Expert Advice on Home Improvement TV Host of Emmy®-Nominated Today's Homeowner® and home expert for The Weather Channel

To grow new African violets, use a sterile knife and cut off a healthy leaf as near the base as possible. Dip the stem in rooting hormone then push it through a piece of paper and place the stem in water until it develops roots.

Creating great soil is like making good lasagna according to Florida landscaper Rachel DeToro. It’s all about layers. Not pasta and cheese. Organic material on top of organic material.

Starting your own plants from seed is a great idea and here’s a trick for simplifying the process of transplanting them to the garden. Save your old eggshells and situate the empty half shells in an egg carton.

We’re all interested in making our money go farther, and the money we spend on landscaping is no exception. The first and most obvious idea is to not waste your money. Lots of homeowners spend huge amounts on plants that end up in the wrong locations.

Removing buds (or debudding) is sort of like thinning a fruit tree. You hate to do it because every bud you take off will eventually bloom. However, for the biggest flowers, or in the case of fruit trees the biggest fruits, you should debud or thin out.

Gardens require maintenance, there’s no getting around that fact. Most of us, however, don’t have very much time to dedicate to those chores, so we’re looking for ways to at least reduce the amount of maintenance our gardens require. One solution is to begin with good soil.

A good way to increase humidity around potted seedlings is to set a couple of seedling pots in a larger container of pebbles. The pebbles should be about fingernail size, and there should be just a small amount of water in the pebble container- enough to create humid conditions but not enough to touch the bottom of the pots.

Helping your plants make the transition from the pots or containers you buy them in to the garden is an important step to developing a healthy landscape. Begin by digging a hole large enough to accommodate the plant, its root ball and some additional material.

Making seed tapes can save future planting and thinning time. Cut newspaper into 1-inch wide strips and then glue your seeds to the paper. We used a paste of water and flour, about the consistency of thick gravy. Add a pinch of water-soluble fertilizer to each half cup of paste. Mark the appropriate seed spacing on the paper strip.

As a gardener, mulch can be one of your greatest allies. This often-neglected stuff maintains soil moisture and temperature while blocking the growth of weeds around plants you do not want.