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Welcome to our library of articles, where you can search and browse over 2,000 articles written by our own team of garden writers. Interested in becoming a Dave's Garden writer? Submit an article to apply.
Have you ever considered how your plants and trees can actually protect your home from damage in severe storms? Rather than being a danger to your home, your landscaping can help protect your home, taking the brunt of the storm on your behalf. Read on to see how. . .
I have always loved blue flowers. Spiderwort was my favorite until I stumbled upon a clearing in the mountains one day and discovered the beauty of Plumbago. I loved it for its sky blue color, but Aunt Bett had other ideas.
Some plants are like icons in gardens, and when crafting a tropical garden, one of the most important icons is the group of big leaved plants known by some as "Elephant Ears", or "EEs". Among these, the large terrestrial Alocasias hold the position of prominence - read on for an introduction to these behemoths of tropical splendor . . .
Insecticides and weed killers can be a gardener's best friend, but must be used with caution in a mature garden. I'm not a big advocate of chemical products, but even home-made solutions such as vinegar or insecticidal soaps can be lethal if used incorrectly.
Ever visit a nursery and be amazed and tempted by the cool and weird looking succulents being offered for sale, for just a few dollars... but didn't know which ones were easy, and which were gonna die for sure? I have many times. This article is a brief guide to some of the easy and not-so-easy succulents commonly encountered at the average nursery that will carry such plants.
On Saturdays, the Writer's Group would like to say thanks by presenting a "You Supply The Caption" photo. A gardening related photo will be presented, and you the Readers will provide humorous captions. The wit available on Dave's is some of the best around, so please join in the fun! This feature is not a "for compensation" article - just our way of saying Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoy...now let's hear some funny stuff!
Do you want dozens of daylilies for a border? Are you more willing to spend patience than money in order to get them? Do you like surprises? Then starting daylilies from seed is just the project for you!
Softneck garlics are well adapted to warmer climates. It is softneck garlic that you are likely to find in the grocery store, because softneck garlic stores and travels better than hardneck. The types of softneck garlic you are most likely to encounter are Artichokes (with a sub-group of Turbans) and Silverskins.
I often think that I live in the wrong century; I straddle the fence between then and now. Of course it is much easier today to run to the store and pick up a package of red dye, than to go out in the fields and find pokeberries in order to make my own. But doesn't it make you feel especially good when you make something wonderful without having to purchase a thing?
So you've worked hard on creating the perfect miniature tree, you've potted, trimmed, nipped and tucked. Then you realize it just doesn't look like a real tree, just some plant in a pot with no true ties to nature. If this sounds like you, keep reading as I am about to introduce you to some plants you may not have thought of as bonsai accents. Sometimes they are cheap... or even free.
Are you a hardneck or a softneck kinda garlic lover? Do you know? Most of us only know the supermarket variety, which is a softneck grown for shipping qualities rather than range of flavor. Hardneck and softneck are the broadest terms used for all varieties of garlic, and there are several hundred sub-species within those varieties. We’ll look at a few of the hardnecks here, and some taste notes you might consider in growing one variety over another.
Trees grown in standard nursery pots often have root systems that are a disaster waiting to happen. Why? Because in a standard nursery pot, the tree roots have no option but to follow the pot wall, around and around. Unlike the arms of an octopus, these roots cannot unwrap or unfurl once the tree is planted in the ground.
Vines are among the most basic and simple plants to grow in the garden. They can be trained to everything, and, on the whole, they are great for whatever space you have to give them. They come back year after year and love to grow. Take a look at the world of simple to grow deciduous vines for the garden.
The first benefit to the home gardener is the opportunity to grow and use some of the magnificent garlic varieties seldom, if ever, found in the supermarkets and rarely even at farmer’s markets or roadside stands. Out of over 600 sub-varieties, only 2 are commonly found in grocery stores. If you like cooking and eating garlic, expand your repertoire!
"Free daffodils"? A medium size City in Oklahoma woke up this Spring to hundreds of Yellow Blossoms blooming in the City right-of-ways. Our landscape was changed by Citizens cooperating together the previous fall and planting donated Daffodil bulbs. You can do the same in your City.
What does “going green” really mean to those of us who love to garden? “To be mindful and sensitive to the natural environment of your daily life” would seem to be a perfect description.
When is a shrub not necessarily a shrub? Answer: When it can also be a tree. The best part is that you, the gardener, get to decide which it will be. I'm speaking here of a plant that truly does everything.
