The ficus is one of the most popular and perhaps most temperamental houseplants in the world. Here is a quick guide to this beautiful houseplant and tips to keep it happy The Ficus family is among the most popular houseplants in the world. Varieties range from lush trees up to six feet high to tiny…
Here are 9 easy tips and tricks for happy, healthy houseplants. From blooming tricks to ways to repel pests, these tips and tricks will help your plants look their best. 1. Get stubborn violets to flower For African Violets that are green and healthy but just won’t bloom, make sure they aren’t hungry. Use a…
Have you ever wondered why some plants struggle to thrive in dim corners of your home or office? The truth lies in the critical role of light for plant health. Choosing the Plants for Low Light Areas is not just about beautifying these spaces but ensuring the plants you select can grow and flourish despite…
The right soil is crucial to your plants. Without it they won’t thrive and may even die. Here is a look at potting soil and a guide to choosing the right one. Houseplants need many things to survive and thrive-light, water, fertilizer, and soil. Many people underestimate the importance of choosing the right soil for…
They may look gorgeous and healthy in the store, but once they are brought home, things may go downhill fast. Here are the most common causes of houseplant death. It’s always disappointing when a houseplant dies, but most of the causes are easily preventable. Here’s how! Related: Why Do Your Plants Die And How To Avoid…
Shade has cooling effect on a home and garden. When trees, the best sources of natural shade aren’t available or practical, there are alternative plants. Shade is cooling and quieting in a yard or garden. It is the canopy from the sun. Trees offer shade but sometimes aren’t feasible to grow due to space, climate,…
Landscaping gardens to conserve water not only saves a precious resource, it also saves money. Use smart watering techniques plus mulch to create a water-wise landscape. During a hot, dry summer, a landscape overflowing with colorful flowers and lush green leaves usually only comes after hours and hours of watering. Fortunately, your landscape doesn’t have…
Marigold flowers are an annual flower that you only need to purchase once for years of beautiful flower gardens. Marigolds are a hardy flower that will continue to bloom all summer long. With proper sunlight and water, these colorful flowers will fill out any garden and add beauty to any yard. There are two basic…
A simple How-To tutorial on creating a beautiful perennial garden that is gorgeous in every season! Imagine seeing your garden in a different light. Instead of cold days with only snow and ice; you see transformed → your little plot of Heaven. This is the Four Seasons Garden … A Four Seasons Garden is not…
Worm composting is a great way for anyone with limited space to turn kitchen waste into compost for the garden or houseplants. Composting food scraps with worms, known as vermicomposting or vermiculture, has its advantages because it takes so little space and it takes very little work to make the best fertilizer. A can of rich,…
Aside from their obvious usefulness as pollinators, butterflies are lighter-than-air creatures that bring magic to the garden and lighten visitors’ hearts. Though butterflies are not as quick and busy as bees, they are just as important when it comes to pollination. Butterflies are beautiful additions to any garden and gardeners the world over yearn for…
Turn smelly compost bins and cold compost piles into sources of rich organic humus for the garden with these composting tips. Compost should form the foundation of an organic garden, so it’s understandable that a gardener can get discouraged when the compost bin that was supposed to produce black gold yields foul odors or surprise…
Recycle your household waste into useful items for the organic garden. Organic gardeners spend a lot of time and ingenuity thinking of new items to add to the compost bin. However, even if that wicker chair did eventually break down into something resembling organic matter, we must concede that many of our discards weren’t meant to become…
Organic gardeners can experiment with winter sowing methods to start seeds of hardy vegetables, flowers, and cover crops outdoors; no greenhouse is required. Traditionally, there has been a time in the winter months when the gardener must appraise the success of the past season while the garden lies fallow. The duration of this fallow period…
Great changes take place within a compost pile so that it becomes greater than the sum of its parts – there are more usable nitrates than in the original material. “Good micro-organisms in the finished compost protect and nurture plants Composting can be anaerobic or aerobic and be made as a batch or continuously. Anaerobic…
The best care for flowers, vegetables or a lush green lawn begins with preparing the soil by digging in lots of organic matter down deep where plant roots wander. Whether starting a new organic vegetable garden, or renovating an old flower bed, proper soil preparation will pave the way to long-term soil fertility and healthy…
Easy to grow coleus with its bright colored foliage is making a comeback in the shady garden, and as an indoor plant for home and office. Brightly colored Coleus (Solenostemon) plants were brought to England in the mid-1800s by botanist and explorer Karl Blume, who had found them growing wild on the tropical island of…
Annual plants grow and flower quickly and these annuals are perfect additions to a nose-pleasing fragrance garden. Which scents will you add to your garden? Scented Geranium (Pelargonium spp.) Zones 9-11. Scented geraniums are actually Pelargoniums and should not be confused with hardy garden Geraniums. They do, however, have a great place in the fragrance garden…
Whether your shade garden is well-drained and somewhat dry, or moist and somewhat boggy, there are flowering plants for your full shade landscape plot. These five flowering plants are able to provide gardeners with lots of color even in full shade garden beds. 1. Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia) for Moist Shade Gardens Foamflowers have attractive flower…
To draw more butterflies to the yard, plant a garden of their favorite flowers. Here are a few suggestions. Sunny mornings or balmy evenings on the porch aren’t complete without a few butterflies to watch. The fragile, colorful visitors make garden chores more pleasant, too. Children, in particular, find butterflies fascinating. To draw more of…