Types of Bird Damage Besides damaging or consuming tender, ripening fruits from trees and beds, birds can spread disease and pests like mites, lice or fleas. Birds vector a surprisingly large number of diseases, including West Nile virus and Salmonella, which are serious hazards to humans. Droppings may stain cement, damage vehicles or create slip and fall hazards – and let’s face it, no one wants to fall in bird poo....

How to Deter Birds and Squirrels from Sunflowers Admittedly, it’s kind of cute when squirrels shimmy their way up towering sunflowers to feast on the seeds, but what if you want to save that seed? Protecting sunflowers from birds and squirrels will help you keep the harvest all to yourself. You can get creative to deter birds eating sunflowers and squirrels taking your hard won harvest. Using netting over the flower or entire plant can prevent many seed thieves....

Is Black Bamboo Invasive? There are several varieties of bamboo with black culms (stems) and over 1,200 species of bamboo in general. Phyllostachys nigra, or ‘black bamboo,’ has the potential to be very invasive. This Chinese native is classified as a running bamboo, meaning it spreads quickly by underground rhizomes. However, do not let that discourage you from planting it. With some black bamboo information in hand, you will know how to minimize its invasiveness....

How to Grow a Black Garden Growing your own Victorian black garden is not hard at all. It’s basically done just like any other garden. Careful planning always helps beforehand. One of the most important factors is proper positioning. Dark-colored plants need to be placed in sunny areas to prevent them from becoming lost in the dark corners of the landscape. They should also be placed against a lighter backdrop in order to stand out more effectively....

What are Blood Oranges? Hailing from the continent of Asia, blood orange trees (Citrus sinensis) thrive in warm climates and are ideal candidates for container gardening in cooler areas. Blood orange tree care dictates the need for a temperate climate; these oranges will thrive in USDA zones 9-10. Growing blood orange trees in containers allows one to easily move trees indoors or to another sheltered area in cooler regions or during cold snaps....

About Breadfruit Cold Tolerance Breadfruit trees are evergreen, fruiting trees of tropical islands. They thrive in hot, humid weather as understory trees in tropical forests with sandy, crushed, coral-based soils. Valued for the protein and carbohydrate rich fruit, which is actually cooked and eaten like a vegetable, in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s, immature breadfruit plants were imported all over the world for cultivation. These imported plants were a great success in regions with tropical climates but most attempts to cultivate breadfruit trees in the United States failed from environmental issues....

Is Common Plantain Edible? Eating plantain weeds out of your yard is not as crazy as it sounds, at least as long as you haven’t first covered them in pesticides or herbicides. Clean plantain from the garden is not only edible but also nutritious. Once you know how to identify plantain, you won’t be able to un-see it. It’s everywhere but especially rampant in disturbed areas. The leaves of plantain are oval, slightly egg-shaped....

The plant can get a bit invasive in some areas though, but a little information on broom shrubs will help you control the plants while still enjoying their ease of care and brilliant blooms. About Broom Shrub Plants Brooms form small to large shrubs that grow very quickly. The plants have become quite invasive with seeds spreading and sprouting quickly. This speedy development makes the plants a threat to native species....

Unfortunately, there is very little you can do about brown rot of potatoes in your garden, and currently, no biological or chemical products have proven effective. With vigilance, however, you may be able to manage the disease. Read on to learn the best ways to control brown rot of potatoes. Bacterial Wilt Symptoms on Potatoes The first step in its management is knowing what the disease looks like. Initially, visible symptoms of potato bacterial wilt generally consist of stunted growth and wilting during the hottest part of the day....

Butternut Tree Information If you tell someone you are growing butternuts from butternut trees, they are likely to respond: “What are butternuts?” Many gardeners are not familiar with the wild nut tree and have never tasted a butternut. Butternut trees are also called white walnut trees because they have pale gray bark and are related to the black walnut tree (Juglans nigra) and other members of the walnut family. White walnut trees grow to 60 feet (18....

