Boardash: ArcaMax Gardening Daily Tips for Friday October 9, 2009

Thursday, October 8, 2009

ArcaMax Gardening Daily Tips for Friday October 9, 2009

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Gardening Daily Tips
For You
Friday October 9, 2009

Pansy (Viola x wittrockiana)
Q&A: Fall Care for Asparagus
Q&A: Plants for Pool Area
Tip: Grow Fall Foliage Plants
Wine and Dine Daily Video
Reader Photos

Pansy (Viola x wittrockiana)

Today's Featured Plant
Pansy (Viola x wittrockiana)

Read the full profile of this plant at ArcaMax.com.

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Q&A: Fall Care for Asparagus

Question: We harvested asparagus for one month this spring, and allowed the rest of the shoots to grow into ferns. What should I do to prepare the plants for winter?

Answer: Continue to allow the spears to grow and replenish the plants. For the rest of the growing season, be sure to keep it weeded and mulched until frost turns the foliage yellow. Once that happens, you can cut the stems down to about two inches. Remove all of the prunings, especially if you have had asparagus beetles this summer. Then layer the bed with four to six inches of compost or organic mulch to help control weeds next year and also add organic matter and nutrients to the soil. Since asparagus is somewhat heavy feeder, you may wish to fertilize early next spring or top dress with compost.

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Q&A: Plants for Pool Area

Question: What easy care plants would do well around a southern California outdoor swimming pool?

Answer: Plants chosen to landscape swimming pool areas should meet two requirements. Branches, foliage, and flowers should be smooth (not bristly, prickly, sharp or thorny). And the plants should be as litter-free as possible, so as not to drop leaves, fruits, etc. in or around the pool. Trees meeting these requirements include palms, ensete (banana), ficus and Firmiana simplex (Chinese parasol tree). Shrub considerations include camellia, Fatsia japonica, juniper, and Viburnum davidii. Hope the above suggestions help you provide the backbone for your landscaping project. You can fill in around the trees and shrubs with perennials such as agapanthus, lavender, armeria, canna, coreopsis, Kniphofia uvaria and strelitzia if you'd like some splashes of color.

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Tip: Grow Fall Foliage Plants

Instead of growing maples or aspens for fall color consider other less known trees such as sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum) whose leaves turn dark red in fall and shrubs such as viburnum and burning bush which produce blazing red foliage.

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Wine and Dine Daily Video

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-- From the ArcaMax editors

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Sincerely,
ArcaMax Editors

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