Boardash: ArcaMax Gardening Daily Tips for Saturday November 28, 2009

Friday, November 27, 2009

ArcaMax Gardening Daily Tips for Saturday November 28, 2009

Having trouble seeing this email? View the most recent issue or stories from previous issues.

	Today's Healthy Life Daily Video
	Nutrition Deficiencies Common With ... Play Now!

NEW Book Samples added. Read for Free.

Gardening Daily Tips
For You
Saturday November 28, 2009

Pear, Callery (Pyrus calleryana)
Q&A: Sparse Kernels on Corn Cobs
Q&A: Lawns Under Pines
Tip: Plant an Indoor Herb Garden
Advice from Carolyn Hax
Reader Photos

Pear, Callery (Pyrus calleryana)

Today's Featured Plant
Pear, Callery (Pyrus calleryana)

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

Interested in reading about other plants? Search through hundreds of plant profiles and helpful articles by keyword.

Comment on this Story | Printer Friendly | Send Story to a Friend | Top

Q&A: Sparse Kernels on Corn Cobs

Question: Everything in my garden has grown well except my sweet corn. It grew nice and tall in the spring and was even more than "knee high by the fourth of July." Though the plants look healthy the ears are very skinny and the kernels are small and spaced far apart. Am I being too impatient? Should I wait until the end of August before picking? Or was this a bad year for corn?

Answer: Unfortunately, if the kernels are not formed they will not fill out. It sounds like a case of poor pollination, due either to rainy weather when the pollen was ready, and/or you planted in a single or double row instead of a block. Corn depends primarily on wind to transfer the pollen to the silks (which is what makes the kernels grow), so you need to plant it in a block or cluster. Clump of 5 stalks per hill or a block 4 feet square is usually the minimum required for proper pollination. If your plot is small and you donOt mind a little extra effort, when tassels at the top of the plants start dropping their dusty pollen, you can break off a tassel and brush it against the silks of each ear on each stalk. It's time-consuming, but for small plantings it can dramatically increase pollination.

Comment on this Story | Printer Friendly | Send Story to a Friend | Top

Q&A: Lawns Under Pines

Question: We have a huge pine tree in the front yard and the grass just doesn't seem to grow very well under it. What can we do to encourage the grass to grow?

Answer: Growing lawns under pines is difficult for several reasons. The shade under a pine is quite dense, and the canopy of the pine keeps natural rainfall from reaching the soil. Needles that are shed make a thick mulch that acidifies the soil, and pine roots are shallow so they take up most of the moisture -- lawns and groundcovers just can't compete.

Instead of struggling to get grass to grow under the tree, you might consider placing a bench there so you can enjoy the tree's shade, perhaps surrounded by self-watering pots or planters of shade-loving plants (such as impatiens, caladium, coleus).

Comment on this Story | Printer Friendly | Send Story to a Friend | Top

Tip: Plant an Indoor Herb Garden

To grow herbs indoors, sow seeds of parsley, oregano, sage, chives, and basil in flats. Once germinated, transplant seedlings into individual clay pots, place them under grow lights, and water and fertilize, with a weak solution, only when very dry.

Comment on this Story | Printer Friendly | Send Story to a Friend | Top

Advice from Carolyn Hax

Advice columnist Carolyn Hax is famous for her ability to get to the root of people's problems -- not just what they say, but who they are and what they're thinking.

The resulting advice is often ruthless, sometimes controversial, and always hilarious.

See for yourself what great advice Hax has to offer. Subscribe to ArcaMax's Carolyn Hax ezine, and receive her witty, helpful advice free by e-mail!

Subscribe to the Carolyn Hax ezine instantly.

Find out more before subscribing.

-- From the ArcaMax editors

Comment on this Story | Printer Friendly | Send Story to a Friend | Top

Today's Reader Submitted Photos

Click an image above to see full size and read caption.

To see more of our subscriber photos visit our full Photo Gallery.

Enter your Gardening Daily Tips pictures so you can show them off to other readers right here in this ezine and on the ArcaMax.com Web site. Click here to submit your photo.

Sincerely,
ArcaMax Editors