Gardening Tips

No matter what you do, organic materials eventually break down. Decay is inevitable. But—and it's a big but—there's a difference between controlled decomposition, as found in a healthy, working compost pile, and the smelly mess of rotting materials in a bin gone bad.

Anyone who has had a bad composting experience (and I confess to having had a few over the years) can tell horror stories of scary-movie magnitude, but the good news is that it's relatively straightforward to create healthy, sweet-smelling compost (often dubbed "gardener's gold" by compost enthusiasts). And the benefits are beyond doubt: compost returns nutrients and organic matter to the soil, feeds beneficial micro-organisms and earthworms, and improves the texture, oxygen-retaining capabilities and moisture-holding capacity of soil. In other words, compost helps create healthy gardens. Beyond its benefit to gardens, however, there's another compelling reason to have some form of composting system in your yard: putting garden and kitchen waste in a compost pile removes these materials (or "good garbage," as my grandmother used to say) from the waste stream. As debates about landfill sites and garbage incineration heat up across Canada, we can all do our bit to reduce the waste our households contribute by heating them up—literally—in a compost bin.

Composting can be seen as a kind of culinary alchemy in which a balanced recipe of ingredients is mixed in a bin or pile. As the mixture breaks down it generates heat, which accelerates the process, and it's eventually transformed into finished compost. The cooking metaphor is apt.

You can take the low-tech approach by simply piling garden cuttings in a corner of the yard and ignoring them for a year. But if you follow the method described on these pages, your compost should be ready to harvest in three to six months.

Choose a container
First, you need some kind of structure to contain your composting materials. Options range from store-bought, plastic single bins to homemade, wooden three-bin units. One of the most popular ready-mades is the black plastic SoilSaver, which has a capacity of .36 cubic metres, a locking lid, and doors at the bottoms of two sides. The advantages of this kind of unit are that it's easy to dig finished compost out of the side doors, and it's relatively pest-proof (particularly if you put bricks on top of the lid—urban raccoons have been known to undo the locking mechanism). The black plastic helps the pile to retain the heat it generates, and also to trap solar heat, assuming it's in a sunny location—preferable, but not necessary.

Three-bin units are useful if you've got a large property, since you'll have more leaves, grass clippings and plant debris. When the compost in the first chamber is partially finished, use a pitchfork to transfer it to the second bin, making sure the coarser materials around the sides of the original pile are in the centre of the new one; start from scratch in the first bin. A few weeks later, transfer material in bin two to bin three, and bin one to two, starting over in bin one. This is a good way to aerate the pile; also, materials in the three bins are at various levels of decomposition—an efficient way of making compost.

No matter what type of bin you use, cover it to keep pests out and heat and moisture in, although it also needs vents for airflow. (This is why wooden models typically have spaces between the slats.) Another selling point is a wide opening at the top so you can stir the mixture easily.

The right "ingredients"
Controlled and speedy decomposition is all about balance. If your compost pile is too full of "browns"—compost lingo for carbon-rich materials such as dead leaves, straw and dead plant stalks—then your pile will be slow to decompose. On the other hand, if the pile is too full of "greens"—nitrogen-rich materials such as fresh food scraps and grass clippings—it will turn slimy and smell bad. The goal is to have equal amounts, roughly by weight, of browns and greens. The ideal carbon-to-nitrogen ratio for decomposition is about 30:1. Dead leaves (browns) have a C:N ratio of approximately 40:1 to 80:1, while fresh grass clippings (greens) have a ratio of 19:1. But there's no need to obsess: your eyes, nose and common sense will tell you if you've got roughly the right balance.

The other ingredient you should add to the pile is soil; it supplies starter micro-organisms—bacteria and other microscopic organisms that digest and excrete organic materials, breaking them down. Soil also masks the odour of food waste, which discourages pests from visiting your pile—and it's easier to keep pests out than to dislodge them once they've arrived.

Store-bought compost accelerators are generally nitrogen-rich to balance the bulk of compost materials—dead leaves—that are heavy on carbon. But if you're already adding a balance of green and brown materials, there's no need to include supplemental nitrogen.

Recipe instructions
To achieve even greater balance and the speediest possible decomposition, layer the browns and greens, and build the pile all at once. This works well when you've got a lot of grass clippings for greens and dead leaves for browns. I always keep a big bag of dead leaves by my bin—that way, I have a ready source of browns even in spring and summer. But who wants to stockpile rotting vegetables? Add them for greens as they become available.

Begin with a mixture of dead plant stalks—this loose, lower layer permits air circulation at the bottom of the pile, which is important to controlled decomposition. (A densely compacted pile may start to smell bad.) Then, add a layer (approximately 15 centimetres) of greens, such as coffee grounds, vegetable peelings and grass clippings. Sprinkle a 2.5- to five-centimetre layer of soil over the greens, and add a thick layer (approximately 30 centimetres) of dead leaves, straw or dried garden clippings. Repeat this layering process of greens, soil and browns until the bin is full.

Cooking the pile
Along with the correct ratio of browns to greens, there are two other factors that contribute to speedy, effective composting: adequate moisture and oxygen flow. Again, it's a matter of balance. The materials should be as moist as a wrung-out sponge; if you've piled in dry leaves, for example, it's a good idea to run a garden hose to the top of the pile and soak it for a few minutes. Or, you can add water to each brown layer as you build the pile; chances are the green layers are already moist.

The best way to ensure adequate air movement is to stir the pile every week or so. You can use a commercially available compost turner, a pitchfork or a sharp stick. (I've even used an old broom handle.) While you're turning the pile, check the moisture level, and add water if necessary—think of the wrung-out sponge for guidance. Move the materials at the sides to the centre, where the temperature can reach 52 degrees Celsius or more, so all materials get cooked.

Earthworms around the base of the pile are a good sign; they help micro-organisms break down the debris.

Fresh from the oven
You'll know your compost is ready when it looks and smells like soil. Dig it out; screen out any small bits of undigested materials and throw them back in. Spread compost throughout the garden: top-dress your lawn with a thin layer, dig it into new beds, or mound it around the base of established plants. You'll soon discover, as committed compost enthusiasts everywhere have, that you can never have enough.

Spoiling the pot
While most organic materials can be added to a compost pile, a few waste categories should be avoided because they may carry pathogens or attract pests: meat; fish; dairy products; fatty, oily foods; bones; used cat litter and other pet waste. As well, some materials, such as corn cobs and small twigs, take a long time to break down, so you may need to screen them out of your finished compost and put them in again to decompose further.

Garden Guides

Welcome to Garden Guides where you can learn just about everything you need to know about gardening. Whether you want to get your garden started, learn about perennials, or you’re looking for something to really make your garden pop this summer – you’ll find information, guides, and inspiration here at Garden Guides.

On the main page you’ll find the featured guide, popular gardening videos, popular gardening articles, and snapshots from the gardening community. Along the top of the page you’ll find the navigation strip.

Plants – here you will learn a ton about plants! There is a section on the 100 most popular plants, one on annuals, one on perennials, one on biennials, and that’s just the start! You can learn about trees, bulbs, herbs, ornamental grass, plant identification, and so much more!

Gardening Design – this section allows you to explore landscape design all the way from the basics to the more advanced. I found it interesting to learn about the basic shapes of design, and then take what I learned and build off of it into something that would work for me.

Gardening Spaces – this section explores the different spaces you can create a garden in. For example: indoors, containers, greenhouse, Zen, urban, small spaces, and yard & lawns.

Pests & Disease – whether you’re just starting out or have an established garden, you can never be too prepared to fight pests and diseases that might strike your plants. Here you’ll learn all about fighting them off!

Gardening Phases – this section walks you through the phases of a garden from preparation to the creating arts and crafts or using your plants to cook with.

Organic Gardening – is certainly all the rage right now, with everyone trying to be more environmentally friendly. Here you will learn all about how you can switch over to organic gardening, or get started from scratch.

Resources – here you will find an assortment of resources that you can use to get your garden up and running. I particularly liked the regional gardening guide.

I know that I can’t wait to take what I’ve learned here and apply it to my plants! I hope you’ll feel the same way!

http://www.gardenguides.com/

~Amanda

Go get gardening, green-thumb! Rate or add to this tip here! Printer-friendly version is here!

Ways to Create a Showstopping Summer Yard
We've got the plans, the plant ideas, and the how-to to help you create a beautiful backyard retreat to enjoy all season long

Harsh winter weather gives way to spring showers, sunshine, moderate temperatures, and new growth. And outdoor living begins to swing into step.

This is a great time to get your yard in shape for summer fun. Here are a few important projects that you can take care of now to make your yard and garden beautiful all summer.

Aphids and garden pests love spring growth. If you see curled or poorly formed leaves on certain plants and trees, such as roses, citrus, or fruit trees, this is a likely sign of aphids.

To get rid of them, wash plants frequently with a strong jet of water, blasting the aphids from foliage. Spraying with insecticidal soap or horticultural oil can help, too. A more natural measure that works is to release ladybugs at dusk this time of year. Pull snails and slugs out of your garden by hand or, if necessary, bait them. For more information, see Pest Control for the Garden.

Amend the soil of planting beds with organic matter. To do this, spread about 3 inches of compost across the surface; if the soil is sandy, work it in a little. Compost will help in several ways—it will keep weeds down, enrich the soil, help keep the soil at a constant temperature, and retain moisture around the plants. Hold the mulch back several inches from tree trunks.

The flowers, vegetables, and other plants that may be successfully planted in the spring will depend heavily upon your climate and local conditions. It’s best to consult a local garden center for specifics. Generally, where warming weather allows, spring is a good time to plant summer veggies such as corn, beans, tomatoes, and melons, and to set-out summer annuals and summer-flowering bulbs. In colder climates, you can still plant cool-season vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, and leafy greens. Even in cold Northeastern climates, you can plant bare-root roses; fertilize roses after each bloom cycle. For more about this, see Flower Care & Maintenance.

It’s best to prune evergreens and hedges early, when they begin new growth. Though pruning of most fruit trees is best in the winter when they are dormant, you can do some pruning to shape and strengthen mature trees in the spring and summer. For more, see Tree Pruning / Trimming Advice and Pruning &Trimming Hedges.

In most parts of the country, early spring is not too soon to begin major lawn improvements. After watering the lawn, dig out deeply rooted dandelions and similar weeds. If lawn growth has slowed, apply fertilizer with nitrogen according to label directions—figure you will need 1 pound of nitrogen for every 1000 square feet of lawn. As the weather warms, gradually raise the blade on the lawn mower to cut the grass 1 1/2 to 2 inches tall so that the lawn will be more resistant to summer heat.

