Don’t put away your flower pots and containers just yet! The holidays are coming up quickly, and it’s time to get festive with fancy decorations. Get your containers ready for the winter with this helpful guide on building gorgeous containers using materials from your garden, ornaments, and fresh greenery.
Winter safety includes keeping walkways free of ice. Many ice melting products are not plant-friendly. Commonly used rock salt, or sodium chloride, is extremely harmful to plant material and can impact the soil health.
Just as the days are their darkest and winter begins, the Christmas cactus starts to bloom. The radiant petals of pink, red, white, or yellow are a highlight of the holiday season, and keep blooming until mid-winter.
Dahlias tubers can be enjoyed for years with proper handling in the fall. Follow these easy tips from National Garden Bureau member American Meadows on how to dig and store your dahlias tubers.
Whether you live in an area where the water supply is tight, you want to be conscious about your water usage, or you’re looking to minimize the time and money you spend on watering your plants in the landscape, drought-tolerant plants are here for you.
Finding suitable plants that can thrive in a shady garden can seem like a discouraging task. The choices are actually more abundant than you might think. But what if you are looking for an exceptional plant that’s not so commonly seen, with unique qualities?
In recent years, we have lost many varieties of trees due to pests and diseases. Some of the notable ones include ornamental flowering pears, Bradford pears, elms, oak, and ash trees. There are many more, but these were the most prevalent in central Illinois.
One of the surest signs that spring has arrived each year is the blooming of the Bradford pear trees. Widely planted as a street tree, in the parking lots of malls and offices, and in home landscapes, they’re impossible to miss: oval-canopied trees with a mantle of white flowers so thick that it almost resembles snow.
Most of us probably remember this popular nursery rhyme; Mary, Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow? While we aren’t likely to be growing silver bells, cockleshells and pretty maids all in a row, we are interested in how our gardens grow. Gardening tends to be a skill that is learned best by doing.
Privacy trees are a great investment – they make front and back yards feel more homey and comfortable, and outdoor entertaining feels more comfortable when you’ve got some privacy from neighbors. Privacy trees are also great for shielding front windows if you keep your curtains open for your plants! Whether you have a small front yard in the city or sprawling field in the country, there are plenty of evergreen trees and plants for privacy in suit landscapes of any size.
