Video: Perennial Pruning Tips

This short video provides some tips for pruning your perennials, helping them to bloom more, or bloom later in the season, so that you can have a longer flowering garden. Some plants respond to pruning before flowering, and others should be pruned afterwards at the end of the season. For more on pruning your perennials in your garden, pick up a copy of Tracy's book, The Well-Tended Perennial Garden.

Fall Pruning Tips #1
We picked up some tips on pruning from one of the experts in the field. The fall is a good time to make those hard cuts for plenty of blooms this spring.

Backyard Landscaping Ideas

This time of year, when your garden has died down and you're thinking about planning next year's garden, is a great time to do a bit of landscaping, and map out a plan for what you would like your yard or garden to look like next time around. There are many different backyard landscaping ideas and most of them are pretty good but to find the one that is right for you and that is just what your yard needs may take a bit of planning and research.

Close up of hoarfrost and snow on several evergreen trees (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One good backyard landscaping idea is to use evergreens. The use of these fabulous trees will do much for most any yard. They will add a stately nature to the feel of your home while keeping it welcoming and warm. Many people like to use deciduous trees in the yard and this is great for some areas, but it is the evergreens that will give the yard the structure and the stability that it needs.

Deciduous trees will not be gorgeous in all seasons, most perhaps, but not all. Evergreens on the other hand are always fantastic and they look as beautiful in the winter as they do in the summer and this is why they make for such a great backyard landscaping idea. The key to any great landscaping design is to find ideas like this that will keep your yard interesting no matter what time of the year it is.

Another good backyard landscaping idea is to use hardscape. This is the use of things like rocks, fences and walls. These can make your yard look very interesting during all seasons. You can train climbing plants on these in the summer and spring, and plant pretty trees and shrubs around them that will look great in the winter.

Backyard landscaping underway! (Photo credit: ranjan.banerji)

When looking for a good backyard landscaping idea, look for other options besides just plants. There is more to landscaping than just plants and trees.

Walls and fences can frame your property beautifully and using them is a great way to accent your yard and home because they will just accent all of your other landscaping ideas. They will frame your yard as a picture frame frames a gorgeous painting. Try some of these tips to get your yard looking tip-top this winter, in preparation for next spring's growing season!

Video - Putting Your Garden to Bed for the Winter

Sadly, it's time for many to say goodbye to our gardens and put them to bed for the winter (unless you're practicing winter gardening, which I'll have more info for you on soon!). This quick video offers some tips for cleaning up your fall garden, and protecting perennial plants so they survive the winter well and come back strong in the spring.

How to Prepare a Garden for Winter
Lowe's shows you how to clean up your fall garden so that it looks attractive all winter. Also learn how to protect your plants so they weather the winter and come back happy and healthy in the spring. At the end of autumn or after frost, you need to...

Planting In Fall In Preparation for Spring

You may be aware that there are certain things you can plant in your garden in the autumn, in preparation for growing time in the spring. Very likely you know you should plant bulbs in the fall, and this is also the season for dividing and transplanting other things in the garden. You might know as well that you can plant many perennials at this time of year, so they are well established come springtime. However, perhaps you could use some tips for how to go about all these things, so everything is planted properly and all you need to do after that is wait for the spring reward.

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

First of all, if there's anything you need to transplant out of the garden and move inside, now is the time to do it. So the perennials that should be potted indoors over the winter should be moved before the temperature goes too low. This would also be the time to thin out or transplant things that you want to give away or put somewhere else in the garden.

To plant bulbs, do it about six weeks before the ground freezes. Make sure the soil is well drained. As a rule of thumb, plant bulbs three times as deep as they are high, so a two inch bulb would go six inches deep, for example. Be sure the pointed end points upward or, if you can't be sure which would be considered the pointed end, plant the bulb sideways instead. When the bulb actually starts growing, it will pull the right end upward as it does.

