Start with Big Plants As much as we would like Fido the dog to not tear up our new plants, chances are he will. When you put a new plant into your garden, you may want to invest in a larger plant. A larger plant is less likely to be disturbed by your dog than a smaller plant. If you don’t want to buy bigger plants, make sure you put a cage around it until it gets bigger....

Croton Indoor Plant The croton plant is often grown outdoors in tropical climates, but also makes excellent houseplants. Crotons come in a wide variety of leaf shapes and colors. Leaves can be short, long, twisted, thin, thick, and several of these combined. Colors range from green, variegated, yellow, red, orange, cream, pink, and black to a combination of all these. It is safe to say that if you look hard enough, you will find a croton that matches your décor....

Basic Cyclamen Plant Care Cyclamen care starts with the correct temperature. In nature, cyclamens grow in cool, humid environments. If the temperature of your house is over 68 degrees F. (20 C.) during the day and 50 degrees F. (10 C.) at night, your cyclamen will start to die slowly. Temperatures that are too high will cause the plant to begin to yellow, and the flowers will fade rapidly. Cyclamen that are sold as houseplants are tropical and cannot tolerate temperatures below 40 degrees F....

What is Cypress Mulch? Mulch is any product you use on top of the soil to protect the roots of your plants. It can be chopped dead leaves, dried grass clippings or organic compost. Some people use shredded newspapers, gravel or plastic sheeting. The best mulches are organic and accomplish many jobs in the garden. They regulate the temperature of the soil, keeping it warmer in cold weather and cooler in heat....

Deciduous Shrub Growing in Upper Midwest The states of the eastern and central Midwest include USDA zones that range from 2 in northern Minnesota to 6 in southeast Michigan. Summers are hot everywhere in this region and winters are very cold. Most parts of these states are wet, but summers can get dry. East North Central shrubs need to be able to withstand these climatic conditions but can also benefit from some very rich soils....

Types of Chicory If you have decided to plant chicory in your garden, you will have several chicory plant varieties to choose among. The three basic types of chicory are Belgian endive, radicchio, and puntarelle, but you can get different cultivars of some of these. Belgian Endive – One of the three different chicory plants available for your garden is Belgian endive. Do not confuse this with regular endive lettuce that you buy in the grocery store....

About Different Type of Cabbage Cabbage varieties include green and red cabbages, napa, bok choy, savoy, and Brussels sprouts. Most varieties of cabbage form heads that can weigh anywhere from 1 to 12 pounds (0.5-5 kg.), with each plant producing a single head. The shape of the head varies from rounded to pointed, oblong, or conical. Brussels sprouts are an exception and form multiple heads along a main plant stem with up to 100 sprouts per plant....

Is Manure Good or Bad? What are different types of manure? Domestic pets and livestock can all contribute to manure for the garden, but each has a specific manner in which it should be handled for the health of your garden (and you in some cases). Manure is simply the waste products of animals that have been composted to remove any pathogens and break it down for quicker uptake by plants....

What is Pleaching? What is pleaching? Pleaching is a very specific garden term. It refers to a way of interlacing young tree branches along a framework to produce a screen or hedge. The pleaching technique is a style of growing trees in a line with their branches tied together to form a plane above the trunk. Generally, the branches are tied onto a support to create tiers. Occasionally, they grow together as if they were grafted....

Fans of pumpkin spice lattes should also know the sugary treat can pack in the calories. Is it possible to make a healthy pumpkin spice latte? If you make your own, you can control the amount and type of sugar, as well as the fat content. It all begins with a recipe for fresh pumpkin and some purchased spices. Learn how to make pumpkin spice latte at home and enjoy a personalized version of this Autumn treat....

Can You Regrow Parsnips from Tops? Do parsnips regrow when you plant their tops? Sort of. That is to say, they will keep growing, but not in the way you might hope for. If planted, the tops will not grow a new whole parsnip root. They will, however, keep growing new leaves. Unfortunately, this isn’t particularly good news for eating. Depending upon whom you ask, parsnip greens range from poisonous to just not good tasting....

