Best Time To Plant Laurel

When adding organic matter to the fill dirt, dig the hole as deep as the root ball and three times as wide so the shrub will have plenty of organic soil where it can spread its roots.Mountain laurel has a shallow root system and needs watering more often...

For more details on this myth see2 Each of the Panhellenic games was dedicated to the worship of a particular god, and the victors were crowned with the leaves of a plant sacred to that god.

It's nearly pea-planting time! One of my favorite homegrown veggies, peas find a spot in my garden each and every year. Six-foot-tall sugar snap varieties will obviously require taller, sturdier branches, while an 18-inch-tall selection will only need...

I planted early varieties of both sugar snaps and snow peas in the garden, and I'm looked forward to the first harvest in 55 or 65 days, when the plants mature. Regular harvesting also ensures continual production until the warm temperatures set in, which...

When I was a child, my dad told me Daylight Saving was started to give the farmers an extra hour of daylight in the summer to get their work done. Actually, the term "spring ahead" has always stuck in my mind, so I knew I had to set my clock forward an...

Competition was keen for this pleasant task.Finally summer vacation arrived and the flowers were left to fend for themselves. Some of the most compact cultivars are ‘Million Gold', ‘Lemon Delight', ‘Melanie', and ‘Derby' which grow about 10 inches...

To reduce moisture loss, trim off all leaves. Among native bees and wasps, onion flowers are equally popular. Keep the rooted plants in a cold place like an unheated garage or outbuilding.

Mulching like this also means you can adopt a no-till method of gardening. The weedy strip is ground that hasn't been mulched, while the clear ground either side beautifully demonstrates how a thick layer of mulch keeps weeds away and the ground nice...

Branches that are too thick for the machine can go on your fire if you have one, or be used to make bug habitats. Sawdust should be used with care, as if used fresh it can mat together and make it hard for water to permeate.

In this way, retaining logs or boards have what you might call a hugelkultur effect. You can now play with various bed designs and materials, using your drawing as a planning tool.

Summer Compost for Fall Veggies My new seedlings of broccoli, cabbage, kale, kohlrabi and other widely spaced plants get a huge helping of fresh summer compost, buried by the spadeful at the bottoms of their planting holes, with a little organic fertilizer...

You will need to protect plants should a frost threatens while there is still some of the growing season left to run. Remove the cover during the day or leave it in place if it is forecast to remain cold.

Cropping so prolifically can also cause branches to become so weighty that they actually snap under the strain. Make pruning cuts to an upward-facing bud to prevent branches from drooping too much when heavy with fruit Some plum varieties, like ‘Victoria',...

If you are going to pick lots of fruits, or you're a little absent-minded like me, then wear a pair of gloves for the job. Drying is an excellent way of preserving chilies. Photo by Christopher Holden Fine, smooth fishing line is the best thread for your...

Suspend it over plants to help them keep their cool. Now sink your pots into the water and simply walk away, leaving them to soak up the liquid for an hour or more. Allow the water to completely drain away, then fill and drain once again before you sow.

If you're thinking you could simply replant some of your summer-harvested potatoes, I'm afraid this will only meet with disappointment. Position the seed potatoes 30cm (12in) apart along the bottom of trenches spaced at least 60cm (24in) apart.

Plums are notorious for over-producing – with often-disastrous results. It sounds counterintuitive, but there's logic behind this apparent madness I promise! Read on or watch our video to find out why we do it.

You can buy them on cards primed with ready-to-hatch pupae to hang up near infected plants. Greenhouse whitefly are tiny but can seriously weaken plants Greenhouse Whitefly Organic Controls Whitefly can strike any time from the middle of summer.

And if you're heading away from home for more than a week, encourage your neighbors to harvest them – they'll get free food and you'll come home to continued pickings! Keep picking to keep the harvests coming 2.

No food gardener's armory is complete without a length of fine mesh netting. Hold your nerve, and if your predatory platoon of frogs, hoverflies, ladybugs and so on is in place, you can achieve, if not an outright conquest, then at least peaceable relations...

Transplant cabbages when they have at least three or four adult leaves Transplanting Cabbage The seedlings are ready to transplant about six weeks after sowing, by which time they should have grown at least three to four adult leaves.

After all, what's the point in having a beautiful garden if you can't take a moment to revel in its all-round gorgeousness? A couple of lights directed up into the branchwork of a tree looks stunning.

I used lightly blanched watermelon radish sticks to mimic tuna in vegetarian sushi. Diversify your fall garden with red-skinned Chinese radishes (top), white daikon radishes (right), and watermelon radishes (left) Daikon radishes have long, upright leaves...

Tougher vegetables, such as carrots, need four. Today it's just wonderful to be able to click open a jar of home-made chutney, or to add a generous pinch of dried herbs to cooking that will bring a reminder of summer in the depths of winter.

Other names for rutabaga ( Brassica napus var. The leaves are big and wavy, like turnips, but have a smooth surface with bluish bloom like cabbage. The same pests that bother other brassicas can affect rutabagas, but they usually don't.

Saving Onion & Leek Seeds Onions, leeks and shallots set seed in their second year. The beautiful seed heads of onion family plants are attractive to beneficial insects How to Store Saved Seeds Dry seeds can be cleaned before storing by carefully blowing...

Then, get them planted right away. Be careful to avoid damaging the plant embryo inside the seed – you want to cut just through the seed coat while leaving the plant embryo and other structures within the seed unharmed.Many seeds have a hilum, a scar...