When you plant perennials, make the hole about three times wider than the root ball of the plant, and just deep enough for the ball. If you're going to add something to help with root growth, now is when you do that. As you set the root ball into the hole, very gently try to loosen some of the roots on the outside. Hold it steady as you fill the soil back in, and tamp the soil fairly lightly. After a good watering, put a three- or four-inch layer of mulch over the soil, leaving a couple of inches of space clear around the stem of the plant. Keep watering, enough just to keep the soil most, until the ground freezes.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you're planting seeds rather than partly grown plants, you need to be sure the ground is prepared and tilled properly first. Then scatter the seeds over the area as evenly as possible. And again you'll want to keep the soil moist, to give them the best start you can before the frosts arrive.

Even a lawn grows better when it's started in the fall, so now would also be the time to work on that if it's in your plans. The cooler temperatures will give the grass time to get its roots firmly established, in this time when it's not being encouraged to produce a lot of foliage. You should either seed a lawn or lay down new sod eight weeks before the first killing frost, if not slightly sooner than that.

It's kind of encouraging to think that a great many of your plants might already be planted and ready to grow when the spring comes. You'll have enough work still to do when the weather gets warm, so it's good to know you can get some of this done before winter. If you plant properly and keep your plants or seeds secure through the winter, your garden could be half ready in the spring before you even do anything!

What Type of Garden Should You Grow?

If you're thinking about starting a garden, the first thing you need to consider is what type of garden you will have. There are many different choices and often it can be hard to pick just one, but hopefully you can narrow it down. But by narrowing it down, you'll make the gardening experience easier on yourself and the plants. If most of your plants are similar, then it shouldn't be very hard to care for them all. So here are some of the main garden ideas for you to choose from.

Image via WikipediaIf you're just looking for something to look nice in your yard, you'll want a flower garden. These are usually filled with perennial flowers. Perennial flowers are flowers which live year-round, or which come back every year on their own. You could almost say they're basically weeds because of their hardiness, only nice looking! Different areas and climates have different flowers which are considered perennials. If you do a quick internet search for your area, you can probably find a list of flowers that will bring your flower garden to life. These usually only require much work in the planting stage - after that, the flowers mostly take care of themselves, and just require a little maintenance like watering and occasional fertilizer or mulching. The only downside to this is that you don't have any product to show for it.

Image via WikipediaAnother choice is a vegetable garden. These usually require a little more work and research than a flower garden, but can be much more rewarding. No matter what time of the year it is, you can usually find one vegetable that is still prospering. That way you can have your garden be giving you produce almost every day of the year! When starting a vegetable garden, you should build it with the thought in mind that you will be adding more types of veggies in later. This will help your expandability. Once all your current crops are out of season, you won't be stuck with almost nowhere to put the new crops. A vegetable garden is ideal for someone who wants some produce, but doesn't want to devote every waking hour to perfecting their garden (see below.)

One of the more difficult types of gardens to manage is a fruit garden. It's definitely the most high-maintenance. When growing fruits, many more pests will be attracted due to the sweetness. You not only have to deal with having just the right dirt and fertilizer, you have to deal with choosing a pesticide that won't kill whoever eats the fruits. There are a few organic pesticides, so you should do some research to find the ones that are safest for you and your family. Your fruit garden will probably not produce year-round. The soil needs to be just right for the plants to grow, and putting in another crop during its off-season could be disastrous to its growth process. If you're willing to put lots of work into maintaining a garden, then a fruit garden could be a good choice for you.

Image via WikipediaBasically, the garden type you will choose comes down to what kind of product you want, and how much work you want to put into it. If you're looking for no product with no work, go with a flower garden. If you want lots of delicious product, but you are willing to spend hours in your garden each day, then go for a fruit garden. Or for something in the middle, try a vegetable garden. And remember, you can always start small - don't let your ambition carry you away if you've never gardened before - start with something you can handle, and scale up from there as desired.

Happy gardening!

Helpful Gardening Resources for Flowers, Veggies, & Fruits:
   

Tips for a Great Flower Garden

We tend to focus more on growing vegetables here, as we believe this is such an important part of living a sustainable lifestyle. However, sometimes it's just nice to see some gorgeous flowers in your garden - they can really brighten your day and lighten your heart. So of course you can incorporate some flowers into your garden landscape! But knowing how to care for your flower garden can make a big difference in the look and over-all health of your plants. Here are some simple hints to make your garden bloom with health.

