Spring Fever is in the Air If you’re like many plant enthusiasts, you’re probably gearing up for the glorious transition to spring. And that means moving your cooped up tropical flowers back into the great outdoors. As you lay the groundwork for a magical growing season, here are four tips to help you with tropical…
The Big Chill (or Just Chill): Get a Spring Fever Fix by Forcing Bulbs Prepare to banish those cold weather blues by forcing bulbs into winter blooming. Nothing says “springtime!” more resoundingly than golden yellow daffodils, fragrant purple hyacinth, and heavenly scented paperwhites. And you may be surprised at how easy it is to learn…
A Taste of Summer… and Then Some. In the days of early fall, the sun disappears just a little earlier every evening. But that doesn’t mean summer herbs have to wait until next year. You can keep on cooking home-grown, fresh herbs if you follow these simple herb gardening tips. You know what they say:…
Funky, fun, and fancy — these aren’t your everyday pumpkins! From teeny-tiny to gigantic, white to aqua to gold, pumpkins are everywhere these days, signaling a change of seasons and heralding celebrations to come. These fancy, funky pumpkins can have hefty price tags, too. So you may have been wondering how to grow your own….
Container Planting Tips to Make the Most of Your Smart Pots After a successful gardening season, you may wonder what you should do with your Smart Pots during the off-season. There are numerous options. It all depends on you as a grower how you want to care for your Smart Pots during fall and winter…
Or rather, your soil. Whether you’re amending an in-ground area or improving a growing medium for your containers and raised beds, there is no substitute for good soil. And not just good soil, the best soil. Working on your soil may be a little less thrilling than aisles of fresh green plants and racks of…
Tapping Into Opportunity Anna Haupt was the manager at Fifth Season Gardening Company in Charlottesville, Virginia. For years, she sold flowers and vegetable plants in standard plastic nursery pots. But there was a problem. The plants dried out quickly, their roots tended to bind and they would ultimately tap through the holes in the bottom…
Got the itch to get dirty? Too cold to plant outside? Don’t forget you can start many of those popular fruits and veggies growing indoors while this Spring weather starts to warm up. Fabric aerations containers are great for growing plants, fruits and vegetables inside. It’s easy to get your seeds started so that you…
When potato planting time arrives, don’t turn over the soil — fill up a Smart Pot instead. You should grow potatoes in Smart Pots. Here is why: Planting potatoes in fabric planter bags makes growing potatoes super simple. Not only are the spuds easy to plant, when the growing season ends, they’re also a snap to…
Potting mix, also called potting soil, is a soilless blend of ingredients used to grow plants. Often containing a combination of peat moss, coir fiber, vermiculite, sand, perlite, pine bark, compost, and other ingredients, there are dozens of brands of commercial plant potting mix on the market. Though all good-quality potting mixes should be easy-to-handle,…