Lauren Wise
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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 Lauren Wise
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Tips On Growing Grass Seed With Compost
Tips on Growing Grass Seed With Compost. Compost is an ideal medium to plant along with grass seed and encourage growth. Use it when planting and growing grass seed as a soil-conditioning agent. It helps protect and insulate the grass seed, paving the way for thicker and healthier grass over your lawn in the long run. You can find compost at any local gardening store, or even create your own in your yard made up of organic materials. Keep some key things in mind when growing grass seed with compost, such as soil preparation, using the right amount of compost and how to properly integrate the grass seed with the compost.
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What Are The Best Vegetables To Grow In The Northeast?
What are the Best Vegetables to Grow in the Northeast?. Vegetable gardening can be successful pretty much anywhere--the key is planting times and temperature control. In the Northeast, factors to consider when planting vegetables are the fact that there is a shorter growing season with a late harvest of mostly cool-season crops. Throughout the Northeast, many planting times and crops will vary so the task can be challenging. The best vegetables to plant in the Northeast are ones that develop and mature quickly and prefer cooler weather.
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Plants That Mean Friendship
Plants That Mean Friendship. Flowers are ideal to send to people or loved ones in order to portray a specific message--friendship being one of the most common. They are a simple, beautiful way of letting someone know how you feel without words. When trying to find flowers that mean friendship, focus on the iris flower, ivy plant, and the yellow rose, which all represent friendship when given from one person to another.
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How To Grow Fruit Trees In Coastal Areas
How to Grow Fruit Trees in Coastal Areas. Fruit trees can easily flourish in coastal areas, as long as they are protected from cool temperatures and are hardy. Pick dwarf or semi-dwarf varieties (the smaller size make them easier to maintain and harvest fruit), as well as fruit that can survive in salty air and sandy soil. As long as you pick your planting site carefully and provide regular maintenance, your fruit tree will thrive in coastal areas.
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How To Prune Wild Blackberries
How to Prune Wild Blackberries. Blackberry bushes flourish in the wild along roadsides with bushy thick vegetation, as well as in fields, near the ocean shore, in woodlands or on mountains. Wild blackberries are rich in vitamin C and can be made into jams, sauces, eaten fresh and chilled or tossed into desserts. Since wild blackberries grow tall and thorny, the arching canes need to be pruned to encourage future fruit harvest and to keep growth under control.
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Greenhouse Requirements
Greenhouse Requirements. A greenhouse is very beneficial for the avid gardener, rare plant collector or farmer who wants to grow crops year-round. Several factors are involved in planning or building a successful greenhouse, but the process doesn't have to be very time-consuming or expensive. The main requirements for a successful greenhouse are a proper location and good ventilation, heating, cooling and watering systems.
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Kinds Of Winter Apples
Kinds of Winter Apples. Winter apples are varieties that mature and stay ripe through the colder seasons in the year up through spring. Known as a fine cooking apple, winter apples also store well for long periods of time (up to a year) and usually have a sweet flavor and crisp texture. Winter apples come in dozens of different varieties, but there are some differences in flavor and appearance among the most common types.
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What Vegetables Grow In Wet Soil
What Vegetables Grow in Wet Soil. Several vegetable thrive in wet soil, as they need regular hydration and nutrients from the water. Most vegetables that require such high moisture level also need full sun. These include common summer plants such as peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers. Water these wet soil plants on a daily basis, especially when young and during hot temperatures.
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What Fruits & Vegetables Grow In New Zealand?
What Fruits & Vegetables Grow in New Zealand?. New Zealand is made up of two main islands: North Island and South Island. The food culture here has its roots in Polynesia and Britain, with an emphasis on native fruits and vegetables, dairy and meat. Fruits and vegetables that grow in New Zealand such as the kiwifruit, potatoes and tamarillo are major exports and help shape the identity of the country.
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How To Attach A Trellis To A Fence
How to Attach a Trellis to a Fence. Trellis placement in the garden is important, whether you are using it as a plant support, privacy wall or architectural element. Ideally a trellis is secured to a solid structure, such as a fence, but it is important to make sure that the trellis support system will be able to hold up the type of plant you are growing on it once it hits maturity. Keep in mind some important points when securing a trellis to a fence, such as proper tools and ensuring that the trellis is not going to fall off.
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How To Get Rid Of Wild Sweet Potato Vines In Your Garden
How to Get Rid of Wild Sweet Potato Vines in Your Garden. Wild sweet potato vines thrive as produce in a garden and in the wild, with invasive drought-resistant vines that grow up to 30 feet long. These vines bloom big purple and white flowers in spring season that can be up to 6 inches wide. Since sweet potatoes can grow in almost any condition or type of soil, it is almost classified as a weed. If you want to get rid of these vines, it will take some time and manual labor, but it can be done.
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Raspberry Leaf Identification
Raspberry Leaf Identification. Raspberry plants flourish in the wild and can easily take over an area with canes. As the hardiest variety of cane berries, these can form into brambles with thorns and lots of dense foliage and leaves. Although there are yellow and purple varieties, the most common are black and red raspberries. It can be difficult to identify a raspberry plant unless there is a fruit harvest heavy on the branches, but it is helpful to understand how to identify the plant by just the foliage alone.
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How To Use Coffee Grounds For Tree Fertilizer
How to Use Coffee Grounds for Tree Fertilizer. Trees are a staple for any landscape or garden, whether they are fruit, nut or oak trees. Trees require care and maintenance in order to boost their growth, just like any other plant. One of the key elements that encourages growth is fertilizer that is high in nitrogen, phosphate and potash. An easy fix to this (and an organic one) is to use coffee grounds right from your kitchen. The grounds act as a natural fertilizer, and using them for this process requires few materials and little time.
