Top 10 Spring Cleaning Every Garden Needs

02/21/2023 Ken Davis

By Ken Lain, the mountain gardener Serious gardeners are in the garden on the first warm day of spring. While there is no harm in cleaning up fallen branches and debris, wait until the soil is no longer wet enough…

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How to Prune Lilacs

12/21/2022 Ken Davis

by Ken Lain, the mountain gardener Young, immature plants rarely need pruning except to deadhead faded flowers or remove dead and broken branches. Once a lilac reaches a mature height, it appreciates rejuvenation pruning. Young bushes with branched under three…

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How to Prune Hydrangeas

05/17/2022 Ken Davis

by Ken Lain, the mountain gardener What month do you cut hydrangeas back? When and how do you prune hydrangeas? What happens if you don’t cut back hydrangeas? Should you cut old blooms off hydrangeas? Hydrangeas make beautiful focal points…

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Plants that Keep us Together

10/16/2020 Ken Davis

By Ken Lain, the mountain gardener Dwarf Peach Tree It is easy to see in times like this how differently people think and act. Differences in action and belief seem to be on display everywhere. Whether the news, your favorite…

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Perennial Plants You Should Cut Back Now

12/05/2019 Ken Davis

by Ken Lain, the mountain gardener This week’s column is an extensive resource of perennial flowers that should be cut back now. Local gardeners have given each a commonly used name rather than the scientific Latin name, so this list…

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How to Prune Climbing Roses

02/27/2018 Ken Davis

By Ken Lain, the mountain gardener We are almost finished pruning at the Lain casa.  Perennials have been cut back to the ground, fruit trees nipped and shaped, and the summer shrubs have been cut back for proper control.  Mountain…

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Pruning Advice

01/21/2017 Ken Davis

by Ken Lain, the mountain gardener With questions about pruning flooding into the garden center, there’s no doubt that pruning is in full swing.  Some homeowners/gardeners new to the area are overwhelmed with where to start on a landscape that…

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Pinching for Bigger Blooms

07/11/2016 Ken Davis

By Ken Lain, the mountain gardener Our family got together last week to celebrate the moms in our lives.  Rain altered the usual patio party so the women gathered in the kitchen, and the men rallied around the smell of…

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9 Essential Gardening Tasks for March

03/02/2016 Ken Davis

By Ken Lain, The Mountain Gardener There are a couple of benefits to planting larger-growing conifers before April.  The first is that, knowing garden centers stock up early for the spring planting season, informed gardeners buy early.  This guarantees cream-of-the-crop…

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Am I Supposed to Stop Feeding and Deadheading My Knockout Roses?

10/10/2015 Ken Davis

Yes, as a general rule of thumb, we’ll stop feeding roses as well as deadheading once we get into November. We want the roses to finish their blooming, stop growing, and begin to shut down for the winter. Leaving the…

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