Table of Contents Are there suddenly holes in the leaves of your favorite plants? A common culprit is the Japanese beetle. Although the insect is only ½ inch in length, it can do a lot of damage to flowers and vegetables since it usually feeds in groups. It doesn’t help that these beetles aren’t picky eaters – they can and will invade and consume more than 300 species of plants....

I absolutely love thin chocolate mints. I mean, I love sweet things in general, but those cool mint patties coated in thin layers of dark chocolate are on a whole new level of deliciousness. Mentha × piperita f. citrata ‘Chocolate’ Easy to grow and propagate, chocolate mint is a fragrant plant that can add extra layers of flavor to drinks like tea and mojitos, sweet desserts, and even salads and savory dishes....

I’m going to lay out those options for you as well as give you a few tips on the picking process. When you’re growing spinach in your garden for use in fresh spring salads or warming autumn stir fries, knowing when and how to harvest can help ensure you extend the growth of your crop, and enjoy more meals from your plants. Packed with nutrition, this healthy leafy green, Spinacia oleracea, is a fantastic garden staple to have on hand in your backyard....

Juniperus conferta is a dense, evergreen shrub native to the seacoast of Japan and Sakhalin Island. With prickly blue-green foliage, the Shore Juniper grows as a low-spreading, creeping plant, making it an excellent ground cover plant type. An excellent ground cover for dry, sandy soils, and poor soils in general, conferta works perfectly in well drained soils in retaining walls. You can also plant it for erosion control. here’s everything you need to know about its care and maintenance....

Mexican heather is a small evergreen shrub that is native to Mexico. It tolerates high summer heat and prefers full sun. This low-maintenance plant is a perennial in warm climates and can also be grown as an annual in milder climates. This small shrub makes an excellent border plant and is a fantastic addition to any pollinator garden. It has small white, pink or purple flowers. Table of Contents Mexican heather plants go by many other nicknames such as Hawaiian heather, elfin herb, or false heather....

Flavors improve with cool nights, and plants can even withstand a light frost – but not a sustained freeze. As midsummer hits its stride with long, hot days, the production of leafy greens often slows or stops as plants bolt and prepare to set seed. But you can extend the season for fresh, crisp greens with a late planting of cool-season favorites like Swiss chard. Chard comes in a rainbow of brightly hued colors, with a highly attractive ornamental value for the fall garden, as well as outstanding nutrition and kitchen uses....

In this article, we zero in on what goes wrong when your broccoli forms loose, bitter heads, and how to prevent this from happening. Broccoli, Brassica oleracea var. italica, is a cruciferous crop, and a member of the Brassicaceae, or cabbage family. It grow best in cool weather, and can be quite a challenge to cultivate successfully. If you are new to growing this crop, you’ll need our guide to growing broccoli in your garden....

I’ve been experimenting with gardening techniques for about two years now. I started back in 2010 with my brother and Square Foot Gardening, a super-easy method of gardening at home. Funnily enough, I now also work for the author and his non-profit foundation. Table of Contents After SFG, I got into hydroponics and soil-free gardening. This was (and is) a great hobby of mine and only led me further down the rabbit hole of affordable gardening you can do at home....

What is a shady position? Here in this article, by shady we do not mean the position where the sun/ doesn’t reach or a place with no access to direct sunlight. It means there is scattered sunlight or direct sun but only for 3 hours or less. Can you grow tomatoes in shade? Would you like to experiment? In theory, plants such as tomatoes, peppers, strawberries or those that set fruits need a lot of sun in order to provide juicy fruits....

When it comes to harvesting these delicacies, though, there are a few things to know to have a good petal-chewing experience. Once you begin looking into edible flowers, you realize there is an amazingly abundant variety of perfectly palatable blooms. I’m no cook, but I’ve been caught nipping a tiny colorful snack off of plants I find here and there while hiking in the mountains. A surprising number of the blooms you find in gardens can also be found along the trail....