Image by Exothermic via Flickr1. The essentials must always be given consideration.

Your flower garden must have an adequate supply of water, sunlight, and fertile soil. Any lack of these basic necessities will greatly affect the health of plants. Water the flower garden more frequently during dry spells.

When planting bulbs, make sure they are planted at the correct depth. When planting out shrubs and perennials, make sure that you don't heap soil or mulch up around the stem. If you do, water will drain off instead of sinking in, and the stem could also develop rot through overheating.

2. Mix and match perennials with annuals.

Perennial flowers and most bulbs need not to be replanted since they grow and bloom for several years while annuals grow and bloom for only one season. Mixing a few perennials with annuals ensures that you will always have blooms coming on.

3. Deadhead to encourage more blossoms.

Deadheading is simply snipping off the flower head after it wilts. This will make the plant produce more flowers. Just make sure that you don't discard the deadhead on the garden or mildew and other plant diseases could attack your plants.

Image via Wikipedia4. Know the good from the bad bugs.

Many garden insects do more good than harm. Butterflies, beetles and bees are known pollinators. They fertilize plants through unintentional transfer of pollen from one plant to another. 80% of flowering plants rely on insects for survival/propagation.

Sowbugs and dung beetles together with fungi, bacteria and other microorganisms are necessary to help in the decomposition of dead plant material, thus enriching the soil and making more nutrients available to growing plants.

Other insects like lacewings and dragonflies are natural predators of those insects that do the real damage, like aphids.

An occasional application of natural liquid fertilizer when plants are flowering will keep them blooming for longer (but don't apply too much, or the plants may put more energy into their foliage, and less into new blooms).

Always prune any dead or damaged branches. Fuchsias are particularly prone to snapping when you brush against them. For some plants, the broken branch can be potted up to give you a new plant, so it won't be wasted.

Sustainable Gardening: Choosing and Planting Perennials

If you’ve been growing a vegetable garden for a while, you might be wanting a bit more showiness, as vegetable gardens alone can sometimes look rather plain (although you can certainly grow some colorful vegetables to add some contrast). The use of perennial flowers is a great sustainable gardening technique that can also be a great way to liven up your garden without adding a lot of extra work.

Image via WikipediaPerennial flowers are strong, local or native flowers that come back every year without having to replant or do any extra work. During their off seasons, the flowers and stems die back and you can hardly even tell the plant is there. When it’s time to bloom, entirely new flowers shoot up where the old ones were.

Before deciding whether to put in perennials or not, you need to make sure that your soil has proper drainage. If the soil stays saturated with water for long periods of time, you should build a raised bed. To test, dig a hole and fill it with water. Wait a day, and then fill it with water again. All traces of water should be gone within 10 hours. If the hole isn’t completely dry, you will need to build a raised bed.

Picking your perennials can be a complicated process. The goal should be to have them flowering as much as possible during the year, so you should create an outline of the year. Research the different types of flower you want, and create a timeline of flowering. If you plan it right, you can have a different type of flower blooming at any point in the year. Getting just the right mixture of seeds can give your yard a constantly changing array of colors.

Image via WikipediaWhen you go to buy the seeds from your local florist or nursery, you might be able to find a custom seed mixture for your area. This takes the really tough research part out of the job. Usually these blends are optimized for the local climate, and thus may be grown very sustainably - practically on their own. If one of these isn’t available, you can ask the employees what they think would be a good mixture. They should be happy to help you put something together which will be optimal for whatever you desire.

You should definitely use mulch when planting perennials. This will reduce the overall amount of work you have to do later on, by reducing the amount of weeds and increasing the water retention. Bark or pine needles work great, I have found, and depending on the rest of your yard you might have them on hand at no charge. As for fertilizer, you should use an organic fertilizer only sparingly once your plants start to come to life.

When you actually go to plant the seeds, you should put them in small, separate clumps according to the directions. This is because they tend to spread out, and if you have too many too close together then they will end up doing nothing but choking each other out. As you plant them, throw in a little bit of weak fertilizer or some compost. Within a few months, you should have a well-established variety of perennials, which will continue to decorate your garden year after year in a natural and sustainable way.