Katherine Kally

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Garden Guides uses a knowledgeable team of editors, writers, and experts to create all our content. We dive deep into the ever-evolving conversations surrounding gardening and landscaping, striving to deliver the most current and helpful tips, strengthened by expert insight and tutorials from our talented team.

As we cover many fields of expertise, we make it a priority to ensure every beat remains fresh and comprehensive. Additional information on our editorial process available here.

Stories By Katherine Kally

  • Produce
    Produce By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022

    How To Plant Bulbs With A Weed Barrier

    How to Plant Bulbs With a Weed Barrier. A weed barrier is often a fabric landscaping material that helps prevent weeds from growing in your garden or around the edging on your lawn. Weed barriers work by blocking the sunlight from reaching the soil, which inhibits weed cultivation. Air and water can still get through the weed barrier so your plants and flowers can thrive. You can add plants and bulbs to a garden with a weed barrier at any time. The landscaping fabric cuts easily with household shears or a knife.

    By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022 Read More
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    Trees
    Trees By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022

    How To Build A Garden Arbor Out Of Branches And Limbs

    How to Build a Garden Arbor Out of Branches and Limbs. Garden arbors are decorative accessories for your landscape. Build a garden arbor from PVC, copper pipe, treated wood and other building materials. You can also build a garden arbor out of branches and limbs available on your property. Cut green material directly from a willow, alder, birch or bamboo tree for best results. It's easier to make the garden arbor with pliable branches and limbs.

    By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022 Read More
  • Produce
    Produce By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022

    Signs Of Too Much Fertilizer On My Tomato Plants

    Signs of Too Much Fertilizer on My Tomato Plants. Pay attention to the type of fertilizer you are using on your tomato plants; organic or chemical fertilizers that are high in nitrogen can lead to tomato plants with no fruit or fruit with poor color, texture and flavor. Other signs of too much fertilizer on your tomato plants include blossom drop and leaf roll. Adjust the amount or type of fertilizer that you use to grow beautiful, healthy tomatoes.

    By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022 Read More
  • Trees
    Trees By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022

    Cleveland Pear Tree Diseases

    Cleveland Pear Tree Diseases. Ornamental trees that reach between 30 and 40 feet tall, Cleveland pears display showy white blossoms in the spring. These pear trees have a high level of resistance to most diseases, but resistance does not mean immunity.

    By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022 Read More
  • Flowers
    Flowers By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022

    How To Grow Granny's Bonnet

    How to Grow Granny's Bonnet. Granny's Bonnet is another name for the perennial wildflower columbine, or Aquilegias. Hardy in Zones 3 through 9, Granny's Bonnet has delicate foliage and 1- to 3-inch blooms in an array of colors. It's easy to grow Granny's Bonnet; the plant will adapt itself to a variety of conditions in your garden or landscape. The plant can grow up to 3 feet high, with flower blossoms beginning mid-May and lasting through June, if you remove the faded blossoms.

    By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022 Read More
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    Flowers
    Flowers By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022

    How To Coat Flowers In Resin

    How to Coat Flowers in Resin. Coating flowers in resin to make personal accessories and home décor items requires patience and a few supplies from the craft store. The process involves drying the flowers first while maintaining their three-dimensional shape. Once the moisture has been removed, you can coat the flower blossoms with layers of polyester resin. Attach the resin flowers to a pin backing to make a broach or sew them to a jump ring to make a necklace. Or coat the dried flowers and the stems with resin to make a decorative floral arrangement for your home.

    By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022 Read More
  • Produce
    Produce By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022

    How To Grow Clematis Indoors

    How to Grow Clematis Indoors. Clematis is a climbing vine that offers an abundance of colorful flowers during the late spring and early summer. Clematis are grouped according to their pruning requirements with Pruning Group Two being the most ideal choice for indoor container gardening as these plants require the least amount of pruning. With the right amount of light, good soil and fertilization, your indoor clematis plants will grow beautifully year round.

    By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022 Read More
  • Flowers
    Flowers By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022

    How To Landscape With White Rock

    How to Landscape With White Rock. Create fresh curb appeal for your home by landscaping with white rocks. White rocks as a background in your flower beds make the foliage and the flower blossoms pop with color. White rocks can also help showcase an ornamental tree or help old shrubbery look new. Look for bags of small white rocks at your local garden supply or home improvement store.

    By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022 Read More
  • Structures
    Structures By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022

    Molds To Make Concrete Bird Baths

    Molds to Make Concrete Bird Baths. Concrete bird baths can decorate your landscape as focal points or as unobtrusive additions to your garden. Place a concrete bird bath on a pedestal in your yard or nestle one amid the foliage in a flower bed. You can make your own concrete bird baths using molds from your garden and home. Always use a release agent on any parts of the mold that touches the concrete. Common household release agents that work with concrete include vegetable oil, petroleum jelly, and non-stick cooking spray.