Water seedlings and small plants as necessary, but plan now for how you will manage your garden when heat and possible drought conditions of summer set in. For example, you may want to avoid planting an over-abundance of summer annuals, which require a lot of water. Spring is a good time to take care of sprinkler system maintenance. For more about this, see Sprinklers

1. Let all your planning ahead be for your plants;  a year ahead for annuals, two years ahead for the biennials, an indefinite number of years ahead  for the trees. — Christopher Lloyd

2. Walk through your garden to scout for insects and diseases at least once per week; caught early, problems are easier to treat. — Stephen Westcott-Gratton

3. Try to get a plant in the right place the first time around. Given the proper conditions, the plant will be happy and you’ll save yourself a lot of transplanting work. — Karen York

4. Never plant trees that will become large with age too close to your  house. — Stephen Westcott-Gratton

5. Consider your garden private territory. Critics are not welcome! Be honest about  what you want, and don’t be concerned with what others may  see. If you like woody plants, design a four-season shrub border. Besotted with peonies? Make  a peony walk. Grow plenty of what you love; you don’t need an excuse  for excess. Are there ever too  many rose petals? — Judith Adam

6. Set your lawn mower blades at 7.5 centimetres or higher, and allow your  lawn to go dormant during periods of drought. — Stephen Westcott-Gratton

7. Light in a garden is a quarter of the battle. Another quarter is the soil of the garden. A third quarter is the skill and care of the gardener. The fourth quarter is luck. Indeed, one might  say that these were the four Ls of gardening, in the following order of importance: Loam, Light, Love and Luck. — Beverley Nichols

8. Don’t be afraid of change. Gardens, and gardeners, are always evolving. It’s part of the process  so step in boldly and revamp that rockery, yank out those overgrown shrubs or transform that border into a veggie garden, a pond,  a knot garden—wherever your imagination takes you. — Karen York

9. Always spend five minutes doing some warm up stretches and bends before undertaking strenuous garden work, and never do one task for too long at a time. — Stephen Westcott-Gratton

10. Climbers are among the most useful plants in any garden. They take up little ground space, and they can be employed for many purposes: to clothe a boring fence, to scramble over a dead tree, to frame an archway, to drape a wall, to disguise a shed, or to climb lightly onto a pergola. They demand comparatively little attention, once they have taken hold of their support, maybe a yearly pruning or a kindly rescue if they have come adrift in a gale. — Vita Sackville-West

11. Always water in the early morning;  it reduces loss to evaporation  and foliage dries off more quickly (helping to discourage disease problems). — Stephen Westcott-Gratton

12. Observe and chart where the sunlight falls in your garden throughout the course of one day  in late spring, mid-summer, and early fall. Most people think they have more sunshine  than they actually do! — Stephen Westcott-Gratton

13. Clean, sharp tools are  easier to work with, and they do a better job. — Stephen Westcott-Gratton

14. For optimum plant performance, feed the soil with leaves and the soil will feed the plants. Cover all exposed soil with small or shredded large leaves. Stuff leaves under the skirts of shrubs. Dig leaves into vegetable beds. Leaves are the best nutrition for plants. — Judith Adam

15. If you were to ask me for my top kitchen-gardening tip, I’d say that you’d do far better to grow half the amount, but grow it twice as well. — Alan Titchmarsh

16. Select disease-resistant plants for a healthy garden. Many plants have inbred resistance to diseases, including some roses, phlox, bee balm and tomatoes. Plants that remain healthy all season produce more and better flowers and fruits. — Judith Adam

17. Pay attention. Look closely at your garden to understand nature’s complex web of plants, soil, sun, water, insects and wildlife. The greater this awareness the better you’ll know what to do and, more importantly, what not to do. — Karen York

18. Feed your soil (compost, composted manure, shredded leaves, seaweed)—it’s the foundation of every successful garden.
— Stephen Westcott-Gratton

19. Plant trees, shrubs and flowers that encourage wildlife in your garden to keep nature in balance. — Stephen Westcott-Gratton

20. Know the ultimate size of any plant and allow it space so you don’t end up fighting it, moving it or removing it. — Karen York

After almost 30 years of gardening, I’ve learned that the limitations of climate, shade and space are nothing compared to working with heavy clay. Wise plant choices help mitigate the shortcomings of shade and a small lot. Careful cultural practices lessen the impact of drought and unwelcome frosts. But coping with sticky, dense, unrelenting, unforgiving, heavy clay has broken more than a few shovels—and has nearly broken my spirit as I’ve watched plants struggle in its grip. If only I had known then what I know now, I would have spent much more time improving my soil and less time buying plants at the nursery.

A short lesson in soil
Soil is a combination of minerals, organic matter, water, air and micro-organisms. The mineral component is made up of various-sized particles; clay is the smallest, sand is the largest, and silt falls somewhere in between. The proportion of each component determines the texture and structure of your soil.

The best soil is loam—a balanced mix of clay, sand and silt. I don’t believe it actually exists, and suspect it’s one of those goals dangled in front of tired gardeners, like slug-free hostas and weed-free rock gardens.

Soil composed mainly of clay is heavy and dense because its small particles fit closely together. That’s why it’s so difficult to dig (see “Characteristics of Clay,” to find out if you have this type of soil). As well, water drains slowly because of clay’s compacted nature, and there is less oxygen available to plant roots. Although clay soil is often waterlogged in spring, during periods of drought it hardens, and water often rolls off the concrete-like surface before it has a chance to penetrate down to thirsty roots. As bleak as all of this sounds, there is one benefit: it usually holds more nutrients than sandy soil; the latter has bigger spaces between particles, which causes water and nutrients to leach away quickly.

While working with clay is tough on gardeners, the biggest issue for plants is the slow drainage. Improving its structure (see “Clod Busting,”) improves drainage; planting in raised beds made with good soil also helps. With careful management and generous additions of organic material, clay soil will improve over time—lots of time. And remember that it’s an ongoing process. The soil will become more workable, but expect to spend a few years amending clay before you notice an appreciable difference.

Clod busting
1. Clay soil is easily compacted. Avoid walking on cultivated soil, especially when it’s wet, or compressing it with heavy equipment. Digging wet clay also compromises its structure and will set back your efforts to improve it.

2. Amend clay soil by adding plenty of organic material, such as well-aged compost, sawdust (but not from pressure-treated wood), composted manure or leaf mould (partially decomposed shredded leaves). Coarse materials are better than fine ones. Do this repeatedly and as often as possible. For example, when making a new bed, spread several centimetres of organic material over the area and dig it in at least 20 centimetres deep. When moving or adding new perennials to an existing bed, throw a shovelful of compost into the planting hole.

Organic materials prompt mineral particles such as clay to come together in clumps, called  aggregates. The various sizes and shapes of these clumps help form larger pore spaces, which creates more room for oxygen and water to move around plant roots. Organic materials also attract earthworms and micro-organisms that will munch and digest their way around the soil, loosening up  its structure even further.

3. Hand digging is preferable to using a tiller, which pulverizes soil into too fine a texture. Digging with a shovel leaves clumps of various sizes that allow a better exchange of oxygen in the plants’ root zone. Dig down at least 20 centimetres when amending. Fall is the best time because soil is usually drier than in spring. Leave rough clods to allow snow to further break down the soil.

4. A five- to eight-centimetre layer of organic mulch, such as shredded bark or leaf mould, helps keep the soil from forming a crust. It also ups the quotient of organic matter.

5. Adding sand can make matters worse; to have a positive effect, it must be coarse builder’s sand (various-sized particles; not horticultural or play type) and copious amounts are needed—at least one part coarse sand, one part organic matter and one part existing soil. Adding too little or too fine a sand creates the perfect conditions for making bricks!

Simple clay amending techniques for a clod-free garden
Planting trees & shrubs in clay

How to Grow Strawberries
By Monica Resinger
http://homemakersjournal.com

Mmmmmmmmm. There's nothing like a sun-ripened, freshly picked strawberry. Warm, sweet and juicy. Growing your own will offer you a sweeter strawberry because it is allowed to ripen on the plant. You will also know how it was grown (no pesticides, etc.). Children often like growing strawberries, well, because they like strawberries! Here are some pointers on growing and using them.

Strawberries grow 6-8 inches tall spreading about one foot across with long runners. Their white, sometimes pink (depending on the variety) flowers turn into luscious strawberries that we can enjoy fresh, put into desserts, make jam, or freeze and use later.

In mild winter areas, planting season is late summer or fall. These plantings will produce a spring crop of strawberries. In other areas, plant strawberries in early spring. Everbearers will produce a summer and fall crop.

When planting strawberries, be sure the crown is above soil level and the topmost roots are 1/4 inch beneath soil level because buried crowns rot and exposed roots dry out. Use mulch to keep berries clean, conserve moisture and keep weed growth down. Set plants 2-3 feet apart and let runners fill in until plants are 7-10 inches apart.

Strawberries like well drained fairly rich soil, so be sure to add compost or other organic matter when preparing the strawberry patch. They need full sun, and frequent, deep soakings. Be sure to give adequate water during bearing season. They will grow in all zones and should be fed twice a year -- when growth begins and after the first crop. Use a complete fertilizer high in phosphorous for feedings.

Types

June Bearing

June bearing types produce one crop per year in late spring or early summer. Since this type gives you all the fruit at once, it's best planted for reasons of preserving or freezing.

Everbearing

This type of strawberry tends to peak in early summer and continue on through the fall. This is the type to plant if you want fresh berries all season long.

Propagation

Most strawberries produce offsets at the end of runners. If you want more plants, just let them grow. If you have enough strawberry plants, pinching off the runners will give you larger plants with small yields of big berries.

If your children are interested in growing strawberries, you can let them plant and care for the whole patch, or just one or two plants if the patch is too much for them. Strawberries will also grow in containers, so this is another option that is less work for children. Remember that container plantings need much more water than in the ground plantings, usually once a day; if it's hot, twice. Be sure to let them help you with the fun part -- harvesting and making delicious things to eat with them.

Check out the GARDENING E-BOOK PACKAGE:
http://homemakersjournal.com/ebooklets.htm#Gardening%20E-book%20Package

Let's Talk Lawn Care

Spring is the beginning of the lawn care calendar, and with the season nearing, you may be anxious to get working in the yard. There are several chores to tackle now if you want to enjoy green grass in the months ahead.

First, consult the Garden Zone Finder for a customized to-do list of garden tasks for your region. When the last frost has occurred, start raking to refresh the soil, remove leaves, dethatch and prevent unwanted soil disease. Then, you're ready to prepare the soil—but first, learn these myths about fertilizers and insecticides. If winter has been unkind to your lawn and reseeding is necessary, this step-by-step guide will help you do it easily.

Check in with the GardenWeb forum for more advice on spring lawn care. With tips from the community, you'll have the golf course-green lawn of your dreams this summer.

Want to have more free time for yourself but don't know how to get it? Real Simple and iVillage have come together to bring you the Get An Extra Weekend Community Challenge. Sign up now!

After the exhilaration of seeing your seedling poke its way through the soil, there is nothing more disappointing than having it suddenly topple over and wither away.

Damping off—a condition where a seemingly healthy seedling suddenly dies—is the result of a fungus attack. Invisible to the eye until too late, the condition is usually fatal, but one that is easily preventable.

Funky fungi
At any given time there are a number of fungi lurking in our soils, waiting for just the right conditions to bloom. There are many different types of fungi that can cause damping off, but the three most common ones are Rhizoctonia solani, Pythium spp, and Fusarium solani. While each is different, they all thrive in overly moist conditions.

Rhizoctonia solani: Found in all natural soils, it springs to life when the soil is moist and hot. The infected seedling will have a sunken lesion on its stem where it touches the soil or just below the soil line.

Pythium spp: Thrives in cool, overwatered and poorly-drained soils. It produces a damp, odourless rot that causes the outer portion of the root to become slimy. In severe cases, the lower portion of the stem may appear slimy and black. Pythium can survive in soil for several years.

