Starting a vegetable garden can be a rewarding prospect for any homeowner. In addition to having fresh veggies on the ready, digging in the dirt has big health benefits. Though yanking out weeds might ...

Summer has definitely arrived. With temperatures reaching the high 90s and 100s every day, water is quickly lost from soils and plants. Evapotranspiration is the agricultural term for the total amount ...

Straw mulch is great for gardens. It locks in moisture, smothers weeds, and feeds plants. But it might also cause one of the ...

Gardening experts explain why mulch is important in the winter, when and how much to apply, and the benefits of mulch.

When the growing season is over, you may be wondering what to do with the straw you've been using as mulch. Here are the ...

In some areas of the country, the choice between mulching with pine needles and wood mulch is a tough one. Since the 1980s, pine straw has been the favorite mulch in the South. It is inexpensive, ...

I love discovering new, useful things for the garden. My most recent find is pine straw mulch. For years, I’ve used white pine needles (Pinus strobus) to bed down my strawberry patch for the winter.

Mulching the vegetable and fruit garden is critical this time of year if you want to conserve water and not weed. In some cases, mulching a large area can be costly. Using rice straw is an effective, ...

Wood mulch and wood chips will mat down to make a firm but spongy surface for your garden paths and around playsets. Pine straw is too slippery to walk on, so skip it when mulching these high-traffic ...

A recent conversation with Carol Reese took me back, way back to my earliest days as a gardener. Carol, who retired in 2021 from a distinguished career as a horticultural extension specialist in the ...

Nowadays people use the terms hay and straw interchangeably, and in most cases, it makes no difference whatsoever. For example, we say we were on a hayride at a get-together even though the wagons are ...

Mulch has long been hailed as the secret weapon of gardeners everywhere. It promises to suppress weeds, retain moisture, and ...