Samantha Belyeu
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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 Samantha Belyeu
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Italian Cypress Tree Root Structure
Italian Cypress Tree Root Structure. Italian cypress (Cupressus sempervirens) is an eye-catching specimen tree, growing in a tall, dark green column 40 to 60 feet into the air. The base only reaches a diameter of 3 to 6 feet, and stays relatively even up the length of the tree, adding to the visual appeal. The root system is designed to provide the maximum amount of nutrients that will help Italian cypress grow taller, while providing the minimum support needed to hold up its pole-like form.
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Butterfly Bush Root System
Butterfly Bush Root System. Buddleia spp., or butterfly bush, is a woody perennial that produces long, showy spikes of flowers known to attract butterflies (hence the name) and hummingbirds. The non-cultivated varieties have root systems that can survive many environmental extremes, to the point that they are invasive in some states. Most species of butterfly bush have a root system designed to withstand short periods of drought and an occasional freeze, while absorbing enough nutrients to support the showy masses of blooms.
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Lime For Composting
Lime for Composting. Lime, a common soil amendment sold at garden centers, is used to raise the pH of soils and add essential calcium for plant nutrition. Lime is essentially calcium carbonate, a very alkaline calcium compound. Alkaline substances have a high pH. The most common forms of lime sold for this purpose are dolomite lime and agricultural lime. Adding any kind of lime to a compost pile should be done with caution: adding too much calcium or raising the pH to very high levels is detrimental not only to the compost pile, but to the soils you later fertilize with the compost.
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Insecticides, Pesticides & Chemical Fertilizers
Insecticides, Pesticides & Chemical Fertilizers. While insecticides and other pesticides, along with the advent of chemical fertilizers, has helped farmers produce sufficient and even excess crops, the environmental and health impacts have been severe and are continuing to grow. Sometimes these chemicals are researched poorly (if at all) for their impact on human health or the environment. Sometimes misuse by the farmer or gardener leads to inadvertent harm. But the long-term impacts are poorly understood until the chemical load builds up in homes and the environment.
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PH Level Of Cow Manure
PH Level of Cow Manure. Long before the advent of chemical fertilizers, farmers and gardeners relied heavily on manures to replenish nutrients absorbed by crops and plants. Cow manure in particular was prized for its ability to bring extreme pH levels in the soil back to neutral, as well as enrich the soil.
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Landscape Edging Made With Brick & Mortar
Landscape Edging Made With Brick & Mortar. Few edgings beat the brick and mortar edging for stability, longevity and (unfortunately) amount of work involved to finish the project. It can also be an expensive project, unless you manage to scavenge bricks left over from the building of your home or other construction project leftovers. But a little extra expense and elbow grease are often worth having a strong, stable, long-lasting edge or low retaining wall for your bed areas.
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Are Hibiscus Acid-Loving Plants?
Are Hibiscus Acid-Loving Plants?. While hibiscus won't die in neutral or even slightly alkaline soil, they do prefer slightly acidic soils. The approach to providing this environment varies by the pH of your soil and water.
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Fertilizer On Wet Grass
Fertilizer on Wet Grass. "Since I have to water the fertilizer in anyway, may as well wait for a rainstorm!" That's a good idea, if you're planning on fertilizing before the storm. But once it's passed, you have to wait until the blades of the grass are dry again before fertilizing the lawn with anything but liquid fertilizer.
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Weed Killer Before A Rain
Weed Killer Before a Rain. Weed killers can either be applied to the soil to keep weed seeds from germinating (pre-emergence), or they can be applied to the foliage of existing weeds to kill them (post-emergence). All weed killers are a poison of some kind for plants (and some to aquatic life). Rain may dilute the weed killer's effectiveness, wash it away entirely, or carry it to places where it can do substantial harm.
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Why Is My Fuschia Dropping Leaves & Flowers?
Why Is My Fuschia Dropping Leaves & Flowers?. Fuchsias are perennial flowering plants with belllike flowers that hang down, trailing long anthers. The blooms come in most every color, but most commonly sought for are blooms with the plant's near-purple namesake, fuchsia. Fuchsias can be frustrating for gardeners, however, since there are many circumstances that will lead them to drop either blooms, leaves or both.
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Can You Compost Nuts?
Can You Compost Nuts?. Anything from something that was once alive -- including nuts -- can be composted. It's a matter of how you compost, how much time you have to compost the material, and where your compost is designed to end up. There's also a difference between types of nuts and whether you're composting the insides or the shell.