Fusarium solani: Remains inactive for long periods of time, favouring acidic, coarse and poorly fertilized soils. Infected seeds usually fail to germinate and become soft and mushy, eventually disintegrating. Dark and moist lesions on the stems may also appear with "wire stem," where the stem becomes much thinner above the lesion. The lesion gradually grows until the seedling dies.

Give your seeds a clean start
It's easy to transfer fungal infections using unsterilized outdoor gardening tools or dirty pots. Before planting, sterilize both using a weak hydrogen solution: 10 ml of hydrogen peroxide to one litre of water. Leave the solution on for five minutes, rinse off and air-dry.

Sterilize your soil
Many gardening experts recommend sterilizing potting soil in the microwave for 10 to 12 minutes to kill any residual fungi. You may find it easier to buy seed-starting soil. Unfortunately, many still use peat moss, now considered an endangered resource.

Mix your own soil
If you are planning on planting quite a few seedlings, it may be cheaper to make your own soil mix. The Farm and Garden Project at the University of California recommends using two parts compost mixed with two parts peat moss and one part vermiculite, pre-wet. You can substitute coir for the peat moss.

Prevention is the best
Overwatering can be deadly, so how do you get the right balance of moisture? Maurice Bergeron, a horticulturist for Cramer Nurseries in West Montreal, recommends bottom watering: "Put the seedlings into a tray, pour water into the tray and let them soak for about 15 to 20 minutes. Pour off any excess water-you don't want them sitting in water since this can activates dormant fungus."

He also warns against overcrowding. "Seedlings need room to grow and if they are crowded together they won't dry quickly enough and this can encourage fungus spores to grow."

Try an herbal remedy
It's far easier to prevent damping off than to cure it. While it's possible to buy seeds soaked in herbicides or spray them with the fungicide Mycostop or Captan, enviro-friendly herbal remedies are equally as effective:

If all else fails, you might want to consider starting from scratch. If you do, be sure to use new pots and soil mix.

You might think growing from seed is a practice only for advanced gardeners, but it isn’t difficult to get the basics down. Rule number one: Don’t sow too early or your plants will be leggy and overgrown long before you can transplant them into the garden.

In my experience, if the seed packet recommends sowing four to six weeks before the last frost date, it’s better to pick the four- rather than the six-week date. (To calculate the sowing date, count back from your region’s last frost date; for me in southern Ontario, that’s the third week of May.)

Choosing seeds
Annuals and vegetables are the easiest to grow. Perennials, however, are trickier because most need a period of cold to break dormancy and take a couple of seasons to reach flowering size.

Containers
Propagating kits (available at garden centres or hardware stores) include four or six cell packs, a tray to hold the packs and a plastic lid. If reusing containers, wash with soap, water and a little bleach, and make sure they have drainage holes. Newly sprouted seedlings may look alike, so label containers as you sow.

Sowing medium
Use fresh, sterile seed-starting mixture (available from garden centres). Moisten mixture about an hour before sowing; it shouldn’t be soggy, just as damp as a wrung-out sponge.

Follow directions
Seed packets contain information on timing, lighting requirements, sowing depth, and optimal germination and growing temperatures.

Keep moisture in
Lightly water freshly sown flats, then cover with plastic dome lid, or if reusing containers, place them inside a plastic zip-lock bag. At the first signs of germination, uncover or remove from plastic bag.

Watering
When the top of the soil looks dry, water carefully using a small watering can with a fine spray. Avoid overwatering: soggy soil and poor air circulation can lead to damping off, a fungal disease that can kill baby plants. Prevention is best, but the fungicide No Damp can also help.

Light
A bright window works, but grow lights or cool fluorescent tubes are better. Keep seedlings about eight to 10 centimetres from light source to prevent plants from becoming too spindly. Plug lights into an automatic timer set for 16 hours on, eight hours off.

Fertilizer
When seedlings have two sets of true leaves (the first leaves are called cotyledons—or seed leaves—so wait for the true ones), start feeding once a week with a balanced (20-20-20), water-soluble fertilizer at half-strength, working up to full strength after a few weeks.

Resources
The Gardener’s A-Z Guide to Growing Flowers from Seed to Bloom by Eileen Powell, Storey Books, 528 pages, softcover, $31.50.

Plant Picks for Every Room

Since gardening outdoors is out of the question in my area right now, I'm biding the time until spring by tending to my houseplants. These indoor beauties perk up my decor with their green leaves and lovely scents. Plus, they're a great tool for drawing many of the unhealthy toxins out of the air in my home. Need some advice on choosing or caring for your indoor plants? Check out our picks and tips.

Easy-to-Grow, Low-Maintenance Houseplants

My aloe plant is growing out of control. It either needs to be repotted or divided into smaller plants. The funny thing is that I do very little for it, aside from giving it a little water every few days, considering how much it does for me. In addition to aloe's medicinal properties, its greenery brightens my living room and my day.

Indoor plants are a great way to add color to your decor and to make a room look finished. If you're not lucky enough to have a green thumb, you can still grow beautiful houseplants. Just try some of these easy-to-grow, low-maintenance options.

Tuning Up Your Tools For Spring

by Brian Simkins

Imagine that the long, cold winter has finally come to an end and its the first beautiful spring Saturday of the year and you are ready to start working your flowerbeds. Armed with your dirty work jeans and a pair of gloves you head to the shed to retrieve your tools so that you can start clearing away the last remnants of winter and begin breaking the soil for a new year. Imagine though, your frustration as you start pulling out all of your tools to see that they are covered with rust, dirt that has hardened like concrete, and crusty globs of oil that have collected dust all winter. It seems that you are going to spend more time cleaning and repairing tools on this nice day than you will actually using them.

We’ll discuss a few things here. First, you’ll need to get those rusty, dirty, non-functioning tools back in tiptop shape. Second, you’ll want to develop a way to store your tools properly for the next winter so that you don’t have to repeat this process every spring.

Let’s start with the basics. Your shovel, spade, hoe, or even the blades on a hedge trimmer will be a lot easier to use if you take a few minutes to knock some of the rust off the blade. Not only will this extend the life of the tool, but also it will cut through the soil better, and thus require less effort to use, if it has a nice sharp blade. It is a good idea to keep a large whetstone in your shed. This tool can be purchased at most hardware stores. A whetstone is an ideal tool to use to keep all of the cutting edges on your garden tools honed. It will work well on your shovel, as well as many other common garden tools.

The best way to use the stone is to find a way to stabilize the tool that you want to work on. A bench vise is ideal. You will be able to clamp the tool into place at an angle, so you can work on it. Clamping the garden tool into place with a vise frees up both of your hands to use the whetstone and gives you more control over what you are doing.

Apply a little bit of lubricating oil to the end of the tool and carefully begin to work the stone over the blade. Maintain a 30-degree angle between the stone and the blade to form the ideal cutting edge for your tool. Not only will the edge become sharper, but you will also be removing any pitting and rust that has formed at the edge of your tool’s blade.

In instances where the moving parts of your garden tools have frozen in place, like springs and pivot joints, you should carefully break free any rust or dirt that may keeping the tool from functioning properly. Using an old toothbrush with some lightweight lubricating oil is a great way to work fresh oil into the joints of most garden tools. Not only will this fresh oil help your tool to work as it was intended, but it will also prevent the formation of any new rust.

Ideally, you will have properly cleaned, prepared, and stored your garden tools the previous autumn, thus eliminating the need for strenuous spring-cleaning efforts. If not, then you will probably want to ensure that your tools are taken care of this coming winter, so that you don’t have to repeat the process next spring.

Gather all of your garden tools at the end of the season and use the garden hose to wash them all down. Make sure there are no clods of dirt stinking to the tools, as the dirt can hold moisture and cause rust over the long winter. After all the tools have been hosed down, let them dry. After they are dry, lightly coat an old rag with lightweight lubricating oil. Wipe down the bare steel blades with the oil rag. This will protect the blade over the winter from moisture that may settle on it and will limit the growth of any rust that may already be present on the steel.

Additionally, you will want to make sure that all of the hinges and joints are free from dirt and grime, and have been well oiled. This step ensures your ability to pick the tool up next spring and have it operate as though it were brand new.

If you have gasoline powered garden equipment, such as hedge trimmers or weed trimmers, then you will need to make sure that the gasoline tank is empty. You can purchase a siphon device for a few dollars at the hardware store. Another easy way to do this is to disconnect the fuel line from the bottom of the tank and just let the fuel run out back into an approved container. It should only take a few second to drain. Once the fuel tank is empty, start the equipment and let it run until it dies. This should only take a few seconds, as the machine only has what little bit of fuel was already in the carburetor. By removing the excess fuel, you eliminate the possibility of condensation forming inside the engine. Make sure you take the time to do this so that your engine will start without hesitation when you need it next spring.

By taking ownership of these few basic preparatory steps, you can ensure that next year, on that first warm spring day, you’ll be working in your garden instead of on your garden tools. You will also save yourself the cost of having to buy new ones, as your tools will last longer because you took care of them.

Brian Simkins is a freelance writer living in Chicago. He enjoys using his 14 years of home improvement experience to educate and equip new home owners.

Reduce Lawn - Replace demanding grass with outdoor rooms, habitat gardening, more
Plant Fast Growers - Fill bare spots with drought-tolerant and wildlife-friendly plants
Use Gray Water -Landscape contractor Roger Cook shares how and where to reuse water
Consider a Cordless Trimmer -4 rechargeable, reader-reviewed options
Add Recycled Pavers - Old tires get another go as faux stone patio and path slabs
Install Rainwater Collection- Modify downspouts and add a barrel in just 2 hours
Maintain Rain Barrels - Fast fixes for broken spigots, algae, mosquitoes, and debris
Grow Native Varieties - Planting zone primer, plus dozens of plant suggestions
Build a Bird Feeder - A family project to draw feathered friends all season long
Go Organic - Non-toxic ways to whack weeds, repel pests, get greener grass, more

Ways to Get More Bang for Your Container Gardening Buck

Make fabulous container gardens on a budget

You can spend a ridiculous amount of money container gardening. Trust me, I have. This year I’m determined not to. Yes, I will spend, but I’m going to try to spend less and smarter. Here are some tips on how to save money on your container gardens.

Start From Seed: If you buy your plants as seedlings they will cost several dollars. If you start from seed, they will just cost pennies. Of course, that is after an initial outlay for setting up a seed starting station, but you really can save a bundle.

Buy Small Plants: It requires some patience, but starting with small plants is usually cheaper. Make sure your seedlings are healthy and robust, and put your smaller seedlings in container gardens that are out of the way, so you won’t have to look at them until they have grown to fill their pots. However, if you put them in an out of the way place, don’t forget to water and feed them (which, of course I have done, more than a few times).

Make Fewer Pots: When planning your container gardens, really think about getting the most visual bang for your buck. Spend your time and budget on fewer pots, but make them more spectacular. If you have fewer pots, you’ll have to buy fewer plants and spend less on potting soil.

Grow Vegetable Container Gardens: Vegetables can be beautiful and growing your own can be economical. You can even mix vegetables and flowers in your containers. Baby lettuce, which costs a fortune at the store, costs very little if you grow your own, and can look pretty too.

