Gardening With Sal

Pruning a Tree — The Proper Way: This is something that most gardeners as well as many homeowners have to do on a fairly regular basis. Unfortunately, there are many who don't know the correct procedure. Pruning a tree properly is not only easy — it's very important to the health and viability of the tree itself. Many people look at it as mowing grass or trimming a hedge. They figure they can just cut it and it'll be fine. Trees don't work this way. If a tree is not pruned correctly, it can suffer irreparable damage. Disease can settle in and seriously weaken or even kill it. Here are some standard guidelines and recommendations for pruning different types of branches from trees. We'll discuss cuts for three different types: suckers, small branches, and larger branches. All methods involve the same principle — cutting off the branch while leaving the collar intact and ensuring we leave the smallest wound possible. Clipping a sucker is easy — just straddle the blades...

Capsaicin: Here’s a fun one for all of you who grow—and especially eat—peppers. Did you know that capsaicin, the compound that makes peppers “hot,” isn’t actually hot at all? It’s true: Capsaicin has no thermal heat whatsoever. It doesn’t raise the temperature of your mouth or burn your skin. Your body reacts to it as if it’s been burned, but the sensation is purely perception—your nervous system is firing off a false alarm. Capsaicin binds to nerve receptors, the same receptors your body uses to detect actual heat and physical burning. You may even have a physical burn response like swelling, flushing, or tearing up, but at normal culinary levels—think jalapeño or even habanero—it isn’t doing any physical harm. I know it’s wild, right? And at this point you think I’m crazy, but I’m not. Capsaicin tricks your mind into thinking you have put yourself directly over a flame, and while your body reacts to that, it’s not causing any physical burn at all. It would actually take a very high c...

Author’s Note A quick word before the comment section lights up. Chinese tallow is one of those plants that brings out strong opinions, and I understand why. It spreads fast, it changes the landscape, and it’s earned its reputation. My goal here isn’t to dismiss those concerns or pretend the tree is something it isn’t. My goal is simply to look at the whole picture—the good, the bad, and the parts we don’t always talk about. Everything in this piece comes from real observation, practical experience, and the research available to everyday gardeners. You may agree with some of it or disagree with all of it, and that’s perfectly fine. Gardening has always been a mix of science, trial‑and‑error, and a little friendly debate over the fence. If this article challenges your perspective, take it as an invitation to look closer at the plants around you. Nature is complicated, adaptable, and rarely as black‑and‑white as we make it. Plenty of plants fall into this type of category—some better, so...

Seed Stratification Stratification and scarification: a lot of gardeners have heard these words, but many don’t really understand what they mean or why they matter. I sure didn’t at first. I learned the hard way—by trial and error and a few failures. One year, I decided I was going to save all the seeds from the muscadine grapes I ate and grow myself a whole new batch of vines. I treated them just like the seeds I save from peppers, tomatoes, and squash: cleaned them, dried them for a week or so, and planted them. Sounded like a solid plan…but not a single seed sprouted. Not one. I figured I’d either made a mistake or ended up with defective seeds. I shrugged it off and moved on. Then, months later, I noticed something interesting: little grape seedlings popping up all around the original vine. These were seeds that had simply fallen to the ground the year before. They sprouted just fine. So the seeds weren’t the problem—it was the way I was going about it. The seeds have to sit for a ...

  A Walk Around My Yard

Soil Management Soil management is a deep science, but you don’t need a doctorate to understand the basics that matter in the garden. So, what exactly is soil? In short, it’s a complex mixture of minerals, organic materials, air, and water. When these components are present in the right proportions, they create a living, dynamic environment that properly supports plant life. A “healthy, loamy” soil is typically considered to be a balanced mix of 45% minerals, 5% organic matter, 25% water, and 25% air. This balance creates a soil that drains well yet holds enough moisture and nutrients for roots to thrive. Plants rely on a predictable supply of nutrients, and gardeners usually group these into two categories: primary and secondary. The primary nutrients are nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K). The secondary nutrients are calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and sulfur (S). There are also many micronutrients—such as iron, manganese, and boron—but we usually don’t deal with those dir...