Garden Maintenance

Soils & Fertilizer

How to Grow: Protecting the Soil

“Essentially, all life depends upon the soil. There can be no life without soil and no soil without life; they have evolved together.” That was Charles Kellogg writing in the USDA Book of Agriculture about 100 years ago. There's a new appreciation of our soils underfoot, especially as we search for ways to slow the pace of global warming. Soils and plant roots can capture carbon from the atmosphere and hold it in the soil for decades. Soil is also a living entity upon which all life depends. This view can change our gardening practices to...

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Garden Design & Care Shrubs Videos

How to Grow: Pruning a Hedge

Learn how to prune and care for an evergreen hedge such as arborvitae, cedar and yews. This video has special instructions on the tools and techniques to keep the hedge healthy. For more garden videos, check out the National Gardening Association Transcript Hi I'm Charlie Nardozzi of the National Gardening Association. Today I'd like to show you how to prune an evergreen hedge. Robert Frost once said "good fences make good neighbors". Well plants make excellent fences. Deciduous, which are the plants that drop their leaves in the fall, and...

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Garden Design & Care Shrubs

How to Grow: Pruning Hydrangeas

  Many gardeners are pruning trees and shrubs this time of year. One shrub that often confounds people is the hydrangea. The reason for the confusion is different species of hydrangeas are pruned at different times. So, let's do a quick hydrangea pruning 101. First, remember when your hydrangeas bloom. If they bloom mid to late summer they are flowering on the new wood. This means the new stems that grow this spring will terminate in a flower. Arborescens hydrangeas such as 'Annabelle' and 'Invincibelle Spirit' and Panicle hydrangeas...

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Garden Design & Care Shrubs

How to Grow: Pruning Roses

Learn about pruning roses, including when and how to prune each type. Listen to podcast:   Roses can be viewed as the most desirable flower or just a pain to grow. It depends on your attitude. As Abraham Lincoln once said, "You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses." One of the challenges of roses is pruning and now is the time to do it. In spring it's easy to see any blackened, winter injured canes and live buds. Proper pruning invigorates the bush creating more flowers, but less...

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AnnualsGarden Design & CareVegetable

How to Grow: Raised Beds

How to Grow raised beds Raised beds have become a popular way to garden. They have many advantages to regular, in-ground beds. Raised beds warm up faster in spring, drain water better, and allow you to plant more intensively. They are easier to weed, fertilize, and water and you get more production from your vegetables, herbs, and flowers. Here some simple steps to making a raised bed. Mow it Down- Mow or cut down the grass or weeds in this area. The reason you won't be stripping the sod or digging out weeds is there is a natural layer of...

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Garden Design & Care Shrubs Weeds

How to Grow: Remove Invasive Shrubs

Learn how to identify and remove invasive shrubs in your landscape I always enjoy watching the birds feast on wild berries this time of year as they head South for winter. While there is an abundance of berry shrubs in the wild, not all of they are good characters. There are a number of invasive shrubs that are spread by birds eating the berries and them pooping out the seeds. These shrubs take over habitats, crowd out natives and make the environment less hospitable for wildlife. The most invasive shrubs in Vermont include Japanese...

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Garden Design & CarePerennialsPodcast Shrubs Trees

How to Grow: Seascaping

Listen to this podcast on how to grow and care for plants along the ocean with salt spray and winds.   Those of us living inland tend to only think about the ocean in summer. But for those 23 million people living within a few miles of Long Island Sound in Connecticut and Long Island, the sea is a daily companion. Landscaping close to the Sound can be challenging and rewarding. The ocean has a moderating effect on temperatures so you can often grow perennials, trees, and shrubs that others can't. However, salt spray and flooding can cause...

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Garden Design & CarePerennialsPodcast Shrubs Trees

How to Grow: Seascaping

Listen to this podcast on how to grow and care for plants along the ocean with salt spray and winds.   Those of us living inland tend to only think about the ocean in summer. But for those 23 million people living within a few miles of Long Island Sound in Connecticut and Long Island, the sea is a daily companion. Landscaping close to the Sound can be challenging and rewarding. The ocean has a moderating effect on temperatures so you can often grow perennials, trees, and shrubs that others can't. However, salt spray and flooding can...

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PodcastSoils & Fertilizer

How to Grow: Side Dress Fertilizer

Listen to this podcast on how to apply fertilizer as a side dressing in summer and which plants need it.   It's been an interesting summer so far. Lots of rain, humidity and not necessarily high temperatures. But, the vegetables are still growing and now is a time to give them a little mid summer boost. Many gardeners forget about side dressing. We may be diligent about amending the soil in spring, but plants need fertility throughout the growing season. An addition of compost, organic granular fertilizer or liquid fertilizer can help...

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