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1500 questions
12
votes
2 answers
Where can I find credible information about companion planting/intercropping
If you do a search for "companion planting", you get millions of hits. However, it's hard to separate out the real legitimate information from the muck. There's a lot of misinformation based on pseudoscientific methods of divining which plants…
Kenneth Cochran
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2 answers
Is this plant really holy basil?
I bought some holy basil seeds on the internet and grew them. However, I think the shape of the leaves on my plants are more ruffled than those in the pictures I saw online.
Here are some photos of my plant (click on the image for a larger…
lamwaiman1988
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12
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1 answer
Are goldenrod cultivars manageable or troublesome?
We have a tough dry spot in the garden (USDA zone 4) about 2' x 5' where a goldenrod cultivar would go nicely. The native species, although attractive, has a tendency to seed freely and be almost impossible to remove.
Are the cultivars more…
kevinskio
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12
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1 answer
How do I link a specific garden plant to its native plant community?
If I have a garden plant, say for example, Herniaria glabra, and I want to identify its native plant community, i.e. the dominant species, associated species, soil, climate etc., how do I go about researching this information? What…
Eric Nitardy
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12
votes
2 answers
Will my basil plant regrow without leaves?
I received a potted basil plant a bit over a year ago as thanks for some computer work. Not knowing how exactly to grow it, I kind of let it overgrow, including not nipping it in the bud at first. It started getting sickly and spindly, and its roots…
Sean Duggan
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12
votes
3 answers
Is "Days to Harvest" measured from planting date or sprouting date?
I have several Ferry-Morse seed packets, which, on the back, show what the expected "Days to Harvest" is. I am wondering if this "Days to Harvest" should be measured from the date I planted the seeds or the date I saw the sprouts first coming up?
NeutronStar
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12
votes
1 answer
What are good plants to use in a container-based winter garden?
I live in an apartment that has a small outdoor patio and I'm looking to create a little container garden this autumn/winter. I'm located in the US (hardiness zone is 7) and I'm looking for ideas (plants) that might work well in this environment.…
Steed-Asprey
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12
votes
1 answer
How should I choose which trees to cull?
I harvest firewood from a small woodlot behind my house. I almost exclusively cut "culls" -- dead, dying, or diseased trees that aren't going to yield much additional wood in the future anyway.
My current strategy for figuring out which trees to…
bstpierre
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12
votes
1 answer
How do I tell if a Green Fig is ripe?
There is a Kadota (I think) fig tree in our yard - the fruit is massive, slightly squishy, and the holes at the bottom of the figs are starting to open and they're starting to pale.
How do I tell if they are ripe or not? They're only drooping…
Vervious
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12
votes
1 answer
How would I go about grafting Japanese Maples?
I would like to plant a nice weeping Japanese Maple in my yard, but the nice ones at the nursery are quite expensive. Some friends have exactly the type of Japanese Maple that I would like in my yard. How would I go about grafting a branch into a…
Sean Earp
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12
votes
3 answers
Is it safe to change the entire soil surrounding the roots?
Usually when you buy plants from the store, the soil type might not be suitable to them. Is it safe to change the soil completely? I mean to remove all the soil around most of the roots, then put it into a pot with new soil. I can think of 2…
lamwaiman1988
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12
votes
1 answer
When is the best/acceptable time to perform a fall core aeration and seeding on a lawn?
I live in Southern NJ, USA (Mid Atlantic/Northeast region). I recently contracted with a (well known, national) lawn care company to perform some maintenance on my lawn (aeration, fertilizers, pesticides, etc). They came two weeks ago to apply…
Brian
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12
votes
3 answers
Best practice to prevent aphids and spider mites?
What is the best practice to prevent aphids and spider mites? I group them in one question because they make similar damage to plants.
I want to know the level of humidity for aphids and spider mites to grow, then I can do the reverse approach.
lamwaiman1988
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12
votes
1 answer
Should I lift my onion crop?
Looks like my onion crop is done (end of August). The green part has died right back and I've got just the bulb sat a little way into the soil.
I don't have a good rodent-proof cool dry dark outdoor storage place to put the onions. If I lift them…
Tea Drinker
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12
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1 answer
Can I eradicate blackspot on roses with a winter pruning?
In mid-winter, I pruned my standard roses back harshly. Black-spot can be a problem on these roses. The pruning is such that they have hardly any leaves. The remaining leaves do not have any black-spot.
Should I spray now to remove any remaining…
WW01
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