Hot Gardening How-Tos
How To: Transplant Papaya Trees
Papaya trees are very vulnerable to transplantation shock. Seedlings tend to recover slowly and poorly after replanting in a new location under a sunny sky. Many internet articles advise that papaya trees should be transplanted without injury to their root systems. Keeping the root systems intact is next to impossible if the papaya seedlings are too close to each other. However, you would be surprised to learn how a papaya tree with serverely broken root systems can survive a transplantation ...
How To: Get rid of three common garden bugs
Gardening can be relaxing in the summertime. The sun is shining, the flowers smell delicious and it can be great exercise..it would be absolutely perfect if it weren't for all those pesky bugs.
How To: Make a worm farm
To make a worm farm, you will need mud, water, a fruit or vegetable and a big container. First, fill a big container full of mud. Add water to it. Then, cut up your fruits or vegetables. Add your fruits or vegetables to the container full of mud and water. Next, put on some work gloves, grab a spade and collect worms from the outside dirt. You can also purchase them, if you'd prefer. Add the worms to the big container. After about two weeks the worms will start to reproduce. After about four ...
How To: Plant garlic cloves with toilet paper rolls
This video demonstrates how to plant garlic cloves with toilet paper rolls. Take some toilet paper rolls and cut them in half. Fill the halves with damp soil. Put one clove of garlic into each little half, leaving the new shoot poking out of the top. You can make potting soil with peat moss, black dirt and vermiculite. When it is time to plant the garlic, you should just put the whole carton into the ground. When you buy garlic for planting, look for the giant variety. When you are saving gar...
How To: Prune rosebushes
Pruning a rosebush removes old and dead growth, improving the health of the plant and making room for new buds.
How To: Size or measure a gourd
Learn how to size a gourd with tips from this video.
How To: Make a tabletop biosphere
In this video, Bre Pettis from MAKE magazine will show you how to make a tabletop biosphere. You need a jar, aquatic plants, shrimp, amphipods, dechlorination chemicals, and chicled salt.
How To: Create Japanese Style Landscape
So you've decided to transform your drab backyard into a Japanese Zen garden. You've made the right choice. Yes, tire swings and crab grass can slowly kill the soul. That being said, a bit of planning lies ahead. This article offers a list of How To tips, culled from the Landscape Network and other professional Japanese style landscapers, for planning an effective Japanese style landscape in your home. Step 1: Research.
How To: Save Your Tomatoes From Rats And Rot
Every summer my husband and I plant a tomato plant. We do this to enjoy the plump red tomatoes right off of the vine.
How To: Get Rid of Plant-Eating Pests Using 100% Natural Solutions from Your Home and Garden
Navigating through row after row of plants, my tiny fingers would reach into the leaves to pluck all the vile little creatures from their homes and deposit them into a can of gasoline. Potato bug duty, my least favorite gardening chore. Growing up, my family had a small garden every year. And every year, I was recruited to help plant, maintain, and eventually harvest the vegetables from it. There were some tasks I didn't mind, but the ones I hated most usually involved bugs (have you ever see...
How To: Prune a Bramley apple tree
The Bramley is a large, heavy-cropping cooking apple popular for baking, making apple sauce and other apple dishes. In this two-part how-to series, Stephen Hayes of Fruitwise Heritage Apples demonstrates how to properly prune a Bramley apple tree and other apple trees with a similar habit of growth. Watch this instructional video to learn how to prune your own triploid and tip-bearing trees.
How To: Choose the Right Water Feature for Your Garden
Adding water features to your garden can help to create an enviroment that more closely resembles nature. The sound of a trickling fountain can make your garden feel more peaceful and relax. Paul Tamate, a leading landscape designer working with water features and Asian-inspired garden designs in San Francisco says, "design spectacular water features as the centerpiece of gardens that serve as retreats from modern life."
How To: Alternative Easter Eggs
How to make eggshell planters. Great fun to do with the Kids this Easter Step 1: Watch This Video Guide
How To: Prune Grape Vines Using the Four-Arm Kniffin System
This how-to will show you easy step-by-step instructions for pruning your grape vines for growing great grapes.
How To: Start Your Own Organic Seedlings Indoors
Starting your own seedlings is a great way to save money, have a wider selection of varieties and gain personal satisfaction. Here are easy to follow tips on getting your seeds off to a great start.
How To: Select Basic Garden Tools and Learn Basic Plant Types
Gardening school is in session and Shirley is teaching the absolute basics, such as: what to wear, what tools to use, what is the difference between an annual, perennial, and biennial? What is a garden zone, and which one is yours? Class is in session, so spit out your gum and listen up. Time to learn Gardening 101.
How To: Feed Your Soil and Read a Fertilizer Label
Don't be intimidated about plant nutrition and how to read those mysterious numbers on fertilizer labels! Watch this funny and memorable video that breaks down the basics of fertilizing and shows you how to feed your plants.
How to Kill a Slug: An Original Music Video
Slugs are the bane of a gardeners existence but they are not going to win this war! Watch this funny, short music video, YES, music video that will have you tapping your toes and memorizing tons of ways to kill a slug! It works!
How To: Fertilize Aquatics
Video: . this video will show you how to make organic fertilizer balls for aquatic gardening.
How To: Easily Prune Larger Branches on Trees
This video will show you how simple it is to prune large branches on trees. Video: .
How To: Catch a Mole Without Killing It
I live in the woods and frequently get moles in my yard. I want to get rid of them, but I don't like killing them. This is a video on how to catch a mole without killing it. It is very humane, and I've caught at least 10 moles this way and can typically catch them in one or two days. I then transport them off to a distant woods where they they can live in peace and not bother anyone.
