Question: I have a raised garden bed that I have used for two years so far. I was wondering what I should do to prepare it for this year’s planting? Do I need to change the soil or fortify it? Answer: Pamela Hargest, Horticulture Professional I encourage you to submit a sample to our lab […]
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Question: Looking for a hardy perennial grass that could be used as a natural privacy wall on my property line. The site gets about 60% sun, 40% shade. I have seen beautiful tall grasses but not sure what they are. Answer: Pamela Hargest, Horticulture Professional Are you hoping to maintain privacy all year round? If […]
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Question: We recently discovered quite the community of miner bees near our home we recently purchased. They are living within a patch of ground that is about eight feet long and two feet wide between our walkway and our driveway. The entire patch is filled with different miner bee colonies. I know that they are […]
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Question: I’m a new gardener living in York, Maine. I have a very large yard, but was hoping to “rewild” an area of lawn. My goal would be to create a native wild flower pasture, perhaps with native shrubs and trees. However, I have no idea where to start. Is there anyone or any resources […]
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Question: The garlic I planted last fall — Russian Red and Italian varieties from FedCo — are coming up with green shoots now well above the straw mulch I put down. It still gets cold at night, low 30s, and we had wet snow yesterday. Should I go ahead and pull the mulch off? Leave […]
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Question: I have three lilac trees. All three of them are very thinned out, not many buds. What can I do? Are they dead? They are all in a sunny spot. Answer: Kate Garland, Horticultural Professional Lilacs typically do well in windy and salty sites. If your plants haven’t had any signs of disease and […]
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Question: We have so many oak trees on our property. Between the leaves and the excess acorns left over from winter, we have excess of everything in our gardens. The grass doesn’t seem to like them so I will try to rake them off but are they doing harm to our raspberry, blue berry and […]
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Question: I have irises and day lilies in my garden. Now they have moved themselves to the Eastern side of the garden. (surprise, surprise) I need to move them, but don’t want to wreck them. The irises are all hooked together. If I break them, do I lose that part? Also, some of the lilies […]
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Question: We just moved into our first home in South Portland! We have a wooded .5 acre of space that we have deemed as the “wasteland.” For probably close to 30 years the previous owners just allowed the space to be used for dead trees, sticks, leaves, trash and other debris. Many trees have fallen, […]
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Question: Thank you for helping me identify two invasives last year: goutweed, and quackgrass. I used buckwheat to smother a patch of quackgrass (yes, it seems to working!) and have tried blackout and pulling for two other areas where goutweed has heavily taken over, including infiltrating established daylilies and lilies of the valley, many of […]
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