Consider Pots of Herbs and Edible Flowers: I think there is really nothing better than a pot of nasturtiums. They are lovely to look at and delicious to eat. This is true of many herbs too – almost all are pretty enough to be decorative as well as edible.

Buy Containers and Supplies on Sale: At the end of the growing season you can find great sales. Starting at the end of August, I buy as many of next year’s supplies as I can. You can often find containers at half price and decorative elements, like Spanish moss, marked way down. It’s also a good time to buy something that was previously out of your price range.

Shop Yard Sales, Flea Markets and Thrift Stores: I have found some of my favorite containers this way and many for less than one dollar. I bought a gorgeous strawberry jar that is chipped in the back, and has a hole in the bottom. I think it just makes the drainage better. I place it against a wall so that no one would ever see the chip or hole. I also buy many of my baskets at yard sales. They are ridiculously cheap, because they are often less than pristine. Lined with moss, and stuffed with plants, they can look spectacular.

Make Your Own Compost: I love my compost. Making my own not only saves me money, I have cut the garbage I send to the landfill almost in half. If you have the space, you can make your own compost easily and cheaply. But even if you have a tiny backyard, you can set up your own compost bin and reap the rewards.

Setting up a worm bin is also a popular way to make your own compost. To be honest, inviting worms into my kitchen or basement is not in my joy spectrum, but it is a great way to save money, because you (or more accurately your worms) are turning garbage into great fertilizer.

Make Compost Tea: Once you’ve made your compost, you can make it into great plant food and save on fertilizer, by brewing compost tea. It’s easy, economical and can really help your container gardens to thrive.

Propagate Your Own: There are lots of plants that are incredibly easy to propagate. For many, you just need to take a small cutting and stick it in water. After a couple of weeks, when you see roots, you can plant your new seedling in a small pot or directly into your container garden. Propagation of these container garden staples works particularly well.

Share or Trade Seeds or Seedlings: Every year I start several different types of tomato seeds. However, each seed packet contains more seeds than I may want. In fact, if I planted them all, I would be over run by tomatoes (though, honestly, an excess of tomatoes, for me, is a dream come true). On the other hand, if I trade some of my seeds or seedlings with someone who is starting pumpkins, we both save money.

Plant Perennials in Your Container Gardens: If you plant annuals, they are well, annual - you have to buy new ones every year. However, there are lots of perennials that look fabulous in container gardens, and if you protect them through the winter, you can pot them up again, free.

Look Around Your House for Unconventional Containers: Finally, almost anything can be a container. Take an old laundry basket or that rusty bucket you almost threw out and plant them with imagination and style: they’ll look great. Think outside the container: make a canvas bag into a plant bag or a child’s outgrown wagon into an herb garden. As far as I’m concerned, almost anything in my house is fair game. My family is starting to hide their shoes.

Make a hoop greenhouse

This inexpensive greenhouse extends your growing season. Use it to protect seedlings and get an earlier start in the spring. And it’ll keep your tender potted plants going longer in the fall.

To make a 4 x 8-ft. hoop house, buy a 10 x 25-ft. sheet of 4-mil plastic ($5) and nine 10-ft. lengths of 1/2-in. PVC pipe ($1 each; inset photo) from a home center. Photos 1 – 3 show you how to build and use it. Choose a level spot with lots of sunlight and use the dimensions shown in Photo 1.

Once you use the third pipe in each group to clamp the plastic in place (Photo 2), your hoop house is ready to use. It dismantles in minutes for winter storage.

Tip

If the ground is hard or gravelly, wedge open the holes by driving a short length of PVC pipe into the ground with a mallet or hammer.

1 MARK the perimeter of your hoop house with twine and stakes. Following our pattern, push one end of each PVC pipe 6 to 8 in. into the ground, bend the pipe gently, and push the other end 6 to 8 in. into the ground as well. Place the pipes in pairs spaced about 6 in. apart.

2 LAY the plastic sheet over the hoops. You can anchor extra material at the ends with heavy rocks. Then push a third pipe into the ground halfway between each pair.

3 SET your seedlings inside the house. Simply slide the plastic up or down for access and to control airflow and heat.

Cheesecloth mulch

Protect a newly seeded small lawn or bare spot from hungry birds by laying strips of cheesecloth over the seedbed and securing the corners with small stakes. (Buy cheesecloth at hardware stores and home centers.) It holds the seed and soil in place during waterings and hard rains, especially on slopes. The cheesecloth also warns the kids to keep off your new grass. The grass grows through the cloth, which will disappear under the thickening grass and eventually decompose (inset photo).

Seedlings on the half shell

You don’t have to buy seedling pots this spring. Instead, make your own from eggshells, using the egg carton as a tray. Next time you use eggs, carefully crack them in half, rinse out the egg residue, then poke a drainage hole in the bottom of each half shell with a sharp scissors or ice pick. Fill the shells with a light-weight, sterile potting mix formulated for seed starting, and sow the seeds. When the seedlings are ready for transplanting, gently crush the eggshell with your fingers and plant them, eggshell and all. The shell will improve your soil as it decomposes.

Sun-map your yard

Marigolds love sunlight and impatiens don’t. So prevent expensive planting mistakes by creating a detailed record of when and where sunlight falls in your yard over the course of a summer day. Your sun map will show you where there’s too much shade for certain plants and too much sun for others.

It’s the best way to ensure that you’ll have happy, healthy plants—and a great-looking garden.

Here’s how: Draw a diagram of your yard on graph paper and make a half-dozen copies. Then plot out the pattern of sunlight on one sheet, beginning about 8 a.m. Every two hours throughout the day, record the pattern on a different sheet.

Refer to this map when you plan your gardens to make sure your plant selections have adequate sunlight. (For extra-sensitive plants, keep in mind that the sun pattern changes somewhat as the growing season progresses.)

Recycled stepping stones

About to dispose of leftover wall or floor tiles? I use mine as colorful, attractive garden stepping stones. You can group several small tiles together, or place large tiles in a row to make a path. Don’t be shy about mixing different styles. And don’t hesitate to use tiles that have been chipped. They’ll sink into the dirt and nobody will know the difference! Note: Use tiles with dull finishes if you plan to walk on them. Other “found” objects that could be recycled as stepping-stones: broken ceramic pots, bricks and cobble-stones, discarded cement work, dishware and wrought iron or ceramic trivets.

People are often surprised to find out that even though I'm a cookbook author I went to school for Horticulture. (I never wanted to be a writer. I wanted to own an herb farm.) Growing your own plants can not only save you lots of money on your grocery bill, but a nice landscape can improve the value of your home. If you're creative, you can have a great garden with very little cost. Here are some of my favorite tips to get you started:

- Watch people who are moving. Ask if they are leaving their lawn equipment and if you can have it or buy it cheap.

- Use an old mailbox out in the garden to store your clippers, plastic bags and gloves. (This is my most used item in my garden!) It is especially wonderful because the kids and Hubby don't know where my tools are, so I don't have to worry about them borrowing the tools!

- Use wedding tulle found at fabric stores instead of shade cloth to shade plants from the sun or to keep the birds from eating your fruit. It's much cheaper. Better yet, ask a just married bride if you can have the tulle from her wedding.

- If you see plants at a store that are in bad shape but not dead, talk to the manager. Ask him if he will give you a "deal" if you take them off his hands. Most of the time they will because the plants look bad and they don't want to mess with them anymore.

- Last year I was able to purchase over 50 large 1/2 gallon- sized perennials for $50. (over $600 retail) All but about five of them lived and I was able to take those back and get my money back. Most home improvement and discount stores have a guarantee that if your plant dies within one year, you can bring the dead plant and the receipt and they will give you your money back or give you a new plant.

- Buy seeds on sale at the end of the season. Put them in a brown paper bag in the refrigerator for better storage. Seeds usually last many years beyond the "past due" date on the packet.

- Ask a tree trimming service to give you their wood chips for mulch if they are in the area.

- Some cities also have a free mulch program where the city tree trimmers dump all the wood chips. Call your local County Extension and find out if there is one in your area.

- If you just need a few bags, look for torn open bags at the home improvement store. Our local store has a pile where they dump all the torn open bags of mulch and rocks. They sell the bags for $1 each, saving you up to 75% off! Most just have a few chips missing.

- Use shredded paper or newspaper under mulch. This way you can use fewer wood chips.

- Keep a shower curtain or tarp in your car at all times. This way, if you find a good deal on mulch or plants, you can take advantage of the deal right away without messing up your car.

- Ask the cemetery if you can have the pots they throw away after Memorial Day. (You can dry the almost dead flowers for potpourri.) Look in dumpsters. Many garden centers at the discount stores throw away the dead plants, pots and all. Ask permission first.

You can also use small plastic six-inch pots, soda cans or plastic bottles in the bottom of larger pots so you don't have to use so much soil and to make the pots lighter in weight.

- Use milk jugs as drip irrigation. Poke two or three small holes in the bottom of the jugs and place next to plants. Fill with water and they will slowly water your plants all day.

- Use Christmas lights around fences to add sparkle in the middle of summer. Hang them in trees or line paths with them for extra effect.

- Use vinegar in a spray bottle to kill weeds. Only spray the weed. It will kill any grass or plants you want to keep if you get it on them.

- Have kids water the plants after they swim in the kiddy pool. Have them take buckets of water from the pool and water the plants when the pool needs to be emptied.

- Buy or ask for sandbags after heavy rains. Use the sand for paths or for the kid's sandboxes. (Only use sand from clean floodwater situations.)

- Save scraps of soap when they get too small to bathe with and put them in an old nylon stocking. Knot and hang the nylon on an outdoor faucet.

Place soap and water in a saucepan. Place over low heat; stir until soap is melted. After mixture cools, add mason's sand or pumice. Store in a cottage cheese container or margarine tub. To use, dip fingers into soap mixture and lather hands. Rinse well. This works well on greasy tools, also. Be sure to rinse and dry tools thoroughly.

Tawra Kellam is the editor of www.LivingOnADime.com/ Tawra and her husband paid off $20,000 debt in 5 years on $22,000 a year income.

Start Growing Your Own Fruits and Veggies

http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/pac_ctnt_988/text/0,,DIY_26336_86271,00.html?videoid=0128709&nl=DIY-NL_v168_T5-1

Gardening Basics

Tomatoes

Corn, Beans & Peas

Carrots, Onions & Radishes

Lettuce & Greens

Squash & Cucumbers

Potatoes and Beets

Melons, Fruits & Berries

Herbs & Vegetable Varieties

Vinegar As a Natural Weed Killer

Uses for Vinegar Include Killing Weeds - - Naturally

For organic gardening, vinegar can function as a handy natural weed killer. It's the acetic acid in vinegar that gives it the power to kill weeds. The higher the percentage of acetic acid in the vinegar, the better it will operate as a natural weed killer, technically speaking. Vinegar used for culinary purposes is relatively low (5%) in acetic acid, so repeated applications will be necessary when using it as a natural weed killer.

If you're battling lawn weeds, take care to apply the vinegar directly onto the weeds themselves, not letting it come into contact with your grass. Why? Because the fact that vinegar is a natural weed killer doesn't mean it can't be harmful if misused. Vinegar is non-selective, and this natural weed killer can harm your grass!

