Growing Hedges Made of Edible Plants By making the hedgerow productive, it now is useful for more than one purpose. The food forest hedge can be staggered to incorporate more plant material, thereby increasing its sustainability. The variety of plants should keep the incidence of disease low, while attracting many beneficial insects to the hedge, as well as the whole yard. Use edible hedges to separate garden rooms, provide a privacy screen or shade, create a living fence, or hide ugly structures....

Common Diseases of Lovage On the whole, lovage plants are relatively disease free. There are, however, a few common diseases that can strike. One such disease is early blight. It can usually be prevented by applying Trichoderma harzianum to the soil before planting in the spring. Good air circulation and three-year crop rotation are also helpful. If your lovage is already growing, spray a solution of water and baking soda on the leaves as a preventative measure....

Pecan Downy Spot Symptoms Downy spot of pecan symptoms usually manifest in late June to early July. Primary infection of new spring leaves stems from spores that have overwintered in old, dead leaves. The actual sign of a pecan tree with downy spot occurs near bud break in the spring. Downy spots appear in the late summer on the underside of new leaves. This downiness is caused by innumerable spores on the surface of the lesion....

What Does a Hummingbird Plant Look Like? Hummingbird plants are bushy plants that reach heights of 2 feet (61 cm.), with a spread of about 3 feet (1 m.). The velvety leaves and stems are an attractive shade of grayish green. Masses of bright, reddish range flowers at stem tips are upright and tube-shaped, making it easy for hummingbirds to reach the sweet nectar. This adaptable perennial is suitable for growing in USDA plant hardiness zones 7 and above....

Methods for Blanching Celery When celery has bitter taste, chances are it hasn’t been blanched. Blanching celery is often done to prevent bitter celery. Blanched plants lack green color, as the light source of celery is blocked out, which results in a paler color. Blanching celery does, however, give it a sweeter taste and plants are generally more tender. Although some self-blanching varieties are available, many gardeners prefer to blanch celery themselves....

How to Care for a China Doll Plant China doll plants need plenty of bright, but indirect, light. They need at least four to five hours of this kind of light a day. If the windows in your house are unable to provide suitable light, then you may want to use an artificial plant light to add additional light. They are also fussy about the temperature that they thrive in. These plants prefer to live in temperatures of 65-75 F....

About Trumpet Vine Pests Trumpet vines are tough, hardy plants that thrive in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 4 through 10. They don’t require much hands-on maintenance, but they do need enough water, especially when they grow in direct sun. If you let your plant’s soil get dry and dusty, trumpet vine pests are attracted. The bugs on trumpet vines can include spider mites, scale insects, and whiteflies. Keep these trumpet vine insects off your plants by irrigating enough so that the soil remains constantly moist....

What is Jewelweed? Jewelweed is a wildflower in the Impatiens family that is commonly grown as a bedding annual. In the wild, you can find dense colonies of jewelweed growing in drainage areas, on stream banks, and in bogs. Wild jewelweed impatiens plants assist wildlife like butterflies, bees, and several types of birds including many songbirds and hummingbirds. Jewelweed plants grow 3 to 5 feet (1-1.5 m.) tall and bloom from late spring to early fall....

Fir Christmas Trees The Douglas and Frasier are popular Christmas tree varieties in the fir family. The Frasier is usually the most expensive tree available because of its relative rarity and its natural shape. If you are looking for the best type of Christmas tree that does not need shaping, springing for the Frasier fir would be your best option. The Douglas fir is one of the best all-around Christmas tree varieties....

What is Natural Easter Grass? Traditionally, the Easter grass you put in a child’s basket for collecting eggs and candy is that thin, green plastic. There are a lot of reasons to replace that material with real Easter basket grass. Plastic grass isn’t very environmentally friendly, either in production or in trying to dispose of it. Plus, small children and pets can ingest and swallow it, causing digestive issues. Homegrown Easter grass is simply a real, living grass that you use in place of the plastic junk....

Can You Compost Newspaper? The short answer is, “Yes, newspapers in the compost pile are just fine”. Newspaper in compost is considered to be a brown composting material and will help to add carbon to the compost pile. But when you are composting with newspaper, there are a few things you need to keep in mind. Tips for Composting Newspapers First, when you compost newspaper, you cannot simply throw it in as bundles....

Types of Worms on Peppers There is a pepper caterpillar called the tobacco hornworm. This particular pepper caterpillar is green and has a red anal horn. The pepper caterpillar will munch on both the fruit and the leaves of your pepper plant. You will know he’s been there because he leaves large open scars on the peppers themselves. Pepper grubs eat at the roots of the pepper plant and prevent the plant from absorbing the nutrients it needs from the soil....

About Growing Pershore Plums If you have been looking for the right plum tree for your yard, the Pershore has a lot to offer. Pershore plums in gardens provide a nice, shade-giving fruit tree with spring flowers, and pretty, bright yellow fruits in the fall. There is also a purple Pershore variety, but the yellow cultivar is the original Pershore, dating back to 1800s England. Also known as the yellow egg plum, yellow Pershore plums are not fruits that should be eaten fresh, which is an important consideration for the home gardener....

When Do I Repot a Pitcher Plant? Pitcher plants, like other plants, do best when you repot them early in the spring before they have a chance to produce new growth. When your plant is still dormant, right before the spring arrives, remove it from its pot and gently remove as much planting medium as you can using a chopstick or other small object. Make a new potting mixture of ½ cup (118 ml....

How Many Different Plane Trees are There? “Plane tree” is the name given to any of the six to ten species (opinions vary on the exact number) in the genus Platanus, the only genus in the family Platanaceae. Platanus is an ancient genus of flowering trees, with fossils confirming it to be at least 100 million years old. Platanus kerrii is native to East Asia, and Platanus orientalis (oriental plane tree) is native to western Asia and southern Europe....

Effects and Use of Boron on Plants Boron is a micronutrient necessary for plant growth. Without adequate boron in the soil, plants may appear healthy but will not flower or fruit. Water, organic matter and soil texture are all factors that affect boron in soil. The balance of too little or too much between plants and boron is a delicate one. Heavy boron soil concentration can be toxic to plants. Boron helps control the transport of sugars in plants....

How to Propagate a Mountain Laurel by Seed Mountain laurel propagation by seed is not too difficult, but it does require time and patience. You will want to collect seeds in the fall to early winter to start them germinating in the winter and spring. After a few months, you’ll have seedlings, but these won’t be ready to go outside until the following spring. The seeds of mountain laurel are small and can be found inside five-chambered capsules that open naturally in the winter....

When to Prune China Doll Plant Learning when to prune China doll plant isn’t difficult. The China doll houseplant isn’t fussy about the time of year when it is pruned, so trimming China dolls can be done any time without harming the plant. The trick to pruning China doll plants is to do so before they look like they need pruning. It is much easier to encourage proper growth than it is to correct problems later on....

Pruning An Overgrown Red Twig Dogwood Shrub Rejuvenation pruning is a way of cutting back neglected and overgrown shrubs. One plant that responds well to this type of pruning is the red twig dogwood shrub. It’s easy to tell when these bushes have been ignored because their radiant red stems turn woody and gray. Only young, new growth is that vibrant shade that brightens up the winter landscape. Timing is very important for proper pruning....

Why Does Fruit Split on Trees? Walking out in the home orchard and noticing that young fruit is cracking never makes a gardener happy. But it doesn’t mean you did anything wrong. Fruit cracking is most often a physiological response to an erratic water supply. It happens most often in July but can continue through harvest. Each fruit has a set number of cells that expand to retain water, both water that falls on the fruit and water uplifted through the root system....