Fire Conscious Gardening: How to Firescape With a little careful planning, a firescaped landscape doesn’t need to look very different from any other landscape, but the landscape should inhibit the spread of fire. The basics of landscaping for fires, also known as creating defensible space, include the following: Selecting Fire-Resistant Plants Select plants according to their ability to withstand the threat of wildfires. For example, a traditional landscape that includes a lot of evergreens or ornamental grass increases the risk your home will be involved in a wildfire....

What are Flowering Ephemerals? Flowering ephemeral info says these plants are wildflowers, able to exist without human intervention. Some are perennials, but many are self-seeding annuals. Growing them in your landscape is easy and worthwhile when you see that first spring bloom. Most prefer a part shade to shade location with filtered sun. Blooms appear just as the soil is touched by warmth at the end of winter. These plants go dormant in summer, leaving room for continuing blooms of other flowers throughout late spring and summer....

What is May Basket Day? May Day is May first, and its original importance is the pagan festival of Beltane, a day to welcome back spring and new life. Most of the traditions of this holiday faded as Christianity rose, but some persisted: dancing around the Maypole and May Day baskets. In the U.S. sending treats and flowers for May Day was popular in the 1800s and well into the 1900s....

Pruning Fuchsia Plants It helps to keep in mind that fuchsia produces blooms only on new wood, so there’s no need to worry about cutting off buds when you’re doing fuchsia pruning on old wood. Don’t be afraid of cutting back a fuchsia drastically if need be, as the plant will eventually rebound better and healthier than ever. All fuchsia types benefit from regular removal of spent blooms. Also, pinching growing tips on new plants encourages full, bushy growth....

Choosing Suitable Gardenia Plant Companions Gardenia thrives in partial shade, preferring morning sunlight with shade during sunny afternoons. The best gardenia plant companions are other plants that tolerate conditions that are less than sunny. Gardenias also prefer moist, well-drained, acidic soil, so select gardenia plant companions accordingly. Select plants that won’t compete with gardenia’s root zone, and allow adequate spacing to prevent crowding. As a general rule, plants with relatively shallow roots are good gardenia plant companions....

Gardening and the Internet I am, unfortunately, old enough to remember the days when you went to the library sorted through book after book and jotted down notes in a notebook when you were researching a gardening project or plant. These days, however, with the popularity of social media, you don’t even need to go seeking for answers or new ideas; instead, our phones, tablets, or computers notify us all day of new garden or plant related material....

Why is Bush Honeysuckle Bad? Bush honeysuckle is a group of non-native deciduous shrubs. Originating in Asia, these plants came to North America via Europe in the late 1800s. Not long after, they became popular landscaping and ornamental species. Bush honeysuckles are now considered invasive throughout most of the eastern and midwestern states. There are many reasons to consider these non-native honeysuckles a problem: They crowd out native species and reduce plant diversity....

The raspberry fruitworm beetle reaches up to about 1/5 inch (5 mm.) long, its reddish brown body is covered in tiny, short hairs. Adults feed voraciously on leaves of raspberry canes, favoring the newest canes and leaves, but may spread further when populations are high. Mating takes place on or near raspberry flowers, where eggs are deposited. Fruitworm Damage on Raspberries Adult raspberry fruitworm beetles appear from mid April to mid May, eating the surface tissues from raspberry leaves or skeletonizing them entirely....

Currants and Gooseberries Pretty enough to work as edible landscaping, the gooseberry is covered in deeply scalloped foliage and bears its fruits along its canes, dangling like pearl earrings. Gooseberries are closely related to currants and these plants share a few significant pests. For example, both currants and gooseberries suffer serious losses from Euphranta canadensis, small flies known as currant fruit flies or gooseberry maggots, depending on their stage of development....

What is a Green Ash Tree? If you’ve never seen a green ash tree, you may well ask “what is a green ash?” Green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica) are large ash trees native to eastern North America. According to green ash information, the tree’s native range stretches from eastern Canada down to Texas and northern Florida. It grows well in USDA plant hardiness zones 3 to 9. Green ash trees are among the most adaptable trees that are native to this country....

Ground Cover Plants Choose your ground cover plants according to the trees around which they’ll live. Some trees, like the Norway maple, have very thick coverage and offer almost no sunlight underneath. Others have sparser branches and smaller leaves, giving you more options to choose from. Find out how large each plant type will eventually spread to determine how many plants you will need to cover the entire area around the tree....

Growing Bamboo in Containers Bamboo varieties can be split into two main categories: running and clumping. It’s the running ones that spread all over garden if you let them, while clumping varieties stay put and expand at a slow and respectable rate. Growing bamboo in pots is possible for both varieties, though there will be a difference in how quickly you have to repot them. Bamboo grows a lot, even the clumping kind, and leaving it in the same pot for too long will make it become root bound and weak, eventually killing it....

Choosing Cold Hardy Berry Plants Berries are getting a lot of attention for their nutrient rich compounds, which are said to combat everything from heart disease to constipation. If you’ve bought berries recently though, then you know that this natural health food comes with a hefty price tag. The good news is you can grow your own berries almost anywhere, even in the cooler regions. A little research is in order before purchasing your cold hardy berry plants....

Borage Plant Info While not as common as thyme or basil, borage herb (Borago officinalis) is a unique plant for the culinary garden. It grows quickly as an annual but will colonize a corner of the garden by self-seeding and reappearing year after year. June and July are heralded by the presence of the borage flower, an appealing, small, brilliant blue bloom with attractive qualities. Indeed, the plant should be included in the butterfly garden and brings pollinators to your veggies....

Growing boxwood in your home landscape allows you to create a formal hedge, a matching border, or a pair of boxwood plants to balance an entryway. Boxwoods may also be planted as focal points or foundation plantings. Tips for Planting Boxwood When choosing where to plant boxwoods, make sure to plant them in the spot most appropriate for their needs. A full or part sun location is needed for optimum growth of this specimen....

Identifying Chamomile There are two kinds of chamomile. The first is Roman chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile) and the other is German chamomile (Matricaria recutita). The Roman variety is the true chamomile but German chamomile is used herbally for nearly the same things. The steps for growing Roman chamomile and growing German chamomile are also nearly identical. Roman chamomile is also known as Russian chamomile and English chamomile. It is a creeping ground cover that grows like a mat....

While considered a nuisance in some places, its positive attributes can outweigh the negative, and many who keep fish want to learn more about it and how to grow duckweed in ponds or aquariums. What is Duckweed? Found virtually all over the world in aquatic environments, duckweed is one of the smallest flowering plants, measuring 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch (.15 to .3 cm.) long. It has one to three light green leaves with a flat, oval shape....

Using Fruit Trees as Hedges Dispense with the traditional boxwood and privet. There are plenty of fruit tree varieties that can make hedges. Hedge fruit tree varieties are not only edible but mark a boundary between one garden and the next, act as a windbreak, provide a backdrop to flower borders, accent a wall, and mute intrusive outside noise all while creating an eye-pleasing secret garden. First of all, when growing fruit tree hedges, you need to consider whether you wish to stick to one species for your hedge or whether you want to mix it up and plant several....