To avoid damage to grass, consider "painting" the vinegar directly onto weeds with a brush. If you do spray with vinegar, don't pull the trigger until you're right up close to the targeted weed. Don't spray on a windy day, as the wind could carry your vinegar spray where you don't want it to go -- on your grass.

Because of this limitation, I don't think of vinegar as being an especially effective natural weed killer for lawn areas. It makes more sense to use vinegar in areas where lawn grass and other landscaping plants won't be in the way, such as on patios or walkways (where you have weeds pushing up through cracks).

But if you're already in the process of digging a dandelion out of the lawn, it wouldn't hurt to supplement your efforts with vinegar. After you've removed as much of the taproot as possible, carefully pour some vinegar into the hole. The vinegar will seep down into the soil, killing any portions of taproot you may have missed. Afterwards, shovel soil into the hole and sow grass seed on top, lest any opportunistic weed seeds should fill the vacuum.

There's another limitation in using vinegar as a natural weed killer, but this limitation extends to chemical weed killers, as well: namely, that you'll probably have to re-apply the vinegar to get the job done, as weeds often refuse to go quietly. This is especially true of established perennial weeds, toughened by years of coping with environmental challenges; vinegar will be more effective on younger weeds.

But considering that vinegar is safe and relatively inexpensive, this objection is hardly a telling argument against the use of vinegar as a natural weed killer. If your goal is to use a natural weed killer, one assumes that you'll be motivated to make repeated applications, as necessary.

When practicing natural weed control, take to heart the dictum, Know thine enemy! Study up on the weeds you're battling before you use the vinegar on them. Target annual weeds with your vinegar natural weed killer before they set seed, to prevent them from spawning a new generation to give you headaches next year.

By contrast, early fall is the best time to use this natural weed killer on perennial weeds. Early fall is when you'll want to apply vinegar to dandelions (but snap off the flowers whenever they appear, to prevent them from going to seed in the meantime). Dandelions, although their leaves die back in winter, do live on through their roots. So preventing them from going to seed isn't enough.

Fortunately, knowing a little botany can help you considerably in your battle with perennial weeds like dandelions. You see, in early fall, nutrients are transferred from the dandelion leaves down to the roots. This transfer, which continues until the first killing frost, presents you with an opportunity to hit dandelions where it really hurts! Vinegar natural weed killer applied during this time is absorbed by the leaves and passed on to the roots, following the same path down as the nutrients. The plants are killed -- naturally. Repeated applications may be necessary.

Listen to your local forecast, and find out when your region will be experiencing a few continuous days of sunshine. At the beginning of this period, spray or paint the vinegar onto the weeds you wish to kill.

1. You need to saturate the weeds' leaves with the vinegar, and rain would wash too much of the vinegar off the foliage.

2. The real damage to the sprayed weeds begins the next couple of days after the application, when the sun hits the leaves.

Some people who use vinegar as a natural weed killer like to boil the vinegar, prior to application. Through such boiling, you may actually be able to gain a concentrate higher in acetic acid, although I haven't yet experimented with this option in any scientific way. But it certainly can't hurt to boil the vinegar; in fact, many folks report success killing weeds by simply pouring scalding water on weeds! So I suppose the use of boiled vinegar allows you to attack weeds on an additional front.

It is possible to buy products with a higher acetic acid content than that found in ordinary vinegar. Such products can be purchased at farmer's stores or from restaurant supply businesses. But the potency of these acetic acid products can render them less safe to use than household vinegar. To me, that puts them at odds with the whole concept of using "natural weed killers." Besides, you have to go out of your way to find these products, and the idea behind the present article was to introduce a handy natural weed killer, something you can just pull off a kitchen shelf and experiment with.

Those of you who have held an ongoing grudge against vinegar for its ability to make your mouth pucker may finally be able to grant vinegar forgiveness. For that same sourness makes vinegar the natural weed killer of choice for organic gardening. Vinegar can also be used for cleaning purposes around the home, as an alternative to chemical cleaners.

So if you rarely open that vinegar jug for purposes of seasoning your food, don't despair: The uses for vinegar extend well beyond the culinary.

Growing Miniature Roses

Delicate Blooms on One Tough and Hardy Plant

Miniature roses are true roses, bred to stay small in size. Most mini roses also have smaller flowers than standard rose bushes, but they come in a variety of types and colors. Despite their small size, miniature roses are extremely hardy. In fact they are more winter hardy than most tea roses. Miniatures also tend to be profuse repeat bloomers.

Miniature roses work well in a border and are especially nice as specimen plants or edgers. ‘Child's Play’ was a 1993 All-American Rose Selection and 1993 American Rose Society Award of Excellence. It blooms abundantly in white with soft pink edges and is a very carefree grower with great disease resistance.

‘Baby Boomer’ also won an Award of Excellence. These delicate pink blossoms grow on long stems suitable for cutting. They have a slight fragrance and bloom throughout the season on 24 -36" bushes.

· Climbers - Minis with a vertical growth habit and can be trained to grow against supports. (Award winning ‘ Jeanne Lajoie’ doesn’t appear to be a mini at all, when allowed to reach heights of 7+ feet. ‘Snowfall’ is a white ever bloomer with canes that stretch out 7 - 12'.)

· Trailers - Minis with a cascading growth habit that are wonderful in baskets and over walls. (‘Sequoia Gold’ has double flower fragrant yellow blossoms that repeat all season. ‘Green Ice’ is a hardy plant with unusual blooms that start out as apricot buds, open to double white flowers and age to a cool light green.)

· Micro-mini - Term for the smallest mini roses (6 - 12") with proportional tiny blossoms of 1/4 to 1 inch in size. (‘Bambino’ has 3/4" vibrant orange blossoms on an 8 -12" plant. ‘Chasin' Rainbows’ flowers are yellow, edged in scarlet on a 10 - 15" bush.)

· Miniflora - An American Rose Society classification for newly developed mini roses that have a slightly larger plant and bloom size than miniature roses. Average plant size is 2 ½ - 4 ½ feet. (‘Moonlight Scentsation’ offers fragrant flowers in the palest lavender on a 3' plant. ‘Harm Saville’ has traditional velvet red blossoms on an 18 -20" plant.)

· Dig a hole the same depth as the pot the rose came in and about a foot wider.

· Carefully remove the rose from the pot and gently loosen the roots. If the plant is tightly root bound, use a sharp knife to score the sides of the root ball and try again to loosen the roots.

If your mini rose comes bare root, follow these excellent planting directions from the All American Rose Society.

NOTE: Most minis are not budded or grafted, so gardeners in colder climates don’t need to worry about covering or mulching the graft and gardeners in warmer climates won’t need to be concerned about suckers from the root stock.

Roses can be heavy feeders and since mini roses continue blooming all season, regular fertilizing is essential. Use any commercial rose food or general purpose fertilizer, according to label instructions.

How much water your rose bush will require depends on your soil and weather. A general rule of thumb is to provide at least an inch of water each week. During hot, dry spells you will need to water more frequently. Be sure to water deeply, so that the soil is wet at least 12 - 18 inches below the surface.

Avoid getting the leaves wet during humid weather, to discourage fungal diseases.

As with other roses, prune miniature roses just before new growth starts in late winter or early spring. Hard pruning is not necessary. Prune dead or broken wood first. Then trim back about a third of the plant to maintain its shape and encourage new growth.

Unfortunately, mini roses are subject to the same problems as larger roses. A product called Messenger is showing promise as a deterrent to rose diseases. Keep an eye out for early signs of insect damage (Japanese beetle, trips, chafers...) and treat accordingly.

Although mini roses do quite well in containers and you often see them sold as houseplants, many gardeners are disappointed by their performance indoors. As roses, they need full sun and good humidity. These are easy enough to provide in summer, but humidity drops considerably when the heat comes on indoors and roses will quickly become desiccated. Mini roses given as gifts will do best if transplanted outdoors.

Poisonous Plants: Five Common Plants You Might Not Realize are Poisonous

There are many plants we've all been warned to avoid, like caster bean and Datura. Some plants, like poinsettia, have gotten worse reputations than they deserve. But there are many common garden and house plants that can cause poisoning problems, from itching to death. You know not to go taste testing plants just because they look or smell luscious, but use extreme caution when gardening around small children and pets. There are many excellent web sources to turn to, listing which plants are poisonous and what problems they cause. Here are 5 common plants you may never have considered as poisonous or dangerous.

We grow these for the colorful, fun pods and the ripened fruits are sometimes used to make jams and jellies, but use extreme caution unless you know what you are doing. The unripe berries can be highly toxic and possibly fatal.

Symptoms: Headache, stomachache, vomiting, diarrhea, low temperature, dilated pupils, breathing problems and numbness.

What would fall be without mums? Unfortunately garden mums can be a severe skin irritant. If you haven't had problems handling mums before, perhaps you're not susceptible. But it's good to know the signs to watch out for, before the problem gets out of hand.

The only animals I've seen munching on my hydrangeas are rabbits. Humans should avoid them for several reasons including: stomach upset, skin irritation and, in severe cases, more serious problems like convulsions and coma.

Lantana has become a garden staple. As a skin irritant, it only causes mild and/or short term irritation, so you might not even have noticed that it bothered you. However if the berries are ingested, it is highly toxic and possibly fatal. You might not be tempted, but watch for kids and pets.

The deer might love them, but for mere mortals, all parts of Rhododendron and Azalea plants are extremely toxic if ingested and may be fatal. Seek medical help immediately.

Symptoms: burning in the mouth, salivation, watery eyes and nose, vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, difficulty breathing, weakness, abdominal pain and progressive paralysis of arms and legs. Ingesting rhododendron can affect your heart beat and cause convulsions and coma.

Enhance Your Home With Foundation Plantings

How to choose, plant, and maintain house-hugging garden beds

Foundation Planting 101 - Choose plants that will complement your home
Dramatic Foliage - 12 reliable, leafy varieties in a range of colors and shapes
Build a Trellis - Enjoy the look of climbers and protect your siding with this
Climbers & Ramblers - Selection and maintenance tips for vining roses, plus 4 picks
Plant Shrubs - Pro tips to give a new shrub a healthy head start in 11 steps
Add Perennials - 13 water-savers, including colorful blooms and aromatic herbs
Ornamental Grasses - Drought-resistant growers that'll add texture to your display
Easy-Care Roses - Low-fuss options that bloom continuously from spring to fall
Prune Flowering Shrubs - Get shapely, bloom-filled plants with 10 minutes of work
Entryway Makeover - How to scale down overgrown plants for a more inviting entry

Early Spring Projects

Start getting your hands dirty with these garden upkeep ideas

Spring To-Do List - Edging beds and 5 other tips from TOH's landscape contractor
Start Seeds Indoors - This country-style potting room is the ideal place to work
New Pruning Tools - 7 top picks for tools every rose gardener should have
8 Debris-Clearing Rakes - Find the right tool for winter rubbish clean-up
Powerwash Walkways - Your 9 steps away from a fresh, new-looking brick path
Divide Daylilies - Get more bloom for your buck: the right way to separate root clumps
Build a Gazebo - Custom-designed or built from a kit, here's how to plan this upgrade
Get a Lush Lawn - Test soil, get your mower in shape, lay down sod, and more
8 Patio Sets - Teak, metal, and bamboo furniture options to replace tired old plastic
Spruce Up the Deck - Refresh old boards for the warm season in 6 steps

Stone Fountains
Touch a piece of stone and you sense the feeling of permanence it brings to a yard; incorporate it as a focal point, and you've also exploited its visual potential. Flowing water, meanwhile, injects the element of sound, which you don't get much of from plants, unless the wind rustles their leaves. A fountain's gurgling soothes frayed nerves when you return from a hard day at work. Complete your backyard paradise for the senses with a few fragrant flowers and edible plants.

