One of September's most important and exciting jobs is to start buying and planting spring-flowering bulbs. Bulbs are easy plants to grow and will provide you with early spring color and bloom.

Buy Bulbs Now to Plant Later

Begin purchasing spring-flowering bulbs as soon as possible. They soon get picked over and sometimes put back in the wrong bins. A reliable local nursery is the best source of varieties that will do well in your climate zone, though some rare varieties can only be bought from catalogues or online. Choose the largest and fattest bulbs, because they produce the biggest blooms.

Among hardy bulbs some of the most popular are daffodils (Narcissus), hyacinths, Dutch irises (Iris xiphium hybrids), tulips, and crocuses.

Look for daffodils with three or more divisions. Don't pull them apart. If they're still connected, each point will produce a bloom. Feel them gently to make sure they're firm to the touch; softness means rot. Hyacinths perform best and give the most bloom if you buy large bulbs. Tulips have to be bought yearly. Don't buy "naked" tulip bulbs, ones that have lost their tunics (the brown papery skin), as they might be dried out.

Take your bulbs home but don't plant them yet. Getting them in the ground too early is a big mistake. Keep them cool and dry. Most spring flowering bulbs can be planted after the first frost - but wait longer for tulips, which may sprout if planted early.

Where To Plant

Most bulbs need full sunlight. Find an area that will provide them at least six hours of direct sunlight per day. Early blooming bulbs may be planted under the canopy of deciduous trees or around deciduous shrubs (where they will get full sunlight until the leaves come in again). Combine bulbs with low growing groundcovers, or plant in the perennial border.

How To Plant

Most bulbs prefer a soil that drains well. Before you plant, we recommend working the soil deeply (or using a raised bed) and adding a good amendment to the soil. Also add a bulb fertilizer to promote root growth and spring flowering. Fertilize again in spring, just before flowering, to support foliage and increase bulb size--giving the plant more energy to produce beautiful blooms.

In general, you should plant bulbs twice as deep as their greatest diameter in a medium or heavy soil. In sandy soils, plant them about three times as deep. Put them in the soil with the pointed end up and the flat side down. To encourage root development, water them in well.

Most home gardeners lament the coming of winter since it usually spells the end of the outdoor growing season. But it doesn't have to be that way. Many herbs can be grown indoors quite successfully in the winter months and then be transplanted into the garden the following spring. There's something about the taste of fresh, home-grown herbs in cooking that is hard to beat. The flavors are so much more flavorful and aromatic than using something dry out of a shaker bottle.

With the right location and care, many herbs can be fooled into thinking that summer is still here. If you're a little nervous or skeptical about growing herbs indoors, use some tried and tested varieties such as chives, coriander, dill, mint, oregano, rosemary, parsley, and thyme. Most of these can be started by seed, while mint and rosemary can be started by seed or cutting.

Most herbs are sun lovers and will require a southern facing window that gets at least six hours of sunlight per day. For less sunny locations, mint, parsley and rosemary will get by with less sunlight. You might also consider hanging a grow light 6-9 inches above your plants to provide light on cloudy days. Make sure to also rotate your containers at least once per week in order to help your plants grow evenly.

Start your plants in seed trays and then transplant them to window boxes or larger containers once the plants become rooted. Use a good quality potting soil, such as Master Nursery Gold Medal Plus Dr. Earth, and make sure the containers you use have drainage holes. If you use water trays under your pots, make sure that you check them after watering and drain any standing water in them.

The herbs listed above will do fine provided temperatures are maintained between 55 and 70 degrees. Feed with a water soluble plant food, such as Gro-Power Liquid All-Purpose Fertilizer, every 2-4 weeks just as you would any other indoor plant, and don't water until the soil surface becomes dry. The use of a small fan will also help herbs survive the stuffy air conditions that can occur indoors in winter.

Plant pests are usually less prevalent during the winter months. Nevertheless, visually check your plants at least once per week, and treat your plants with an insecticidal soap before pests actually become a problem.

So don't let the winter doldrums get you down. Spice up your life and your winter meals with the addition of fresh, homegrown indoor herbs!

Summer's blasts of heat can make even the hardiest of shrubs look brown, tired, and just plain ugly.

Now is the time to give your bushes a haircut. Trimming the ends of the plant encourages new lush, green growth. Be certain to remove any brown, dead branches to open up the space and help the plant fill in the voids.

Ground covers like ivy will also benefit from a trimming.

Within weeks, new growth will appear, giving a fresh green look.

Will ants hurt my plants?

Answer:
Not directly. But if ants are living in the soil around a plant, they can make the plant dry out and need water more frequently. This is because their ant tunnels create air pockets which dry out the soil faster. On the other hand, those same tunnels help to aerate the soil, which is a good thing. If ants are on the foliage of a plant, that's usually a sign that harmful sucking insects such as aphids or whiteflies are feeding and damaging your plant.

These sucking insects emit a residue called honeydew that is sweet and very attractive to ants. The ants will roam your plant and feed on the sweet honeydew.

Unfortunately, they will do nothing to control the damaging insect. In fact, ants sometimes will move predator insects to fresh parts of the plant to help them create fresh honeydew. At this point, they become partners in crime and should be destroyed. Their criminal status may be determined by interviewing a sampling of suspected ants or catching them red-handed in the act of predator insect transport.

There are several effective methods to control ants, including aerosol sprays, such as Terro Aerosol Spray, and ant baits containing boric acid, such as Terro Ant Bait. You can also place a sticky barrier, such as Tanglefoot, around the trunks of trees or bushes that are vulnerable to attack. As always, do not use sprays on edible plants unless the sprays are marked for use on edibles.