If the answer is yes, then there’s a good chance you’ll end up with Spittle Bug Nymphs this Summer – and, it’s starting NOW!


If the answer is yes, then there’s a good chance you’ll end up with Spittle Bug Nymphs this Summer – and, it’s starting NOW!
One of the questions that I’m most often asked is, “When is the proper time to prune hydrangea?” So I figured, why not write about it and get all my tips up on the website? So… Here goes! Hydrangea, while not native to North America are perhaps one of our favorite shrubs to cultivate. You will find them from coast to coast in the US and in a stunning variety of colors, leaf shapes and shrub types. As you might imagine, due to the endless variety, choosing the right time to prune your Hydrangea actually depends on the type of hydrangea you have…
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Is your lawn prone to flooding? Or do you have a water feature and want to decorate it with flowers, shrubs and/or trees? Careful when selecting for your wet soil sites, plants that are not specifically adapted to wet soil conditions eventually fall victim to root rot and rarely survive, let alone thrive. Feel free to stop by Giordano’s with any questions or for additional recommendations. Enjoy this quick read and the beautiful photos!
The above PDF details many beautiful trees, shrubs & perennials that LOVE moist soil conditions. The Liatris pictured below is a prime example of a fragrant and visually pleasing flower that thrives in wet soils!
We have an extensive inventory of plants for wet soil conditions at Giordano’s Gift & Garden (Click For Directions).
Controlling weeds in April is often more challenging than other times of the year due to the fact that most weed killers do not work in colder weather. But in fact, controlling weeds early is the best way to keep them from getting out of control later on in the year when sunlight is more abundant and temperatures are warmer. We recommend bonide products such as Bonide’s Weed Beater Ultra: Check out this great video – we carry this product and other Bonide herbicides, come by today!
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Fair trade is an organized social movement whose stated goal is to help producers in developing countries achieve better trading conditions and to promote sustainability. Members of the movement advocate the payment of higher prices to exporters, as well as higher social and environmental standards
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It’s sad, but true. Monarch butterlies have been on a decade-long decline and scientists fear they will soon be extinct. In fact, since the 1990s biologists have measured a 90% decrease in the number of Monarch’s compared to their previous 20-year average. To put that into perspective, imagine that over the past 20 years in the United States that we lost all humans in the country except for those living in Florida and Ohio. WHAT?!!??
While the rapid species decline of the Monarch’s is due partially to changing weather patterns (arguably caused by humans), tragically most of the credit actually goes to Monsanto and their mainstay herbicide, Roundup©…
Roundup© is supposed to protect our crops. It kills the weeds that leach nutrients from farmland soils and that’s good, right? Well… kinda; here’s the problem though: diversity. HUH??!!?? I’ll say it again, DIVERSITY! I don’t want to go too deeply into modern economic theories or an argument about the delicate balance of our biosphere, however what I will say is that in the course of optimizing our economic system we have forgotten a very simple truth and have allowed our need for growth and accumulating wealth blind us in our pursuit of an ideal system. That truth is that economics and the generation of wealth, or “progress” as we call it today, has overlooked the value that Nature provides to humanity. And Nature is nothing if not diverse, diversity has determined species propagation, coexistence, pred-prey relationships, evolution and much more for BILLIONS of years. The fact remains though that we lose some of the diversity and thereby resiliency of the biosphere each and every day due to human activity. Today natural resources barely enter the economic equations aside from the costs that are incurred when we extract them from the Earth.
The tangent was necessary to give an adequate back-story. Roundup© kills every plant/organism except those that are genetically engineered to withstand it’s toxicity. . In fact the only things we do know are the things we can observe such as Roundup© kills Milkweed. Now, I know what you’re thinking, Roundup© killing Milkweed is a good thing, right? It is a weed after all, no? It would be great if that were true, however the problem is that Milkweed is actually very beneficial for humans, for monarch butterflies and for our farms/gardens. In fact for hundreds of years it has grown in between rows of corn and soybeans and in turn Monarch butterflies have helped to pollinate our crops. Monarch’s are also arguably the favorite insect in all of North America; we all played with them when we were kids.
We’re not promoting hurricanes or even drawing a comparison between butterflies and hurricanes, but rather we are stating a fact. Namely that everything is connected in our biosphere and when an entire species that has existed as part of the ecosystem for tens of thousands of years is suddenly lost, there are repercussions.
DDT was used back in the 1940s-1972 as an insecticide/pesticide. Use and production of DDT was halted when the EPA issued an order siting that the “environmental repercussions were far too vast and easily outweighed the benefits”. Imagine a world where the word “organic” no longer has any meaning because it is simply the way things are done.
They are loaded with antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties which help prevent cholesterol buildup in blood vessels. According to Oregon State University’s Linus Pauling Institute, pumpkins can help prevent or alleviate certain conditions, such as depression, kidney stones, cataracts, skin damage from the sun, and enlargement of the prostate gland. The best pumpkins for cooking and baking are the sugar pie, baby bear and cheese.
Hi there Giordano’s Blog Fans!
Just a quick announcement, no frills attached. Giordano’s after 1 month of being online is now 1st-page-indexed on Google “naturally”. What does that mean? It means that you can search on google for ‘Giordanos’ (just that as a single word) and we’re on the first page for the first time! Why is that great? Before our launch we were buried on the 4th page and NO ONE ever reads the 4th page of Google unless they’re desperately searching for something that’s fairly obscure.
What’s the big deal? Well, without advertising, it takes quite a bit of information, relevancy, consistency, time and a plethora of back-links out there on the web to get natural 1st page search results. Typically, it takes a business with great content 3-6 months to achieve natural first page results. Giordano’s did it in 34 days and I couldn’t be more proud of the whole team!
Paul, Chris, & Rachel, the three of you have done an EXCELLENT job thus far! Keep up the great work
-Dave from Web Garden Consulting
The seamless knit bamboo rayon liner keeps your hands cool and comfortable. The nitrile palm coat resists punctures and abrasion. Eco-friendly and comes in sizes S, M, L, XL. In stock now.