How Does Lightning Help Plants You may be surprised to learn that a whopping 16 million thunderstorms form around our planet each year. These storms generate approximately 44 lightning strikes each second. Lightning transforms the nitrogen in our atmosphere into a form which is usable to plant life. Thinking back to your school days, you likely learned that the earth’s atmosphere is made up of 78 percent nitrogen. This gas is comprised of two strongly-bonded nitrogen atoms....

Shrub-like dogwoods do exist and work well in smaller gardens. In fact, there are many types of dogwood shrubs, each with its own unique characteristics. For more information, read on. Is There a Dogwood Shrub? The genus Cornus includes many different dogwood shrub varieties, including some that could be called subshrubs. They grow fast and provide year-round garden interest with spring flowers, summer berries, and exceptional fall color. However, shrubby dogwoods do not grow the showy bracts that the taller dogwood trees do....

What is an Earpod Tree? Earpod trees (Enterolobium cyclocarpum), also called ear trees, are tall shade trees with a wide, spreading canopy. The tree can grow 75 feet (23 m.) tall or more. The spiral pods measure 3 to 4 inches (7.6 to 10 cm.) in diameter. Earpod trees are native to Central America and northern parts of South America, and have been introduced to the Southern tips of North America....

Creating an Egyptian garden in the backyard is as simple as incorporating the plants and elements of design from this region. Egyptian Garden Elements From a civilization born around the fertile offerings of a river and its delta, water features are a staple of Egyptian garden design. Rectangular fish and duck ponds lined with fruit-bearing trees were commonplace in the ancient gardens of wealthy Egyptians. Fed by irrigation channels, which eliminated the need to manually transport water from the river, manmade ponds allowed ancient Egyptians the opportunity to expand agriculture away from the flood basin of the Nile....

If you have a poorly sited shrub, it’s time to learn about elderberry transplant. Fortunately, moving an elderberry is not a difficult proposition, as long as you choose the right time of year and pick an appropriate new location. Read on for tips on how to transplant elderberry. Moving an Elderberry Native Americans have made use of elderberry plants for thousands of years and they still rely on them today....

Escallonia Shrub Info Escallonia shrubs grow relatively fast and have both attractive foliage and lovely flowers. The blossoms are tube-shaped, generally white, pink or red, and appear on leafy panicles in summer. Plants can grow to 15 feet (4.5 m.) in either direction, depending on the cultivar. Since escallonia is tolerant of salt spray, you can start growing an escallonia hedge even if you live in coastal areas. Escallonia also makes an attractive garden specimen when planted with plenty of elbow room....

Evergreen Garden Design A garden without evergreens can present as a very desolate place in winter. Evergreen garden design will prevent that bare appearance and give plenty of dimension and diversity of form. There are so many evergreens from which to choose, including many unique cultivars. A few evergreen garden ideas can get you started on developing a well-rounded landscape with plenty of color all year. While fall can be a time of great color and beauty, it also signals the beginning of a desolate winter, practically devoid of plant life....

How to Grow a Calliandra Fairy Duster Three types of the fairy duster plant are native to the Southwestern U.S. These are: Calliandra eriophylla, which is also called False Mesquite Calliandra californica, known as Baja fairy duster Calliandra penninsularis, the La Paz fairy duster Calliandra fairy dusters are small evergreen shrubs and retain foliage for much of the year. Height and width varies from 1 to 5 feet (0.5 to 1....

Succulent plants are low maintenance and come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. The Fan Aloe vera plant is technically known as Aloe plicatilis, but is often lumped into the aloe vera category. It has plump leaves like aloe vera, but they are much longer and arranged in a fan shape. This Cape native can get quite large but in a container, it will stay smaller. A fan aloe houseplant will still become a small tree as it matures....