    By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022 Read More
  • Flowers
    Flowers By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022

    How Does A Rose Flower Reproduce?

    How Does a Rose Flower Reproduce?. One of the most common ways to reproduce roses is to propagate the parent plant with a cutting. This method is also referred to as asexual reproduction and is used to start new rose bushes from existing plants. Old roses, miniatures and English roses reproduce well with the cutting and rooting methods. The best cuttings are taken from a section of the parent plant where the flower has just recently finished blooming. Flowers that have four separate leaf sets beneath the bloom and a five-leaf set at the base of the cutting are prime candidates for rooting and reproducing a new rose. The spots where the leaf sets meet the stem are called nodes; this is where the new roots may form. Successful rooting techniques call for removal of the bottom leaf sets and the rose flower before scoring the stem and placing it into a rooting compound, which encourages root growth. Placing the stem into a baggie with vermiculite or potting soil aids root reproduction. When the roots form, plant the cutting in a pot with potting soil for at least a week before moving it into the rose garden.

    By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022 Read More
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    Structures
    Structures By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022

    How To Make Plaster Of Paris Flower Pots

    How to Make Plaster of Paris Flower Pots. Plaster of Paris is a type of crafting plaster that you can shape into just about anything. The secret to a successful plaster of Paris project is to lubricate the mold so that the finished project will release easily. You can make plaster of Paris flower pots with two similar molds as long as one fits inside the other. The sides of the flower pot form in the space between the two molds. Plaster of Paris molds are available at craft and discount stores, or you can make your own with common household objects.

    By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022 Read More
  • Produce
    Produce By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022

    How To Grow Thornless Blackberries

    How to Grow Thornless Blackberries. Thornless blackberries are trailing cultivars, meaning their primocanes will grow along the ground, like a vine, for two years after you plant them. Plant thornless blackberries in the spring, in a row with the plants spaced 4 to 10 feet apart. You may also enjoy success if you plant them in October, depending on where you live. Growing thornless blackberries requires patience during the first year, and attention thereafter to train the canes in a growth pattern along a trellis.

    By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022 Read More
  • Structures
    Structures By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022

    How To Make A Stone Waterfall

    How to Make a Stone Waterfall. Stone waterfalls are distinct and decorative focal points for any landscape. Make a waterfall with stones from your property or from the local landscape supply. Large, medium and small quartz or river rock makes a striking stone waterfall for the garden or backyard. Back the waterfall against a fence, wall or stand of trees, or design it to be a free-standing landscape centerpiece.

    By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022 Read More
  • Lawn Care
    Lawn Care By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022

    What Causes Big Dark Green Circles In Your Lawn?

    What Causes Big Dark Green Circles in Your Lawn?. Big dark green circles in your lawn are often called 'fairy rings', but they are actually a soil inhabiting fungi from the Basidomycetes class. The fungi causing the big green circles can be from a wide variety of species within the Basidomycetes class, but the result is the same no matter which fungi is at work. Fairy rings occur when the fungi begins living on organic matter that's decaying in the soil. For example, if you removed a tree, the remaining roots will start to decay. Fairy rings from fungi may also occur where the grass is too thick and some of the roots are dying due to lack of available nutrients. You may have mushrooms sprouting or rings of dead grass inside the fairy rings. The pattern and shape of the big dark green circles can change from season to season as the fungus continues to move onto other decaying matter.

    By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022 Read More
  • Trees
    Trees By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022

    Weeping Willow Planting Instructions

    Weeping Willow Planting Instructions. Weeping willow trees add a graceful element to any landscape design. Weeping willows are fast growing trees with a mature height of between 30 and 40 feet with a 35-foot spread. These deciduous trees are dormant in the late fall and through the winter. Hardy in zones 6 through 8, weeping willow trees grow well when planted adjacent to water. A weeping willow planting site should have full sun and loose, good quality soil that drains well.

    By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022 Read More
  • Produce
    Produce By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022

    How Does A Hydroponic Greenhouse Work?

    How Does a Hydroponic Greenhouse Work?. Hydroponics is a way of growing vegetables, herbs, citrus and flowers without soil. The growing medium is air, water, or a specific mixture that includes perlite, vermiculite, gravel, rockwool and coconut fibers. Hydroponic growing methods offer increased yields across the board for any type of crop. For example, tomatoes that are grown in an acre of soil will yield a five to ten ton crop. The same amount of tomatoes grown in a hydroponic greenhouse will yield from 60 to 300 tons.

    By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022 Read More
  • Produce
    Produce By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022

    How To Start Strawberry Seeds Indoors

    How to Start Strawberry Seeds Indoors. Strawberry plants are perennials that can produce fruit year after year, beginning the second year after starting them from seeds. You can start strawberry seeds indoors six to eight weeks before the last frost in your area. Some strawberry seeds need to be cold treated prior to germination, so make sure to check the specific requirements of the type of strawberries you plan to grow before you plant them indoors. Most strawberry plants germinate within 21 days and will be ready to transplant into the garden or into containers within two months.