The new White House garden is definitely a joint effort: it's 1,100 square feet that will be tended not only by members of the White House grounds staff but will involve students from nearby Bancroft Elementary School. Even the Obamas have announced intentions of getting their hands dirty while working in the new garden.

That sort of combined effort can be exactly what it takes to create a gardening success. Last year, I started a small balcony garden with some success. This year, I've teamed up with a friend in my neighborhood to plant a bigger and better garden: we're taking a joint approach to the effort just like the White House. If you've been thinking of starting your own little co-operative gardening effort, I've got a few tips from my own experiences that might yours go a little smoother.

Have you teamed up with someone to grow a garden? If you have any tips to add, I hope you share them in the comments!

Inexpensive Ingredients for Spring Suppers
Save money by growing fresh vegetables

Now that spring is almost here, I can't wait to get out in the garden. I think this year I'll try to grow some of my favorite herbs and vegetables. That way the produce on my table will be much fresher—and cheaper—than what I can buy in the grocery store. Start planning now to grow your own vegetables, and before you know it you'll have delicious, healthy ingredients for your spring suppers.

Air-Purifying Feng Shui Plants To Improve the Feng Shui of Your Space

Best feng shui advice to keep in mind is to always be aware of the quality of the indoor air and do your best to improve it. Numerous research shows that indoor pollution is much worse than the outdoor pollution.

Is there a feng shui solution? Yes, there is! The best feng shui solution is to decorate with smart indoor plants! Below is a list of top ten air-purifying plants, as defined by NASA research in the early 1980s.

Bring them to your home, bring them to your office, and let them do what they do best - clear the air and fill it with oxygen!

Clean air is a must for a good feng shui home. Discover 50 beautiful houseplants that clean the air of common indoor pollutants while bringing beauty and vital energy into your home. This book is a must for anyone who is committed to creating a good feng shui home.

Which one of the 50 air-purifying houseplants does your home get to enjoy?

· Beautiful, very popular and easy to care plant that works well with any decor.

· Easy to grow and maintain, its leaves have a gentle, gracious flow that will soften and revive any environment, be it home or office.

· Strong plant that can tolerate a bit more neglect (i.e. if you forget to water them regularly.)

· Among many varieties of dracaenas, the "Janet Craig" is the best one for removing chemical toxins from your environment.

· Easier to care for than the Ficus Benjamina, but still can loose some leaves while adjusting to a new environment.

· There are three types of Ficus alii: the standard tree, the bush and the braids (several entwined trunks)

· Beautiful and lush, it is a favorite for any indoor environment, but it does require attention in order to thrive.

· Easy to care for and a treat for the eye, introduce it to your home and it will be a keeper!

How much money do you spend on lawn care every year? For the cost of lawn mowing, fertilizing, pest control and watering, you could put a child through college. If you want to add new plants to your garden, it better be an Ivy League college. Here are some tips to cut the costs and create a healthier outdoor environment.

A reel mower is the old-fashioned, push mower that was popular fifty years ago. The new models are more lightweight than their ancestors, yet are as efficient at cutting the grass as a gas-powered mower.

Reel mowers save money from the start. Not only is it less expensive to buy a reel mower than it is to buy a gas or electric mower, reel mowers cost nothing to operate and they require minimal maintenance.

The blades on a reel mower should be sharpened every year and the reels should be kept greased. You can either sharpen the blades yourself or take them to a lawn and garden store. Blade sharpening is inexpensive and will make the mower more efficient.

Store-bought fertilizer and mulch can be expensive. Make your own by starting a compost pile. Called black gold by gardening professionals, compost is easier to make than most people think. Simply pile lawn debris, such as dried leaves and grass clippings, add some food scraps from your kitchen, and turn the pile over every week or so. Composting takes patience. It will take several months to a year for your pile to turn into good compost, but it is a powerful fertilizer.

In addition to saving money on fertilizer, you can make potting soil from your compost. Simply mix compost with some dirt from your garden to get a nutrient rich soil that you can use to start seeds and transplant seedlings.

If you have municipal water, then you most likely have to pay for water. To save money, cut back on the amount of water that you use from the hose or tap to maintain your lawn and garden. For outdoor watering needs, consider purchasing a rain barrel.

Rain barrels are covered barrels that collect the rain run off from a gutter. The covers keep small animals from falling into the water and also keep the mosquito population down.

Rainwater is better for plants than tap water since it doesn't contain any of the chemicals that municipalities are required to put in the water to make it safe for drinking.

Rain barrels are available at gardening stores in a variety of prices, but to be even more frugal, you can make your own. A quick Internet search will turn up various homemade rain barrel plans.

Save money on bulbs and other perennials by participating in a plant swap. Many local churches hold plant swaps yearly. If yours doesn't, organize a swap with your neighbors.

Not only are pesticides and other lawn and garden chemicals expensive, they can be hazardous to your health. Be frugal and health conscious by using the Internet to research natural solutions to pest problems

Some common, inexpensive pest solutions are also a pleasant addition to your yard or garden. Planting daffodil bulbs will keep moles out of your yard. Chives are helpful in keeping black spot off of roses when they are planted in the same bed.

Having a lush, healthy yard and garden does not mean that you need to spend a lot of money. Very often, the frugal way is actually the healthier way. Not only will you be saving money, but also you will be creating an environment that is safe for children and pets and that will help your lawn, vegetables and flowers thrive.

- When it comes to having a lush, healthy yard and garden, often the frugal way is the healthier way. So, consider the above ideas and be on your way to creating a thriving environment that is safe for children and pets.

This free email newsletter will provide ways to help you save money as the cost of everyday items rise. Each issue features six or seven articles to help you stretch your dollar!

This is a guest post from my wife, who has received several requests to describe her method for starting seeds indoors.

In some parts of the U.S., vegetable and flower seeds can be successfully planted directly into the garden. But in many areas, the growing season is too short to allow this.

Cool spring soil temperatures and cold weather can prevent seeds from germinating or kill young seedlings. If you wait until the weather warms, the plants get off to a late start only to be zapped by fall’s first frost; they don’t get a chance to bear a full crop or to put on a full floral display.

The first choice is best for beginning gardeners who are working on a small scale. The second option is nice for committed gardeners who want to test the limits. Starting from seed, however, is easy, is cheaper per plant and allows a greater variety of choice among both ornamentals and crops than buying nursery plants.

I’m eager each (early) Spring to get my seeds going. On March 1st, I began seven types of flowers and my lettuce and basil seeds. (As of March 5th, the lettuce and basil have sprouted, as have a couple of the flowers.) In two weeks, I’ll start tomatoes and a few others, and the squash, cucumbers and more flowers will follow. How do I do it, and how do I know when to start? Here are my tips:

When should I start my seeds?
In order to decide when to sow your seeds, you need to find the average last frost date for your region. In Oregon’s wet and unpredictable Willamette Valley, published last frost dates range from March 23 to May 14. Based on my own experience, I pick the latter end of this range and count backwards from May 1st.

I start my tomato plants six or seven weeks before this date. Slow-to-germinate flowers get an eight-week head start. Squashes and cucumbers don’t transplant especially well, but I germinate them inside to protect them from marauding slugs. I move them outside two weeks later before they’ve developed much of a root system.

What should I plant indoors?
To determine what to plant indoors, read your seed packets. Many will list instructions for both inside and outdoor seed sowing. Knowing which to do will depend on your climate. With flowers, I often do both. I’ll start a limited number indoors for “insurance” and then sow the remainder of the packet directly in the garden once true Spring arrives.

Some crops should not be started indoors because they don’t transplant well or because they need an impractical amount of room. I would not recommend starting the following inside:

These cool season plants can withstand planting directly outside even before the weather fully warms. Likewise, things you are going to plant in large numbers should wait until they can be sown into the garden soil. The following are usually grown in sizable quantities:

If you are worried about your short growing season for crops like corn, look for varieties that have a short days-to-maturity period.

Tomatoes and peppers, broccoli, eggplants, cauliflower, melons and squashes can all be started successfully indoors. Herbs and flowers, too, benefit from the controlled environment of indoor seed starting. Let’s get started!

How do I start plants from seed?
The two most important factors for seed germination are temperature and humidity. The seed contains all the nutrients the plant needs to germinate, so it doesn’t need fertilizer or fertile soil.

Note: Fertilizer may actually prevent some seeds from sprouting. Generally, I avoid fertilizing until plants have grown their first set of “true leaves”, which look different than the first pair that emerges.

To start my seeds, I used the bio-dome from Park Seeds, a device that looks like a plastic greenhouse dome with a styrofoam tray. The tray holds little soil-less planting plugs called bio-sponges. Each plug has a hole in it for the seeds. I don’t normally advocate one product over another, but I really like these.

Note: Take care if using vermiculite; it can be a respiratory hazard. I prefer the little soil-less planting plugs because they’re mess free and they pop out easily for transplanting, doing minimal damage to the roots, but other methods work fine too.

Any device that keeps the environment moist and fairly warm will work. You can cover trays of soil with saran wrap or a dry-cleaning bag — poke plastic forks into the soil to hold the plastic layer up off the growing sprouts. Commercial peat pots, yogurt cups or milk cartons (poke drainage holes in the bottoms) or pots made from newspapers (avoid colored ink) all work fine, too.

Set your pots in a tray, tub or rimmed cookie sheet so you can water from the bottom, letting the moisture soak up through the soil. This helps keep the moisture level constant and prevents dislodging seeds with a fountain of water. Do not let the soil dry out! Little tiny seedling rootlets need constant moisture.

Seeds vary widely in size. I like to use tweezers to place them exactly where I want them. In general, seeds should be planted approximately four times deeper than their diameter. Some seeds need light to germinate and should be scattered just on the surface of the soil. Again, read those packets!

I usually put two seeds into each hole. I use three if I think the germination rate will be low. You can test your germination rate by placing ten seeds between layers of moist paper towels in putting them in a ziploc bag in a warm place. This is a good idea if you have saved the seeds yourself or they are several years old. Do this 2-3 weeks before you want to actually start your seeds.

As you’re planting, take good notes! Make a planting diagram and jot down how many days it takes each type of seed to germinate. Some germination times are given as huge ranges (5-20 days). The happier the seed is (warm and wet), the speedier germination may be.

If you are using individual pots, mark them with labels or masking tape, unless you know for sure that you will recognize what the leaves of your young plants will look like. There’s nothing worse than getting your plants mixed up. This is especially important if you are starting different varieties of the same crop! Free plant stakes can be made simply by cutting up a plastic yogurt tub. Store your leftover seeds in a ziploc bag or glass jar in the refrigerator.

Now that the seeds are snug in their beds, cover them to retain moisture and put them in a warm place. A temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 degrees Celsius) is ideal, but in March our house is nowhere near 70 degrees! I like to set my mini-greenhouse on a heating pad (a wet/dry safe heating pad set on low) to maintain a more constant temperature, since our thermostat drops to 54 degrees (12 Celsius) at night. Some people recommend putting the seed tray on top of the refrigerator. If your house is more temperate, the heat source is unnecessary. I have often started seeds without a heat source, but peppers and eggplants seem especially fussy about the temperature.

