Published January 8th, 2010 It can be frustrating to invest money and sweat into a home landscape and not get the “look” you dream about. It takes some imagination plus a dose of real-life experience to visualize landscaping that can transform your home to a showplace for the least possible cost. We all see well-landscaped …
Published January 8th, 2010 Modern gardeners are hungry for a return to traditional gardening methods, like building garden soil with organic compost and fertilizers. Petro-chemical based fertilizers are widely believed to deplete soils over time, fatiguing and defeating the natural process of renewal that makes good garden soils and healthy vegetables. For one thing, petrochemicals …
Published January 8th, 2010 How about trading your “necklace” for a new den? Sounds silly, and maybe you don’t even own a necklace. But we’ll bet you’ve gone to a lot of trouble adorning your house with a “necklace” of foundation shrubs so it’ll look good to the neighbors. We’d like to suggest using plants …
Published January 8th, 2010 The Cincinnati Zoo is a terrific resource for gardeners during the summer months, a time of year when their impressive show gardens are at their peak. In cooperation with the Cincinnati Flower Growers Association (an organization of greenhouse growers) and the Ohio State University Horticulture Program, the Cincinnati Zoo plants over …
Published January 8th, 2010 Plant breeders never sleep. In our lifetime we’ve seen a revolution in genetically engineered plants, giving us such innovations as “Roundup-Ready” soybeans. When a variety is introduced that is clearly superior it becomes well known and other plants are forgotten. A good example of this is Silver Queen corn. We’re now …
Published January 8th, 2010 Everyone loves the old-fashioned fragrant lilacs that grace so many old farmyards and your grandmother’s lawn. At this time of year their heavy perfume is distinctive and irresistible. Sentimentality helps us overlook their shortcomings in the modern landscape, but the fact remains that Syringa vulgaris (Old-fashioned purple lilac) is too large for most …