    By Katherine Kally November 4th, 2022 Read More
  • Produce
    Produce By Katherine Kally November 3rd, 2022

    How Does A Soil Moisture Meter Work?

    How Does a Soil Moisture Meter Work?. Soil moisture meters and sensors may rely on a portable sensing device that is pushed into the soil or into an access tube that’s placed in the soil for monitoring purposes. These devices measure some physical property that is correlated to the level of moisture in the soil. One common type of portable soil moisture meter is the electrical resistance block. This sensor works on the basis that water conducts electricity; soil with higher moisture levels will have a lower electrical resistance. Two types of commercially available electrical resistance blocks are gypsum blocks and granular matrix sensors. The blocks work when they are buried in tightly packed soil with no air pockets in a location that’s representative of the field you are testing. The blocks absorb moisture from the soil and the findings may be read with a data logger or a portable, hand-held meter. With data loggers, it is not necessary to visit every buried block to take a reading by hand. Data loggers are mounted on a post and hard wired to each of your electrical resistance blocks. At specified intervals, the data logger sends an electric current to the blocks. The resulting measurements are converted into soil moisture readings. The data logger stores the readings in memory and may offer a graphical display of the moisture levels based over several days or several weeks. This information allows crop producers to see recent trends in soil moisture levels.

    By Katherine Kally November 3rd, 2022 Read More
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    Produce
    Produce By Katherine Kally November 3rd, 2022

    Tomato Varieties List

    Tomato Varieties List. Different varieties of tomatoes are better suited for different types of food. Salad tomatoes are firm and flavorful, but they may not cook up as well as tomatoes used to make paste. Whether you are making sandwiches or salsa, it's a good idea to know which tomato variety works best for your culinary project.

    By Katherine Kally November 3rd, 2022 Read More
  • Flowers
    Flowers By Katherine Kally November 3rd, 2022

    How To Cut Back Rose Bushes

    How to Cut Back Rose Bushes. Cutting back rose bushes is a way to provide better air circulation and sunlight to the center of the rose plant. This can result in healthier growth with a greater abundance of roses. Cutting back rose bushes is also a way to redirect the plant's growth. When you remove diseased or dead wood from the plant, the rose bush can focus its attention on producing new growth. It is not difficult to cut back rose bushes, but there are a few important techniques to learn about how, when and where to make the cuts.

    By Katherine Kally November 3rd, 2022 Read More
  • Structures
    Structures By Katherine Kally November 3rd, 2022

    How To Make A PVC Plant Stand

    How to Make a PVC Plant Stand. Plant stands in the home or office can be functional, decorative and inexpensive if you make them with PVC pipe. PVC pipe is lightweight, durable and simple to assemble into many items for your home. Camouflage the raw materials of the PVC plant stand with spray paint or acrylics. Paint a flowering vine that runs along the length of the plant stand or cover it with a marbleized or metal paint finish to fit your décor and sense of style.

    By Katherine Kally November 3rd, 2022 Read More
  • Structures
    Structures By Katherine Kally September 6th, 2022

    How To Build Planters With Landscape Timbers

    How to Build Planters With Landscape Timbers. Planters can add dimension to your landscape and character to your outdoor living space. From old wheelbarrows to coffee cans, you can build planters out of a variety of materials. You can also build planters with landscape timbers that would normally border flower beds or brace a retaining wall. Landscape timbers are already treated for outdoor use, so it is not necessary to treat the wood. Build a standard box shaped planter or miter the cuts and vary the design to build octagonal planters.

    By Katherine Kally September 6th, 2022 Read More
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    Flowers
    Flowers By Katherine Kally September 6th, 2022

    Flowers Used For Corsages

    Flowers Used for Corsages. Corsages are made from an arrangement of flowers, foliage and ribbons for women to wear during formal occasions. It's customary to coordinate the colors of the corsage with the colors in the woman's dress. Corsages may be worn on the shoulder, wrist or handbag. They may also be handheld in the Victorian tradition of nosegays.

    By Katherine Kally September 6th, 2022 Read More
  • Structures
    Structures By Katherine Kally September 6th, 2022

    How To Landscape With Stone Mulch

    How To Landscape With Stone Mulch. Increase your homes curb appeal by landscaping with stone mulch. Stone mulch, such as small white rocks or river rocks, creates a distinctive background for flower beds, stepping stone walkways, ornamental trees and evergreen shrubbery. Landscape around your mailbox with decorative stone mulch or create a focal point in your yard with a layer of stone mulch beneath a fountain or garden bench. The stones help retain moisture and prevent weeds, much the same as other types of organic mulch.

    By Katherine Kally September 6th, 2022 Read More