Tag: propagation

10 Plant Partnerships That Will Triple Your Harvest (Gardeners Shocked!) –
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I learned that one simple gardening trick can boost harvests quickly while cutting pest numbers almost in half. The trick is companion planting: nature’s way of helping plants work better together.

After many seasons of trial and error, this method turned my weak veggie beds into a healthy, busy garden in no time.

No need to stress about fancy layouts. These 10 plant partners work well with little effort. Ready to match plants the easy way? Let’s go.

Plant Partners That Work Wonders

1. Tomatoes & Basil: A Reliable Match

This pair isn’t just delicious on the plate. Basil’s strong smell helps keep away pests like aphids and hornworms that usually bother tomatoes.

Growing them together can even make tomatoes taste better. (Seriously. My tomatoes tasted so much better once I planted basil beside them.)

2. Carrots & Onions: A Simple Defense

Carrot flies can wipe out a crop fast, but onions help block them. In return, carrots help loosen the soil for onion bulbs. They just work well together.

3. Corn & Beans: The Old “Three Sisters” Duo

This old planting method makes sense. Beans add nitrogen to the soil, which corn needs. The corn stalks give the beans something to climb. It’s a natural setup that works smoothly.

4. Cucumbers & Nasturtiums: The Decoy

Nasturtiums act like bait, pulling pests like aphids and beetles away from cucumbers. They also have pretty flowers that you can eat with a pepper-like taste.

5. Peppers & Marigolds: Root Protectors

A common mistake is planting peppers without help. Marigold roots release compounds that chase away nematodes that damage pepper roots.

Some studies show that marigolds can reduce nematode populations by up to 90%. Their blooms look nice, too.

6. Lettuce & Radishes: Soil Helpers

Radishes break up compacted soil, allowing lettuce roots to grow deeper. This makes lettuce stronger on hot and dry days. Radishes also grow fast, so you get an early harvest while waiting for your lettuce.

7. Squash & Borage: Bee Magnets

Squash needs more bees, and borage attracts them. These bright blue flowers pull in loads of pollinators and help keep pests away from squash. Knowing this pairing gives you better fruit.

8. Potatoes & Horseradish: A Surprise Team

This pair sounds odd, but it works. Horseradish contains natural compounds that help keep potatoes strong and beetles away. Plant horseradish at the corners of the potato bed for protection.

9. Strawberries & Thyme: Berry Guards

Slugs love strawberries, but thyme helps stop them with its strong scent. Thyme also acts as ground cover, keeping berries off the soil and reducing fungal problems. Simple and smart.

10. Cabbage & Dill: Friendly Bug Attractors

Dill doesn’t chase pests. Instead, it brings in helpful insects like ladybugs and lacewings that eat cabbage worms. It’s like having tiny guards watching over your cabbages.

Why Companion Planting Works

Companion planting is more than old advice. It’s backed by how plants interact. They use scents and root signals to communicate with one another. The results can be big:
- Less pest damage, fewer sprays
- Better pollination
- Grow more in small spaces
- Better soil use
- Shade where needed
When you match plants well, everything grows better together.

How To Start

Try just two or three partner groups this season. Watch how plant health, pest problems, and harvest amounts change.

Remember: it’s not just about putting plants next to each other. It’s about letting them support each other. Keep them close but not crowded; about 12–18 inches apart works for most pairs.

With the right partners, your garden becomes a group that works together instead of single plants growing alone. That’s the goal for most of us anyway.
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Gary Antosh

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November 2, 2025
The Essential Guide to Growing Lavender – Garden Therapy
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It seems like as soon as summer hits, everybody starts talking about growing lavender, and for good reason! This herb is beautiful, edible, smells amazing, and has great health properties. What’s not to love!? Here’s what you need to know about growing lavender.

Lavender is a gorgeous ornamental with a dazzling fragrance. Its wonderful, delicate flavour adds depth to many different types of recipes, and it is one of the most popular ingredients in natural beauty recipes and aromatherapy.

All of that, plus it is hardy, drought resistant, beneficial to bees, and deer and rabbits leave it alone.

And it’s by far one of my all-time favourite flowers. The bees love it, I love it!

Lavender can be a bit tricky to grow and keep properly so that it is tidy and healthy, but this essential guide to growing lavender will provide you with a few tips that will help keep your lavender in top shape for years to come and the know-how you need to prune, propagate, and use this versatile garden staple.