How To: Hang Dry Herbs
Harvest your herbs Harvest your herbs before they flower (unless you are harvesting chamomile or any other herb flower)
How To: Grow dry beans in your home garden using soup beans
Did you know that you can grow beans in your garden just by buying ordinary packs of soup beans at your local grocery? Once you start growing beans, you can keep growing them for a lifetime--just keep the seeds around. Soon beans will be sprouting in your garden every year!
How To: Create a New Lawn From Turf or Seed
Preparation When creating a new lawn it is essential that the soil is prepared properly to ensure a satisfactory outcome when laying turf or sowing lawn seed. Whether you decide to lay turf or seed, the preparation is the same.
How To: Grow Plants With Compact Fluorescent Lights
I like to grow vegetables all year round, and I couldn't afford the big gas bulbs, or the power to run them. The big gas bulbs:
How To: Improve the Soil to Grow Healthy Plants
Every experienced gardener knows that the secret to better blooms, brilliant greens, and tastier fruits and vegetables is a healthy soil. Improving the soil before you plant is the best head start to growing healthy, hardy growth in your garden.
How To: Make Your Own Whitefly Sticky Trap
This is a cheap and easy way to make a sticky fly trap that can catch tons of whiteflies. Get a can of Tanglefoot’s Tangle-Trap Sticky Coating. I stored this in the greenhouse which may not have been a great idea, as you can see by the amount of rust there is on the can.
How To: Speed Up the Composting Process
Composting is said to be every gardener’s gold, but making compost and getting it ready could take up to a year. Professional growers have discovered that compost activators can help speed up composting quickly…sometimes to as little as 30 days!
How To: Graft a bunch of cherry trees
Want some cherries? Better have some cherry trees. OH! Who cut down the cherry trees!? Guess it's time to get grafting and grow some new trees. This informative video shows how to graft cherry tree stalks onto existing cherry tree trunks. It looks primitive, but this is what you need to do to get some new trees growing! Cut and stick, cut and stick. Water, wait and grow!Watch this video and think of Anton Chekov when you do!
How To: Choose the right grow light for your indoor hydroponic garden
The key to a successful indoor hydroponic garden is in both irrigation and lighting. This video can't help much with the irrigation, but if you want to decide what the best lighting systems are, this video is for you! There are a wide variety of bulbs and power sources that you can choose from when constructing your own hydroponic grow operation. The key is wattage, and the more wattage you can get out of your bulbs, the better your garden will be.
How To: Prune a rose tree (standard)
If you'd like to have a rose tree, or rose 'standard' as opposed to a rose bush, this video will show you what to do. You'll need some pruning shears and of course, a rose bush. This video is really helpful in instructing what to look for when you're trimming, and what branches to take and leave in order to avoid your rose treasure getting a disease. A rose tree by any other name would smell the same, but it would be called a rose standard. FYI.
How To: Build Your Own Strawberry Tower
This article details the step-by-step instructions on how you can make a strawberry tower that can be used for your hydroponics/aquaponics system. The water dripping through the system contains the nutrients, so soil is not used. The growing media is expanded shale, but you could also use expanded clay or gravel.
How To: Get Rid of Stink Bugs Without Using Pesticides
Halyomorpha halys, squash bug, shield bug ... What's in a name? A pest is a pest and the brown marmorated stink bug is a pest par excellence. Though some home gardeners are content to use insecticides, you'll find that it's generally easier to work with nature than against it. And let's face it: trading noxious bugs for noxious chemicals isn't much of a victory. Particularly if you're growing food.
How To: Create a light bulb terrarium
Want to make the perfect gift for your green thumb gardener? This crafty little light bulb terrarium is the thing to make. It's cost-effective, and perfect even for the non-gardener to make. Watch this video, and create the perfect little green oasis for your friends or family.
How To: Craft a pretty light bulb terrarium
If you're running low on time and short on money this holiday season, there is a way to still give your friends and family presents without having to resort to cliche $5 Russell Stover chocolates from the drugstore.
How To: Properly store and care for home dried herbs and spices
If you're into creating your own dried herbs and spices, you will eventually start to have questions about how to store them long-term, rather than just leave them hanging. This tutorial shows you how to properly store and care for home dried herbs.
How To: Grow and take care of poinsettia year round
More likely than not this holiday season you'll either be buying a poinsettia plant or will receive one as a hostess present. Rather than letting yours wither away and die as you forget repeatedly that it may need a little water to survive, check out this gardening tip video to learn how to take care of them year round.
How To: Make amaryllis and hyacinth bulbs bloom during the holidays
The winter months may not seem like the best time to be growing much of anything, but the amaryllis thrives from October to April, which means its bright, cheery petals can adorn your table top during the holiday season.
How To: Grow upside-down tomatoes in a hanging flower basket
Every home gardener has tackled tomatoes, but what about upside-down tomatoes? What?!? That's right, you can actually grow tomatoes upside down, suspended in the air. It keeps the plant off the ground and you don't have to worry about staking it.
How To: Install a drip irrigation system using your existing traditional sprinklers
Get rid of your water-wasting sprinkler system— but not entirely! Keep your landscape and garden maintained by converting those sprinklers into eco- and pocket-friendly drip irrigation. In this how-to video, Paula Mohadjer from the Cascade Water Alliance explains how you can easily convert your sprinklers into a drip irrigation system.