Got Garden Problems?

Now you can take advatage of a garden expert that's willing to share his knowledge he's learned from a lifetime of digging, planting, caring for, and feeding his own garden.Through a Q and A session.

How Do I Find A Good Design?

Expert: Go on a garden tour in your local area Notice the gardens that grab your attention whether formal or more relaxed gardens. For example for my garden at home I choose a more formal garden because I wanted a garden with more structure. So l choose to use narrow strips of lawn and brick columns to frame my perennial beds that are pure chaos. I also laid out the garden so that people would have turn corners and be surprised; I didn't want my guest to see it all at one time. But everybody's style of house and garden is different.

Buy Garden magazines for creative ideas and structure. Go to your nearest garden center or store and ask a lot of questions about the type og gardens you may already have in mind.

How can I ensure a patio will really be used?

Expert: In my opinion a patio needs some sense of enclosure. lets face it no is going to want to sit out in the middle of the day when the sun is at it's hottest during the summer months. I also have a dining patio in the shade area of my yard that's 15 by 15. In both places, I put out lots of containers to create that sense of enclosure. It is also important to provide comfortable seats and plenty of places to set down a cup.

How to Test Soil For Magnesium Level ?

I know I have to make sure to do a soil test to see what your magnesium level is before adding any Epsom salt to outdoor plants because "Without knowing my current magnesium levels, I shouldn't apply Epsom salt at all to outdoor plants. Many areas have almost toxic proportions of magnesium present in the soil, and continually adding more will end up poisoning the plants and the soil." That's great, but how do I test for Magnesium levels?

Expert: Great question. Since most home "do-it-yourself" soil testing kits only test for pH, Nitrogen, Potassium, and Phosphorous, in order to find out your calcium and magnesium levels you'll have to take a sample to a local soil testing lab. Every county has one, and the cost is usually around $10 . It's fast and very accurate.

How To Handle Hard To control Weeds?

My wife and I have recently moved into our house, and the gardens are full of weeds. We have tried pulling them out, we have tried both chemical and organic weed killers, and tried solarization. Is there any other way. We just can't seem to contain them. Expert: I can hear your frustration. I know nothing is worse than a battle of the weeds. Unfortunately, the best advice I can give you is diligence, and try mixing up your techniques a bit more.

The problem with a lot of chemical weed killers is they do a great job of killing what's there, but if you simply leave that area bare, and don't do anything else, new weed and grass seeds can blow in and take root in the now clean and open area.

You also have to realize there are perennial and annual weeds, which on the other hand means that at any time of the year, some kind of weed will be growing. The trick is to keep after it year-round and in a season or two, you will see a huge decrease in the problem as you kill each weed's growing cycle and start to get the upper hand.

So what I would suggest you to do is to pick a general weed killing method, I like solarization because it's chemical free, but many people opt for RoundUp or another systemic weed killer.

Once you have killed everything back, come back in and put down some corn gluten, I mentioned this up on question # 6, see above if you didn't read it.

Corn gluten is great because it will keep any new seeds from germinating. Keep in mind, it will keep all seeds from germinating, so if you are planning on starting a vegetable garden from seed, this will be a problem.

If that is the case, and you can't put down a pre-emergent, put down a good layer of mulch, 2 to 3 inches (5.1 to 7.6 cm) to keep any new weeds smothered.

Hang in there, you have the right idea, and in time, your garden is going to look great.

Leafminers on Tomatoes

I have 5 pots of "patio" tomotoes growing in large pots on my balcony. All 5 plants have tan "schrigely" marks on them, as you can see in the picture. Not all leaves have these marks. Also, the newest growth leaves on top of plants do not have these marks yet? Any suggestions as to the problem? Thanks.

Expert: First of all, thank you for sending a picture with your question. It always is so helpful to be able to see exactly what you are talking about.

What you have are called Leafminers. They like to feed on bean, beet, cabbage, chard, lettuce, pepper, tomato, and other vegetables; also many ornamentals, especially chrysanthemum and nasturtium.

The larvae tunnel through the leaf tissue making hollowed-out, winding mines. They can kill seedlings, but the good news is that on older plants, such as your tomatoes, the larvae are more of a nuisance, and a cosmetic issue, than a serious problem.

There are a few things you can do:

1. Handpick and destroy mined leaves.

2. Remove any egg clusters you may see on the undersides of the leafs as soon as they are visible in the spring.

3. You can also spray neem oil. Read more about neem oil.