How to Start your Garden Design
If you are planning a new garden and are considering how to design it, remember it is always wise to begin with the end in mind! What kind of garden do you want to have when it is completed? Are you hoping to achieve a minimalist look in which each plant has plenty of space and invites attention? Do you prefer a fuller look with more crowding, more color, and an overall effect of abundance? In the former scenario, you’ll tend to choose unique, stand alone plants with lots of individual character. If the latter ...
How to Design a Flower Garden Around a Tree
Many gardeners look for creative places to add some floral life and color to their home’s landscape. Designing a flower garden around a tree is a wonderful way to do this. By following basic guidelines you will be able to build an attractive garden that will also save you from having to trim around that tree ever again. That’s a great trade-off in any yard! The first thing to realize is that the flower bed must be elevated. The roots may be just a few inches below the surface of the grass. Digging down ...
10 Houseplants For Making Indoor Air Very Clean and Healthy
Homeowners concerned about indoor air quality have been turning to nature’s air purifiers, houseplants, for many years. Highly respected tests from NASA and other agencies have proven that they remove a wide variety of pollutants from the air including those commonly found in household furnishings and products, such as formaldehyde and benzene. These plants deliver the additional benefits of enriching your home’s oxygen supply and beautifying your surroundings. Experts suggest about 1 house plant per 100 square feet of living space, with a variety producing better results than choosing all the same plant. Here are ten houseplants ...
How To Choose an Indoor Plant
When you are in the looking for the right indoor plant, whether it is your first or you want to add another one to a collection, there are 5 main factors to consider. First, what is your level of ability to care for the plant? A couple of things are important here. If this will be your first houseplant, then choose from among those that are easy to care for. Many fine indoor plants are very hardy and will thrive even as you develop the green-thumb touch. See our guide for plants that require little maintenance, and ...
10 Indoor Flowers
Gardeners who love their flowers hate to see autumn come, thinking the blooms are gone until spring. But with a plentiful variety of indoor flowers that can be easily cultivated, the blossoms will continue regardless of the weather outdoors. Here is our choice of ten indoor flowers that will give you something colorful to enjoy throughout the year. 1. African Violet (Gesneriaceae Streptocarpus): This lovely, compact houseplant is a favorite among gardeners for its majestic purple blooms that the experienced “thumb” will be able to bring forth several times per year. 2. Angel’s Trumpet (Solanaceae Brugmansia): This flowering ...
How to maintain indoor plants
Like all living things, indoor plants require an environment suited to their needs in order to thrive. With attention to these basics, you’ll soon have healthy, happy plants, adding beauty and cleaner air to your home or work place. Step One: Begin with healthy plants! When you shop, or receive plants you’ve ordered online, inspect them for disease. Check both the tops and bottoms of the leaves for insects or damage left by insects. Allow only plants that are in good condition to become part of your collection. Step Two: Select a pot large enough for the roots ...
Herb Gardening for Beginners
Every gardener should get an herb garden started! Herbs are easy to grow, aesthetically appealing, and offer so many useful contributions to cooking and natural home remedies. The good news for herb gardening beginners is that most herbs do very well all climates where outdoor gardening is possible, as long as they get good sun, adequate water, and an encouraging bit of compost or fertilizer. More good news is that indoor herb gardens do well, also, and deliver year-round bounty. See our guide on the Indoor Herb Garden for all the tasty details! When starting your herb ...
Flower Gardening Tips: Good Soil Produces Great Flowers
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “The Earth laughs in flowers.” Any gardener who has known the joy of working with these bright, aromatic blessings of nature recognizes the truth of Emerson’s words. In this guide we want to help you get your next flower garden off to a great start, so the earth around your home will be merry with fragrant color from early spring through late fall. A great garden begins in the dirt. Preparing the soil to embrace your bulbs, seeds, annuals, or perennials will guarantee them the right start toward thriving beauty. It helps to ...
Gardening Articles
How to Mulch
If you enjoy gardening it is likely you feel a responsibility toward your garden that makes you take steps to keep it free of weeds, disease, and pests. You love your plants and want them to be healthy and prosperous, so you make sure they have quality soil full of nutrients and the proper amount of moisture, and are positioned to receive the amount of sunlight that is right for them. Another asset in long-term plant and garden health is mulch.... [Read more...]
