Yarrow: too much of a good thing?

QUESTION: I’ve heard that yarrow is a great drought-resistant perennial, but don’t know anything about growing it. Is this a good time of year to plant it? Is it planted from seeds, or is it better to buy transplants? It’s true. Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is a tough and persistent perennial plant that tolerates drought. In [...]

Garden seeds: How old is too old?

QUESTION: How long do seeds last? If a seed packet says “purchase by 12/11,” would the seeds still be good for this year?  I’m looking at sunflowers, green beans, and other summer vegetables. It’s probably a common experience among gardeners to find packets of last year’s seeds – or seeds from two or more years [...]

Mulching trees; and a stack of new books

QUESTION: How should mulch be put around trees — piled high or spread even with the ground and good edging to keep water within? There are many good reasons to use mulch around trees in a landscape. It keeps the soil warmer in winter and cooler in summer; it helps the soil retain moisture; it [...]

Iris time in Tennessee

QUESTION: When is the right time to divide irises? Bearded irises, the large, showy flowers that have fuzzy patches on the outer petals, are putting on a pretty nice show across the region right now, and they’ll continue to bloom for several weeks. After they have finished blooming, the rhizomes can be thinned out and [...]

Definitely not stars in your lawn

QUESTION: Every year, the small white flowers called star-of-Bethlehem pop up in our lawn. The flowers are cute, but they’re everywhere! It makes an ugly lawn. How can I get rid of it? This time of year, star-of-Bethlehem shoots up in lawns, on creek banks, in wild meadows. They are indeed everywhere – even in [...]

Don’t worry about the daffodils

It’s only January, and the daffodils in my yard are already coming up! How do I keep them from freezing? It may seem too early for this unmistakable sign of spring, but it’s not unusual for the shoots of early daffodils to begin pushing up through the ground. In some places, they started coming up [...]

Making plans for a great year in the garden

QUESTION: What are YOUR garden goals for 2012? Here are mine: -Grow more flowers. In my yard, that means finding more flowers that thrive in the semi-shade that’s provided by the graceful maples and the giant, beautiful elm tree in our back yard. -Keep trying for better success with tomatoes. That means figuring out how to [...]

Hellebores: winter in bloom

When can hellebores be planted or divided? Hellebores can be a nice surprise in the garden in late winter, when everything else out there is still asleep. They are tough plants with evergreen foliage and flowers that bloom in winter and last well into spring. Even when they are blooming, they are not fazed by [...]

Keep Rosemary happy

I have a small  rosemary bush that is thriving, and hope it lives through the winter. What is the best way to care for it so it survives? More and more, I was hearing gardeners say their rosemary, which does not always make it through winter outdoors in this area, was getting through the cold [...]

Transplant a peony

When can peonies be separated and transplanted? Peonies can be kind of fussy about where they’ll grow and what they’ll do if you try to move them. In fact, most garden experts will tell you that peonies seldom need dividing, and recover poorly from any attempt to do so. That said, there’s a good time [...]