The name “Sclerotium” is a giveaway to what enables this fungus to be such a successful pathogen. It produces small resting structures called sclerotia that can both live on organic matter and infect plants. Sclerotium rolfsii What do you call a fungus that can infect hundreds of types of plants and live on organic matter in the soil for years? A gardener’s nightmare! In this case, the nightmare is called southern blight or southern stem....

Growing new spider plants from offsets is an easy indoor gardening project that can be accomplished with three different methods – we’re going to cover all three. In this article, we’re going to get down and dirty with spiderettes. Not sure what I’m talking about? They were the female backup singers for Ziggy Stardust back in the early ‘70s. Well… weren’t they? Ahem. Moonage daydreams aside, we’re actually talking about a different sort of spider altogether here – the offsets or plant babies that grow from spider plants, no Ziggy involved (unless of course you choose David Bowie as background music, in which case, I applaud your decision)....

When it comes to vegetables, Africa has a variety of options on offer. Many of them are super rich in protein, vitamins, and other nutrients with a mouth-watering taste. Sounds like a perfect combo? Check out the Best African Vegetables that are rare and uncommon. Types of Best African Vegetables 1. African Black Nightshade Botanical Name: Solanum scabrum Also popular by the name ‘Garden huckleberry,’ both its leaves and shoots are edible....

Prickly pear cactus or Opuntia are native to arid and semi-arid regions. They have a flat and rounded pad, with sharp spines over, known as Glochids. It grows extensively in Mexico, the United States, and South America. Here are some of the most amazing Prickly Pear Cactus Facts that you might not be aware of! 1. Great Cold-Hardy Plants Although they belong to the arid and semi-arid regions, these are cold-hardy plants and can survive temperatures as low as -30F (-34C)....

Come late February or March, the winter is on its way out over much of the country. It’s pruning time for folks who have woody-stemmed plants that bloom or hedges and shrubs that need shaping up. But how and when to prune are puzzling to many people who otherwise know a lot about gardening. There are some basic rules that can serve as guidelines for pruning, but one should also carefully consider the individual cultivars of plants they have and realize that some of them don’t follow the rules precisely....

There are a few key factors that go into determining the optimal start time for growing tomatoes. It can be confusing to try to figure out the right time to start tomatoes. If you wait too long to plant them you may not have enough time in the season to harvest a full crop. But on the other hand, if you start them too early you might risk stunting or even killing the plants....

Asian pear trees are loaded with lightly fragrant, pretty white blossoms in spring and finish off the season with a vivid fall display when the foliage turns intense shades of orange, red, and yellow. Asian pears bear delicious fruit with a crisp, juicy bite, and flavors that range from mild and melon-like to sweet caramel and butterscotch. Distinct in flavor and shape from their European cousins, the fruit has a rounded appearance like an apple and skins can be rough or smooth, with colors ranging from creamy pink, pale green, and yellow to bronze and russet, depending on the type....

With just a few minutes of extra work during autumn, you will be rewarded next spring with better germination rates, earlier sprouts, and healthier, more robust plants. I am the kind of gardener who tends to get overexcited and take on too much, and then I become overwhelmed when there is just too much to do! Does this sound like you? I am therefore always on the lookout for easier ways to do things....

It’d be a shame to leave cilantro out of your microgreen garden. Growing cilantro microgreens at home will add a zesty flavor and abundant nutrients to your food without the high price tag. Like most microgreens, Coriandrum sativum is very easy to grow. It is one of the more slow-growing microgreens, but well worth the wait. Table of Contents The difference between growing cilantro microgreens and just growing cilantro is all about harvest time....

It’s an old favorite for a reason, and you’ll see why below. Here’s what’s ahead in this article: Jacobaea maritima The trouble with dusty miller is finding something not to like about it. It has a lovely hue, likes full sun, and doesn’t care to be watered too often. You can throw it in the garden or in a container, and it will sing its thanks with reliable silvery foliage....