What happens after the seeds sprout?
Once the seeds have germinated (keep them moist!), they’ll need light, nutrients and air. Give them some ventilation and move them to a very sunny window, supplemented with artificial light. There is no need to buy an expensive grow light or full spectrum light. For these purposes, a basic 48″ fluorescent shop light is all you need.

Tip: The type I own has two tubular bulbs per light; they’re available at home improvement stores for less than $20. The critical thing is to hang them in such a way that they can be raised as the plants grow; I use a link-type chain that can be doubled-up on itself to different lengths.

As your plants grow, keep the light about 6″ from their tops. If the light is too far away, the plants will grow spindly as they stretch for it. This can be rather tricky if you are starting different types of seeds at the same time, because they will grow at varied rates. You can lift the shorter ones with shoeboxes or phonebooks to alleviate this difficulty. Once all the seeds in your tray have germinated, remove the cover completely. Too much humidity at this stage can encourage mildew and harm the seedlings.

As you water, fertilize with a weak solution of water-soluble all-purpose fertilizer. I make mine about one-quarter the strength called for. Watch out for crystallized salts forming on your soil surface — that’s a sign you’re over-fertilizing and need to cut back. Turn the lights off for your plants at night (they need a dark cycle to grow properly) but leave the heat on (temperature fluctuations can stunt them).

What about transplanting?
When the seedlings first sprout, they will usually have a pair of first leaves that look nothing like the true leaves that come later. (Many crops are dicots, but not all.) Watch closely, and soon after they have two sets of true leaves, it’s time to move the teenage seedlings into their first real apartment. Water your seedlings thoroughly an hour or two ahead of time, and then, working carefully and quickly, remove each seedling into its own pot.

At this point I generally use an all-purpose potting soil. Scooping them up from below, try your best to get all their little roots, and handle their tops as little as possible, and always by the leaves, rather than the stem. A damaged leaf can be replaced; a damaged stem often dooms a plant at this stage.

Depending on how long your plants will be living inside, you may perform only one transplant, or you may need two. For my tomatoes, I’ll move them into 4-inch plastic nursery pots first, then into gallon-sized pots before they go outside. Everything else gets one transplant, then into the garden.

Once your seedlings are thriving, it’s tempting to treat them a bit too carelessly. Being started inside in a safe environment, they can’t stand the shock of an immediate change in their conditions. Basically, they are weak, coddled little things. Expose them gradually to the out-of-doors by setting them outside on nice days for a few hours, being sure to bring them inside at night and making sure they don’t get sunburned or blown over. Some gardeners like to have a fan blow on their indoor starts, saying it strengthens the stems to withstand windy outdoor conditions. I can’t vouch for that, but I do think it helps prevent mildew.

Happy planting
Wow, that seems like a lot of work when I write it all out. But it’s not really! Watching my garden plants grow from tiny seeds is a thrill every year. I love trying new things each spring and learning from my successes and failures. I hope these tips get you well on your way to learning what works best for you. Happy gardening!

Top 10 Landscape Trees

Autumn Trees, Landscape Trees for All Seasons

asked, "What are the best types of landscape trees for a yard?" In the present piece, I answer that question by picking ten of the best landscape trees for temperate regions. But the landscape trees in the list below do not appear in a ranked order. Instead, the order is based on the seasonal interest they provide. I begin with landscape trees valued for their spring display; I end with autumn trees and those that offer visual interest in winter. Indeed, the goal is not simply to have a collection of great landscape trees in the yard, but rather to have at least one specimen per season that will add pizazz to your landscaping.

Spring is for flowers. We have the rest of the year to fuss over the foliage of a tree, the novelty of a tree's bark, or the pattern in which its branches grow. But when the snow recedes and life returns, I want color -- and lots of it! Nothing furnishes color quite like flowers, whether on annuals or perennials, on shrubs or on trees. Any well-planned yard will contain at least one flowering landscape tree of exceptional beauty. Magnolia trees are among the showiest flowering landscape trees. While star magnolias bloom earlier, saucer magnolias provide a larger bloom.

You don't have to be a farmer to want to grow apple trees in your yard. It's about more than just the fruit: apple trees are beautiful bloomers in their own right! The fruit is a bonus.

But you'll want more than just flowering landscape trees that provide a floral extravaganza in spring. Fortunately, sometimes you get a "2 for 1" deal (or better) in landscaping. In this case, I mean versatile landscape trees that earn their keep during more than just one of the four seasons. Dogwood trees offer such a deal: blooms for spring, an interesting branching pattern for summer, colorful foliage for fall. As if that weren't enough, these landscape trees attract wild birds, too.

Some of the Japanese maples, too, are versatile, but in a different way: they're great "autumn trees" not only in autumn, but also during the summer season. That is, they display the vibrant colors we associate with fall foliage when most other trees still bear green leaves.

The Japanese maples may be precocious, but some of the maples native to North America or Europe are equally beautiful as autumn trees -- and they are larger (e.g., sugar maples). Their greater size allows them to fulfill another task of landscape trees: providing shade in summer. The imposing dimensions of these landscape trees also help accentuate their fall color. In this article I look at some types of maples that, even on a cloudy fall day, will light up the yard like giant torches.

We've addressed the role of landscape trees in providing visual interest in the yard for spring, summer and fall. But what about winter? When the colorful fall foliage is gone, do your landscape trees have anything left to offer? Yes, they do -- if you've selected your landscape trees wisely. When Old Man Winter darkens your doorstep, it's time for the evergreen landscape trees to shine. For instance, why don't you take your cue from the holiday season and plant those Christmas classics, blue spruce trees?

Also popular as evergreen landscape trees is another kind of spruce, the dwarf alberta spruce. You'll often see them used in pairs to flank the entryway to a house for a formal look that strives for balance. Because dwarf Alberta spruce trees will remain relatively small for a number of years, people sometimes treat them (at least initially) as container plants.

Arborvitae does more than just look pretty year-round. This evergreen landscape tree is widely planted to create "living wall" privacy fences to screen you from the prying eyes of nosey neighbors.

Another landscape tree that offers winter interest and is planted to form privacy screens is the 'Nellie R. Stevens' holly. This one's evergreen, too, but with a twist: it's considered a "broadleaf" evergreen.

But not all landscape trees planted for winter interest bear evergreen foliage. Some just have interesting branching patterns or an unusually pleasing bark. Birches are examples of landscape trees with the latter quality.

Frugal Gardening

How to Save Money Gardening

It's easy to get carried away planting a garden. Even after you've bought all the necessary tools and supplies, there are always more plants to covet and new gadgets to try. But that doesn't mean your garden has to turn into a sink hole for your money. Some of the best gardening tips don't cost a cent and some will help you save money for years. Here are 10 no-pain ways to save money and resources while gardening and still have the garden of your dreams.

The price of a packet of seed keeps going up, but so does the price of plants. Seeds are still a great deal. Since you usually get more than you can use, why not set up a seed exchange with your gardening friends. Growing perennial flowers from seed takes some patience, because it will be a few years before the plants are sizable and flowering. But you can grow dozens of annual flowers for a fraction of what you’d pay for cell packs. And the savings from growing vegetables from seed will literally pay for the rest of your garden.

Take seed starting a step further and become a seed saver. Only open pollinated plants will grow true from seed, but there are probably plenty of the in your garden. Heirlooms and old-fashioned flowers are good candidates. You can also multiply your plants by taking and rooting cuttings and by dividing perennials. There’s no law that says you have to wait until a perennial “needs” dividing before your can divide it. Divided younger plants may start out small, but they will catch up fast.

Plants are priced by size. It’s nice to have an instant garden, but if you’re trying to save money, buying smaller size plants can cut your bill by 2/3s. And small plants can often make the transplant adjustment easier than larger plants, so they will quickly fill in. Another option is to buy 1 large plant and divide it immediately into 2 or 3 smaller plants.

Host a plant swap with your gardening friends. Everyone has too much of something. While you’re dividing and redesigning in the spring, have everyone pot up some extras to exchange. It’s nice to have a tag with the plant’s name, color and growing preferences. It’s also fun to have each gardener show and tell a little about the plants they brought. This is a wonderful way to grow some memories in your garden.

Bulk purchasing always cuts costs. Bulbs, in particular, are a real bargain when you buy large quantities. But who really needs 1,000 daffodils? Get 5-10 friends and you’ll still have a large swath of daffodils in your yard, at a fraction of the cost.

You can also go in with a friend or two to buy an extra large plant, then divide it so that you each get a piece. This is a clever way to get pricey, unusual plants at a bargain price.

This is such an obvious money saver, it shouldn’t need to be mentioned. But it’s amazing how many gardeners let their garden clean-up go to waste. Even if you don’t have the enthusiasm to do more than pile it all in a corner of the yard, you will eventually have compost. Ditto those leaves you push to the curb in the fall. Dried leaves make a wonderful compost in as little as a season. Half rotted leaves are called “leaf mulch” and there is nothing like a layer of leaf mulch on your garden to attract earth worms and all kinds of beneficial insects and organism. That’s what nature does in the forest. And it’s much cheaper than bark mulch. Heck, it’s free.

We throw away a lot of things that could serve a purpose in the garden. Newspapers make great weed barriers. Shredded newspaper is even good at the bottom of containers, to help retain moisture.

Bottles of all sorts can be used to protect seedlings in cool springs. Yogurt containers are great for starting seeds. The cardboard rolls from paper towels and toilet paper can be used as cut worm collars....

And if you have a good salvage yard near you, it’s a great place to look for cages, stakes and unusual supports for climbing plants. You may even find some interesting containers.

Water is one of those gardening expenses we don’t really noticed until the bill comes. Yet a garden can go without water for long. A rain barrel has got to be one of the easiest garden tools to use. You insert your drainpipe into the hole in the barrel and wait for rain. They’re making it even more tempting these days with some very attractive rain barrels designed to complement different house styles and materials.

Re-directing your faucet or washer isn’t just a money saver, it’s a water saver. This is such a no-brainer in drought prone areas. It takes a little work and you’ll probably want to call in a professional, but the savings are long term.

Yes, this is a money saver. There are a lot of little pieces and it looks very complicated and expensive, but I promise you it is neither. All those pieces just snap together as you walk down your garden and lay it out. Even drip irrigation that is programmed to go on several times a day will use less water and money than a good soaking with a hose. Less water is lost to evaporation and less water is needed, because it is going straight to the roots on a regular basis.

Antique prices have gone through the roof, but yard sales are still a great place to look for bargains. When someone finally gets around to cleaning out their garage, tools, buckets, netting, pots, gloves and all sorts of things they’d forgotten they had because they’d long since stopped gardening are trotted out to the tables on the driveway. No one wants to drag it all back in, so prices are good and often negotiable. Or maybe you’re the one who should be having the yard sale. How many pruners do you need, anyway. Have a yard sale and designate the proceeds to your garden.

Houseplants Are Healthy

Did you know that the air quality in many of our homes is much worse than that of the air we breathe when we're out? Between the dust and fumes, chances are the air in your home could use a good cleaning. Trees and other greenery clear the air outside your home, but they work just as well inside. Try these tips for growing healthy houseplants and watch the air in your home improve.

