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Hi! I am enlarging my vegetable garden. The new area needs more drainage. Should I use expanded shale or decomposed granite to improve the drainage? Thanks!
Expanded Shale is the current hot item to improve soil drainage, or you can use decomposed granite as either will help keep the soil loose. | Hi Amy: We have an old house, that is built into the side of a hill. Unfortunately, the unsightly foundation shows on the side of the house that everyone sees first. The foundation that we want to cover is about 10-12 feet high and about 15 feet wide. What trees can we plant alongside the foundation wall to cover it up? These trees would have to be planted pretty close to the foundation, but we don' want them to disturb it. (We live in Pittsburgh PA. Zone 6) thanks Jenny Jenny,
Since you have so much area to cover you can install a trellis on the wall and plant some climbing plants ( Ivy, honey suckle, trumpet creeper, rambling red rose, william baffin rose, john cabot rose) with planting these climbing plants you also will be able to make a decorative bed for people to enjoy as they approach your house. All plants listed are recommended for growth in zone 6 and can be found at any garden center. If you have any other questions please let me know. | Hello Amy, I have a few questions for you... #1 I would like to know if the North East side of my home that gets plenty of sun would be an ideal place to till up a vegetable/flower garden? #2 Also, I am very concerned about crop rotation, and all of the issues of depleting the soil, and diseases staying in the soil. Anyway, I read something about adding a solution of bleach to water and spraying the garden area to kill any diseases in the soil. Is this considered a natural/organic method? If not, do you have any ideas as to how I can, when the time comes next year, to keep from being concerned about crop rotation and the problems there are when it is done incorrectly. I look forward to reading your response. Thank you, Tracy Burton, Texas Tracy,
Yes a full sun area is a good place to install a garden, when you till the soil don't forget to till in compost and fertilizer to give the plants a good healthy soil to start in. When rotating crops it is always good to till the left over plant matter into the soil to give back the organic matter that was lost in the growing season. I would not recommend spraying bleach on any soil, instead every year mix compost into the soil to build the health of the soil. If you have any other questions please let me know. | Last year I had a real problem on my tomato plants with baby stinkbugs, there were thousands of them and they really ruined a lot of tomatos. How do I control them so I don't have a repeat of the problem this year? Thanks, Ralph You can use Neem Oil, Liquid Sea Weed, or our Organic Insect Control, spray the vegetables when you start to see problems. Another product you can use is our Anti Fuego Soil Conditioner, the mix of molasses, orange oil, and humate will help condition the soil and control the insects. You can purchase the sea weed, organic insect control, or the Anti Fuego at any Garden-Ville store or online. Check your local garden center for the Neem Oil. | Hi, I have just purchased a new property and found that all the garden beds are lined with black plastic. The mulched looked as though it had not been moved for some years and was damp and wet. I have since removed the old mulch but whenever I disturb the soil there seems to be a bunch of insects below the soil mosquito looking insect that swarm around the soil. Are these insect good for my soil ? How can I get rid of them if not? Thanks Jose,
You will want to remove the plastic from the soil, the plastic will not allow water to pass through creating problems with your soil. There is a good chance that you may have mosquitoes and other insects as well as a fungus in the soil. Once the plastic has been removed you will want to turn some compost and the existing mulch into the soil, follow up with an application of Anti Fuego Soil Conditioner mixed at a rate of 4 ounces per gallon of water to get rid of the pests. After a couple of days apply beneficial nematodes to get rid of any larvae that are in the soil. If you want to put down a weed barrier below the mulch you can purchase landscape fabric from any home and garden center, the landscape fabric will allow air and water to pass through while keeping the weeds from coming through, if you put your mulch at a thickness of 4" or greater you should not need the landscape fabric. You can find the Anti Fuego on our website, if you would like to order the nematodes you can call or email me. | Hello, I am bringing home nice bags of coffee grinds from Starbucks. Lately I have been applying them as a mulch around the 13 blueberries bushes and the raspberries row rather than working into the soil. I use the pine straw as a light cover over the ginds and filters. So is this and okay application and can the plants get to much of the coffee grind mulch? I would like to continue this through the fall and winter months. Thank you, Rita I would suggest you work an application or two into the soil every once in a while to keep the coffee grounds from compacting on top of the soil, otherwise you are doing fine replenishing the nitrogen in the soil as well as other trace minerals and