KerryG's Gardening Hubs

• Easy Ways To Improve Your Soil
  In order to have a lush green lawn, a beautiful flower garden, or a productive vegetable garden, you need to have good soil, and sadly, it is getting harder and harder to find good soil.
• How to Improve Heavy Clay Soil Naturally
  Heavy clay soil is a nightmare for many gardeners and homeowners thanks to its poor drainage and tendency to compact. Improving heavy clay soil is a long-term project, but there are ways to speed the process.
• Dynamic Accumulators for Better Soil
  Gardeners can reduce or eliminate fertilizer costs and improve soil naturally with a category of plant known as "dynamic accumulators."
• Prairie Plants for Heavy Clay Soil
  Most native prairie plants prefer well-drained, or even dry, soils. However, if you are interested in a native prairie border or restoration project on your land and are stuck with heavy clay or poorly drained soil, don't despair!
• Hugelkultur: Using Woody Waste in Composting
  Hugelkultur is an ancient form of sheet composting developed in Eastern Europe. It uses woody wastes such as fallen logs and pruned branches in order to build soil fertility and improve drainage and moisture retention.
• Compost Tumblers: Fast, Easy Compost
  Most gardeners know how important compost is to building good soil. However, some gardeners are intimidated by the amount of work involved in taking care of a properly managed hot compost pile, and cold...
• Erosion Control Mats
  Erosion control mats (sometimes abbreviated ECM) and blankets are a useful tool in the battle against erosion. ECMs are usually used to stabilize and reinforce moderately steep to steep slopes along...

• Attracting Birds With Prairie Plants
  Whether you live on an acreage or the smallest city lot, attracting birds to your garden is easy with native prairie plants.
• The Autumn Bird Garden
  Autumn is an important season for birds. Many species are buckling down in preparation for long, cold, hungry winters; others travel hundreds or thousands of miles south to warmer winter havens.
• The Winter Bird Garden
  For many birds, winter is the most dangerous time of year. Deciduous trees lose their leaves, exposing birds to predators and the elements. Many food sources are buried under snow, while water sources may be frozen. Here's how to help.
• The Spring Bird Garden
  Spring is an important season for birds. Migrating species return to their Northern summer homes, a journey that may be hundreds or thousands of exhausting miles, while the birds that stuck around try to regain the weight they lost.
• The Summer Bird Garden
  For birds and bird watchers alike, the summer months are the richest.
• Attracting Wild Turkeys, Quail, Pheasant, and Grouse
  Whether you want to watch them or hunt them, attracting gallinaceous birds - turkey, pheasant, quail, and grouse - to your yard or acreage is surprisingly easy.

• Attracting Beneficial Insects To Your Garden
  If you are making the switch to organic gardening, you may be concerned about losing plants to insect pests. In the short run, this is likely to occur. However, established organic gardens typically lose fewer plants to insect pests.
• How To Attract Butterflies to Your Garden
  Butterflies are not only beautiful, they also play several important roles in local ecosystems.
• How To Attract Monarch Butterflies
  Monarch butterflies are one of the world's most beautiful and beloved insects, but in recent years they have come under threat from pesticides and habitat destruction in both their summer homes in the United...
• Attracting Butterflies With Prairie Plants
  Whether you live on an acreage or a small city lot, it's easy to attract butterflies to your garden with native prairie plants.
• Save the Karner Blue Butterfly
  The Karner Blue Butterfly (Lycaeides melissa samuelis) is a beautiful little blue butterfly with a problem.
• Plant a Bee Garden
  Beneficial bees are necessary to the success of gardens, orchards, and farms, but their numbers are in decline around the world. A bee garden is a beautiful and fragrant way to lend a helping hand.
• Farmscaping
  "Farmscaping" is a holistic approach to pest control on farms that focuses on increasing biodiversity in order to maintain healthy populations of beneficial insects and other wildlife.

