Garden Blogs

Vegetable Gardening 101: How to Start a Vegetable Garden

Vegetable Gardening 101: How to Start a Vegetable Garden

Vegetable gardening is a very rewarding (and tasty) experience, even for a beginner! The idea of starting from scratch and building your first vegetable plot can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. We'll show you how to start your vegetable garden from the ground up, and soon you'll be on your way to fresh vegetables grown in your very own garden!
The Ins and Outs of Indoor Seed Starting

The Ins and Outs of Indoor Seed Starting

The goal to indoor seed starting is to have seedlings ready to go outside by the time the weather is favorable. This means that timing is everything. You will need to plant your seedlings early enough for them to germinate and start growing before you can transplant them outside. To start, take a look at the seed packet. Usually on the back, the packet will tell you when you need to plant your seeds. Look for something similar to "Plant inside 6 to 8 weeks before last frost." Keep your eye out for seeds that say "Direct Sow", meaning these plants should be planted directly into your arden. These seeds require less labor and mature faster than transplanted crops. Click here for information on choosing the right seeds for your garden.
Tips for Choosing Organic Lawn Supplies

Tips for Choosing Organic Lawn Supplies

Americans have a lawn addiction. Drive through a typical U.S. suburb, and you’ll see dozens of lush, manicured, weed-less yards, watered by clicking sprinklers. The fixation has spread across the nation — estimates suggest that between 30 and 40 million acres of U.S. land are devoted to turfgrass, and we spend roughly $40 billion annually on seed, sod and the chemicals we need to care for them. Whether you already have a perfect yard or you’re trying to get one, you’ll probably have to invest in lawn products. Vibrant green grass doesn’t weed itself, so we douse it with herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers. In fact, we apply 90 million pounds of fertilizer and around 80 million pounds of pesticides on our lawns every year, which is about ten times the amount spread over farmland. Because we use so much of them, conventional pesticides and fertilizers impact more than our yards — they affect both our health and our ecosystem. We’ve gathered the details on how — and why — you should care about the type of lawn products you apply to your lawn, along with some tips on how to make the switch from conventional to organic supplies.
8 Best Fall Perennials for Seasonal Color

8 Best Fall Perennials for Seasonal Color

When it’s time for some perennials to go dormant it’s time for others to come out in all their glory, and now is the time for fall perennials to shine. Make sure you incorporate a seasonal interest in your yard, blending bloom times so you will have continuous color and appeal throughout the seasons with little effort. Whether you need foliage or flower, have sun or shade, dry soil or clay; there is a plant for you.  Fall perennials massed together make a statement by adding a border or interspersing splashes of color to keep your yard alive with color as it transitions into cooler weather.
Tips for Building and Maintaining Outdoor Fireplaces & Fire Pits

Tips for Building and Maintaining Outdoor Fireplaces & Fire Pits

After months of work, you finally have the backyard of your dreams. Maybe you’ve paved a new patio and set out chairs perfect for relaxing in, or maybe you’ve landscaped an immaculate garden and draped glowing string lights from trees. But despite everything, once night falls, guests wander inside. As the months grow cooler, less time is spent enjoying your hard work. You need something to draw conversation back outside, and nothing is quite as attractive as an outdoor fireplace or fire pit. Whether it’s family s’mores nights or casual dinners with friends, a fire is a center of community. People naturally gather around a warm, rustic fireplace or pit. In this one-stop guide, we’ll take a look at ways to build your own fire pit, as well as tips on how to maintain them, so you can be free to enjoy your outdoor fires for years to come.
How to Prepare Your Garden for Fall

How to Prepare Your Garden for Fall

Who doesn’t love the sight of their garden in the spring and summer? During these beautiful seasons, your garden is bursting with color and life, flowers and shrubs, bumblebees and sunshine. Fall might not typically be a season we associate with beauty in the garden, but this season can be an amazing time for your garden as well. Even though this is typically the season when many of your summer plants begin to return to their dormant state, plenty of other plants are just starting to open up and enjoy the sunlight. Think of mums, asters, ornamental kale and more. There’s a lot to love about your garden in the autumn. Of course, fall isn’t without its unique challenges. Because this season is characterized by so many plants shedding their blossoms and becoming dormant, it’s important to know how to care for your plants and your garden as a whole as it prepares to face the upcoming winter. Since this season is full of difficulties that come with readying your garden for the fall, we want to make sure you’re ready. To help you out, we’ve pulled together this guide to fall garden preparation: what it is, why you can benefit from it and how you can get started with some simple steps today. Ready? Let’s jump right in.
Less is More for Your Flower Garden

Less is More for Your Flower Garden

In our plastic-taxed world today we need to find a way to shrink our man-made footprint! At Patuxent Nursery, this has been on our minds for several years. We have been working towards a biodegradable pot that can be planted in the ground and will break down in the soil leaving the soil in better condition.
How to Keep Potted Plants Alive

How to Keep Potted Plants Alive

Do you love plants, but find that gardening stresses you out? Do you cringe every time someone hands you a plant and tell them you’re “sure to kill it within a week?” Do you envy the green thumbs of your neighbors, friends and relatives, while struggling to keep even one houseplant yourself? If this sounds like you, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Plenty of people struggle to keep plants alive at first, but with time, practice and a little instruction, anyone can learn to do it. Just because it isn’t something that comes naturally to you doesn’t mean you have to accept that you’ll never be able to do it. Keeping potted plants alive is a learned skill, and there is no reason you can’t learn to do it, too. To help you out and get you started on your plant-care journey, we’ve put together this tutorial on everything you need to know about how to take care of potted plants. By the time we’re finished here, you’ll be ready to put these skills into practice. So grab your gardening gloves and potting soil and let’s get started.