Lower South Regional Report

Fall Is THE Season for Gardening!

I love the fall! There is just no gardening season like it. The plants seem to agree, too. My marigolds are blooming like they never do in the heat of summer. Their colors seem more vivid than ever before. In fact the chrysanthemums are complaining...
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Resources

Collecting and Storing Seeds from Your Garden
Coin Envelopes for Seeds

Holly Foliage May Indicate Nutrient Needs
Force Bulbs To Brighten Winter Days
Harvest Tomatoes and Peppers Before First Fall Frost
Divide and Reset Perennial Flowers
Plant Perennial Herbs

Salad Season!

I absolutely love the fall to winter gardening season! It means summer heat is over and I get to grow fresh salads once again! I'm sure you have your own favorite cool-season greens for the cool-season southern garden. Here are a few of mine that I...
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Resources

Viva Salad Greens
Seeding Small Salad Greens

Harvest Sweet Potatoes
Dig and Store Caladium Tubers For Next Spring
Plant Cool Season Veggies
Color Up the Cool-Season Landscape
Satsuma Citrus Harvest

Fallen Leaves Are Gardening Gold

Cool weather will soon be bringing down the annual deluge of leaves. Unfortunately, many of the leaves in our communities still end up in trash bags at curbside waiting to take an expensive taxi ride to the dump. By the way, guess who pays the fare?...
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Resources

Siphon Mixers
Seed-Starting Tip

Prepare Beds for Rose Planting
Prevent Tender Plants from Freezing
Plant Trees and Shrubs
Protect Cole Crops from Loopers
Save Fruit Tree Pruning for Late Winter

Gardening Ideas

Gardeners are resourceful. I'm always intrigued by the ways various gardeners have improvised in their gardening techniques. There are a multitude of tools and supplies available commercially to make gardening more successful and less work. Yet the...
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Resources

Florida's Online Composting Center
Garden Storage Mailbox

Fall Vegetable Planting Time
Protect Tender Vegetable Plants From Hungry Pests
Dividing Perennials
Control Perennial Weeds Now
Start Cuttings to Overwinter Tender Plants

Add Flavor to Cool-Season Salads

Why is it that most restaurant salads consist of iceberg lettuce and tomato wedges with perhaps a little spinach and cucumber slices, or some red cabbage tossed in for color? Likewise many gardeners limit their salad gardening to lettuce each season....
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Resources

Seedling Photos
Sorrel

Evaluate Your Southern Landscape In Late Summer
Build Better Beds
Fertilize Roses to Maintain Good Health
Plant Cole Crops
Prepare Soil for Wildflower Planting

Creating a "Good Bug" Garden

I'll bet you've read more than one article on creating a butterfly garden or perhaps a hummingbird garden. But have you ever read one about a garden to attract bugs? Some readers are thinking, "Hey I do that every year!" I'm not talking about pests but...
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Resources

Fall Aster
Farmscaping to Enhance Biological Control

Avoid Squash Viruses
Start Seedlings of Cole Crops Indoors
Plant Fall Potatoes
Rejuvenate Summer-Blooming Shrubs
Give Roses a Late Summer Pruning

Fall is Here

August means fall is here. I realize it is blistering hot out, but I'm talking about fall gardening. I know it is difficult to believe that cooler weather is coming as we sit here in the midst of the season that scorches the life out of our spring...
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Resources

Home Propagation of Garden and Landscape Plants
Tropical Milkweed

Build Soil For Better Gardens
Maintain New Woody Ornamentals
Last Call for Summer Veggies
Beware the Webworm Invasion
No Suckers Allowed

Beneficial Insect Allies

A landscape or garden filled with a variety of plant species is a highly complex ecological system inhabited by multitudes of insects and other small creatures. Each affects many other species in various ways whether they are predators and prey, or...
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Resources

Beneficial Insects
Tip Layer Fall Tomatoes

Control Fire Ants
Prepare Fruit Trees for Next Year
Water Pecan and Persimmon Trees
Check for Outbreaks of Scale Insects
Plant Heat-Tolerant Vegetables

Five Fireproof Flowers

This summer has been especially hot and dry in my garden. While weather patterns vary a bit around the Lower South, we all have to deal with some brutal summer heat and some fairly common summer drought spells. Take a drive around your area in the...
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Resources

Ornamental Garden Pools
Vacation Watering Trick

Keep Mower Blade Sharp
Plant Color for Shade
Tune Up Crape Myrtles
Back Off On Turf Fertilizing
Trim Interior of Fruit Trees

Using Plants to Screen a View

They say good fences make good neighbors. Well, there are certainly times when a little bit of a screen can help provide some privacy or perhaps hide an unsightly view. While privacy fencing certainly has its place, I prefer the look of a living fence...
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Resources

Trees for Problem Landscape Sites
Butterfly Bush

Water Pecan Trees
Making More Mums for Fall
Be Alert to Stink Bugs
Don't Spare the Shears
Keep Containers Well Watered

More Tips for Being Water Wise in the Landscape

In the previous article I provided five tips for making our landscapes more water efficient. This column is a continuation of that theme with five more tips to grow a beautiful landscape and garden without wasting water. Tip #6 - Build a berm...
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Resources

Shrimp Plant
Inline Drip Tubing

Avoid Broadleaf Weed Killers in St. Augustine Turf
Don't Be A "Skeeter Breeder"
Plant Heat-Tolerant Veggies
Shear Perennial Flowers
Aphid Alert

Lower South Regional Report

Fall Is THE Season for Gardening!

Resources

Reminders

Salad Season!

Resources

Reminders

Fallen Leaves Are Gardening Gold

Resources

Reminders

Gardening Ideas

Resources

Reminders

Add Flavor to Cool-Season Salads

Resources

Reminders

Creating a "Good Bug" Garden

Resources

Reminders

Fall is Here

Resources

Reminders

Beneficial Insect Allies

Resources

Reminders

Five Fireproof Flowers

Resources

Reminders

Using Plants to Screen a View

Resources

Reminders

More Tips for Being Water Wise in the Landscape

Resources

Reminders