GardenSpotlight

Last time we talked about starting your spring plants indoors. If it’s too much for you to consider, or you just don’t have the room, you can always visit your favorite local garden center to purchase plants for your garden in the spring. You should keep in mind a few points while making your choices. Look for local growers as their plants will adapt more readily to your garden since they are grown here. There are many retailers who bring plants in for sale from out of the area, usually from areas where they have longer, earlier grower seasons. Because diseases and insects have specific life cycles, and because the growing season begins earlier in these other locations than here in the North, there is the strong possibility that plants from these regions can transport diseases and/or insects into the Northern zones, before their natural cycle would normally begin in our area. Such was the case with Late Blight just a short time ago in 2009. Late blight is a fungus of which mainly tom...

Now that the soil is warming up, it’s time to start prepping your gardens for the new planting season. If you have established perennial gardens, then not too much will be needed other than cleaning out the debris between the established plants. Now is also a good time to either pull or cultivate out the weeds that are beginning to grow. You may also choose to feed the perennials as you water with a liquid fertilizer, or spread a granular fertilizer on top of the soil between the plants at the recommended rate on the label and then water in well. If you are developing a new area for your garden, you should evaluate the type of soil you have and determine if it needs additional drainage. Creating a new planting bed will require some effort on your part, but you will be rewarded handsomely by the fruits of your labor. (Pun intended) A good weekend project, you will need a wheelbarrow, spading fork, square-edged shovel and some good muscle rub cream or access to a hot tub for afterwa...

Hi there! Welcome to our blog. As you may know, we started this blog in an effort to help others with their gardening questions. Yes, it's Autumn here in New York, but as a grower and seller of bedding plants and vegetable transplants, we wanted to start off with one of the most frequently asked questions; "When is the best time to plant?" Here in the Northeast, we tend to get frost as late as the 2nd or 3rd week of May. If you must plant before then, we suggest cold tolerant plants, such as pansies and cobbity daisies. We start selling those types of plants as early as mid-April. Want to know a great farmer's tip?  Keep an eye on when you have fog in your area in the month of February. Why, that sounds strange, you may say! This really has worked for us...mark those foggy days down on your calendar. Typically the last day you have fog in February, say it's the 18th, will usually be the last chance of frost in May, (May 18th). Of course, you'll still want to p...