7 Poinsettia Mistakes to Avoid

Poinsettias are beautiful plants that bring with them the spirit and the joy of Christmas, working with poinsettias on many interior plantscape projects during the holidays brought much delightful cheer to many areas of the five-start resort where I once was employed including private homes.

But knowing how to properly care for poinsettias to maintain their beauty and luster during the holidays is the difference between success and failure, the proper care of these garden beauties is not difficult.

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9Proven Ways to Winter Proof Our Gardens for Beneficial Insects

During the spring and summer months, beneficial insects do a great job by rendering their service that benefits us greatly, whether it is a home garden, plant nursery, farmland, or whatever type of garden project we are involved with,  beneficial insects make their presence felt by protecting our garden plants from garden insect pests or by ensuring that our fruits trees, flowers, and other garden plants received the pollination that was needed to produce a great harvest.

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 Tips to Prepare Your Garden for Winter

The changing weather is a sure sign that the winter months are fast approaching, the spring and the summer months were full of so much to do as many gardeners and plant growers across the country made those needed changes even for some that gave their gardens a makeover. Whether growing ornamental plants or edible crops on a small or wide scale there is no denying the time and hard work spent did not go without their rewards as we connect with nature giving a helping.

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Tips to Winterize Your Pepper Plants

The flavors of peppers can wake up any dish with its flaming sizzle, this spice plant is a favorite of many worldwide especially in the Caribbean.  There are an estimated “50,000 varieties of peppers that are grown throughout the world, but most of them are not considered to be hot just 4,000”. Peppers are usually grown as annuals but in tropical -sub-tropical climates they are rare as perennials.

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5 Garden Pests to Look for in the Winter

During the spring and the summer months garden pests can become a real issue, farmlands, nurseries, home gardens, and other plant growers are faced with the challenge of controlling garden insect pest populations. If these pests are left unchecked and not dealt with can cause server damage, according to one study it’s estimated that the damage insect pets cause on a yearly basis amounts to ” $77 billion”.

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7 Ways to Provide for Wildlife in the Fall

Nature is about to take her long-awaited rest until the warmer season returns, with the colder months looming just ahead many wildlife unlike bears, raccoons, chipmunks, squirrels, wood frogs, and other species of animals that go into hibernation, will be faced with the challenge of finding shelter and food.

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Tips to Control Pest in the Winter

Creating a garden oasis or growing an edible garden has its rewards but keeping your garden growing healthy requires best management practices to ensure that your plants are getting what they need for proper growth.  From cultivating the soil, soil amendments, to weed control, water management, and fertilizing schedules are some practices that must be carried out but one challenge that must be dealt with is the control of garden pests.

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Winterizing Mandevilla Indoors

During the spring and summer months Mandevillas puts on a beautiful display of flower blooms, this tropical to sub-tropical garden beauty is a warm-season plant that’s native to Central and South America.

Mandevilla produces green glossy leaves, the trumpet-shaped flowers come in an array of colors from white, yellow, and shades of pink, for example, bold hot pink, soft, cotton-candy pink and bright pink, bright red, and apricot varieties, etc…

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Extend The Growing Season with these Ideas

The winter months are just ahead of us but that does not mean that when winter arrives we have to stop (gardening) doing what we love. We can continue to connect with nature in our indoor living space ( indoor winter garden) which presents as much opportunity as working in our outdoor garden area.

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Fiddle Leaf Fig Winter Care

Fiddle leaf fig also known as ficus lyrata is a broad-leaf evergreen that grows along the Western  African coast, this garden beauty belongs to the mulberry and fig family Moraceae. The fiddle leaf fig can reach heights of  60-100’tall in its native habitat and can also be grown as a popular indoor plant growing from 2-10′ tall. Many years ago I worked as an interior plantscape technician for a 5-star resort and one plant that was used on many projects was the fiddle leaf fig.

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Winter Lawn Care Guide

The winter months have finally arrived, your once beautiful green lawn has lost its lusters as your grass turns a straw-yellow/brown color. This lawn discoloration is quite common during this time of the year for warm-season grass as it goes into a dormant state going to sleep taking its long winter rest until the warmer seasons arrive.

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Preserving Your Garden Tools

The winter months are finally here and what that means is a slowing down from working outdoors but this time of the year provides us a chance to focus on our garden tools as we give them that much-needed cleaning and rest from working hard during the spring, summer and fall months.

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Where Do Insects Go During Winter?

