Plant Care
Mulching Landscape Trees
Mulching mimics the natural environment found in forests where leaves and branches blanket the soil surface, replenishing nutrients as they decompose and creating an ideal environment for root growth.
Garden Myths: Watering
Watering is one of the most frequent tasks we perform as gardeners. We often misjudge a plant's need for water, either dehydrating them through neglect or drowning them with love. Plants can't say when they need a good "drink," but we can observe them to get that balance right to help with the growing process. When we are able to get this balance correct, we can grow healthy, productive plants and minimize disease.
Pruning Flowering Shrubs
Pruning is an important horticultural practice for maintaining the health, appearance, and size of flowering shrubs. Knowing when and how to prune promotes vigorous growth and maximizes floral display. This fact sheet details the best timing and techniques for pruning your flowering shrubs based on bloom season and shrub type.
Pruning Herbaceous Plants
Deadheading, disbudding, pinching back, heading back, cutting back, and thinning are all necessary pruning techniques. These chores will encourage plants to bloom for longer periods of time and improve overall plant appearance and health.
Container Grown Trees and Shrubs: Fix Those Plants Before You Plant!
Unlike the bare-root plants of the past, most trees and shrubs today are sold in containers, which makes them convenient to transplant but also prone to issues like circling roots, quick-drying soil, and improper planting depth that can eventually kill the plant. This article recommends preventative and/or correctional measures you can take to ensure your plant thrives.
Tree Owner's Manual
This comprehensive 35 page US Forest Service publication highlights proper tree care from installation to maintenance, with many easily understood images and text. It is available for free online or download or a printed copy can be purchased.
Native and Pollinator Friendly Gardens
Incorporate Pennsylvania Native Perennial Plants into the Garden
This fact sheet gives an overview of the importance of native perennial plants, guidance on planting and care, and provides a list of suggested plants to incorporate into the landscape.
Planting Pollinator-Friendly Gardens
One of the most important ways you can help pollinators is by provisioning your yard with many different kinds of plants that provide pollen and nectar. If you want to attract butterflies, you will also need to include a variety of larval host plants for butterfly caterpillars to eat.
Landscaping with Native Plants in Pennsylvania
Native plants are naturally adapted to local soils, climate, and conditions, making them low-maintenance and resilient through frost and drought with little need for watering or soil amendments. By choosing native species, you help preserve Pennsylvania's biodiversity and combat threats like invasive species and habitat loss. These two resources from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources are designed to help gardeners go native, for all garden and plant types!
Culinary Herbs are Good for Beneficial Insects, Including Pollinators
Native plants are broadly considered to be the best plants for supporting our native pollinators. While none of the culinary herbs discussed here are native to Pennsylvania, they provide excellent functional support to pollinators and other beneficial insects. A few herbs are host plants. Some provide nectar and pollen, as well as shelter and nesting sites.
Small Space Gardening
In a Tight Spot: Resources for Gardening in Small Spaces
With the right resources, any home gardener can turn the smallest scrap of patio into a vibrant oasis. Over the years, Penn State Extension has put together a number of articles, fact sheets and videos to help make your outdoor space the envy of the neighborhood.
Growing Vegetables and Flowers in Containers
If you have limited time or space, container gardening is an attractive alternative to growing plants in the ground. You can have a garden on your patio, balcony, deck, or porch by using pots, baskets, boxes, or barrels to contain your flowers and vegetables.
How to Construct a Raised Bed in the Garden
Raised beds create garden space where usable area is limited or soil is contaminated. Other benefits include a longer growing season, better soil structure, and improved drainage. Raised beds built at the proper height are ideal for individuals with physical limitations
Creating a Hellstrip Garden
With smart design and tough plants, the overlooked sidewalk hellstrip can become a visible asset that softens streets, supports pollinators, manages stormwater, and adds curb appeal.
Building Resilient Gardens
Save Your Garden, Save the World
Home gardeners have many positive options for creating resilient and sustainable gardens that can help mitigate climate change and its effects on our landscapes.
Neighborly Natural Landscaping in Residential Areas
Homeowners across America are changing the face of the typical American lawn. Learn strategies for the natural landscape homeowner who is looking for neighborly ways to garden for nature.
Designing the Home Garden for Drought Resilience
Summers in Pennsylvania are characterized by a combination of heat and humidity, punctuated by thunderstorm downpours and occasional periods of drought. Although too much rain can be catastrophic to plants, lack of rainfall, combined with summer heat and sun, is a much slower stressor that can extend over a period of weeks. What are a plant and gardener to do during periods like this when there is no rain?
Practical Tips for Healthy Soil in a Home Garden
Soil health looks at how well a soil's makeup functions to support the growth and health of plants. These practical tips and gardening practices focus on the main properties of soil—physical, biological, and nutritive—that can be affected and are changeable. Gardeners can work to cultivate healthier soil in their home gardens.
Extension Services and Master Gardener Program
Montgomery County Master Gardener Hotline
The Penn State Extension Garden Hotline is staffed by Master Gardeners. Master Gardeners answer questions on a variety of topics including growing vegetables, fruits, ornamental and turf grass, plant identification, pruning, and insect and disease problems.
Seeking Answers from the Plant Disease Clinic
When spicebush showed signs of disease, the Penn State Plant Disease Clinic provided answers. Learn more about how this lab operates and how to submit samples.
Soil Testing Program
Soil testing is a soil-management tool used to determine the fertility of soil as well as the optimum lime and fertilizer requirements for crops. This article provides information on how to order a test kit and how to take a soil sample.
Master Gardener Program
The Penn State Master Gardener volunteer program supports the outreach mission of Penn State Extension by utilizing unbiased research-based information to educate the public and our communities on best practices in sustainable horticulture and environmental stewardship.