Here’s what I’ll be covering today…

Bumblebee visiting some Spanish lavender.

Types of Lavender

While there are many varietals in different sizes, scents, and colours, lavender plants fall into two main categories: English and Spanish.

English Lavender

Lavandula angustifolia

Easily identifiable by its gray-green leaves, long slim purple flower spikes, and breathtaking fragrance, English lavender comes in different shades of purple as well as white and pink varieties.

It is actually native to the Mediterranean but grows well in England’s climate, which is why we know it as “English lavender.” This type of lavender is regularly used as a culinary ingredient (it is one of the herbs in the famous herbs de Provence mixture), aromatherapy, and natural beauty recipes.

English lavender with buds about to bloom.

A few popular varieties of Lavandula angustifolia are:

‘Hidcote’

With its silvery leaves and strongly scented flowers, it’s no wonder that Hidcote is the most popular variety for growing lavender in home gardens.

‘Munstead’

Munstead is also no wallflower in the fragrance department, but the plant stays a bit more neat and tidy with a compact habit. This lavender has the best flavour for cooking with.

‘Thumbelina’

Small-space gardeners will love Thumbelina, a dainty beauty that grows only 12” tall and yet will bloom up to three times a season!

Spanish Lavender

Lavandula stoechas

Spanish lavender can be identified by its slender leaves and plump, pineapple-shaped flower tops which are more pinkish-purple than most English lavender.

Legend has it that Spanish lavender was used by ancient Romans to perfume their baths, but it is not commonly used for aromatherapy today.

Spanish lavender is more often planted as an ornamental and to attract bees. Bees prefer Spanish Lavender to English lavender because its flowers are bigger and more open, which means they are easier to pollinate.

Spanish lavender is more pinkish purple.

How to Care for Your Lavender

Growing lavender is easy once it’s established and in the right location. Here’s what you need to know to keep your lavender plant happy.

Location and Sunlight

Lavender is native to the Mediterranean, so it likes cool winters and hot, dry summers reminiscent of its native climate. It needs sandy, well-draining soil and full sun. Lavender is drought-resistant and hardy to zone 7 or 8.

Water

Lavender requires very little water once established. When you first plant your lavender, water regularly.

In its second year, you won’t need to provide any supplemental water. It’s hardy to drought and used to the hot hot heat.

Younger lavender plants will need more supplemental water than older plants.

Pruning Lavender

Pruning is the number one thing you can do to keep your lavender happy. You can always tell an older lavender plant that was never pruned as the base becomes bare and the outer parts leggy.

Proper pruning keeps your plant healthy and neat and promotes growth, branching, and blooming. Lavender blooms on new stems, so pruning early or late in the season will be most beneficial. Start pruning in the second year after planting, and repeat each year after that.

First, follow the 4 Ds of pruning. Then, you can cut back up to one-third of the plant at a time, taking care not to cut into the woody stems. Pruning new growth promotes more new growth, whereas cutting into the woody stems will just cause those stems to die.

If you like the plant to be neat and tidy, then lavender should be pruned three times throughout the season:
- Prune once in early spring, just after the new growth appears
- Prune again in summer after the first bloom
- Prune a third time in the fall after the second round of flowers has finished
You don’t have to prune all three times; you can prune only once or twice a season if you want the plant to grow wilder and leave all of the flowers for the bees. It’s all about personal preference!

Prune once the bees are done with the flowers.

Harvesting Lavender

You can also harvest lavender buds for crafts and recipes. If you time it right, pruning and harvesting can be the same thing, but they can also be very different. The purpose of pruning is to maintain the shape of the plant, and harvesting is the act of removing the flower buds for another use.

Spanish Lavender doesn’t require harvesting.

The key is to harvest lavender BEFORE they open fully. See the picture below for reference, as the one on the left is still in bud form while the others have started to bloom already.

For more information on harvesting, head over to this article to see How to Properly Harvest English Lavender.

Closed buds retain fragrance and colour longer.

Propagating Lavender

Growing lavender in bulk is easy when you know how to propagate. You can grow a garden full of lavender from just one plant by taking a cutting and rooting it following this technique.

Take a Cutting

Using a sharp knife, cut a straight piece of stem with no flower buds on it. Cuttings should be about three to four inches long. Remove all of the leaves from the bottom two inches of the cutting, and scrape the skin off of the stem on one side of the bottom two inches with your knife.

Cuttings are best taken after the plant has finished flowering.

