“Is it OK to cut my perennials back and do my garden cleanup now?” “Can I trim my roses back in the fall?” “When is the best time to cut down my ornamental grasses?” These are questions our customers ask at this time of year. Truth be told, in most situations you can get away…

On Cape Cod many of us have pots and window boxes that are still full of flowering annuals in September. Our customers wonder if they can bring these beauties inside before frost. “Is it possible to keep them looking this good through the winter?” they ask, or “Can I save them and put them out…

We’ve known for a few years that monarch butterfly populations have been diminishing. Fortunately, people all across this country and into Canada and Mexico have been working to support remaining monarchs and increase their poulations. On Cape Cod we’ve begun to see the results of these efforts as more butterflies appear in wild areas and our…

Fall is an exciting time in the garden center as new stock floods into the nursery in time for fall planting. When it comes to “fall color” we’re not just talking about how the foliage changes in autumn! I was pleased to find dozens of plants with great foliage colors and textures when I walked…

Let’s start this post off with the truth: sometimes we can’t figure out why a plant has died. And often, a plant dies not just from one cause, but from a combination of “this, then that, and the other thing.” That said, here is how to problem solve if you’ve got a plant that didn’t…

Yes, the heat is on. Time to talk about watering your plants…specifically, why you want to water the area around the plant, not the leaves of the plant and not the stem or trunk. You see, when it’s hot I frequently see people hosing off the tops of their shrubs and trees. I know that…

Most of us live in our backyards, and we tend to place decks, patios and seating areas there. Some are blessed to have farmer’s porches or other front-of-the-house seating, but this isn’t the norm. Yet on many properties, seating in the front yard should be considered. Many of our Cape Cod neighborhoods are attractive, and…

Here’s what’s going on in every yard and garden on Cape Cod: birds light in shrubs and trees, and poop onto the ground below. As they do so, they place seeds for many invasive or wild plants into your garden. Many of those seeds germinate, and before you realize it, your plants are infested with…

The heat is on, and that means that our vegetable gardens should be growing gangbusters. Here’s a checklist of what to do in the veggie garden in mid-July. Weed, weed and weed. Most of us find that the weeds that were tiny over the Fourth of July are now monsters! Pull them quickly and often.…

Ornamental grasses (some of our customers call them “beach grasses”) took a hit this past winter. We’ll never know whether it was the rollercoaster temperatures early in the winter or the very wet conditions we had in March, but many people found that their grasses were dead this spring. Some clumps have a few, feeble…

Your hydrangea has gotten too big. It is growing up over the windows or spilling out into the walkway. Your hydrangea is covering nearby shrubs, or blocking the driveway. “How do I prune this to make it small again?” you ask. The simple answer is that you don’t. Plants grow to be the size and…

Or… “Can I still plant vegetables in the garden in late June?”  The answer to the first questions is no, it’s not too late. The answer to the second question is yes! Frankly, you can plant most vegetables now and many can be sown or placed in the garden through the rest of the summer.…