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Are your hot pepper plants out of control? Do you see heaps of beautiful, bright colored chiles at the local farmers’ market and wish you could make something wonderful from them? Have you made all the salsa your freezer can hold, and you’re still looking at a mound of hot peppers waiting for you to do *something* with them? Homemade hot sauce is the answer! It’s fun and easy to make, and it’ll be a big hit at your next party!
A stroll through your garden will reveal flowers, fruits, stems, branches and leaves, but you'll have to do some digging to see the rest of your plant. Here I'll introduce you to the underground plant parts, including roots and a variety of underground storage organs that are used by plants and by us as food sources . . .
Too often I see Geraniums treated as annuals. Allowed to die in the fall and then mulched or thrown in the trash. This is not necessary, a few simple steps and your Geraniums can last for years.
Until this gardening year I killed ALL weeds, without mercy. It was a never-ending and tedious job. No matter what weed cloth I used, no matter how thick the mulch I applied, I still had weeds... and I am against using chemicals. In my mind, NO weed had any redeeming qualities. I was wrong.
What is the superhero of the fruit tree world? Why the humble Plum, able to thrive in places other fruits have long forgotten, live in famine or in deluge, and be able to produce at a very young age. This is one fruit tree you need in your garden. They are stunning in full bloom or fruit.
This is one of the funniest Aunt Bett stories I will ever tell you. If you have ever laughed out loud at a most inappropriate time, you will surely understand the quandary I found myself in. A church service is a serious event, but in this one instance.....well, I might as well just take you with me on this little trip back to my twelfth year.
Do you appreciate the rich patina of an antique? Is your house filled with relics form days gone by? Perhaps Granny's priceless heirlooms reside happily in your parlor. Antiques add character to the decor of a home. Did you know there are a variety of antique flowers? These antique flowers can be found in many gardens and in countless settings. Why not travel back in time by creating a garden abundant with antique flowers?
Once I get a new plant, I like to know what kind it is. This means that I want to know the genus and species of the plant, and perhaps what variety it is. Most gardeners may not realize that this simple desire is not so easily met, even amongst scientists who specialize in the accurate identification and ancestral lineage of plants. Read on to see why this is so . . .
Dasylirions are one of the most ornamental of the desert landscape plants commonly available in cultivation. This article serves as an introduction to these beautiful plants along with some cultivational information as well.
Every year, on the last weekend of July, I have the pleasure of visiting Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin for a memorial golf tournament with my boyfriend Jack. The weekend itself is a tribute to the spirit of Jack’s friend Vinny, who died much too young, and to the joie de vivre of his surviving sister, Ginny, who keeps a summer house on the lake.
Daylilies abound in gardens across America. Is it because they are so easy to grow and inexpensive, hardy, or pretty and dependable? Maybe its because daylilies (Hemerocallis) lend themselves so well to sharing. Even the most inexperienced of gardeners can successfully divide daylilies at any time during the growing season. Here's a pictorial tutorial about dividing and sharing daylilies.
As I recently travelled to France to meet relatives and friends and spent some time in the Minervois I thought it would appeal to some readers to discover this rather poorly known area of France.
Erythroniums are among the most graceful of the spring-flowering bulbs yet are not grown nearly as much as they should be. If you have a lightly shaded garden or rockery, then these bulbs are ideal. Turk's-cap like flowers, lovely mottled foliage...what's not to love about these plants? Read on to learn more about these under-utlized bulbs.
On Saturdays, the Writer's Group would like to say thanks by presenting a "You Supply The Caption" photo. A gardening related photo will be presented, and you the Readers will provide humorous captions. The wit available on Dave's is some of the best around, so please join in the fun! This feature is not a "for compensation" article - just our way of saying Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoy...now let's hear some funny stuff!
I want my gardening photos to have the "WOW" factor like so many I see on Dave's Garden. I'm not a great photographer, and even though I have a fairly good camera (Sony DSC-H1), my photos sometimes need a bit of tweaking. Some of my photos are too dark, or too big, or not centered right. Some aren't crisp enough for me. Picasa can fix all of these things. Let me show you what I've learned in the past few weeks.
What could be happening to your furniture? Are bugs munching in your table as you enjoy your dinner on your table? Are unexplained piles of dust invading your home? Am I making this up? Read on...
The following article includes an introduction to variegated succulents, and then an overview of some of the more commonly grown Agaves and related variegated succulents in cultivation. Future articles will cover some of the other variegated succulents (Aloes, Euphorbias, etc.)
