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Top 10 Q&As
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I was given a compost tumbler but I know very little about composting. How can I get started?
It’s pretty simple—eventually, everything will turn into compost. To speed the process you need 4 ingredients: carbon (leaves and woody pruning from the landscape), nitrogen (grass clippings, kitchen fruit and vegetable scraps), water and oxygen. Start by mixing the carbon and nitrogen products in equal amounts. After placing your materials in the tumbler, add a shovelful of soil, which contains beneficial micro-organisms. Turn the barrel every other day to mix the materials and add fresh material as you collect it so it will develop into compost as early as 4–6 weeks.  
I'm a beginner. Can you plant a perennial in a pot and will it come up each year?
The problem with planting in containers is that the roots of your perennials can freeze solid during the winter months unless you protect them by burying the pot in the ground or wrapping bubble wrap or a garden insulation blanket around the outside of the pot to keep the roots from freezing. If you can't do this, you might want to just plant annuals with the expectation that you'll have to replant every spring.   
Can I use outdoor soil for indoor plants?
Place indoor plants in potting soil, not garden soil, which can be heavy and cause poor drainage in a small container. Check the package before buying soil to ensure that the product can be used in containers. If it says it’s safe for houseplants, go ahead and use it indoors. Potting soils from Miracle-Gro, available in-store, are great for container plants.  
Do I have to repot houseplants after I take them home or can I leave them in the nursery container?
Houseplants should be transplanted when they’re pot bound. How long that will take depends on the plant and the size of its pot. Wait until the roots begin to escape through the drainage holes, then place in a pot 1 size larger. You’ll find planters at your local The Home Depot in a variety of colors, styles and sizes.  
My kalanchoe plant was flowering when I bought it but now, 2 years later, the flowers won’t come back. I recently transplanted it to a bigger pot but it hasn’t helped. I keep it by a window with lots of light but no direct sun. What can I do?
Set it in a very sunny window and water it moderately. To force it to bloom indoors during winter, you need to manipulate the amount of light it receives. In the fall, place it where it will receive total darkness for about 15 hours every night. (Cover it with a box, put it in a closet or leave it in a room without artificial light so it experiences the decreasing daylight hours.) Do this every night for 6–8 weeks. This will encourage it to set buds and bloom. When growth slows after blooming, cut back on water. When growth resumes in spring, increase watering again and fertilize lightly with a water-soluble fertilizer from Miracle-Gro or Osmocote, available in-store. In summer, place your kalanchoe plant outdoors as soon as temperatures rise above the high 50s.  
My backyard only get the afternoon sun (Light Shade) Though things will grow, they grow slowly and will not produce fruit or flowers or flower. WHAT KIND OF FLOWING PLANTS ARE BEST FOR THIS AREA
Here are some fairly tolerant plants to try in your part sun/part shade garden: shorter varieties of daylily (hemerocallis), perennial geranium, purple coneflower, heuchera (coral bells), variegated liriope, bleeding heart, various types of sedum and the annual, fibrous rooted bedding begonias.  
What can we use to kill bamboo
Bamboo is basically a giant grass, so you can visualize how it spreads through roots and rhizomes. Not all bamboos are invasive, but the running types of bamboo have root masses that travel 3'-4' deep, and spread 15'-20'. You can starve the roots by keeping the tops continually cut down. If you're persistent the plants will eventually run out of energy to produce new canes because there's no above-ground photosynthesis taking place. Digging the roots is the only sure-fire way of eradicating bamboo. You might be able to speed the process by covering the soil with black plastic after cutting down the tops of the plants. If the area gets a lot of direct sunshine, the ground will heat up, basically killing the roots. Leave the plastic on for 4 to 6 weeks in the midst of summer heat/sun. Chemical herbicides are least effective; they may kill the tops of the plants but the roots are hardy and will send out new shoots. Good luck!   
I have a Dwarf Eureka Lemon Tree & a Dwarf Washington Navel Orange. Please tell me the a proximate size that these trees may grow to. Thank you kindly, Judith Carlson
A dwarf Eureka lemon tree will reach a height and width of about 4' at maturity. You can keep them about 2 1/2' feet tall and wide with regular pruning. A dwarf navel orange tree will reach about 6' tall and wide at maturity. This one, too can be kept slightly smaller with annual pruning. enjoy your citrus trees!  
I have three big what I think are ornamental (they bloom but don't produce any fruit) crabapple trees on the south side of my house. They bloom beautifully and smell great this time of year but shortly after the blooms fall the leaves begin getting infected and as the spring and early summer progress they brown and fall in larger and larger numbers. By August/September the trees are practically bare. One of the trees has also grown over the house so I'm ready to replace them. The area is sunny most of the day and slopes gently away from the house. What kind of tree would be a good replacement? I'd like something that blooms in spring, is disease resistant and easy to maintain. I'd also prefer something that won't get too big or sprawling.
You can use a preventative fungicide such as Captan on your crabapples to keep them from developing the scab disease that defoliates them each summer, and you can prune back the overgrown crabapple so it's not encroaching on the house. If you'd rather not work with your crabapple trees, you'll want to be sure to remove the roots of the trees - otherwise they will sucker and sprout up in the most inopportune areas of your yard! Some replacements to consider are ornamental plum (purple leaf plum has an upright growth habit), or eastern redbud tree, Shadblow or Siberian Pea Shrub. Best wishes with your landscape!   
i have clay dirt in my flower beds and cant seem to get anyhting to grow. how do i water in clay?
Clay soil can grow a terrific garden. The main concerns are that it does not drain well and then once dry, can be difficult to remoisten. It also will compact and harden like concrete if worked when it is overly wet. This means that there may only be limited windows of opportunity when it can be worked. If it sticks to your shovel, it is too wet. If it is too hard to dig into, it is too dry. Generally speaking I would suggest adding generous amounts of organic matter such as good quality compost, rotted leaves, well aged stable manure and bedding, spoiled straw, or similar materials. Loosen the soil and work in the organic matter; a layer six inches thick is not too much. You may also want to add some coarse sand (builders' sand, not the fine play sand) or some fine grit, maybe an inch. Take care to add organic matter on an ongoing basis by using an organic mulch year round, this will help feed the soil as it breaks down over time. Your soil improvement program will be a long term one. Some plants actually thrive in clay soils so include some of these in your flower beds: Amsonia Blue Star, Butterfly Weed, Aster, coreopsis. Purple conefloewr, Sea Holly, Swamp Sunflower, Daylily, Liatris (gayfeather), Wild Bee Balm , Black eyed Susan, Sedum Autumn Joy, Solidago, Ironweed and Adam's Needle. Hope this information helps!