How to Weed your Garden
Weeds are a fact of life that every gardener must deal with. In fields, weeds may often be lovely, providing beautiful blooms and rich color. Many wild flowers are considered weeds when they are growing where they are unwanted. In the garden we want our chosen blossoms to thrive unhindered, so controlling the weeds is a necessity. Since plants designated weeds often grow more rapidly and multiply more quickly, without oversight they can invade... [Read more...]
How to Start your Garden Design
If you are planning a new garden and are considering how to design it, remember it is always wise to begin with the end in mind! What kind of garden do you want to have when it is completed? Are you hoping to achieve a minimalist look in which each plant has plenty of space and invites attention? Do you prefer a fuller look with more crowding, more color, and an overall effect of abundance? In the former scenario, you’ll tend to choose unique,... [Read more...]
How to Improve the Quality of the Soil
Of course, the first step to making your soil healthier is to know what condition it is in. While most gardening or nursery centers will test your soil for you, the process requires only a simple, inexpensive soil testing kit, and can easily be done right out in your garden. If your enjoy gardening, then pick up a soil testing kit and become a DIY soil agent! That testing kit will measure the pH balance of your dirt, which stands for “potential... [Read more...]
How to Develop your Garden on a Budget
These days, all of us are looking for ways to get more for less, and when it comes to starting a garden and developing it to maturity, this happens also to be the BEST way of doing it. There are two reasons for this. First, when starting a garden on an unlimited budget, we can be far too likely to purchase too many plants. Gardens should be started with fewer plants that are allowed a season or two to establish their place in the garden. You’ll... [Read more...]
How to Build a Rock Garden
Rock lovers that enjoy gardening find great satisfaction in combining beautiful stones and their favorite flowers into essential parts of their landscape. Rocks create wonderful gardens. Their size, weight, and stability make them highly suited for use as a border, and even as a containment barrier in a raised-bed garden, as we’re going to discuss in this guide. Step one is to choose a location for your rock garden. Stroll around your yard imagining... [Read more...]
How to Design a Flower Garden Around a Tree
Many gardeners look for creative places to add some floral life and color to their home’s landscape. Designing a flower garden around a tree is a wonderful way to do this. By following basic guidelines you will be able to build an attractive garden that will also save you from having to trim around that tree ever again. That’s a great trade-off in any yard! The first thing to realize is that the flower bed must be elevated. The roots may... [Read more...]
How to Have an Organic Garden
Gardening sites are filled with articles about organic gardens. At the grocery store we see foods advertised as being grown organically. Just what does the term “organic” mean in this context? Very simply and succinctly, organic gardening is that which is done without the use of synthetic fertilizer. Organic gardening was the only way to garden and farm for thousands of years, before the advent of the modern chemical era. The practice was... [Read more...]
Basics of Planting Roses
Roses are often considered the grandest bloom in the garden’s panoply of flowers. A full-blown rose is a universe of beauty within itself, exquisite, delicate, and so very fragrant. Unfortunately, roses also have a reputation for being temperamental, fragile, and easy to kill. That reputation is unfair! Even beginning gardeners will have wonderful success with growing roses if they adhere to some basic planting techniques. Be sure to also see... [Read more...]
How to Prune Roses and Flowering Shrubs
Roses are perhaps the most popular kind of flower for gardeners with moderate to master-level skills. For beginning gardeners they can be an intimidating plant to work with. They are rumored to be hard to grow and very temperamental. While that is true with some older, traditional varieties, many of the roses available today are easy to grow and maintain, so don’t be afraid to give them a try. One of the most essential aspects of maintaining... [Read more...]
How to Deadhead Flowers
The best looking flower gardens will be those that receive generous doses of tender loving care. Weeding, watering, adding compost, and keeping damaging insects out of your beloved blooms are all essential parts of helping your garden put on its absolute best display of healthy, vigorous color. One commonly overlooked practice that will boost your flowers’ productivity is to deadhead spent blooms. The practice of deadheading simply involves removing... [Read more...]
Understanding the Basics of Composting
Adding compost to flower and vegetable gardens has been growing in popularity as more gardeners choose natural techniques in their efforts to cultivate a healthier, more productive garden while being environmentally responsible. Making compost out of organic matter is an ancient practice, but with the rise of chemical fertilizers several decades ago, the practice declined. Now, decades later, the benefits of composting are being rediscovered. Briefly... [Read more...]
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