One of the most commonly asked questions in gardening is ‘what’s the difference between mulch and compost?’ Both are usually brown and soil-like, both help nurture plant growth – so how come they are ...

Beautiful as they are, colorful autumn leaves can be a real clean up process. Instead of bagging them up or letting them blow away, you can turn them into a valuable resource for your garden. Leaf ...

A few years ago, a gardening friend suggested I place a layer of compost in my flower beds before mulching with my usual shredded bark mulch. As my garden seemed happy and required less care that ...

A rose by any other name may still be a rose, but mulches need defining. There are 17 different materials considered on the University of California’s Statewide Integrated Pest Management website, and ...

Every spring, we should take a look at our landscape to determine what clean-up or other preparations we need to do before the heat of the summer gets here. Cleaning up dead plant material, leaves, or ...

Many folks are now improving new and established gardens with mulch, but be wary of where you get it. It is possible to spread insects like the coconut rhinoceros beetle, sugarcane borer and fire ants ...

We’re well into fall, but there are plenty of things still to do – or just dream about in the garden. You may have some questions. For answers, turn to Ask an Expert, an online question-and-answer ...

While compost and mulch may seem interchangeable, they have distinctly different uses in sustainable landscaping. Photo courtesy San Diego County Water Authority Seventh in a series republished with ...

I love kicking my feet around in fallen leaves. Love it. I think the colors and the crunch lying around on the ground is what fall is supposed to look and sound like. It’s natural. The leaves always ...

Every gardener wants the best soil for their garden. How do you know if your soil is "good"? What do you add to make it good? When you go to a plant nursery or the gardening section of a big box store ...