You've been harvesting a bounty of basil all summer, pinching and pinching to keep the plants from blooming so the leaves will stay sweet. By now, some of your basil plants may be out of control and blooming madly. Rather than trying to stop them, let them do their thing and harvest a bumper crop of seeds to share and trade. It’s time to let your basil bloom!
My grape vines, already many years old when I moved here, grow up the sides of the barn and one outbuilding. Underneath the vines are hundreds of nails, spikes, wires and other fasteners added over time to support the heavily-laden vines when fruiting. Not the best way to support grapes!
Today’s hybridizing techniques are taking watermelon to a new high for nutrition and health. Fresh watermelon is still available, so don’t miss out on its summertime flavor and nutritional benefits. Learn from watermelon growers on how to grow the many varieties of this super fruit in your own garden.
We continue our exploration of the varied types of leaves by focusing on leaf margins, leaf tips and leaf arrangements. These characteristics vary as widely as the others I've covered in previous articles. Knowing more about them will aid you further in properly identifying and distinguishing different plants. . .
What is the one garden tree that you don’t plant for yourself but for your grandchildren? The simple household pear is notorious for being slow to start fruiting and the but of many a rural joke when someone plants a tree. This tree might not be the most popular but, all in all, this tree is great for the garden and among the longest lived trees in the fruit world.
You were told from birth that it made you sniffle and sneeze, and you're sure it also causes the tears to flow. At the same time, it is such a beautiful sea of gold in the field next to yours, you have no choice but to admire it. Here is another look at Goldenrod.
To paraphrase that well-worn Shakespearean saw about a rose: A glad by any other name is still a glad. But...is it one gladiolus or one gladiola? Is it two gladiolus, two gladiolas, two gladioluses, or two gladioli? All of these forms of the name appear in a Google search of "gladiolus." Proper Latin would dictate only two: gladiolus (singular) and gladioli (plural). I prefer to use "glad," which avoids this confusion altogether.
Dave's Garden is a great place to share photos of your garden. Everywhere you look, people are posting photos of beautiful blooms and landscapes. Along with the incredible people that come here, beautiful photos are one of the things that keep us coming back to Dave's Garden. So many of the photos posted have that "WOW" factor that leaves you with a big smile on your face. While there are some fantastic photographers here on Dave's, there are also some not quite so fantastic photographers, like myself, that just have a good photo editor.
As leaf shapes among the Alocasia species go, this particular one is hard to beat. Although it is a challenging plant to grow, this Alocasia is well worth your effort if you have a warm greenhouse and can give your plant the attention it needs . . .
In part 3 of this 3-part series, I will discuss those hardy deciduous shrubs whose main attractive feature are their variegated leaves. This will include those shrubs with white, cream or yellow edged leaves as well as those with marbled foliage. Unlike yellow and purple foliage shrubs, these shrubs often work well in shady sites, helping to brighten up dark corners of the garden.
You know that you can use house plants to 'green' up your home. Many of you are probably familiar with flowering house plants as well; african violet, orchid, hoya and so many more. But there is another way to introduce color into your home with potted plants.
Gardens are of course attractive to most plants lovers but roses gardens have a special hint as those flowers stand high among floral kingdom and bear deep symbolism for humans. We will take a stroll in one of those magical places.
Dyckias and Hechtias are two terrestrial bromeliad species that are excellent potted as well as landscape plants, particularly for warm, arid climates. The following serves as an introduction to some of these plants and suggestions on how to grow them.
Sometimes a glimpse or a scent will carry us back to another place, another time. My friend recently gave me rootings from a plant that grew in the mountains of eastern Kentucky where she had been visiting. They were young plants with an abundance of large leaves, but no blooms. It did not take me long to remember my mother's oakleaf hydrangea.
On Saturdays, the Writer's Group would like to say thanks by presenting a "You Supply The Caption" photo. A gardening related photo will be presented, and you the Readers will provide humorous captions. The wit available on Dave's is some of the best around, so please join in the fun! This feature is not a "for compensation" article - just our way of saying Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoy...now let's hear some funny stuff!
Hopefully you’ve already set up a basic Dave’s Garden Journal through the first two parts of this series. Now what on earth do the rest of all these crazy words mean? Cloning, milestones, statuses and hopefully any other questions you might have will be explained here. Now you’re really getting organized!