Plant the Cutting

You can either dip the cutting in rooting hormone first to help encourage root growth, or else just plant it straight into a pot of good, well-draining soil. Lavender roots easily so root hormone is not necessary, but may help.

Poke the cutting two inches deep and pack the soil lightly around it so that it stands up straight on its own. For a mini “greenhouse,” simply cover the cuttings with an upside-down plastic Ziploc bag. Place cuttings in a sunny spot and water when the soil feels dry.

Check out this post for more detailed instructions on how to propagate lavender.

Soon, you can have a whole lavender field of blooms!

How to Use Lavender

After harvesting and, if you wish, preserving your lavender, there are a myriad of uses for it. Lavender can be used fresh or dried in floral arrangements, baking, cooking, and cocktail recipes, aromatherapy, and natural beauty recipes, and is a useful supply to have on hand for many crafts.

Here are a few ideas for you to try:
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Stephanie Rose

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June 25, 2024
End of Season Dahlia Tips
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As the vibrant blooms of summer start to fade and the temperatures begin to drop, it’s time for Dahlia enthusiasts to turn their attention to end-of-season care. Dahlias are beloved for their stunning and diverse flower varieties, but they do require some special care as winter approaches. In this post, we’ll guide you through essential tasks like labeling, digging, washing, seed collecting, and winter storage to ensure your Dahlias thrive again next season.

Labeling for Future Identification

Before you start the end-of-season Dahlia care routine, it’s crucial to label your Dahlias. Dahlia tubers may all look the same once they’re out of the ground, but each variety has its unique characteristics. Labeling will help you identify the specific varieties you’re growing. Use weather-resistant labels or wooden stakes, and write down the Dahlia’s name, color, and any other relevant information. This will save you from confusion when it’s time to plant them again in the spring.

Digging Up Dahlia Tubers

Dahlia tubers are sensitive to frost and cold temperatures, so they must be dug up before the first frost arrives. Typically, this occurs in late fall, around the time when the foliage begins to turn yellow and wilt. Follow these steps to dig up your Dahlias:
1. Carefully dig around the base of the plant, taking care not to damage the tubers. Use a garden fork or spade to loosen the soil.
2. Gently lift the clump of tubers from the ground, shaking off excess soil. Be cautious not to break or bruise the tubers during this process.
3. Trim the stems down to a few inches above the tubers, leaving some of the stem attached for easier handling.
4. Inspect the tubers for any signs of rot, disease, or damage. Discard any unhealthy tubers.
Washing and Drying Dahlia Tubers

Once you’ve dug up your Dahlia tubers, it’s important to clean and dry them thoroughly. Here’s how to do it:
1. Rinse the tubers with a gentle stream of water to remove any remaining soil.
2. Allow the tubers to air dry in a cool, dry place for a few hours. This will help prevent rot during storage.
Seed Collecting for Future Growth

Dahlias can be propagated not only through tubers but also through seeds. If you want to expand your Dahlia collection or experiment with new varieties, seed collecting is a great option. Here’s how to collect Dahlia seeds:
1. Wait until the Dahlia flower has fully matured and the petals have fallen off.
2. Look for the seed pods, which resemble small, hard clusters at the center of the flower.
3. Carefully collect the seed pods and place them in a paper bag. Label the bag with the Dahlia variety and date of collection.
4. Store the bag in a dry, cool place for a few weeks to allow the seeds to fully ripen.
5. Once the seeds are ready, you can plant them in the spring to grow new Dahlia plants.
Winter Storage of Dahlia Tubers

Proper winter storage is crucial to ensure your Dahlia tubers remain healthy and viable for the next growing season. Follow these steps for successful winter storage:
1. Choose a storage location that is cool (around 40-50°F or 4-10°C), dark, and dry. A basement, garage, or root cellar works well.
2. Place the tubers in a cardboard box or a wooden crate filled with dry peat moss, vermiculite, or perlite. Ensure the tubers are not touching each other and are surrounded by the chosen storage medium.
3. Check on your tubers periodically throughout the winter to ensure they are not rotting or drying out. Spritz the storage medium lightly with water if it becomes too dry.
By following these end-of-season Dahlia care tips, you can ensure the health and longevity of your beloved Dahlias, making for a beautiful display in the upcoming spring and summer months. With a little care and preparation, you’ll be rewarded with an even more magnificent Dahlia garden next year.

Recommended Reading:
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Tiffany

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September 27, 2023