Home & Garden category, Page 11
Topiary tips: When you want shrubs to double as sculpture
Topiary is the art of growing trees and shrubs as living sculptures — cubes, spheres, obelisks, animal shapes or combinations of these. The tradition has flourished in various places at different times, but in modern gardens, topiary is rare, unless you count our foundation plantings of clipped yews and junipers...
When is the right time to dig potatoes?
Question: We have a few raised beds in our backyard. We’ve grown zucchini, tomatoes, peppers and basil for the last few years, and we planted seed potatoes in one of the beds earlier this spring. The plants are green and very big, but we aren’t sure when to dig the...
Rostraver couple turning the page on glory days of plant breeding
Sarah Zolock’s well-worn straw gardening hat reveals her silver hair through a hole in the top. “I want the hat like that,” she says smiling. “It lets the air through the crown better.” Along with her husband Steve, she conducts a tour of their expansive and beautiful garden, explaining the...
Overcome these 4 nagging zucchini problems
There’s a joke among gardeners who grow zucchini. During good years, we tease about leaving a few baseball bat-sized zucchini on the neighbor’s stoop and doing the old ding-dong-dash just to get rid of them. But, the truth is that it always seems to be feast or famine when it...
Whistling Winds Flower Farm boasts bouquets and banquetsVideo
Since 2000, Monica Puskar and her husband, Stan Puskar, have operated a “hobby farm” in Mt. Pleasant Township. “We did church events, had festivals; both of our kids’ weddings were here,” Monica Puskar says of her rural home. But the idea of a cut-flower business and hosting other events persisted....
Why kohlrabi split and how to grow them
Question: I grew kohlrabi in my garden this year. Most of them split. What causes them to split and are they still safe to eat? Answer: For those not familiar with this delicious and crunchy vegetable, let me sing the praises of the kohlrabi before I dive into what likely...
Unity couple takes Doug’s advice — and look at their lawn
Kathy Fajt told her husband Gene something needed to be done about their lawn. For more than six years, Gene had struggled with the grass at their Unity, Westmoreland County home near Latrobe. He would add lime, figuring that was a good thing, but it wasn’t helping. That’s when I...
When and how to harvest winter squash
Winter squash varieties are a staple in many gardens, thanks to their prolific fruiting, their ease of growth, and the long shelf life of the fruits. Whether you grow acorn, butternut, delicata, Turk’s cap or any one of the other dozens of types of winter squash, the most important part...
Benevolent or fearsome? Yellowjackets can be both
Yellowjackets play a supportive role in gardening but can be dangerous around families and pets. People sensitive to bee venom should be especially careful from August through October, when yellowjacket numbers peak. They attack when threatened, and are known to crash cookouts too. “Yellowjackets, hornets and paper wasps are all...
Tiny details make the visit to Franklin Park well worth the trip
A gardener wearing a wide-brimmed hat has just mulched an intricately designed outdoor bed and is gently sweeping excess mulch off the interconnected walkways in short, soft strokes. When visiting a public garden, it’s always the attention to detail that converts the landscape from interesting and fun to spectacular. The...
7 succession planting tips for extending the season’s harvest
Question: I’ve pulled out the spring crops I had in my garden, such as the peas, lettuce and spinach. I now have lots of room to grow some new things, but I’m not sure what to plant. There’s not enough time to add more tomatoes and peppers. What do you...
6 summer garden maintenance tasks to tackle now
Summer garden maintenance typically involves a lot of watering. But this season, we’ve had more than our share of rainfall. Since watering chores are off our plates, at least for now, gardeners would be wise to spend their time focusing on a handful of other important summer gardening chores. Deadhead:...
Doug Oster answers your gardening questions
Everybody Gardens editor Doug Oster gets asked a lot of questions. A lot. And he doesn’t mind offering gardening advice. But rather than just limiting those answers to the person who asked, we thought it might be a good idea to share that wealth of knowledge with everybody. (The questions...
How to limit damage from slugs
Question: Something is eating the leaves of many of my flowers, including my zinnias, hostas, dahlias and petunias. I don’t see any Japanese beetles or other bugs on them, but there are holes in the leaves or the leaves are eaten in from the sides. Do you know what might...
Monroeville garden proves perfect for growing banana plants
Damian and Gloria Ondo are dwarfed by the huge banana trees in their beautiful garden as they walk through with their dogs Simba and Caesar. Even though the original tree Damian started with was from Florida, all the subsequent trees it’s produced are hardy in his landscape in Monroeville, about...
Tips for getting more blooms from your dahlias
Dahlias are a beautiful addition to summer gardens. Grown from tuberous roots planted in the spring, dahlia blooms come in a near endless array of colors and forms. From spiky-petaled cactus-types to round and tight pom-pom dahlias, this tender plant brings some serious bloom power to the garden. Planting dahlias...
Want a bumper crop of tomatoes? Listen to this guy’s advice
David Freed spent most of his adult life in the restaurant business, but when he sold the 8th Street Grill, his Los Angeles coffee shop, in 2007, he discovered there were plenty of other things to do with his time. Such as unlocking the secrets to growing tons of tasty...
Longtime Rolling Stones keyboard player also a steward of the environment
As Mick Jagger performed a powerful version of “Angie” last week on stage in Canada, the beautiful, melodic piano lines weaving through the song were deftly being played by The Rolling Stones’ musical director and keyboard player Chuck Leavell. He’s been with the band 37 years and has also played...
How to control viburnum leaf beetles
Question: Help! We have some little slug-like creature eating one of our shrubs. I don’t know the name of the shrub, but it gets white flowers in the spring and then clusters of red berries in the fall. We’ve always called it a cranberry bush, but I don’t think it’s...
Why you should leave aphids alone
I often hear from gardeners who are worried when they discover a few aphids on their favorite rose. While aphids can be troublesome garden pests, especially when their population numbers more than about 12 aphids per square inch, more often than not, aphids aren’t anything to worry about. In fact,...
Get out and be part of the North American Butterfly Count
What started with an employee’s dream now marks PPG’s Monroeville Business and Technology Center’s annual participation in the North American Butterfly Association Butterfly Count. Registration for the 10 a.m.-noon July 13 event will begin at 9:30 a.m. in the 440 College Park Drive facility. The all-age event is open to...
Trib garden columnists win national awards for their work
Tribune-Review garden columnists Doug Oster and Jessica Walliser have again received recognition for their work from a national gardening communications organization. The pair received a Silver Award for co-hosting “The Organic Gardeners” radio show in the 2019 GardenComm Media Awards, presented by Garden Communicators International. Editor of Everybody Gardens, Oster...
The best ground covers for slopes
Question: I have a fairly steep bank in my backyard that is very difficult to mow. It is partly sunny. What would be a good ground cover to plant that would look nice and solve my problem? Thanks so much! Answer: The slopes of Western Pennsylvania certainly cause issues for...
Vandergrift children’s garden much more than just digging in the dirt
Addison Uskuraitis, 11, is painstakingly pulling weeds around a raised bed filled with dinosaur kale. When asked if she would enjoy eating the kale, even served with bacon, she recoiled and responded with a hearty “No!” It’s the tomatoes growing in another part of the bed of this Vandergrift community...
Moon Township garden tour includes 2 sites with water features
The Moon Township Garden Tour is planned for 10 a.m.-2 p.m. July 6, featuring six gardens throughout the township. Two of the gardens have water features with koi fish. Cost for the tour is $10 in advance and $15 day of the tour. Pre-purchase is available at eventbrite.com. From 9...