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Root System Of A Periwinkle Flower
Root System of a Periwinkle Flower. The common periwinkle (Vinca minor) is native to Europe and Western Asia. It forms creeping mats of evergreen foliage with purplish-blue blooms in shaded woods, along roadways and in abandoned sites. So long as the soil drains well and has a modicum of fertility, periwinkle roots can find purchase and avoid disease.
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Facts On Avocado Tree Roots
Facts on Avocado Tree Roots. Avocados (Persea americana) are native to Central and South America, as well as Mexico and the Caribbean, where they grow in dense highland rain forests. Avocado roots need warm soils, good drainage for constant oxygen exchange in the root zone, rich organic matter, and protection from high winds that might uproot the tree.
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How To Get Rid Of Old Lilac Roots And Trunks
How to Get Rid of Old Lilac Roots and Trunks. Lilac roots and stumps vary in size depending on the cultivar and age of the lilac tree. When the roots are too large or obstinate to get out of the ground with a spade, you can rot them out slowly, or, if space permits, use a stump grinder to dispose of them sooner rather than later.
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Greenhouse Gardening In Louisiana
Greenhouse Gardening in Louisiana. Louisiana's hot, humid southern climate can make greenhouse gardening tricky -- especially in the summer. In the South, greenhouses are used not only to protect garden plants from the cold, but also to keep water-sensitive plants from drowning in summer rains. The combination of a long, hot growing season and high humidity means that orientation, temperature and humidity must be taken into account before the greenhouse is built.
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The Root System Of The Fruitless Bradford Pear
The Root System of the Fruitless Bradford Pear. Bradford pear trees are ornamental, usually fruitless varieties of spring-flowering trees. They can grow to be 40 feet tall or more and make stately landscape specimens. However, they don't retain much structural integrity as they age, especially in their massive limbs. Their (much smaller) root system, though rife with lateral surface roots, is also problematic in older specimens.
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The Disadvantages Of Jatropha
The Disadvantages of Jatropha. Jatrophas are popular tropical garden specimens due to their dark green foliage and robust pink-to-red blooms. There are many biodiesel energy proponents that are hoping jatropha will be the miracle biodiesel source for countries that want to reduce their diesel imports, according to the ECHO website. However, both as a garden specimen and as an alternative energy source, jatropha has quite a few limiting factors.
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Fertilizer For Mondo Grass
Fertilizer for Mondo Grass. Mondo grass (Ophiopogon japonicas, also known as monkey grass or fountain plant) is a very small Oriental lily, though it resembles clumping ornamental grass with strappy, dark-green leaves. It grows well in part to heavy shade, and is often used as an alternative to lawns in shady areas of the yard.
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High Phosphorus Plant Food
High Phosphorus Plant Food. Phosphorus is included in most plant foods and fertilizers because it helps develop plant roots and improve bloom production and size. Plant foods with high phosphorus content can help when soil has plenty of the other major nutrients but lacks phosphorus, or when a plant has especially high phosphorus needs.
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Should I Prune Esperanza Plants?
Should I Prune Esperanza Plants?. Esperanza (Tecoma stans, also known as yellow bells, yellow trumpetbush or yellow elder) is a perennial, semi-tropical shrub to small tree that is native to the hot, dry regions of the Americas. In many areas, annual freezes keep the plant small. But esperanza can grow very large without freezes, and may need to be pruned or trained.
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How To Cure White Powder On An African Violet
How to Cure White Powder on an African Violet. African violets are susceptible to powdery mildew, a white fungus that may be any number of species of fungus. It spreads across the leaves and petals of African violets when they are in an area with very low air circulation. This typically occurs when they are crowded with other plants or stuck in a corner. While they can topple next to a gusty window, an area with moderate ventilation and good spacing between plants -- and between the individual leaves -- will help prevent future problems with powdery mildew or other pests that thrive in low ventilation.
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Nutrient Value Of Gypsum Fertilizer
Nutrient Value of Gypsum Fertilizer. Gypsum fertilizer is used to aid soil structure and provide trace nutrients for plants without altering the pH of the soil. For gardening purposes, gypsum is sold dry as a powder, though it is also used to make wall board. Because of the value of gypsum as a fertilizer, recycled wallboard is increasingly used to improve the quality of the soil after construction on a site is finished.
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