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How To Brace The Fruit Tree Branches
How to Brace the Fruit Tree Branches. At a young age, fruit trees occasionally need some support from a branch brace so they do not break under the weight of foliage or fruit. If possible, avoid using a brace by thinning the fruit out during flowering to what the branch can handle. If you do need to use a branch brace, use a method of a pole with pantyhose to gently support the branch.
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How To Identify Berry Vines
How to Identify Berry Vines. Berry vines come in many different varieties, from well-known raspberry vines to more rare silverberries. Since most vines look similar, it's important to recognize the small differences in berries, leaves and vine growth to tell them apart. In addition, having a regional guidebook on hand will make it easier.
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How To Protect Mango Trees From Winter
How to Protect Mango Trees from Winter. Mango trees are an ideal addition to any garden or landscape for their beauty, shade and delicious fruit harvest that tastes similar to a peach. The tree grows best in tropical climates planted outdoors, but can be grown in other climates from different varieties. It is important to protect not just mango trees, but all fruit trees from winter and frosts. There are some key things to remember when preparing a mango tree for winter.
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How To Kill Orchard Grass In Your Lawn
How to Kill Orchard Grass in Your Lawn. Orchardgrass is usually seen as a rapid-growing weed when it sprouts on a lawn. It is a perennial grass that can grow tall, and it also can grow in almost any soil condition. An easy home remedy can rid your yard of orchardgrass in just a few days.
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How To Train Climbing Hydrangea
How to Train Climbing Hydrangea. Climbing hydrangea is a plant that is highly revered in the world of vines for its strong growing skills, large fragrant white flowers that grow up to 10 inches in diameter, dark bark and glossy leaves. This vine variety grows best on a tree or brick wall since it uses aerial rootlets to support itself. It does not grow well on fences, and is not so aggressive that it will take over the wall of a house or kill a tree. When training a climbing hydrangea, there are important things to keep in mind such as training the shoots and pruning.
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Plants In The Onion Family
Plants in the Onion Family. The garden onion, or Allium cepa L., has been used for thousands of years as a food staple, a medicinal herb and a way to add flavor to food. Surprisingly, this tear-inducing variety is in the lily family, and also has a handful of popular varieties in the same family. The bulbs and stems can be eaten, adding sweetness, peppery flavors or a sharp edge to your food. Whether cooked or raw, members in the onion family still lend a variety of flavors to the majority of dishes today.
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How To Fertilize Citrus Trees In Arizona
How to Fertilize Citrus Trees in Arizona. Citrus trees flourish in Southwestern areas such as Arizona, and like all plants, need nutrients from fertilizer to grow. Citrus trees are heavy feeders, so it is important to fertilize them a handful of times throughout the year for proper growth, health and fruit production. Keep a couple of important things in mind when fertilizing a citrus tree in Arizona in order to ensure maximum fruit yield and function.
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How To Plant Wild Plum Seeds
How to Plant Wild Plum Seeds. Plums trees are simple to plant from seeds and are an ideal addition to a landscape or garden. The main problem with growing plum trees is keeping animals away from digging up the planted seeds. There are remedies for this though, and you can enjoy wild plums throughout the year.
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Care Of A Sugar Cane Plant In Arizona
Care of a Sugar Cane Plant in Arizona. The tall perennial grass sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum) is well-known for its main product of--what else?--sugar. With correct care, sugar cane can grow up to 6 feet tall. It thrives in USDA zones 9 and 10 but doesn't do well in freezing temperatures. In southwest Arizona, sugar cane can be grown successfully with some simple materials, insect prevention and watering.
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How To Harvest Holy Basil
How to Harvest Holy Basil. The herb referred to as "holy basil" in the U.S., and as "tulsi" in India, flourishes when temperatures are above 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Holy basil provides an attractive garden appeal as well as a mild spicy flavor to cuisine. Once harvested, it does not keep more than a couple of days, so it must be used quickly, or dried and stored. Harvest the basil before flowers and seeds appear on the plant on an early morning before the heat of the day.
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Grape Leaf Identification
Grape Leaf Identification. Grapevines thrive in vineyards around the world but can also flourish in the wild. Unfortunately, it can be hard to identify a grapevine unless the vine is heavy with a plump fruit harvest. The fruit harvest isn't the only thing grapevines are good for. The vines and leaves can be used to cook food on a grill, smoking meats with robust flavor. The main way to identify grapevines when they are dormant or very young is from their leaves, which have particular edges, colors and shapes.
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How To Compost Walnut Leaves
How to Compost Walnut Leaves. Walnut trees are beneficial to a landscape for their nut harvest, moderate shade and foliage. The downside of growing a walnut tree is that not many companion plants do well nearby because of the juglone toxin produced by the walnut tree. In the past there has been some debate as to whether you can compost the walnut leaves or not, but it has been proven that you can compost the leaves with other items in a compost pile.
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How To Grow Tea In A Greenhouse
How to Grow Tea in a Greenhouse. Greenhouses are very beneficial for the serious gardener who doesn't want to worry about weather elements--especially if you are growing a sensitive crop like tea. A greenhouse can maintain humidity for tea plants, provide lots of sunshine and protect them from cold temperatures. Growing tea in a greenhouse also gives you the benefit of raising plants to be used as "parent" plants for the next season, and increasing your overall harvest of green tea if you are trying to grow large amounts. According to the Greenhouse Gardener's Companion, greenhouse tea plants will not grow as tall as outdoor tea plants because the environment is more restrictive.
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