Garden Experiments
For the love of gardening and wildlife habitat
Information about how to grow, where to plant, how to propagate, soil and sun requirements, and more for garden plants and flowers. Discover new plants for your garden or learn more about plants already in your garden.
I may have mentioned this before, but my yard has a LOT of squirrels. With several oak and pecan trees, there is plenty of food for them. The problem is, whenever I plant new seeds, the squirrels (and cats) dig up the soil. I end up with empty spots that never grow. I planted beets and carrots in my two raised self-watering beds. The soil in …
Continue Reading about The Cayenne Pepper vs. Squirrel Experiment
Every gardener will encounter poison ivy at some point. It’s an important plant to be able to identify – even when it doesn’t have leaves. All parts of the plant are poisonous. While some people may not have a reaction to this plant, many will get an itchy, painful rash. The substance (uroshiol) that causes the rash or blisters can be …
Xeriscaping with Succulents and Cacti Creating rock gardens in places that receive little to no water in your yard can provide nice visual appeal with little maintenance. Many cacti and succulents are perennial and when they bloom, they add bright spots of color in your landscape. There are very large eaves on the house, meaning that there is …
Continue Reading about How to Create a Rock Garden for Low-Water Gardening
Philadelphia fleabane is a native wildflower in the sunflower family (Asteracea); it looks like a small feathery daisy or aster. Many may consider this flowering plant to be a weed, but it struck me as a nice addition to my yard. Although it’s not where I would like it to be at the moment, I will dig it up and transplant it. I have noted that …
Continue Reading about Philadelphia Fleabane – Erigeron philadelphicus
The irises were gorgeous this March and April with many yellow flowers blooming in the front yard along a stone path. One good thunderstorm came through and flattened most of the flower stalks. Now we were stepping over the blooms to avoid crushing any future flowers. Needless to say this didn’t work very well. Luckily, I remembered that I had …
Continue Reading about How to Support Leaning Plants and Flowers – Curved Garden Stakes
Tomatoes are some of the simplest vegetables to grow. Ok, technically it's a fruit, but let's just call it a vegetable for now. I recommend starting tomatoes from plants purchased from your local garden store. While you can start tomatoes from seeds, unless you have a good grow light system set up or a greenhouse, you'll get pretty wimpy looking …
