Kim Joyce

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Stories By Kim Joyce

  • Produce
    Produce By Kim Joyce November 4th, 2022

    How To Plant Strawberries In California

    How to Plant Strawberries in California. Strawberries are grown in every state, but California alone produces three-fourths of the nation's crop—1 billion pounds of big red berries per year. California grows two types of berries: short-day varieties and day-neutral, or ever-bearing varieties. They require two planting systems, winter and summer. In Southern California, where winters are mild, day-neutral varieties planted in winter almost immediately produce fruit. In the Central Valley and along the northern coast, short-day strawberries planted from late summer into fall develop through the winter and bear heavy spring crops.

    By Kim Joyce November 4th, 2022 Read More
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    Lawn Care
    Lawn Care By Kim Joyce November 4th, 2022

    Are Acorns Bad For My Grass?

    Are Acorns Bad for My Grass?. Acorns aren't bad for lawns and turf grass. They also aren't particularly good. Left in place for a long period, an acorn will usually shade-out the grass growing directly beneath it, leaving a bald spot -- the worst damage acorns cause directly. It's fine to leave acorns in place, given that most homeowners will eventually grind them up with the lawnmower. But you can also remove them and put them to good use elsewhere.

    By Kim Joyce November 4th, 2022 Read More
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    Flowers
    Flowers By Kim Joyce November 4th, 2022

    When To Cut Alliums

    When to Cut Alliums. If you’ve ever let your garden onions or garlic go so long they flowered, you already known what allium blooms look like – spherical heads of hundreds of tiny star-shaped flowers atop tall, hollow stems. The genus allium contains some 500 species, most of which are native to the northern hemisphere, explains the Maryland Cooperative Extension. Most also smell faintly like their onion cousins, but only when you crush or bruise the vegetation. Allium species and cultivars grown for cut flowers, either fresh or dried, typically have long, sturdy stems and are cold-hardy perennials. How and when you harvest alliums depends on the species.

    By Kim Joyce November 4th, 2022 Read More
  • Produce
    Produce By Kim Joyce November 4th, 2022

    How Long Can Sugar Pumpkins Stay On The Vine?

    How Long Can Sugar Pumpkins Stay on the Vine?. Thanksgiving just wouldn't be much of a holiday without pie -- especially pumpkin pie, which needs sugar pumpkins for a truly good flavor. Sugar pumpkins require a very long growing season. Popular varieties such as Small Sugar and Sugar Pie mature after 90 to 110 days after planting, depending on the variety, weather conditions and other factors. Sugar pumpkins can remain on the vine until just before the first hard frost. Severe cold will damage pumpkin flesh, turning it to mush -- wiping out your entire harvest.

    By Kim Joyce November 4th, 2022 Read More
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    Flowers
    Flowers By Kim Joyce November 4th, 2022

    When Does Forsythia Bloom?

    When Does Forsythia Bloom?. Forsythia is a spectacular spring-flowering shrub you're more likely to find near old farmhouses than in modern yards, in part because of its size. Forsythia can grow to 10 feet and taller, and equally wide, though smaller cultivars are now available. Also known as border forsythia and golden bell, forsythia explodes with vivid yellow flowers on naked branches when winter is still dreary--a cheering early harbinger of spring--though the month varies from place to place.

    By Kim Joyce November 4th, 2022 Read More
  • Trees
    Trees By Kim Joyce September 6th, 2022

    Do Persimmons Need To Be Pollinated?

    Do Persimmons Need to Be Pollinated?. Striking landscape trees even in winter, persimmons as fruit trees are both exotic and down-home. Most varieties home gardeners in the South and Southwest would plant are Asian persimmons (Diospyros kaki), which are self-pollinating, meaning they don't need other persimmon trees -- or varieties -- to produce fruit. But native persimmon varieties add an extra layer of complexity to the pollination question. American persimmons (D. virginiana) are dioecious -- meaning male and female flowers are produced on separate trees -- so to produce fruit, female trees need pollen from male trees.

