Pascale’s Garden

Who hasn’t heard of the song about ‘The Yellow Rose of Texas’? The yellow rose is one of the most popular roses in history. The song, however, was actually about a lady a Civil War soldier is trying to find. Dolly Parton also wrote a song titled ‘Yellow Roses’ about a romance with someone who both began and ended the relationship with a yellow rose.

There are companies named for the yellow rose, such as Yellow Rose Products, Yellow Rose Enterprises and Yellow Rose Gifts. There are books written, such as the Yellow Rose Bride, A Texas Sky, the Yellow Rose Trilogy and a series called The Yellow Rose Mysteries. There is yellow rose white gold jewelry. A concealer has been made called the Yellow Rose of Texas, which hides imperfections of the skin. Read more…

Composting is recycling your kitchen waste and lawn trimmings and turning them into a valuable resource for your garden or houseplants. This is done by speeding up the process that the materials you use to compost go through on their own – decomposition.

Compost is not soil. It is a common misconception that the end-result of composting is the dirt that you find in the ground. It is a substance that acts as a fertilizer (enriching the soil) to grow hardier and healthier plants.

Before you begin composting there are choices to be made – what type of container and style suits your project, what you will be putting into your compost bin, and the location of your bin. But regardless of these decisions, how you convert your waste into compost happens the same way. It is a breakdown of waste materials as they are digested by microbes (bacteria and fungi). Read more…

Would you like to cut down on the areas you would normally have to mow grass? You could plant roses as a groundcover. This will produce an effect that is quite pleasing to the eye. Roses as a groundcover won’t kill underlying weeds, therefore you will still need to prepare your ground to cut down on the chances of weeds growing underneath your groundcover.

They can grow out as wide as six feet and upwards as high as 2 feet. This may help you decide how many plants you’ll want to buy for adequate coverage.

The image of a rose plant is usually that of a rosebush, not as a groundcover. This is a fairly new concept. The beauty of it, of course, is more than just the benefit of coverage, but also that of gracing your yard with the ever-popular rose. Read more…

There are many things you can use to make a good compost humus (which is what the final product is called). There are also quite a few items that should never go into your compost bin. Listed below are many of the materials you should not try to compost and why it is not a good idea.

Ashes from charcoal should not be added to your compost, you can add very small amount of ashes from a fire that was made with untreated wood. It is not a good idea to add a lot though because it can change the composition and make it too alkaline.

Do not add any kind of droppings from an animal that is not a vegetarian. Animals that pass the compost inspection include horses, cows, rabbits, and goats. You can even add droppings from hamster or other indoor pets. But stay away from bird, dog, and cat droppings (including cat litter). They all can contain harmful organisms. Read more…