The Most Fun You Can Have With Your Bibs On!
We’re giving away two full memberships to the Backyard Grower’s Business Center, a $610 value! To enter to win, all you have to do is leave a comment below. We will choose two numbers at random and match those numbers with the comment number below. (NOTE: only we can see the comment numbers, they’re not… Click here to read more…
Growing basil from seed is a simple, inexpensive way to keep fresh herbs at your fingertips. Basil is pretty commonly grown. You should have no problem finding seeds in the garden section of nearly any store in the springtime. You can start your seeds indoors or out. If you are going to start your seeds… Click here to read more…
When is the best time to prune shrubs in your landscape? The answer is: When it needs it. Some experts might tell you that you need to wait until winter or early spring to cut back your shrubs or trees. Here at Mike’s Plant Farm, we ignore the calendar and prune as needed. We prune… Click here to read more…
Remember back in grade school when your teacher gave you a dixie cup full of dirt? You planted a flower seed, kept the cup in the window and watered it each day. Your flower sprouted, grew and bloomed. Then you carefully brought it home for Mother’s Day. (For many of us, it didn’t survive the… Click here to read more…
I’m sure by now most of you have seen the many, many (….many, many, many) ice bucket challenge videos circulating around the internet. It is good fun for a great cause. This challenge promotes awareness and to date has raised a whopping 88.5 million dollars for the ALS Association to help combat Lou Gehrig Disease…. Click here to read more…
Once or twice a year we invite our Backyard Growers to my place, Mike’s Plant Farm, here in Perry, Ohio. Each year we have a group of wonderful people. We enjoy the day talking plants, plant propagation, growing and selling plants and we eat. And of course the donkeys love the company. We also do … Click here to read more…
Geraniums are often used as container plants or planted as annuals. They naturally grow in hot climates (zones 9-12), but that doesn’t mean they have to die off each winter in colder climates. Your geraniums will last for many years if follow this simple technique for overwintering them. Step 1 Dig your geranium. Dig your… Click here to read more…
Every ten years or so you might notice an abundance of tent caterpillar nests like the one pictured above. The eastern half of the U.S and Canada get hit hard, but I’m sure our readers along the pacific coast and in the U.K. can relate to this as well. Eastern tent caterpillars overwinter in a… Click here to read more…
Mike and I were walking through the nursery yesterday discussing what we wanted to shoot our next “Mondays With Mike” video about. As we walked past a row of plants in the container area Mike said, “Hey Amber, check out the arborvitae”. As I walked closer to the grouping of evergreens tagged as Arborvitae ‘Emerald… Click here to read more…
Nothing can add more Pizazz to your yard than a beautiful flower and or perennial garden. As long as it is weed free and you can keep it that way. Here’s a step by step guide to making that happen. Step one. Site location. Unless you are creating a garden of shade loving flowers, you’ll… Click here to read more…
Powdery mildew is one of the most commonly found fungal problems affecting plants. This fungus typically appears as a white or grayish powder on the leaves and stems of affected plants. It affects a wide variety of deciduous plants. Beebalm and phlox have always been common to infection, but in recent years we’re seeing more… Click here to read more…
Potting or planting rooted cuttings. What to do with cuttings after they are rooted. I get this question a lot; “Mike, once my cuttings are rooted, what do I do with them?” You have two options. 1. You can plant them in a bed and grow them from there. 2. You can put them in… Click here to read more…
Rooting Cuttings Successfully in Sand. In this post I want to show you how easy it is to root cuttings in sand, using the techniques that I recommend. For a while there, during the growing season, we were shooting a “Mondays with Mike” video for our members. The videos that we shot in this 30-day… Click here to read more…
Obviously this article is about Roundup and whether or not it’s safe to use around your home or farm. But first . . . I am asking for your support because . . . I am about to be slammed to the ground, kicked, punched and pummeled with rocks just for writing this. I have… Click here to read more…
Urrrrrrrg! Japanese Beetles, what can we do about them? Okay kids, today we are going to talk about Japanese Beetles, how to control them and which methods of control really work. Like Japanese Beetle traps, do they really work? I’ll get to that, but first let’s cover some basics. In order to beat the enemy,… Click here to read more…
Mondays with Mike. This week . . . Donkeys. Since we shot this videos the Donkeys have a greatly expanded pen and lots of new grass to eat. They’re happy. I no longer have to tie them out so they can eat a little grass. Just getting ready to stick cuttings. Trying out the grand… Click here to read more…
What is commonly referred to as vinca, can be found as both an annual and perennial…but they are not the same plant. Let me explain: Perennial vinca (sometimes called periwinkle or creeping myrtle) can be found in two basic forms: Vinca minor and Vinca major. Vinca major is slightly bigger, slightly less cold hardy and… Click here to read more…
Welcome to this issue of “Mondays with Mike”. We do this series for our backyard growers but are happy to share them with anybody that has an interest. Lots and lots of things for you to pay attention to in this video. 1. Our New Potting Area I reconfigured our potting area to take advantage… Click here to read more…
Growing plants in containers is a fairly easy as long as you have a Really Good Potting Mix and you have a means of controlling weeds in your nursery containers. In this version of “Mondays with Mike” I am going to show you what to put under your containers to keep the weeds down and… Click here to read more…
This is from our “Mondays with Mike” Series. Of February 2nd of 2014 I posted This about Doing Hardwood Cuttings in the Dead of Winter. Beautiful winter photos, bitter cold! It got down to -15 degrees F. here in Ohio and we had many other days well below zero. How in the world can you… Click here to read more…
