GenAcres Homestead

Sun's Effect on Hosta Leaf Color Hostas plants continue to be a favorite perennial plant for plenty of reasons. Their toughness, beauty, ease of care and variety of great sizes, leaf colors and shapes make it one of the best plants for a shade or semi-shade garden. Contrary to what some people may think, though, no hosta will survive, much less thrive, in complete shade. All plants need some sunlight to photosynthesize.

  Best Care for Your Potted Hostas To keep your hostas healthy and beautiful as they grow in pots, there are a few Hosta plants are beautiful anywhere, but I think they're even more so when they are planted in pots, especially when the pots are placed at eye level.   In my opinion, there's no better way to show off a hosta's great foliage.

   Fertilizing Your Hosta Plants It's no surprise that hostas continue to be one of the most popular perennial plants in a variety of gardens. Their beauty, toughness, and ease of care make them well suited for a shady or partly sunny area, and they will quickly become even a new gardener's favorite plant!  But how can you keep those beautiful hostas thriving year after year?

How to Clean Birdhouses, Birdbaths and Bird Feeders One of my favorite parts of being out in the garden is listening to the sounds of nature, especially the chirping of birds. The last thing I want to do is make them sick by not giving my feathered visitors clean birdhouses,  feeders  and watering holes.

When I have the time to sit back and enjoy what I've created in my garden, one of my favorite things to do is enjoy the sights and sounds of the birds. Growing sunflowers is one of the best ways I have found to draw the feathery visitors in. Which birds do sunflowers attract?    A variety of birds can be attracted to a garden by growing sunflowers. These include Cardinals, Chickadees, Titmice, House Finches, Grosbeaks, Nuthatches, Goldfinches, Red-bellied Woodpeckers and Pine Siskins, to name a few. Why are sunflower seeds nutritious for birds? Sunflower seeds are rich in protein, vitamin B-complex, Vitamin E, folic acid, calcium, iron, magnesium, and Zinc. Not every sunflower type is the best food source for birds. Ornamental sunflowers, although they come in a wide variety of colors and sizes, produce edible seeds, but they're very small. If you're looking for sunflower varieties to harvest for nutritional edible seeds for both bi

   When is it Time to Divide my Hosta? Hostas continue to be one of the most popular and easy-to-care-for perennials in Zone 3 through 8 gardens.  It's no secret that many gardeners want to divide their hostas to spread the hosta love around their own garden or to share divisions with other hosta lovers.

How to Minimize Transplant Shock Transplant shock is a natural occurrence whenever a plant is uprooted from its former home and moved to a foreign environment. Moving a plant from one place to another is not as simple as digging it up, plopping it in the ground and hoping it will be fine. Plants that undergo too much transplant shock can be open to diseases, pests, and can weaken them to the point where they never fully recover. If they are food plants, you may notice a smaller harvest or no harvest at all.