Refresh Your Garden With Gorgeous Flower Beds
Even though Spring is still officially a month away, there's nothing like planning a garden to chase away the winter blues. So get started with this easy to follow guide to flower beds.

Consider a Cutting Garden
I'm one of those gardeners who hates to cut anything while it's in bloom. I mean, I planted it so it would look good in the garden, right? So I've started planting flowers with the specific intent of using them as cut flowers. It's still tough for me to cut them, but small steps. Whether or not you share my affliction, here are some flowers and tips for growing what looks great in a vase...read more

Do-It-Yourself Landscape Design

What Do-It-Yourselfers Need to Know About Landscape Design

Of what does do-it-yourself landscape design consist? To be sure, both "landscape" and "design" are common, everyday words -- not terms that would send you scurrying to a dictionary. But asking ourselves exactly what do-it-yourself landscape design entails for us is a useful exercise: by exploring all of its ins and outs, we may discover an aspect of this diverse field that we've been overlooking all this time. Call it "do-it-yourself landscape design 101."

Let's begin answering the question with a basic definition that considers both aesthetics and energy conservation. Further, let's call this a definition specifically of do-it-yourself landscape design, so as to keep our discussion distinct from professional concerns:

The art of arranging or modifying the features of the grounds around a home to improve the property from an aesthetic and/or practical standpoint.

This definition, however, raises the questions, "Aesthetic for whom?" and "Practical for whom?" The issue of aesthetics, in particular, is fraught with subjectivity. Frankly, what I find to be attractive landscape designs might not excite you at all. But this does not mean that nothing needs to be said about landscape aesthetics for the do-it-yourselfer.

You may have your own distinct tastes, but there are still useful guidelines to discuss that will help you achieve maximum aesthetic impact on your landscape. If your property is destined for the real estate market, please consult my ideas on home landscaping to learn specifically about sellers' guidelines; essentially, you will need to take into account the tastes of potential buyers. If, instead, you are landscaping simply to suit your own tastes, you'll want to keep in mind the general design guidelines for landscape aesthetics discussed in the following pages.

Practical Do-It-Yourself Landscape Design: Energy Conservation With Trees, Land Use

How will your yard be used? Do you have children who are active outdoors? Will you be landscaping with dogs? Do you yourself plan on using your yard for exercise, sports, or entertaining? Answering these questions will help narrow down the possible landscape designs best suited to your needs. Extensive lawn space is useful in a yard that will see a lot of social barbecues, badminton and ball playing. But if you are more interested in turning your yard into a retreat meant for serenity, solitude and contemplation, the role of turf grass may be reduced drastically in favor of trees.

The various aspects of practical landscape design are too numerous and too complex to discuss at length here. Undoubtedly, however, one aspect that warrants inclusion in any introduction to landscape design is energy conservation. A well-planned incorporation of trees and shrubs in your yard, as in the following examples, is an effective means of energy conservation:

· Deciduous trees can be planted to the south and west of a home to serve as shade trees, reducing summer air conditioning costs. Because such trees will drop their leaves in winter, they won't deprive your home of sunlight when you need it.

· Evergreen trees planted to the north and west of a home can serve as windbreaks. By breaking the wind, such trees will reduce your heating costs in winter.

· Likewise, shrubs used as foundation plantings can reduce heating costs, creating an insulating dead air space around the home. Plant the shrubs a few feet away from your foundation.

But after such practical concerns have been addressed, you'll still want to make your landscape design as aesthetically pleasing as possible. An introduction to aesthetics is as much a part of do-it-yourself landscape design study as is an introduction to its practical side. Page 2 begins by laying the groundwork....

Turning from functionality (addressed on Page 1) to the aesthetics of your landscape design, you first have some decisions to make regarding hardscaping (or "hardscape"), existing trees, and what you'll have as a view when you gaze out the window. Getting the hardscaping part of the project right will make implementing the softscape refinements relatively easy.

Two of the most labor-intensive hardscaping projects are the building of decks and patios. Yet as potentially large and beautiful outdoor living spaces, decks and patios are also two of the more common and rewarding hardscaping features. Other hardscaping features include:

If you were giving a room a total makeover, you wouldn't start by hanging pictures and arranging knickknacks, would you? Of course not: such fragile refinements would get damaged as you did the heavier work, such as stripping the walls and moving furniture. The way to begin a landscape makeover is not so very different, in principle. You do your hardscaping first, saving the refinements for last.

Hardscaping will constitute the heavier work in a landscape makeover, forming the backbone for your landscape aesthetics. Leave such icing on the cake as the planting of beds of perennial flowers for last -- they'll just be in your way during the hardscaping phase. Some basic guidelines follow for getting your landscape design project underway.

· Your landscape should be in harmony with your home, to ensure unity in the overall appearance of the property. One consideration influencing unity is proportion. Large trees are in proportion with large homes, but are out of proportion with smaller homes. When in doubt, however, leave the tree in place -- provided that it doesn't pose a safety hazard.

· Accentuate desirable views. If you live on a rural hillside with the potential for panoramic views of a valley and surrounding hills, you probably won't want your home to be entirely encased in trees that will obstruct your view. Don't cut down all the trees, though. Determine what your finest vistas are, clear the trees in just those areas, and use the remaining trees to frame those nice views. When set off like a picture by grand trees to the left and right, nice views become truly spectacular views!

· By contrast, you'll want to block out undesirable views. A suburban home with close neighbors is an ideal candidate for some sort of privacy fence. Privacy can be achieved via either inanimate fencing (i.e., hardscaping) or "living" fences. If you prefer living fences (composed of shrubs), your main decision is between planting a hedge or a loose border as a privacy fence. If you prefer hardscaping to screen out prying eyes, some of the options for privacy fences include the following hardscaping features:

With the hardscaping already in place, it will be easier later to integrate the softscape with it in a seamless fashion. In the case of some hardscaping features, complementary softscape elements are so commonly used in conjunction with them as to come to mind immediately. Let's look at these briefly.

Water gardens, particularly those with fountains or statuary, can supply your landscape design with a focal point. Because such a water feature is, by itself, so impressive, the softscape needed to make it a true "garden" is rather minimal. A few container-held aquatic plants would be sufficient to supplement your hardscaping. But certainly more elaborate softscape treatments are possible as well.

Similarly, in installing gazebos, arbors, decks and patios you are laying the groundwork to display your softscape elements in a more favorable light than would be possible without hardscaping. A vine on a well-located arbor becomes more than just a vine: it becomes a festive garland beckoning us to pass under its arch. Nor is building a garden arbor all that difficult. Gazebos, patios and decks are all excellent choices for showcasing window boxes and potted specimen plants. For more on patio construction, please see my resources on building patios. To provide an introduction to deck construction, I relate the essential steps in building decks elsewhere.

Now that the hardscaping is in place, you have a firm structure on which to build. On Page 3 let's shed some light on the next step -- literally....

Outdoor lighting extends the time that you may appreciate hardscape and softscape features -- namely, into the night. Outdoor Christmas lighting is a great way to spruce up your winter landscape design, winter being the toughest time of year to keep the landscape interesting. Not only are there fewer daylight hours in winter, but there is also inherently less visual interest on the landscape -- so you have to make the most of everything at your disposal, including outdoor Christmas lighting.

Nor do you have to restrict yourself to outdoor Christmas lighting, per se. A simple spotlight can do wonders. Picture a spruce tree, rising up out of a blanket of pristine snow, with a stone wall as a backdrop. By throwing a spotlight at night on this scene to highlight it, you create a winter wonderland.

Of course, outdoor garden lighting is what you'll want during the summer months. But for outdoor garden lighting, you'll probably want more subtle, decorative lights rather than spotlights. The idea is to be able to enjoy your garden more fully, rather than to show it off to others. You'll want to install a garden bench and enjoy the ambience while dining outdoors.

Here in the 21st century, we tend to assume that outdoor garden lighting means electric lighting. Laboring under this assumption, many people of modest means forgo the pleasures of outdoor garden lighting altogether; hiring an electrical contractor for the installation is just not in the budget. And most of us are sufficiently wary of the mysterious powers of electricity to deter us from undertaking such a project ourselves. But all is not lost. Don't forget that our ancestors lit up the night for millennia before electric lighting was developed. Don't laugh, but have you ever considered candlelight?

In an age surrounded by electric, the luxury of candlelight has taken on overtones of romance and serenity. This is just the sort of mood you're looking to create with outdoor garden lighting. Yes, you do have to take precautions when using candles outdoors. You don't want the wind knocking your candle over and starting a fire. But decorative glass candleholders are available on the market for just this purpose. Mexican tin candleholders are also sold for your outdoor garden lighting needs, and they're a great fit into a Southwestern theme. For an Oriental, meditative flavor, Chinese lanterns can be purchased in various colors. Any of this outdoor garden lighting can be hung from shepherd's hooks, available at most nurseries. Simply insert votive candles and close up the lantern securely. A few of these placed strategically around your favorite garden patch will light the area sufficiently to make for an ideal spot for a late-night snack in the spring or fall. For dining in the summer garden, add a few stakes armed with citronella candles.

Speaking of gardens, you have a decision to make in landscape design concerning how much space should be devoted to gardens, as opposed to lawn areas. To reflect on this matter, we turn to Page 4, which also considers various garden styles....

Now that your structural elements are in place and lit up, it is time to turn your attention to the softscape, and especially to garden designs. Typically, your softscape will include at least some lawn. But the percentage of your softscape to be taken up by lawn will depend partly on practical considerations, as discussed on Page 1, as well as on aesthetic attitudes. If a flat expanse of grass just isn't inherently interesting enough for your tastes, you'll probably want flowering trees (see photo at right) in your softscape, and you'll probably derive a great deal of satisfaction from choosing between the different garden designs to be considered.

· There are, of course, vegetable gardens, which are eminently practical. But do not underestimate the aesthetic potential of vegetable gardens. Evenly planted rows of leafy vegetables, for instance, can be very attractive. Cucumber plants can be trained up a trellis or over an arbor just as any other vine can.

· Another garden type that can yield aesthetic as well as culinary delights is the herb garden. The knot garden, pleasing to the eye for those who enjoy geometric patterns, is often composed of herbs.

· Cottage gardens typically rely heavily on perennial flowers. Evocative of the traditional English countryside of the peasants, cottage gardens represent the informal design style.

· The formal landscape design style has traditionally relied heavily on shrubs tightly organized into hedges, forming geometric patterns.

· Water gardens have already been mentioned. Other garden styles that rely heavily on a natural element other than plants are the rock garden and alpine garden, the latter being a rock garden planted with alpine plants.

· Westerners have become increasingly interested in Japanese gardens. Exotic Japanese gardens rely heavily on both rocks and water, as well as wooden elements.

Regardless of garden style, let yourself be guided by the principles that underlie all garden designs. It is easy to overlook one or more of these principles, then look at other people's garden designs and wonder, "Why do these garden styles look so much better than mine, even though similar plants have been used?" Very likely, the answer to this question lies in adherence to the principles of design. For a full treatment of landscape or garden design principles, please consult my article on landscape design theory for beginners. The elements that underlie the principles of garden designs, which are defined in that article, are as follows: