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8 Of The Fastest Growing Plants For Privacy Screens
I’ve been looking for the fastest growing plants for privacy screens in our yard. And let me tell you, we need some fast growing shrubs to help make our yard more private. Especially considering that when we bought our home it had virtually no shrubs and only a four-foot-tall chain-link fence surrounding the entire yard.…
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Product Review: AgriTech Mail-In Soil Test Kits
My wife and I decided to try out one of the mail-in soil test kits we’ve seen advertised online. We really weren’t sure what the soil chemistry in our yard was like anyway and decided it was high time to get a fix on this. But we didn’t know if doing a DIY soil test…
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Polyculture Lawn Benefits: How Earth-Friendly Turf Helps You
Learning about polyculture lawn benefits led my wife and me to let Mother Nature do her thing in our yard. It may sound crazy to let native herbs, wildflowers, and many varieties of grass dominate our yard. But that’s exactly what we did. And our yard has never looked so healthy! Letting our grass become…
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Want To Grow Maple Trees In Florida? Here’s How!
There are many reasons to grow maple trees in Florida. It’s a place where maples (Acer) can be found growing in the wild of Mother Nature and among the manicured landscapes of suburbia. Several kinds of maples are native to Florida, giving backyard gardeners like me and perhaps you, too, many options. Native Florida maples…
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Are Cheap Clearance Plants At The Garden Center Worth It?
My wife came home from work the other day with a couple of cheap clearance plants. She bought them from the local home-improvement store. When she walked by my workspace, she said something to the effect of, “Here, see if you can bring these back.” And then she plopped the two poor little plants, barely…
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Right Plant Right Place In Your Landscape
Right plant, right place is a landscape principle I’ve known about for decades. I thank Rodale’s All-New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening: The Indispensable Green Resource for Every Gardener for first introducing me to this concept in the early 1990s when I was a young, adolescent gardener. There’s a small section in this book that includes…
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Planting A Tree: Tips On How To Plant Trees Correctly
Planting a tree the right way isn’t necessarily hard, but it does take some know how to do it correctly. If you plant a tree, its entire future largely depends on what you did — or didn’t do — when planting it in your landscape. Just doing a few simple things can help ensure your…
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Best Trees To Plant For Fall Colors In Florida
Looking for the best trees to plant for fall colors in Florida? The Sunshine State really does see some autumn colors. I’m not talking about the vivid fall color like you’ll see in New England or along the Blue Ridge Parkway. But in central and northern regions of the state especially, you can plant many…
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How To Grow A Native Plant Garden In Your Yard
The native plant garden at a park near my home inspired my wife and me to turn some of our yard into a native landscape. What’s amazing about growing a native garden is that it really isn’t that hard. And it’s incredibly low maintenance once it’s established. And one of the coolest things about native…
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A Local Garden Nursery: The Best Place Near You To Buy Plants?
The local garden nursery is more than just a place to buy plants near you. It’s where you can glean knowledge about plants, pick up kernels of gardening wisdom, and even make new friends. My wife and I like going to local garden nurseries mainly because they offer a wider array of plants that are…
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Why Turning Your Yard Into A Garden Is A Good Idea
Have you been thinking about turning your yard into a garden? My wife and I have done a bit of this. It’s actually a more popular concept than you may think! Reducing your lawn area by turning your grassy spaces into gardens may take some (a lot of) sweat. But the benefits of doing this…
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How To Create A Small Butterfly Garden
A small butterfly garden can help make a big difference in your yard. It can certainly make a positive impact for the many species of Lepidoptera (butterflies) that flutter about this earth. It seems many people are discouraged about creating butterfly gardens. They often think they’ll need a lot of space — and maybe a…
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Growing Eastern Red Cedar Trees: 5 Tips For Success
Growing eastern red cedar trees is something I just love to do… They’re a type of juniper tree native to vast swaths of eastern North America from Florida west to the Plains and north into southeastern Canada. There are many names for eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana), including red juniper, eastern juniper, Virginian juniper, and…
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Why Doesn’t Florida Grow Oranges Anymore?
“Why doesn’t Florida grow oranges anymore?” It’s a question I’ve asked myself many times as a Central Florida native who doesn’t see the orange groves I once grew up with almost everywhere on the outskirts of town. I was born in the 1980s and came of age in the 1990s. It seemed that when I…
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Sleep Creep Leap: The Science Behind An Old Garden Adage
The 1st year they sleep, 2nd year they creep, and 3rd year they leap. Do you have any idea what I’m talking about? I’m talking about plants. Specifically, I’m quoting an old gardening adage that goes: “the first year plants sleep, the second year they creep, the third year the leap.” Learning Some Garden Wisdom…
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Are Resin Garden Sheds Any Good? YES! Here’s Why…
Have you been shopping around for resin garden sheds and wondered if they’re even worth buying? You’re probably thinking, “Sure, plastic garden sheds are affordable, but they’re PLASTIC! How in the world will that thing possibly last?” Ah, just you wait and see… You may be pleasantly surprised about how long plastic garden sheds can…
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I Visit Botanical Gardens For Landscaping Ideas — Here’s Why!
My wife and I love to visit botanical gardens! And not just because they’re serene, pretty places to spend the morning or afternoon… We also love gleaning ideas from these places on how we’d like to enhance our own yard. Granted, some of the incredible things we see when visiting botanical gardens around the country…
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How To Prepare Your Yard For Tropical Storms & Hurricanes
Having to prepare your yard for tropical storms is one of the downsides to living in Florida. It’s a virtual yearly reality in the Sunshine State. If there isn’t a tropical storm or hurricane taking direct aim at your town or city, there’s usually at least some tropical weather that will skirt closely enough that…
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No Mow Month & No Mow March Or May Pros Vs. Cons
Have you heard of No Mow Month? Maybe No Mow May or even No Mow March? It’s an initiative that began in Great Britain back in 2019. That’s when citizen scientists with charitable organization Plantlife began encouraging homeowners and businessowners to not cut their grass each May. The goal? Help give pollinators like butterflies and…
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Lawn Mowing Manners: Tips For Grass Cutting Etiquette
Do you mind your lawn mowing manners? You may think I’m being tongue-in-cheek. But I’m serious — there really is some lawn mowing etiquette that we who mow our lawns should be following. The topic of mowing manners came to my mind recently because of something I saw the other day near a strip mall.…
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How Do You Weed The Yard By Hand?
Many folks seem surprised when I tell them I weed the yard by hand. I guess they assume I spray. Or that I’m using some kind of weed killer service because that’s how they keep weeds tamped back in their yards. This isn’t to say I only pull weeds by hand. Sometimes I’ll make a…
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Money Tree Plants: Tips On Growing & Caring For Them
I love money tree plants. They’re a tropical plant with roots as a swampland tree from Central and South America. These wonderful houseplants are widely sold at grocery stores, home-improvement warehouses, and elsewhere as the “money tree” or “money plant.” Horticulturally known by the Latin name Pachira aquatica, the money tree is said to have…
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Have You Seen The Sunflower With Multiple Flowers?
The sunflower with multiple flowers is en vogue in many gardening circles these days. However, my wife and I certainly didn’t even know these types of sunflowers existed until a few days ago. You see, we had a bunch of extra bird seed and decided to throw it into a wildflower patch on the side…
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Should You Mow High Or Low In The Summer?
Wondering if you need to mow high or low in the summer? Many folks wrestle with trying to figure out how high to cut their lawn grass. And frankly it’s not always easy to figure out, especially if you have more than one kind of turf in your lawn as my wife and I do.…
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What’s The Best Height For Cutting Grass?
How high should you cut your grass? That’s what I wanted to know, too. I’ve been trying to figure out what is the best height for cutting grass. After some experimentation and much trial and error I have figured out the ideal height to mow my lawn. Some of the difficulty in determining the right…
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Want A Cheap Garden Arbor? Here’s How We Built One For $65
My wife and I decided a cheap garden arbor would look great as a transitional structure between our backyard and a semi-secluded garden area on the side of our home without breaking the bank. We shopped online for the best prices on garden arbors. We even checked out the big-box stores and local garden nursery…
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Planting Jasmine? 5 Tips For Growing Beautiful Jasmine Plants
I love planting jasmine shrubs and vines… I’ve loved their blissfully fragrant smell forever. But I didn’t know what plant produced that special scent until some words from a popular Seals & Croft tune made me look it up. “Summer breeze, makes me feel fine / Blowing through the jasmine in my mind.” Those of…
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Plant Heat Stress? 5 Tips To Reduce Heat Stress & Save Plants
Fighting against plant heat stress is one of my biggest challenges with my landscape and gardens. It’s a seemingly relentless issue in Central Florida. This is especially the case during the transition from late May into early June. That’s when a spell of extremely hot and dry weather leads into the peninsula’s rainy season. It’s…
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Why I Grow Fruit Trees
Want to grow fruit trees? It’s something millions of people do. I’m not sure if they’re all harvesting tons of fruit each year – my wife and I certainly aren’t yet. But we like having a few fruit trees on our property, even if they’re not always the most, well, fruitful at times. The Taste…
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My 5 Favorite Tips For Potting Plants
I wish I had followed more tips for potting plants when I was younger. I made my fair share of mistakes, often because I lacked the knowledge at a younger age or was just trying to save a buck. And while I usually had a preference for landscape gardening, I have a great deal of…
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Push Reel Mowers Advantages & Disadvantages
Push reel mowers weren’t too common in the 1990s when I was looking for lawn-mowing options. I was a teenager and — yes — wanted to mow the yard surrounding our half of the rented duplex we had called home for years. I was lucky enough that our landlord allowed me to convert a portion…
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Planting Trees & Shrubs? Here Are 3 Things You MUST Do First
I love planting trees and shrubs in my yard. I especially love foundation plantings – they help soften hard lines between a home and the surrounding landscape and give any house an inviting look. Homes without foundation plantings or at least one anchor tree in the yard just look incomplete to me. But you can’t…
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What’s The Onion Or Garlic Smell In My Yard?
When my wife and I moved to Roanoke, Virginia, for a spell, I noticed a peculiar odor lingering in the air after our lawn was freshly mowed. It was an onion or garlic smell. It was something that I never noticed before at our home in Central Florida and didn’t smell like the freshly mown…
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4 Mulching Mistakes I Made In My Yard & How To Avoid Them
Many of us make mulching mistakes, including me. And it’s no surprise. I’ve been using mulch in my gardening and landscaping efforts since I was a kid. I bought my first bag of mulch when I was 11 years old and tended a garden at my grandmother’s house. I even was allowed by my family’s…
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Want Pollinators? Here’s How To Attract Pollinators To Your Yard
Where would we be without pollinators? Sure, so many of us enjoy looking at butterflies flitting about in the yard. But they – and many other creatures like them – play an important role in the ecosystem beyond the aesthetic beauty of their colorful wings and fanciful flights. Butterflies are pollinators, and pollinators are vital…
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Monocots, Dicots & Cotyledons… Which is Which?
I remember my dad teaching me about monocots, dicots, and cotyledons when I was a kid. He was taking me on a nature walk when I was maybe nine or 10 years old, and he schooled me in some of the basic lessons of the great outdoors. He taught me how to burn a leaf…
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Norfolk Island Pines: Should You Grow Them In Your Yard?
If you don’t know what Norfolk Island pines are by name, I bet you know what these plants look like. They’re commonly sold around November or December as miniature living Christmas trees. They look a bit like fuzzy little pine or fir trees, and they’re terrific cheery additions to the home during the holiday season.…