Garden tips Archives - Page 47 of 98 - Buffalo-NiagaraGardening.com

Create a wall of hydrangeas for a wedding or other special occasion

by Connie Oswald Stofko How would you like a wall of hydrangeas? This display intrigued me at the annual conference of GWA: The Association of Garden Communicators held right here in Buffalo from Friday to yesterday. At the trade show, this wall of blooms was used by Bailey Nurseries, a grower, to show off its brand of reblooming hydrangeas called Endless Summer hydrangeas. You could create a blooming wall like this for a special occasion. The hydrangea plants are in…...

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Aug 8, 2017

illustration for Meet the Authors in Buffalo

Are coffee grounds good for roses, plus why you should attend Meet the Authors

by Connie Oswald Stofko Does sprinkling coffee grounds around roses really help the plants grow? Yes, it’s true that roses like coffee grounds, but they also like banana peels and egg shells, said C.L. Fornari, author of the book Coffee for Roses: …and 70 Other Misleading Myths About Backyard Gardening. In fact, roses like any kind of organic matter. “People have been throwing their breakfast leavings around roses for years,” she said, but if you don’t want your roses to…...

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Aug 1, 2017

info to hang on door with lawn tips from Erie County

Keep your lawn green & weed-free without pesticides

Tips on how to keep your lawn healthy without pesticides are being distributed through the Erie County Environmental Management Council, an advisory board to Erie County Department of Environment & Planning. They’ve printed it as something you can hang on your door. Get a full-size pdf of the doorhanger: Here’s the front and here’s the back. Here are the tips you will find on the doorhanger: Don’t cut the grass too short! Taller 3-inch grass outcompetes weeds, better withstands drought…...

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Aug 1, 2017

Tip on planting in tiny yard; get more tips at Garden Walk Buffalo this weekend

by Connie Oswald Stofko Rosemary Lyons has an ingenious way to squeeze plants into the flagstone patio that takes up all of her tiny yard. One place where there aren’t any pavers is where the wrought iron fence is set into the ground. Lyons set some bricks on each side of the fence, then filled the area around the fence with fresh soil and lots of compost. There was enough room to plant purple pole beans, and the fence was…...

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Jul 25, 2017

impatiens with white coating of downy mildew

If you see downy mildew on impatiens, please contact researcher

by Connie Oswald Stofko Downy mildew on impatiens has been found in Lockport, and if you find it on your impatiens plants, too, a Cornell researcher wants your help. Margery Daughtrey, senior extension associate with the Section of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology at Cornell University, has been providing us with information on this disease that will kill impatiens since my first article on impatiens in 2012. Daughtrey works in the the Long Island Horticultural Research & Extension Center, directed…...

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Jul 25, 2017

It’s a slug fest out there: dealing with slugs in Western New York

by Connie Oswald Stofko Everybody got some rain this past week, and some folks got a lot! Kathy Guest Shadrack lives with her husband Mike on a hilly property in Hamburg. She edits the newsletters of the Western New Hosta Society and the Buffalo Area Daylily Society and included this in a recent hosta message: “We had a waterfall down our terraces and we have new mini-streams etched under our deck. Furthermore, our road was flooded—wait for it— at the…...

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Jul 18, 2017

front yard on Black Squirrel Garden Walk

Black Squirrel Garden Walk shows off a neighborhood on the upswing

by Connie Oswald Stofko “We’re making people fall in love with their own city again,” said Jim Bragg, one of the organizers of the Black Squirrel Garden Walk in the Memorial Park neighborhood of Niagara Falls. “Every yard has a story.” The 1970s and ’80s hit the neighborhood hard, Bragg said. “There’s a perception that all of this should be bulldozed,” Bragg said, but the neighborhood is not as bad as people think. “It’s on its way up.” Efforts by neighborhood…...

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Jul 11, 2017

row of hanging baskets in West Seneca New York

You may need to fertilize annual flowers more than you think– but not veggies!

by Connie Oswald Stofko Contrary to what many gardeners believe, fertilizing your annuals won’t cause them to “bloom out” or be done blooming before the summer is over, said Jen Weber, retail manager at Mike Weber Greenhouses, 42 French Rd., West Seneca. “It’s just the opposite,” Weber said. “Without the fertilizer, your plants won’t reach their potential. They’ll be smaller, thinner, weaker, leggier-looking plants.” In the case of petunias, verbena and calibrachoa (million bells), they will become leggy, won’t bloom…...

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Jul 4, 2017

What can you do to prevent birds from nesting in hanging baskets?

by Connie Oswald Stofko Here’s a question from a reader: Have you heard of any way to deter pesky little birds from nesting in my hanging planters? Carol Thibault of Elma We love birds visiting our gardens, but I can see where it would be a nuisance if birds nest in hanging baskets. When you try to water your plants, you disturb the birds, and if you don’t water, your plants will die. Plus, the nest may mess up the…...

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Jun 27, 2017

How to deal with fungus on crabapples, lilies

by Carol Sitarski Master Gardener, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Allegany County It’s raining, it’s pouring, and the fungal spores may be growing. This spring’s rain seemed to be nonstop. Don’t get me wrong— we needed rain to replenish our water tables, but with the good comes the bad. The bad is all the fungus that may start growing on our susceptible trees and plants. Already I have seen this happening on crabapple trees and Asiatic lilies in my area and…...

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Jun 20, 2017