While many of summer’s perennials are winding down for autumn, you can refresh your garden’s color with garden mums. Colors ranges from many shades of yellow, orange, red, purple, bronze, pink and white. The flowers themselves come in many different forms, from spider types with long, narrow petals to cushion types that have wider, more compact flowers. Some mums are bred as outdoor garden plants, but many are bred as florist-potted plants, meant to be […]

Whether store-bought or homegrown, potatoes will turn green when they are exposed to light. Most folks know that they shouldn’t eat potatoes that have turned green, or at least cut away the affected portion. But it’s not actually the green color that is the problem. The green color comes from the pigment chlorophyll, produced as a response to light. The potato tuber that we eat is actually a modified stem structure that grows underground. The […]

Autumn frosts usually means lots of clean up around the yard and garden. Why not turn that yard waste into treasure? Composting is a naturally occurring process that breaks down organic materials into an excellent soil amendment that improves soil structure, as well as adds some nutrients. Composting will help you recycle your garden wastes, improve your soil and reduce disposal costs. All organic materials will break down eventually, but gardeners can speed up the […]

Every so often, gardeners find a deformed-looking flower or stem that appears as if the plant has bulked up on steroids. The stem or flower stalk will appear somewhat squashed and splayed, sometimes splitting in two or more sections. Or it may appear that two or more stalks have merged together to form one distorted structure. This odd growth is called fasciation, which literally translates to banding or bundling. Fasciation is thought to be caused […]

School science fairs often put students and parents on the hunt for project ideas. Of course, the point of these projects is for students, not parents, to learn how to plan and implement science! But, naturally, parents want to help their kids succeed. There are limitless resources available these days, especially with the help of the Internet. One of the most beneficial things moms and dads can do is to help their children find resources […]

If you’re not quite ready to hang up your gardening tools just because of a few killing frosts, fall is a great time to get your soil ready for next year’s planting. Removing this year’s plant debris is a good, general sanitation practice. Plant refuse makes a great place for insects and disease to overwinter. Why not turn that refuse into valuable compost? A properly constructed compost pile should create temperatures high enough to destroy […]

Gardeners often ask, “When is the best time to cut back the dead tops of herbaceous perennials (stems die back to the ground each year)?” “Should we cut them in fall as the tops fade?” “Or wait until spring just before new growth begins?” The answers depend, in part, on the specific plant and whether disease or insect pests are a factor. For most healthy plants, leaving plant tops over winter is fine and, in […]

Most gardeners think about planting bulbs this time of year rather than digging them up. But some flowering perennials are not hardy enough for our climate and must be lifted from the soil and their bulbs, roots or other underground structures stored indoors over winter. The most common garden plants in this category include gladiolus, caladium, tuberous begonias, canna and dahlia. Although these plants are all considered tender, each is best handled a bit differently […]

If your garden tomatoes look like they’ve been placed on hold, you’re not alone! Now it may sound like an easy excuse when we horticulturists blame such things on the weather, but I really think the extreme hot weather we experienced this summer might be the culprit. Tomato fruits go through several stages of development during their maturation process. During early stages, the fruit continues to grow in size and remains green, typically requiring 40-50 […]