    By Kim Joyce September 6th, 2022 Read More
  • Produce
    Produce By Kim Joyce September 6th, 2022

    Should I Cut Back My Fern?

    Should I Cut Back My Fern?. Ferns were ancient long before dinosaurs roamed the earth. They were the key feature of the Paleozoic era's Carboniferous Period some 300 million years ago, their lives and deaths creating the vast carbon deposits -- now oil, natural gas and coal -- that fuel modern societies. About half the prehistoric ferns eventually developed seeds, and gave rise to today's flowering plants. True ferns reproduce via spores instead of seeds, dust-sized particles collected in small, circular sacs on the underside of fronds. Cut back fronds when needed to keep your fern foliage fresh and vigorous.

    By Kim Joyce September 6th, 2022 Read More
  • Trees
    Trees By Kim Joyce September 6th, 2022

    How To Make Your Own Lime Sulfur For Spraying Fruit Trees

    How to Make Your Own Lime Sulfur for Spraying Fruit Trees. Sulfur is the oldest known organic pesticide, used by the Greeks against wheat rusts. Sulfur cooked in water with lime or calcium hydroxide, lime sulfur is particularly useful as a dormant spray -- applied only to dormant woody shrubs or trees, not foliage. Chemical companies and agricultural extension services generally warn farmers and gardeners against making their own lime sulfur, because it is caustic and can burn. In recent memory, however, farmers always made their own, using formulas and procedures supplied by extension staff. This recipe makes lime sulfur in concentrated liquid form -- probably more than you need -- so collaborate with your neighbors.

    By Kim Joyce September 6th, 2022 Read More
  • Trees
    Trees By Kim Joyce September 6th, 2022

    How Do I Grow A Magnolia Tree In California?

    How Do I Grow a Magnolia Tree in California?. They are considered icons of the U.S. South, but magnolia trees generally do quite well in California. Winter cold can be a limiting factor for magnolias grown in California; they won't survive in the Sierra Nevada or colder mountainous or foothill areas. Intensity and timing of late winter or spring frosts are other considerations, because frost can damage the spring bloom--and stunning, often fragrant flowers are key reasons for growing magnolia. Consider growing magnolia trees if you live in well-watered areas of southern California, along warmer sections of the California coastline and almost anywhere in the Central Valley and its very low foothills.

    By Kim Joyce September 6th, 2022 Read More
  • Flowers
    Flowers By Kim Joyce September 6th, 2022

    How To Propagate Woolly Thyme Ground Cover

    How to Propagate Woolly Thyme Ground Cover. Woolly thyme (Thymus pseudolanuginosus) is a sturdy, low-growing perennial groundcover that does well in full sun and well-drained soils. Gritty, poor soils that discourage other plants are perfect for thyme. This variety has soft, woolly gray-green leaves that turn purple in winter. Woolly thyme is vulnerable to root rot, but grows well in rock gardens and on dry slopes. Each plant can spread up to 18 inches. Thyme is a great self-propagator and will spread well on its own, but several techniques will help you speed the process.

    By Kim Joyce September 6th, 2022 Read More
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    Flowers
    Flowers By Kim Joyce March 23rd, 2022

    What Is The White Powder On My Terra Cotta Pots?

    What Is the White Powder on My Terra Cotta Pots?. Whether grown as houseplants or outdoors as potted trees, shrubs, flowers and vegetables, plants grown in terra cotta or unsealed clay pots sometimes develop crusty, white powder or residue both inside and outside. Salty crusts can also develop on plastic pots. This powder is an accumulation of soluble salts and indicates that high salt levels are building up in the soil too -- threatening the health and vitality of your plants. In a sense, that white powder is a helpful early warning signal. Fortunately, a few simple changes can turn things around.

    By Kim Joyce March 23rd, 2022 Read More