Gardeners tend to be familiar with the waxy-leafed flowering plant known as a geranium, but not with “Scented Geraniums.” Unlike geraniums, scented geraniums are grown not for the flowers they produce but for the scent their leaves emit: crush or rub the leaves of scented geraniums with your fingers and you disturb small hairs, releasing […]

GardenZeus earns commissions on sales made through links in this article. There is no additional cost to you. Citrus leafminer is a tiny moth whose larvae tunnel between the upper and lower surfaces of new leaves of citrus and closely related trees. The citrus leafminer infests most of Southern California as well as coastal California […]

GardenZeus earns commissions on sales made through links in this article. There is no additional cost to you. Aphids are soft-bodied sucking insects that feed by sucking the sap of host plants, damaging plant leaves and soft stems. They may even limit plants’ ability to transport nutrients through damaged plant tissue. Aphids feed on an […]

Potato plants are often abundant producers; to best preserve the harvest, potatoes should be carefully harvested and correctly cured and stored. New Potatoes. Potatoes begin to produce tubers after flowering. Several weeks after flowering, dig carefully into the loose soil at the sides to find the thin-skinned new potatoes. These new potatoes should be eaten […]

Many varieties of white cauliflower need to be field-blanched (also just called “blanched”) to produce the best-quality curds; purple, green, orange, and self-blanching varieties generally do not require blanching. Field blanching means blocking out sunlight, as opposed to kitchen blanching, which means boiling or cooking briefly. Unblanched white cauliflower may develop undesirable yellow-to-brown color, texture, […]

Growing warm seasons vegetables this season? Put these eight tasks on your April to-do list and look forward to enjoying your harvest! Start seeds and transplant seedlings outdoors for most warm-season crops, Irrigate new garden beds, wait 7 to 14 days prior to planting to flush weed seeds, and remove or till in weed seedlings. […]

GardenZeus earns commissions on sales made through links in this article. There is no additional cost to you. Growing heirloom slicing tomatoes is rewarding, but selecting a few varieties from among the many outstanding heirloom tomato varieties can be difficult. Tomatoes are sensitive to temperature, humidity, and other environmental conditions and factors. Here are a […]

GardenZeus earns commissions on sales made through links in this article. There is no additional cost to you. Late spring, or late March to the beginning of May, concludes the ideal window for growing spinach in many moderate Mediterranean climate areas. Spinach grows best in full sun with cool-to-warm daytime temperatures of about 50° to […]

As a native to the Mediterranean, Northern Africa and Europe, Lavender makes an ideal plant for growing in California and other similar Mediterranean climates. When grown in Mediterranean climates, it has only a few critical needs: one of them watering lavender correctly. If winter rains have been sufficient, established lavender plants may need little or […]