As the winter months, approaches does this spell doom and gloom for insects putting an end to their nuisance from invading our homes and gardens, or is it that even during this time of the year they show us just how adaptable they are. There are mixed views on this topic and while it is true that extreme cold conditions can reduce their population research has shown that insects are adaptive surviving the freezing winter chill burrowing into the soil, overwintering in mulch, leaf piles, and loose tree bark.

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Growing Edible Foods in Winter

Growing your edible foods provides you the opportunity to grow healthy while saving a few dollars this is an awesome way for the whole family to connect with nature during the winter months. Below we will be discussing how this is done.

A great way to extend the season is with greenhouse gardening, whether you’re growing fruits, vegetables, herbs, shrubs, or some other type of plant species one thing for sure and that is with a greenhouse you can grow plants both for enjoyment and for food. Many homeowners are getting into greenhouse gardening because of the benefits that are involved.

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Winter Garden Do’s and Dont’s

Protecting your landscapes and ensuring that your garden plants survive the harsh winter months is a great way to ensure the survival of your garden once the cold season passes. Many homeowners have made the mistake of not taking these steps which has caused them big time.

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10 Winter Flowering Plants

The fall months are just about over as we approach the winter with their long chilly days, this is the time of the year nature takes her long-awaited rest as snow-covered garden plants fall to sleep and flower blooms in their array of beautiful colors slowly fades. The good news however is that even during the winter months your garden can still display beautiful flower blooms giving you a colorful winter during the cold season.

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Growing Plants In The Winter

For many of us, the approaching winter months can put a damper on spending time in our gardens, the good news however is we can still do what we love even during the winter months by extending the season with these garden tips that are simple but have proven to give good results.

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Using Mulches in Cold Climate Gardens

The use of mulches in the landscape and gardens serves many purposes, besides being used for beautification, suppressing weeds, conserving moisture, increasing microbial activity, keeping the soil temperature cool, helping to adjust the soil’s ph, adding nutrients, and helping to build soils mulches are also used to protect the roots of garden plants during the winter months.

If you haven’t already now is the time to use this all-natural material that has so many benefits. This way of gardening is smart and has proven to be effective in maintaining plants. Here’s what to consider when preparing your garden plants for the cold months ahead.

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Winter Proofing your Garden for Wildlife

It’s that time of year again when those chilly days and nights lets us know that winter is fast approaching. As we prepare for this time of the year let us not forget the wildlife that graced our gardens by making them their homes.

How wonderful it is for wildlife to make our gardens a part of their natural habitat but as much as we enjoy having them around as their presence brings our gardens to life with their activities during the warmer months they are depending on us to give them a helping hand during the colder months so they can settle down during those cold days and nights being sheltered from the harsh winter frost.

So let’s ensure their safety by making our gardens cozy getting a jump start on the winter months so when spring and summer arrive they can once again bring much enjoyment with their presence.

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Giving your garden a break

Implementing these 12 tips for winter gardening success

It’s that time of year again as we enter the winter months with snow-covered gardens that let us know that winter is here. This is the time of year when our garden plants go into rest mood from all that hard work during the spring and summer months as they put forth flowers, fruits, and all of that other good stuff as we reaped a good harvest from the many hot days that were spent in our gardens.

But before those chilly days sets in and the snow appear there are some things to consider like preparing both ourselves and our gardens as we enter the winter months.

Creating a checklist

Creating a checklist is so important because what we don’t want is to leave anything undone when it comes to ensuring that everything is in place which will make this time of year a lot easier when securing our gardens.

Let’s get started

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Winter gardening for garden success

Winter gardening is a great way to extend your season, This method is not new but has been around for generations. In this article we will be looking at ten winter garden plants that can survive the cold

and brighten up those chilly days as you enjoy their beauty and charm, so give it a try and venture upon this amazing experience. I promise you will be glad that you did.

Winter garden plant list

Firethorn

Firethorn is a great choice for winter gardening. This plant grows to about 16 feet can survive in moist or dry soils and thrives in partial sun, full sunlight, or shade.

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 Winter Gardens, Gardening year-round

It’s that time of year again when bears and other wildlife go into hibernation, the sweet chirping of birds silently comes to a halt as they fly south, butterflies and bees are no longer about their daily activities as they seem to vanish from your eyes.

The beautiful trees that once graced your landscape with their beautiful lush green leaves stand naked as they are covered with snow, flowering plants that swayed so softly in the cool summer’s breeze refuse to flower but has fallen to sleep.

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