Joyce Kilmer ended his poem “Trees” with the line “But only God can make a tree.” Not so! I make, and you can make, trees by grafting. Learn how to graft at my May 4th 2024 workshop, and read about how to make a bark graft, both detailed on my website: www.leereich.com.
Deer love (to eat) tulips. Actually, humans have been known to eat them. (Important information about this in the blog post). Plenty of bulbs are deer proof. Join me as we time travel through spring and summer to enjoy more deer-proof bulbs in my latest blog post:
The fungi that cause damping off are everywhere, just waiting to topple seedlings! The why’s and the wherefore’s of controlling this horrendous disease are the topic of my latest blog post.
Bags of potting mixes now line shelves of garden centers, building supply stores, even food market. And with good reason. It’s time to grow seedlings and repot house plants, and some sort of potting mix is just the ticket for these plants; straight garden soil, even good garden soil, is unsuitable in pots. What’s really in these bags of potting mix? Can you make your own mix? I (figuratively) dig into these bags as well a provide my own (not so) secret recipe for potting soil in my latest blog post.
Some of my favorite trees, shrubs, and vines bear luscious fruits on plants that also grace the landscape with attractive flowers, leaf color, and/or winter form. They’re also all very easy to grow, not needing the pruning and pest control demanded by apples, plums, and other common fruits. Read about my picks in my latest blog post.
The soil offers a number of services to plants. Get the soil right and plants will thrive. What the soil offers plants and what needs done to the soil are the topics detailed in my latest blog post,
Most people, when they’re ready to plant fruit, plant apple trees. But apples are the hardest fruit to grow over much of the country and that’s mostly because of pest problems. You could spray chemicals. Or you could grow them organically, using various means of keeping the culpable insects and diseases at bay. All covered — you guessed it — in my latest blog post.
RDS (Rosemary Death Syndrome) has struck again, to my two, once attractive rosemary “standards.” Was it due to lack of water? Perhaps. But I have a new theory, which is . . . if you want to know, read about it in my latest blog post.
Is gardening a relaxing hobby? Not for me this time of year, when it’s time to plot out the vegetable garden factoring in crop rotation, succession cropping, etc., etc. Actually, for years it’s been easier than it was early on, especially when I realized that I should never delay planting for lack of a plan. Read how I got from there to here in my latest blog post.
As we celebrate Washington’s birthday, let’s question his honesty — about the cherry tree and all that. What are the chances that he even chopped down a cherry tree? I look at this question from a horticultural perspective in my lates blog post.
