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The Victory Garden answers your landscaping and horticultural head-scratchers.
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Latest Questions
Answered by the Master Gardeners at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
Can I use wood treated with creosote to build retaining walls?
Do you have any tips for transplanting a Japanese Maple tree?
Previous Questions
Fruits & Vegetables
- Do I need to get rid of all the grass in my backyard if I want to plant a vegetable garden there?
- When will my plum tree produce fruit?
- How can I help my fig trees bear fruit?
- When should I trim the limbs off my flowering pear tree?
- Can I use pressure-treated lumber to build a raised vegetable garden?
- How do you know when artichokes and eggplants are ready for harvest?
- What is the best way to prepare the soil in my vegetable garden for next spring?
- What kind of material should I use to build the retaining walls of raised vegetable beds?
- When can I plant potatoes and what varieties do you recommend?
- What types of plants are used in a winter cover crop?
- How can I get my garlic plants to produce bulbs and my pecan tree to produce nuts?
- How should I get soil ready for planting a vegetable garden next year?
- How do I create an edible garden?
- How should I store excess basil and is it safe to transplant one of the plants indoors?
- Why do my herbs die when I try to start them indoors?
- What herbs and fruits can thrive in desert locations?
- Can I reuse my old pots for herbs and vegetables?
- How do I start growing an apple tree by seed?
- How can I tell if an unknown plant in my garden is basil?
- Why are my squash plants dying while all my other vegetables thrive?
- How can I help my zucchini plants produce fruit?
- My vegetable gardening is no longer thriving. Have I leached the soil of all its nutrients?
- How much should I fertilize my cucumber plants?
- What kind of artichoke can I grow in Missouri and how can I make my avocado tree grow faster?
Garden Design
- In what direction should I plant the rows in my new garden?
- Can you suggest plants for a three-foot space that won't need much maintenance?
- Can you suggest period plants for my Greek Revival home?
- What kind of plant can you suggest that is narrow, fast-growing, and airy?
- How can I turn a small space into a garden?
- How would I go about planning and choosing plants for a mission-style garden?
Pests & Weeds
- What natural pesticides are available for rose bugs?
- Are there any organic methods to keep bugs off my tomato plants?
- How do I safely get rid of anthills?
- How can I get rid of the grubs in my vegetable garden?
- How do I rid my yard of violet weeds?
- How do I prevent tomato blight?
- How do I know if it is safe to plant in soil that has been contaminated with a pesticide that was used to exterminate carpenter ants?
- How do I prevent beetles from attacking my lilies?
- How do I get rid of the aphids crawling all over my callas?
- Do you know of a good solution for bindweed?
- How do I rid my tomato plants of tobacco worms?
- How can I safely control the grubs in my flowerbeds?
- How do I prevent squirrels from taking my tulip bulbs out of the ground?
- What types of fences and organic solutions will keep rabbits out of my garden?
- How can I rid my rose bush of black spot?
- How do I treat Japanese beetles?
Plants
- Can I spread mulch around plants that attract butterflies and hummingbirds?
- When is a good time to prune back a rose bush?
- Can I keep potted mums through the winter? And when should I cut back my summer flowers?
- How should I care for my container perennials during the winter?
- How can I continue growing my annuals indoors?
- What kind of plants will attract butterflies and hummingbirds?
- When is the best time to dig up Tiger Lily and Lily-of-the-Valley bulbs and re-plant them?
- Can I move my tulips to a different spot to bloom again next year?
- Can I grow lilacs in containers?
- How do I care from my elephant ear during the winter and how do I keep slugs away from my hostas?
- Why aren't my hostas growing?
- How do I know when to transplant sunflowers from a cold frame to the garden?
- How do I divide my three-year-old peonies?
- I don't like the look of my daylily foliage after they've bloomed. Can I dig them up?
- Can I put horse manure compost directly into my garden?
- Why won't my peonies bloom?
- How can I encourage bloom production on my wisteria?
- How do I remove ivy and what is the best way to transplant azaleas?
Trees & Shrubs
- Why did our 30-year-old Japanese maple tree fail to leaf as well as in previous years?
- What trees or shrubs can I plant adjacent to a black walnut tree?
- How do I propagate a cutting from a lilac bush?
- Can you recommend a fast-growing replacement for my problematic arborvitae trees?
- Should I let the fruit on my dogwood trees fall to the ground or should I pick them?
- What kind of evergreen should I plant on a hill that faces west?
- Does lichen growth on trees harm them?
- How could I have prevented the loss of my Am Red Bud tree this past winter? And do you have any suggestions for planting with wildlife in mind?
- Why are only the new leaves of our weeping Japanese maple tree dark purple and not the rest of the leaves?
- Will my ficus tree die if I plant it outside
- How do I transplant yew bushes to another area of my yard?