Calendar & Seasons by Ruth S. Foster Calendar & Seasons text here. Spring - Summer - Fall - Winter Summer Mother Nature's Calendar Indicator Plants and GDDs or When the oak leaves are the size of a mouse's ear, it's time to plant the corn. more Dividing Perennials in Late Summer Late summer may seem a lazy time to just sit back and enjoy the garden, but be not fooled. In fact, it's the preferred time to divide and propagate perennials. more Pruning Grafted Trees and Shrubs is Tricky Many of our most best flowering and fruiting trees and shrubs are grafted. Plants specially bred for bigger flowers or delicious fruits are often very poor growers. more How Gardens Grow One of the joys of summer is making time to read technical journals and publications that pile up on the floor that have been saved for these less hectic, lazy days to get new understandings of how gardens grow. more Sequence of Bloom Planting for different seasons of bloom and color. Learn more about the sequence of bloom in your climate zone, and you can plan ahead to create a garden that blooms throughout the growing season. more The Biting Bugs of Summer Are Back The biting bugs of summer are back again. Most are just huge nuisances, though some carry diseases. Understanding when and where each kind is likely to cause trouble can lower their bother but the only really effective thing to do is to use repellents. more In Pursuit of the Perfect Lawn Lawns are really thousands of tiny plants, each crying for attention. A perfect lawn depends on constant care... regular mowing, fertilizer, water, monitoring, maybe chemicals and lots of tough love. more Splendor in the Grass Wake up your lawn with designs of tall grass. more Mesclun: French Seedling Greens For Salads Grow your own mesclun salad green indoors or out with these handy tips from Ruth Foster. more Labor Saving Gardening Tips Ruth offers some simple strategies to make your garden care less labor intensive when good help is hard to find. more You Can Eat the Flowers You can have it all and eat it too in the backyard garden. A garden that looks beautiful, supplies flowers for cutting and drying, as well as unusual tastes and textures to eat. more Evergreen Groundcovers As the leaves fall away from trees, shrubs and flower beds, evergreen foliage becomes more noticeable and more cherished. None so much as the ground covers that keep the bare earth green during the darkening days of winter. more Japanese Beetle Grubs Lawn insects are a problem, none more so than Japanese Beetles, which lay their eggs in midsummer. Their white grubs cause brown patches in August by eating grass roots. more Houseplant Bug Problems Houseplants brought indoors from outside have bugs and blights. Indoors, where there are no natural predators, these pesky problems eventually recur often with population explosions that dismay us. more Mowing Lawns Efficiently A fine art and some science. There have even been some studies about mowing efficiency. The fewer turns one makes and the longer the straight stretches are, the less time it takes. more Why Plants Die It's like trying to explain why babies cry. Many things may be wrong, but knowing which are causes and which are effects is complex. The current plant theory is that plant health starts with healthy roots. more Tips for New Trees, Shrubs, and Sod A few helpful tips for planting and maintaining your landscape. more Maintaining Common Flowers A few helpful tips and tricks for maintaining the garden favorites: Petunias, Geraniums, Impatiens... more Beware of Invasive Vines! If you have bare ground but don't want more lawn (and it's high maintenance), evergreen ground covers are very good but think carefully which variety is best for you. more Vegetables for Beginners If you want vegetables grown using clean water and few chemicals, grow your own. more Simplify the Garden Outdoors A few time and labor saving tips to simplify your outdoor gardens. more Sounds in the Garden Fountains, babbling brooks and birds that sing are not the only sounds in the garden. More insidious ones come from the motors on the tools we use. more