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Doorway Garden Fixtures Add Character and Distinction to your Entrance

Add character and distinction to your entrance with a doorway garden. Brightening up the front entrance can pay big dividends and reflect glory on the entire garden. A small enclosed dooryard garden offers infinite possibilities with garden fixtures and plantings which can be adapted to almost any architectural style. The idea of a dooryard garden […]

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Coleus A Colorful Outdoor Garden Asset

House plants can become a valuable asset to your outdoor garden if you consider their many useful possibilities. I attacked a new yard last year when after one tour of the back yard revealed an area that catered to chickweed, creeping Charlie and plaintain. With dappled shade from tall trees, tight, poorly drained soil, and […]

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Pruning Grape Vines – Prune According to Vigor

Question: Is the Fall or early Spring the best time to prune grapes? Answer: Although grapes may be pruned at either of these periods, late Winter or early Spring, after the coldest part of the Winter is over, is the best for this operation. Late February or early March is considered ideal in the North, […]

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Soil Testing: The Key to Better Vegetables

Most gardeners hear of soil testing and understand that good soil is a living thing, teeming with micro-organic life, essential to plants. They are also usually aware that soil organisms need air, so they keep their soil in good tilth (soil that has the proper structure and nutrients to grow healthy crops) to allow air […]

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Fuchsias – Where Do They Come From?

Fuchsias come from many corners of the earth. Tropical America furnishes a great number of species in various types. From Peru are the Fuchsia corymbiflora varieties, one handsome sort with coral blossoms, another having blooms in red and white. Also from Peru is Fuchsia macrantha, the largest flowered of all. In pinkish clusters each flower […]

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Strelizia Regina – Bird of Paradise

The bird of paradise flower, Strelitzia regina, is native to the deep, rich soil along the Gamtoos and Kowie rivers in South Africa. There it gets all the shelter, sun and moisture it needs, and the secret of growing it in this country is to duplicate those conditions as far as possible. The plant was […]

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Flowering Crab Apple Trees – Spring through Fall Beauty

Although some crab apples produce valuable fruit, most homeowners grow this flowering tree or shrub in the landscape for its beauty alone. A few become collectors and acquire several kinds with the same zeal and glow of satisfaction that comes from finding and possessing rare orchids, fine jade, strange seashells – or any lovely thing. […]

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Restarting Or Turning On Sprinkler System – Make It Spring Ready

Pop up irrigation sprinkler

In northern locations, where cold weather can damage irrigation systems, water is drained from sprinkler systems in the fall before freezing weather arrives as covered in “How To Winterize A Sprinkler System”. How To Turn On Sprinkler System When spring arrives its time to inspect the system, make changes or upgrades, and reactivate or “turn […]

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Landscape Garden Makeover 4 Do’s and Don’ts

Question: We just moved into a “new” house, actually a house we bought on a short sale. We think it is time for a complete garden makeover. The plants in the front lawn landscaping are overgrown and out of balance, should we prune them back or rip them out? Amy, Savannah, Georgia Answer: Amy, a […]

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How To Plant A Dry Wall

There are many reasons for the existence of rock walls. Such a wall may be the means of retaining a steep embankment, or of disposing of surplus stones. A rock wall can form a handsome dividing line between property or sections of a property. Whatever the reason, why not make them attractive? I have a […]

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