organic matter. | I want to build a side garden with bushes, flowers and roses and perhaps a few trees near the West side of our new house. Our house was built on a packed cinder foundation and my husband thinks putting 4 inches of top soil on the cinders is adequate. I think we need to tear the cinder foundation out and replace with soil or the plants roots will not penetrate the cinder foundation well? What do you think? I live in northern New Mexico. Different plants will require different depths of soil to grow in. A good rule of thumb is to measure the depth of your largest potted plant and that will give you a good idea of how much soil you will require. I agree with you that you should remove the cinder and replace with topsoil. | I have an existing flower bed that I created last year. Even with a few inches of mulch and newspapers, grass has grown into it. Very few weeds. However, I'd like to the grass out of it to make room for new plants. I can dig out the top soil and turn it over. Or should I just cover it with plenty of card board and several inches of mulch? Any suggestions would be good. Thank you. Vikki I would pull the grass, do not turn the soil unless you are going to amend it with compost. Turning the soil exposes dormant seeds and lets them germinate. Pull the grass and lay out a weed fabric. The benefit to weed fabrics is that they allow air and water to pass but not weeds. That way you do not develop a fungus under all of that cardboard due to lack of air movement. After laying the fabric cut holes in the fabric the size of the root balls, that will help keep the grass and weeds from growing through the mulch. | Hi - We are floored by current food prices and decided it's high time for a garden. Not having done much other that container tomatoes, we want to be practical in our first attempt - nothing too complicated. Our space is about 8 x 12, and we are considering raised beds. Is it too late to start in May for a fall garden? If not, what plants would you suggest for a starter vegetable/herb garden, and what materials (soil, fertilizer etc) will we need? Do we need to till the grass underneath the raised beds before installing them? Thanks so much for your help! It is not too late to start a fall garden you can plant such veggies as spinach, squash, beans, cabbage, tomatoes, etc. I would start your garden using a good compost rich soil and fertilizing it with an organic fertilizer that has a higher middle number. Garden-Ville has a product called Rocket Fuel that is a 2-6-1 and would be great to get your garden going. If the beds are going to be at least 1’ tall you will not need to till the grass as it will die off from the soil covering it. | I have Sequoia and Chandler strawberries planted in a new raised bed. The soil is a landscape mix from a local nursery. My plants are dying one by one. They wilt then are completely dead in a few days. My neighbor told me it looks like verticillium wilt. I have found lots of info on the internet and the symptoms look like a match. Is there any way to treat this naturally - cornmeal maybe?? Thanks in advance, Anthony Hermes Victoria, TX Yes, give the horticultural corn meal a try. Spread about a cup full around the base of the plants and water it in since the fungus is soil born the corn meal should be able to knock it out. | Hi Amy, I have a mint plant growing in my garden. I want to get rid of it as it has spread everywhere. I have heard that I can use vinegar or bleach to kill it. I would prefer to use vinegar. Do I just spray the area with regular vinegar? What do I do next? I also have a dog and his poop has left huge brown spots on my backyard over the winter. Can you recommend something to do for that? I still have to rake it but is there something else I can do. Yes you can use the 20% Vinegar to kill off the mint in your garden, just make sure that when you spray the mint you do not get any over spray on the other plants as it will kill them too. If you are using a pump up sprayer I would suggest you unscrew the sprayer nozzle on the tip of the wand and spray a straight stream of the vinegar to avoid any damage to the surrounding plants. | I started a vegetable garden in a new place on our property (Central Texas) this spring without a soil sample (last minute plan). It has good sand and I used your Rocket Fuel after talking to a local nursery about their trials with the fertilizer. I started the garden from seed and used the 1 to 2 teaspoons per linear foot as recommended. I planted around March 12th to the 15th(Squash, Corn, Green Beans & Tomatoes) and the plants are a little light green. Is it the cold weather we have been having or do I need to apply the Rocket Fuel again or some other type of fertilizer and how often? Please help! Tammy Tammy,
