Home and Garden

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Homegrown: Emerald queen maples, broadleaf removal

I have three emerald queen maples planted in a lawn now for three years. One of them showed signs of iron problems last year. Should I be adding iron, and what way would be best to apply it? — Kim The first thing to know is the type of ...

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Homegrown: Hen and chicks, tree trimming

We had a nice pot of hen and chicks that we brought in last fall hoping they would winter over and we could set them back out this spring, but they just kind of faded away. I was wondering why that is. — Todd Actually, hen and chicks ...

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Homegrown: Tomato plant rot, wisteria

For the past several gardening seasons, I have been beset with an unusually high incidence of blossom end rot on my tomato vines. I realize this is a physiological problem, but are there certain tomato hybrids that are more resistant to ...

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Homegrown: Leaf burn, violets

We have a great old cottonwood in our yard. Several years ago, an arborist told us that the leaf burn on the tree was probably caused by the weed killer we had applied to our sizable lawn. We stopped the treatments and now I pull weeds in our ...

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Homegrown: Shady red flowers

I have an 8-foot wide by 3-foot deep rectangular-shaped indentation on the north side of my house, with two evenly spaced bubblers. This space is shady most of the day and has a row of spreading juniper bushes running in front of it. The ...

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Homegrown: Cutting back, early edible tomatoes

Is this the right time to be cutting back a blue mist spirea and a butterfly bush? Both are just beginning to leaf out. — Donna Now is the time to cut back plants, such as your butterfly bush and blue mist spirea. Summer blooming ...

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Homegrown: Dwarf fruit trees, Zoysia grass

What kinds of dwarf apricot and cherry trees do you recommend? — Lee The first thing to remember about the “dwarf” stone fruits is that they’re not really that much smaller than a standard sized tree. A dwarfing ...

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Homegrown: Organic gardening, Part 3

I’m thinking I’d like to start an organic vegetable garden in my backyard. What do I need to do? — Scott In the past two weeks I’ve covered general information about organic gardening and the basic principles of ...

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Homegrown: Organic gardening, Part 2

I’m thinking I’d like to start an organic vegetable garden in my backyard. What do I need to do? — Scott In last week’s column I wrote about the soil needed for organic gardening and ended by listing the basic ...

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Homegrown: Organic vegetable garden, Part 1

I’m thinking I’d like to start an organic vegetable garden in my backyard. What do I need to do? — Scott You’ve asked a pretty big question. There are a variety of different methods of organic gardening and it seems ...

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