See the Big Bugs! from April 25 - July 20 at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois. David Rogers' huge wooden bug sculptures astonish children and fascinate adults.
When we operated our garden center in Louisiana, I had a much anticipated task of going to Dupont Nursery once a month to hand select the hibiscus we sold. Needless to say, it was a dirty job, but someone had to do it. (Notice the sarcasm in that last statement.) Every visit to their greenhouse felt like the first visit, it never got old. Walking through hundreds of blooming hibiscus and buzzing hummingbirds, it always took my breath away.
When people get together, it is natural for food to be involved. We enjoy offering something as simple as a glass of cold tea or as intricate as a five course dinner to our guests. But sometimes fancy ingredients just complicate the offering. A few well chosen items can make something as simple as a grilled cheese sandwich a feast. This week, I had in my opinion, the best grilled cheese ever
Although some swapping is done locally or at DG roundups, a lot of the plant trading at Dave’s Garden happens by mail. How can you pack plants so they survive several days of cross-country transportation? How can you package plants so they don’t end up being heavy and costly to ship? This step by step guide to packing bare root plants for shipping will show you.
When I first became interested in gardening and joined Dave’s Garden, my yard was all "small green things” mixed with a little grass growing in heavy, wet clay soil. There were 2 maple trees too close together flanking the sidewalk and nothing else. I soon took down the trees but didn’t know what to do with the stumps. This ultimately brought about learning how to garden in heavy clay.
My prairie guide book says yarrow is often found in prairies that have been disturbed. In other words, it isn't really a native prairie plant. In fact, I'm beginning to think that "weed" is a good word for it, the way it invades the lawn.
These are the easiest to grow and the best ground covers for the normal garden. We all have those areas we need to have covered in something, right? The grass does not grow there or it is too hard to mow. We don’t want a garden there now or don’t have the time to grow one. These are the simple plants that can fill that space, look classy, and perfectly fit that space in the garden.
Imagine a rainbow of colors as a backdrop for your sun-loving perennials and annuals. Tall stalks of Gladiolus in red, chartreuse, yellow, orange, lavender, purple, apricot, pink, and white. The only missing color is a true blue, but recently, bulb catalogs are boasting hybrid Gladiolus in near-blue.
Of course you all know about tree climbing unless you were raised in the Gobi desert or North Pole, everyone as a child has climbed trees either to grab some appetizing cherries or just for the hell of it. But what is secure tree climbing then?
It’s smelly. It can contain wire. It doesn’t break down. All are partially true statements when talking about rubber mulch, but there are good uses for this relatively new product as well.
Though Palms are Trees, because their root structure differs from most dicot trees, there may be different strategies to planting palms other than one might use to plant most other trees. This short article is a discussion of some various techniques used by palm specialists, along with some of my own blunders.
As gardeners, we all have special memories associated with certain plants. The first daffodils peeking through the ground in early spring, the smell of honeysuckle at night, or the first ripe tomato eaten while standing in the vegetable garden. I have all of those memories, and there’s more. I see Kathleen’s rose, Rita’s daylilies, Grandmother’s sedum, or Ellen’s iris as the seasons change. I see my loving friends and relatives all over my garden
Genetic Use Restriction Technology (GURT) is a controversial topic. On one hand, seed companies argue that GURT is necessary & offers advantages to growers. On the other, forms of GURT such as suicide seeds have been labelled a threat to diversity & the autonomy of agricultural producers around the world. Let's take a look at this issue & some of the controversy that surrounds it.
A little while ago I wrote about the great attributes of the groundcover type cotoneasters, but the upright shrub types are equally useful for their fall colour, flowers, fruit display and attraction to fruit-eating birds. Read on to see which types of taller cotoneater might be suitable for your region.
Creeping thymes are a wonderful way to add different textures and fragrances to your landscape. They’re easy to propagate, so you can turn a couple of plants into a nice border for a sunny bed.
As Gardeners we are often vexed by too small a growing space, less-than-desirable soil, too many weeds or a host of other problems. Many of us are also subject to the trials of the body, impeding our physical ability to garden. There are some options to help us with our gardening woes and here is an introduction to one, Straw Bale Gardening.
Here I'll explore the nature of greenhouse gases, the greenhouse effect, and some of the possibilities that can result from small changes. The Earth's weather systems have characteristics that can be modeled in chaos theory. I describe such systems as fractalic, or like a fractal. Changing a parameter in a fractalic equation results in unpredictable outcomes . . .
