, particularly the well-known aloe vera. Perhaps one of the most overlooked benefits of aloes is that they’re very easy to propagate. Not only is propagation an exciting project, it results in lots of plants and saved money. Whether you’re propagating aloe to fill out your garden or make gifts to share, we guarantee you’ll have fun!...

Ready for your best harvest ever? Learning how to prune blackberry bushes is an important part of growing a successful crop. In addition to keeping berry brambles from becoming overgrown and unmanageable, pruning improves yields and creates healthier, stronger plants. Blackberries are perennials, which means once you establish a patch, you can have a berry harvest every year! We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission....

But it’s not the latest thriller. Your camellia has black mold, also known as sooty mold, which is a dark fungus that looks like a layer of ash and covers the leaves and stems of plants. Pretty well named, right? You head outside to enjoy your garden when you spot it: something has turned your beautiful camellias into a terrible scene straight out of a horror movie. The leaves of your shrub are totally black, as if a massive fire or some sort of demon from Hades made its way through the garden and coated your plant in soot....

Invariably, those poor souls struggling with their dragon trees and mother-in-law’s tongues are seeing their plants suffering, so they add more water. I wish I had a dollar for every time someone told me they were swearing off Dracaena plants because they keep dying. I’d be able to afford a lot more houseplants! We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission....

If you’re like me, you probably started out in your gardening hobby by growing in soil. I started out with some pepper, rhubarb chard and herb seedlings from the local garden store, threw them in some pots and watered them every few days. Table of Contents Watching them grow over the months was an amazing introduction to the magic of growing my own veggies and herbs. Listen to this post on the Epic Gardening Podcast:...

1. Thriller Thrillers are tall, upright plants that add the height to the arrangement. Thrillers are the great way to add a vertical aspect to your containers. Thriller Plant Options Ornamental grasses Alocasia Canna lily Yucca Aster Coleus Cosmos Dracaena 2. Fillers Fillers are covering plants that spread to fill the gaps between the Thrillers and spillers. Filler Plant Options Geranium Impatiens Petunia Pansy Coleus Dusty miller Begonia Pentas Lantana 3....

Pierce’s disease or bacterial leaf scorch has come in waves over the years, but things for California’s wine, raisin, and grape industry took a turn for the worse in the 1990s when a new type of insect was accidentally introduced from infested nursery stock from the southeast. Xylella fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa In the 1880s, a new disease decimated vineyards in the Los Angeles basin. California’s first professional plant pathologist, Newton B....