Houseplant Allergic Reaction If you are allergic to houseplants, it could be caused by inhaling airborne allergens, such as pollen, from any houseplant. Typical symptoms can include a runny nose, itchy eyes, and even asthma. It can be difficult to diagnose common houseplant allergies, though, because there are many other types of indoor allergens. Another way to be allergic to houseplants is by having direct contact with plants. If your skin is in contact with certain liquids or sap from various plants, it may cause itching, eczema, and possibly even swelling in more extreme cases....

Can Mesquite Trees Grow in Containers? The short answer is, not really. One of the major reasons that these trees are able to survive in the desert is their extremely deep root system, with a particularly long and fast-growing tap root. If allowed to get to any size in a pot, the roots of container grown mesquite trees will start to grow around themselves, eventually strangling the tree. Growing Mesquite in a Container If you have an adequately deep container (at least 15 gallons), it’s possible to keep a mesquite tree in a pot for a couple of years....

Butterfly Bush Plants Butterfly bush plants are native to Japan and China and rise quickly to some 10 or 15 feet (3 to 4.5 m.) high, offering lush flowers in shades of blue, pink and yellow, as well as white. The flowers, presented on panicles at the end of branches, smell sweet like honey. Butterfly bushes are tough and easy plants, tolerant of drought, poor soil, heat and humidity. Since these shrubs grow rapidly and can reach a spread of 8 feet (2....

Can You Eat Juniper Berries? Yes, juniper berries are edible. In fact, you may have tasted them before without even knowing it if you drink alcoholic beverages. Juniper berries are what gives a gin martini its unique flavoring. While gin has been a popular intoxicant for over 300 years in western culture, juniper berries have actually been used medicinally since the 16th century. How to Use Juniper Berries Common juniper, Juniperus comunis, belongs to the family Cupressaceae that encompasses around 60 to 70 species of aromatic evergreens throughout the Northern Hemisphere....

How to Grow a Potted Mountain Laurel Can you grow mountain laurel in a pot? The short answer is, yes. Mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) is a large shrub that can reach as much as 20 feet (6 m.) in height. There are dwarf varieties available, however, that are much more suited to container life. “Minuet” is one such variety, a very small shrub that reaches only 3 feet (1 m.) in height and breadth and produces pink flowers with a bright red ring through the middle....

How to Hand Pollinate Almonds When almond flowers open in the early spring, the flowers should be pollinated as quickly as possible to ensure a good yield. Each almond flower has many stamens (the flower’s male parts) and one pistil (the flower’s female part). When the flowers are ready, the yellow, dusty pollen will be visible on the anthers, the kidney-shaped structures on the ends of the stamens. To achieve pollination, a pollen grain must come to rest on the stigma, the surface at the end of the pistil, of a compatible flower....

Canna Lily Pests The large, funnel-shaped spikes and brilliant, Flamenco dancer colors announce the blooming period of a Canna. They are marvelous plants with a tropical flair and an amazing ability to reproduce themselves as rhizomes replicate. Generally, a sunny location with well-draining soil and average water is enough to ensure summer blooms and healthy, glossy, broad leaves. Occasional pest problems do occur, as in any plant. Pests of Canna lilies usually come under the categories of sucking and chewing insects....

Can a Cactus Plant Get Sunburned? Cacti come in a myriad of shapes and sizes and are almost irresistible to collect to the plant lover. When most of us think of cacti, we think of them thriving in scorching desert environments, so the natural conclusion is to provide them with conditions that mimic that setting, but the fact is that cacti are found in a variety of climates. Some species are found in tropical regions and every habitat in between....

What are Carpenter Bees? Although carpenter bees look a lot like bumblebees, you can easily see the difference. Both types of bees have black bodies with a covering of yellow hair. The yellow hair covers most of a bumblebee’s body, while carpenter bees only have hair on their head and thorax, leaving the lower half of their body solid black. Female carpenter bees excavate a small cell off the gallery she has created, and then forms a ball of pollen inside the cell....

Flower Wilt on Christmas Cactus Christmas cactus bloom wilt is often caused by excessively dry soil. Be careful and don’t over-correct, as watering a Christmas cactus can be tricky and too much moisture may cause more serious problems, such as stem or root rot, which are usually deadly. For most of the year, you shouldn’t water the plant until the soil feels slightly dry, and then water deeply so the entire root ball is saturated....