• How To Attract Wildlife To Your Garden For Beginners
  Once you know the basics of wildlife gardening, it is very easy to attract beautiful butterflies, birds and other wildlife to your garden.
• How To Repel Mosquitoes Naturally
  Mosquitoes are one of the most annoying insect pests alive. If you live in an area with a lot of mosquitoes, it can completely destroy your summer, and prevent you from enjoying outdoor activities in the...
• How to Repel Ticks Naturally
  Ticks are one of the most annoying insect pests, and in many regions of the world, including the United States, they carry diseases such as lyme disease, tick paralysis, Rock Mountain spotted fever, and more....
• Managing Woodlots for Wildlife: Mast
  Mast is the reproductive fruit of trees, shrubs, and other woody plants. There are two basic kinds: hard mast and soft mast. Hard mast is hard shelled mast such as acorns, walnuts, pecans, and other nuts....
• Attracting Frogs and Toads To Your Garden
  Frogs and toads are tremendously beneficial to gardeners and anyone who loves to spend any time outside. They eat thousands of insect pests, including pesky mosquitoes and flies. (A single adult toad can eat...
• Attracting Turtles To Your Pond
  Many pond owners hope to attract a few turtles to their ponds. Turtles are quiet, attractive, popular with children, and they eat lots of mosquitoes and other pesky insects. There are a number of ways you...
• How To Attract Snakes To Your Garden
  Despite their bad reputation, snakes can be a gardener's best friend. They will happily take care of insect and rodent pest problems for you free of charge. Garter snakes are considered especially beneficial...
• Improving Earthworm Habitat in Your Garden
  Earthworms are a gardener's best friends. they burrow through the soil, leaving behind pathways that help air, water, and plant roots make their way through the soil, as well as castings (earthworm poop) that...

• Tallgrass Prairie Restoration
  One of the most diverse ecosystems in North America, the tallgrass prairie is also one of its most endangered.
• Native Plants of the United States
  Provide habitat for wildlife and create a beautiful, low maintenance landscape with hardy native plants.
• Native Trees of Nebraska
  Planting native trees has many benefits over naturalized and exotic trees in the harsh continental climate of Nebraska. Because native trees evolved in Nebraska, they are adapted to extreme heat, extreme...
• Spring Flowers of the North American Prairie
  A celebration of the beauty of the spring wildflowers of the prairie.
• Native Prairie Plants for a Rain Garden
  Rain gardens are a beautiful way to solve drainage problems and reduce stormwater runoff from your property. Most rain garden designers recommend using native plants in rain gardens because they are better...
• Edible Native Plants of the Great Plains
  The Plains Indian tribes of North America are best known for their reliance on the American bison for food, clothing, housing, tools, and more, but in fact they ate a varied and interesting mix of wild fruits...

• Choosing an Alternative Lawn
  Alternative lawns can range from a traditional bluegrass or bermuda grass lawn managed organically, to alternative turf grasses or groundcovers, to a full-scale habitat restoration or permaculture project, with many options in between.
• Clover Lawns
  As water and energy prices rise, many people are seeking alternatives to the traditional, thirsty, labor intensive American lawn. One of the most popular lawn alternatives is white clover.
• Thyme Lawns
  Creeping thyme (Thymus serpyllum) is one of the most popular lawn replacement groundcovers. Hardy and drought-resistant, creeping thymes produce small, but attractive and prolific flowers, and a pleasant scent.
• Moss Lawns
  If moss is a problem in your lawn, consider giving up on grass and turning it into a moss garden instead.
• Zoysia Lawns
  Zoysia is one of the most popular alternative lawn grasses to the common Bermuda grass and Kentucky blue grass. Native to southeast Asia, China, and Japan, it grows very well across most of the southern one...
• Low Maintenance Lawn Care Tips
  If you're concerned about the health risks, the environmental damage, or the high cost and effort of maintaining a traditional lawn, but you're not ready to dig up your lawn just yet...

