LandscapExperts Tip of the Week, July 29

Make a reusable sticky trap to catch white flies organically. 

Spray one side of a windowpane or an old picture frame with bright, school bus yellow paint, then spread motor oil on the other side. Set the glass with the oily side up near plants infested with white flies. They go for the yellow color and get stuck in the oil. 

Every once in awhile, wipe the glass clean and apply fresh oil.  

LandscapExperts Tip of the Week, July 22

High-Tech Garden Journal

Use the Video setting on your smart phone to record garden events and "Take Garden Notes" for later viewing. Put a yardstick in the photo to help with scale when the file is viewed later. What could be easier? Talk about what you are seeing and what you plan to change while taping.

LandscapExperts Tip of the Week, July 15

Grow Lotus or Carnivorous Plants that like Wet Soils in Regular Garden Soil

Defy all odds and enjoy your exotic plants in the regular garden.

Dig a hole and bury an unobtrusive watertight plastic container in-ground so that is level with the soil surface. Fill the container with the correct soil mix (heavy, rich clay soil for Lotus; half sand and half peat moss for Carnivorous Pitcher Plants) and plant with the wetland plants. Flood with water.,

Throughout the season, keep the water level tipped up, adding a mosquito dunk if there is standing water and surprise one and all with  your exotic plant selection.

LandscapExperts Tip of the Week, July 8

Attract Pollinators with blue-flowered Borage
An easily-grown, pretty, annual herb, blue-flowered Borage attracts bees to the garden and improves the fruit and vegetable set of nearby plants like green beans. Direct-sow the large seeds in a sunny spot near other veggies and enjoy the edible blue flowers in green salads or floating in lemonade.

Successive sowings of Borage ensure flowers throughout the growing season.

LandscapExperts Tip of the Week, July 1

Never Lose Another Garden Hand Tool

Gardeners often become distracted. When doing one thing and briefly setting down a hand tool to do something else, it's easy to walk away and lose the tool among the plants.

Instead, wrap the handle in fluorescent plastic tape, or tie streamers of fluorescent landscaping flagging tape to the trowel or clippers and find them easily among the greenery.