I would recommend that you apply the rocket fuel or some other type of fertilizer (dry or liquid) again. The Rocket Fuel was a great choice as a starter fertilizer but the plants will need more feeding as the time goes by. Since you did not get a soil sample it will be hard to determine what nutrients the soil is lacking. I would suggest you fertilize around the plants and give it a good watering with Garden-Ville’s Sea Tea at least once every couple of weeks. The Sea Tea is a mixture of fish emulsion, molasses, compost tea, sea weed, and humic acid. When mixed at a rate of 4 ounces per gallon of water it will make a good nutrient rich soil drench that will help the plants along. In between feedings water the plants with plain water to push the nutrients down in the soil. | QuestionI live in Virginia and would like to know what you recommend for black spot on rose bushes. To get rid of black spot on roses you can use the Garden-Ville Potassium Bicarbonate and spray the leaves. Or you can spread horticultural corn meal around the base of the roses and water it in. The corn meal when watered in creates a fungus that combats the black spot on the roses. The potassium bicarbonate will kill the fungus on contact. For faster results I would recommend you get the potassium bicarbonate, it is sold in 1 pound containers and is available where Garden-Ville products are sold or on our website. If you have any other questions please let me know. | I live in Austin, TX. My flower beds have been invaded by Cedar Elm sprouts. Is there any way to get rid of them other than pulling? Thanks, Ray Ray,
You could try using an organic weed killer or you could put down landscape fabric around the plants in your beds. The fabric will allow air and water to pass through but will not allow for weeds or grasses to grow. | I went to our local nursery looking for gypsum to condition the soil in my flower beds. (They have not been turned over in years and have too much clay). My nursery did not have gypsum but suggested Garden-Ville Horticultural Humate in its place. My daughter is in charge of this project and is unfamiliar with Humate. Is this product going to condition the soil so it has less of that clay feel? How do we apply to these beds? We have all new shurbs and plants ready to plant - the bed is currently vacant. I am in N. Dallas. Yes humate will help break up the soil in the beds, humate is humus which is thought by some to be important to the fertility of soils in both a physical and chemical sense. Physically, it helps the soil retain moisture, and encourages the formation of good soil structure. Chemically, it has many active sites which bind to ions of plant nutrients, making them more available. | I WANT TO MAKE SEVERAL RAISED VEGETABLE BEDS BUT, NOT SURE WHAT WOOD I SHOULD USE? WOMANIZED HAS CYANIDE SO DON'T WON'T TO USE THAT AND RAILROAD TIES HAVE CREASOTE. WHAT DO YOU RECOMMEND AND WHAT SOIL MIX WOULD BE BEST SINCE I'LL BE BRING IT IN? Last spring I built a raised bed for my 87 year old grandfather out of cinder blocks and mortar mix to hold it together, it was labor intensive to install but it made a good structure that he can sit on and put bags of soil, fertilizer and such that will last a long time. The soil mix that you will want to bring in would be a lawn and garden type of soil that is rich in compost and sand to allow proper drainage. | We have no grass in our backyard since the trees create a complete canopy. We were thinking of covering our backyard with mulch for our kids to play on and then adding in shade loving plants. Are there any reasons for not doing this? Also, which type of mulch would we want to use? If you are going to plant shade loving plants I would suggest that you build raised beds so that you are not fighting the established roots of the trees. Any kind of mulch will be sufficient, if you want to go inexpensive you can get a native grind mulch or a cedar grind mulch. | We are planting a vegetable garden in our backyard and because we have so much rock we built a 8 x 4 foot box out of timbers. The depth for the garden is approx. 12 inches deep. My question is what type of soil do I use for this type of backyard garden? You would want to use a lawn and garden soil or a rose soil, both are rich in compost. You will need 1 cubic yard of soil to fill the vegetable garden. | This is the group of freshmen again. Thanks so much for your advice on the gardening. We were trying to decide what plants would grow best, (and, perhaps fastest) in the time of March 1 through April 1. From the choices of carrots, cauliflower, cucumbers, lettuce, mustard, okra, and spinach, which would be the most realistic for growing the best under an elementary school garden condition. Maybe what I mean is which are the easiest to grow. We are trying to narrow it doen to 4 and would really appreciate your opinion. Thanks! Lettuce, Spinach, Mustard, and dill will grow the fastest. Let me know how it turns out! | A group of freshmen and I from the International School of the Americas are working on a school gardening project to benefit the community. We are trying to learn a lot about gardening and we were wondering if you could give us any tips or pointers on how to start a garden. Thank you so much for your time. Rheanna,
What kind of garden did you want to plant in? You can either do a raised bed or in ground bed. In order to do a raised bed your planting depth will need to be approximately 12” to allow for root growth. You also want to get planting information (spacing between plants, etc) on what you are planting so that as they grow the do not get overcrowded. When choosing a soil to plant in you want to make sure that it is rich in organic matter. Most places will call it a garden mix or lawn and garden soil, you want to make sure that the topsoil in the mix is composted to keep your weeds in the garden to a minimum. If you have any other questions let me know. | | |
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