Miscellaneous Gardening Hubs

• List of Small Business Ideas for Farmers and Gardeners
  Small farmers, homesteaders, acreage owners, and even suburban gardeners can make extra money at home with small businesses raising vegetables, fruits, flowers, small livestock, and other specialty products...
• The Return of the Victory Garden: Is Starting a Vegetable Garden Your Patriotic Duty?
  During World War II, more than 20 million American families started "Victory Gardens" to help the war effort. At the height of the war, these Victory Gardens produced more than 40% of the produce eaten in...
• How To Save Your Life With Edible Landscaping
  The United States switched from a majority rural to a majority urban population sometime in the late 1910's, and our state of overall health, after a brief improvement due to better health care, has been...
• Midwest Gardening: Save Money on Grocery Bills With a Home Kitchen Garden
  With so many families looking for ways to cut costs and save money thanks to the recession, seed companies have seen an explosion in business. Starting a home kitchen garden can be a great way to save...
• How To Garden in the City: Creative Urban Gardening Ideas
  City gardeners may be forced to make do with tiny, often heavily shaded lots, or even mere balconies. The tight spaces force urban gardeners to be more efficient and more creative than other gardeners. Here are some ideas for how to stretch the space
• Money-Saving Garden Tips
  A beautiful garden doesn't have to be an expensive garden. Here are some tips to save money in the garden.
• Landscaping for Energy Efficiency
  In addition to beautifying your yard and increasing your home's value, thoughtful landscaping can save you money on heating and cooling bills!
• Drought-Proofing Your Garden
  Regular droughts are a serious problem for many gardeners in most regions of the United States. Droughts stress your plants, leaving them vulnerable to pests, diseases, and other damage. In severe cases,...
• Xeriscaping Basics For Midwestern Gardeners
  Many people associate the term xeriscaping with desert landscapes, but the principles of xeriscaping are just as useful in the Midwest as they are in the drier Southwest. Using the principles of...
• Defensible Space Landscaping: How To Design a Fire Resistant Landscape
  In many parts of the Western United States, periodic small wildfires are natural parts of a healthy ecosystem. Unfortunately, as more and more people move into areas where wildfires are common, allowing...
• Tips For a Beautiful Shade Garden
  Shade gardens are a beautiful way to add interest to areas of deep or partial shade, where grass and other sun-loving plants may be unable to grow.
• Midwest Natural Gardening: Plant an Edible Hedgerow
  Hedgerows are an ancient gardening technique that is currently undergoing a revival around the world thanks to the many benefits hedges provide. In the Midwest today, hedges are most commonly used as...
• The Basics of Living Walls, Green Walls, and Vertical Gardens
  When many people first hear the term "living wall," they think of ivy covered houses and other buildings. Though the appearance might be similar, the execution is very different, however.
• Getting Started With Scythes
  I love my scythes.
• Cordless Electric Lawn Mowers
  As the price of gas rises, many homeowners are looking for ways to save money on gas bills. Unlike conventional gas-powered lawn mowers, cordless electric lawn mowers run on rechargeable batteries. Simply...
• Viburnums for Year Round Beauty
  Viburnums are one of my very favorite shrubs for the garden because they are easy to grow and beautiful in all four seasons.
• Adding Winter Interest to Your Garden
  Here in the Upper Midwest, where lawns can be brown for as much as 6-9 months of the year, gardeners have to get a little creative if they want a garden that's beautiful all year round.
• Midwest Natural Gardening: Adding Winter Interest To Your Garden With Berries
  Bright berries can provide a beautiful splash of color to your garden during the long, cold Midwestern winter while providing an important winter food source for birds and other wildlife.
• Midwest Natural Gardening: Adding Winter Interest To Your Garden With Bark
  In the Midwest, when cold weather lasts for 6 or more months a year, its very important to design your garden so it is beautiful in winter as well as summer. One way to add winter interest to your...
• Heirloom Vegetable Seeds
  Growing heirloom vegetables increases the genetic diversity of our food supply.
• Make Money With SPIN Farming
  SPIN farming is a method of growing high yield, high profit crops in small places. It is a great choice for urban and suburban gardeners hoping to make extra money...
• Backyard Aquaponics Systems for Food and Profit
  Aquaponics is a cutting edge sustainable technology that combines aquaculture with hydroponics.
• Growing Catnip Commercially: Cash Crops for Small Farms
  Small farmers and suburbanites alike can earn extra income by growing catnip to sell. Catnip (Nepeta cataria) is easy to grow in many areas of the United States. In fact, it's often considered a weed!...
• How to Save Water in the Garden
  You can save water, lower your utility bills, and grow healthy plants by planning and managing your garden carefully.
• Solve Drainage Problems With a Rain Garden
  A rain garden is a beautiful solution to drainage problems on your property from stormwater runoff and other sources. A single inch of rain falling on a roof or other impervious surface produces 680 gallons...
• Riparian Buffer Zones
  If you are fortunate enough to have a stream running along or across your property, it is important to educate yourself about the basics of riparian management. The Benefits of Riparian Buffer Zones...
• Best Gardening How-To Books
  Gardening books are a great source of information and inspiration for beginning and experienced gardeners alike.
• The Yardsharing Movement: Cooperative Gardening For Everyone
  Do you want to start a garden but lack the land, time, or physical ability to do so? Yardsharing can help! What is Yardsharing? Yardsharing is a growing grassroots movement that seeks to connect wanna-be...

• Healthy Gardening: Ten Easy To Grow Sources of Vitamin C
  Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is one of the most important vitamins for overall health.
• Healthy Gardening: Top Five Easy To Grow Sources of Iron
  Iron is one of the body's most important nutrients, especially for women and girls.
• Healthy Gardening: Top Ten Easy To Grow Sources of Dietary Fiber
  Although dietary fiber has little direct nutritional value, it is still one of the most important elements of your diet.
• Healthy Gardening: Top Ten Easy to Grow Sources of Magnesium
  Magnesium is one of the most important yet under-appreciated nutrients. Studies by the National Institutes of Health have found that at least 68% of adults in the United States are likely to have a magnesium...