Gerardo recommends:
Okatsuna pruners

Tired of dull blades on your pruner?

Here's a good solution: these pruners

are so sharp that the manufacturer

suggests that you handle them

with care. Tough garden jobs

will be a breeze.

(But keep them away from the kids!)

Jen likes:
Saboten pruners

These elegant pruners are

Teflon-coated for a friction-free,

clean cut and long-lasting

sharpness. The compact size is

well suited to ladies' smaller hands.

Stan says:
Phoenix single prong cultivator

Odd looking, but easy to use, especially

for cultivating in flower beds and other

small spaces. Use the pointed end to

loosen and the curved top to smooth

out the soil. Sturdy and well made,

it will last for many gardening seasons.

Kalanchoe (Kalanchoe blossfeldiana) is a naturally blooming succulent that offers up an array of blooms in many festive colors. Kalanchoe [kal-an-KO-ee or kal-LAN-cho] is a perky little plant that is easy to care for. Whether planted in a decorative basket or grouped together in a basket on the kitchen windowsill, kalanchoes will not disappoint you.

Kalanchoes have become increasingly popular as a gift plant and feature dark-green succulent leaves topped by masses of miniature, brightly colored blossoms in shades of red, orange, yellow, or salmon-pink. In their native Madagascar, the plants bloom only during the spring months, but with a little attention, they can produce blooms in any season.

Kalanchoes are similar to poinsettias and chrysanthemums, which initiate their flowering in response to long nights. Growers pull opaque shade fabric over their plants for 14 hours each night until the plants initiate flower buds. You can accomplish the same thing by placing a box over your plant for the same "long night" period.

Kalanchoes prefer lots of bright light to keep them happy and are ideal for the warm temperatures inside a home. They like to be watered deeply, but prefer to dry out between waterings.

If leaves start to yellow and shrivel up, your plant might be dehydrated and in need of water. If this happens, remove spent foliage and water thoroughly. Kalanchoes look best when fed every two weeks with a water-soluble plant food, such as Gro Power Liquid Fertilizer.

Outside of the easily-identified blueberries and strawberries, the world of berries can be very confusing. You have blackberries, black raspberries, red raspberries, and yellow raspberries. And don't forget boysenberries, loganberries and marionberries, which are all closely related. How do you tell them apart? Berries whose core stays intact are blackberries. Berries that lose the core and resemble a thimble are raspberries. But then...a few berries are a cross between the two!

The similarities don't stop there. All bear fruit on two-year-old wood, except for the ever-bearing raspberries that also fruit on first year growth. These are also called two-crop raspberries because they bear a late summer or fall crop on the first year growth and a second crop the following spring on the two-year-old wood.

Different types of wood? What's that all about? Ok, it may help clear up a lot of confusion about blackberry and raspberry culture if one remembers that after flowering and fruiting, any cane that bore fruit dies back to the crown. All the new growth will rise out from primary buds just below the soil line.

Now here's the good news, blackberries, raspberries and any other favorites will thrive in most locations and soil types, but good drainage is desirable with most varieties. Just give them some room to ramble because they do like to spread out. As far as cold-hardiness goes, raspberries tolerate very cold temperatures better than blackberries.

Most berries like being fed at blooming time, with a follow-up feeding in early fall after the plants have finished fruiting. Just use a well-balanced fruit food such as Dr. Earth Organic 9 Fruit Tree Fertilizer . They prefer staying moist, and should be watered regularly if rainfall is insufficient.

The new canes that grow out each spring will not bear fruit until the following summer when they are two years old. After harvest, the two-year-old fruiting canes will start to die back and should be removed as close to the ground as possible without injuring the new canes.

In mild climates berries can be trained to stakes or trellises in late summer or early fall, after the fruiting canes have been removed. In colder climates, the canes should be left on the ground over winter--making them less likely to be damaged by cold. The ideal time to "spring train" is after the danger of freezing weather and before the leaf buds begin expanding.

We have berry plants that grow well in our local area (click here for a list of our varieties). The bottom line is that all berries are easy to grow and they taste great. So don't stress about all your different choices. Just plant some berries and enjoy!

Click to print this article.

We're hoping to see you at our Rose Seminar on Saturday, Jan. 12. Come on down for a great start to the New Year!

(Please, if you need an answer to a question, telephone us at (562) 947-2013.)

This Week's Question: What is the main difference between blackberries and raspberries?

This Week's Prize: Gro-Power Rose Food (3 ½ lbs.)

Soil pH indicates how acid or alkaline a soil is. In technical terms, it is a logarithmic function of the hydrogen ion concentration [H+]: pH = -log [H+]. Got all that?

In simpler terms, a pH of 7.0 is neutral. Below that number is acidic, above that number is alkaline. The scale is progressive, too. A pH of 6.0 is ten times more acid than a pH of 7.0; a pH of 5.0 is 100 times more acid than a pH of 7.0, and so on.

You can test your soil pH with a simple pH test kit.

• To modify or correct acidic soils you need to apply lime.
• To modify or correct alkaline soils you need to apply soil sulfur or aluminum sulfate.

Most plants prefer soil slightly on the acidic side of 6. Use a lower pH for acid-loving plants like blueberries, azaleas, and ferns.

Click to print this article.

As homes continue to be built larger and garden space becomes smaller, fewer homeowners have the space to plant as many fruit trees. But that doesn't mean you have to go without the fresh taste of homegrown fruit. All you have to do is incorporate the principles of Backyard Orchard Culture.

The objective behind this gardening concept is to allow for a prolonged harvest of tree-ripe fruit from a small space. This can be accomplished by planting multi-grafted fruit trees, planting two or more trees with different ripening dates in the same hole, or by espaliering fruit trees along a sunny house wall or fence line.

By using multi-graft trees or planting more trees in one hole, a homeowner can now extend a 3-4 week harvest season into 10-12 weeks of different flavors. Planting or creating espaliers along a fence line can also free up valuable garden space for more fruit trees or other ornamental plants.

Close planting also offers the additional benefit of restricting a tree's vigor, because it has to compete for root space and sunlight with other nearby trees. More of the tree's energy will go towards producing fruit instead of sending out new growth. Close planting also can create an environment for better cross-pollination, which also leads to increased fruit production.

Most types of fruit trees need to be pruned each year to stimulate new fruiting wood, remove dead and diseased branches, or to allow more sunlight between the branches to help fruit ripen better and more evenly. If you start pruning consistently when your trees are young, it will be much easier to keep the tree at a manageable or desirable height.

At the heart of Backyard Orchard Culture is the concept of summer pruning. By pruning at the same time you are thinning your crops, you will be better able to distinguish the kind of wood on which the tree sets fruit. You won't accidentally prune off any fruit because you can see it, and the new growth is always above or beyond the fruit.

Reducing the size of the tree canopy will in turn reduce the photosynthesis (food manufacture) of the tree. This helps to limit the amount of food materials and energy available for the roots to store, which in turn will control the tree's capability to produce as much new growth the rest of summer or the following spring.

Pruning for size control in the summer will reduce your pruning chores in winter. Once the leaves fall off, you will have a better opportunity to prune for branch spacing and overall shaping of your trees. To create an espalier tree, simply prune off anything that doesn't grow flat. Then selectively thin and train what's left to space the fruiting wood. You can espalier most fruit trees, but apples and pears lend themselves to this type of pruning better than other varieties.

Smaller fruit trees can be much more manageable to spray, prune, and harvest than large trees. So, take a new look at your garden and you might be surprised at the possibilities you have for growing fruit trees. Then close your eyes and think about how great the fruit from those trees will taste!