Archive for April, 2010
Weeds are simply undesirable plants growing in the places you don’t want them. Even though they are undesirable, they insist on growing in your garden anyway.
The best of gardeners go through this, too. The good news is there are methods for reducing the weed problem
Weed your roses frequently and compost them. Weeds and roses compete for moisture, food and light. A weedy border will have poor air circulation, increasing the chances that disease will take hold. Watering regularly is helpful when weeding your garden. This keeps the soil moist enough that when you pull the weeds out, the roots will come out too. You can pull the weeds by hand or yo can use tools.
Mulching is a good idea too because it helps keep maintenance to a minimum. By mulching, your roses require les watering and it helps keep the weeds from growing. Plastic placed under the mulch will provide weed control for several years. In most home gardens, mulches supplemented with regular hand weeding or rouging (digging out the entire plant, roots and all) should provide satisfactory weed control.
Mechanical cultivation devices such as hoes must be used with care because roses are shallow rooted.
Weed killers are another option for getting rid of those nasty weeds in your rose gardens. However, you have to be especially careful when using them so you dont get any on your rose bushes.
Certain weed killers will not only kill the unwanted weeds, but they can also harm or even kill your roses. When using a weed killer, you will have to spot treat the weeds. This ensures you are only treating the unwanted weeds and not your whole garden.
So, whether you are a beginner or an expert gardener, remember that one of the most important factors to having a great rose garden is keeping it weed free. Remember to research the type or roses you are growing or wish to grow. There is plenty of information and tools out there to help you get started and help you maintain a beautiful, lush rose garden.
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April 26th, 2010
When you’re planning a vegetable garden, there’s more to consider than just what plants grow in your area. In fact, that should be your secondary concern as you get ready for your vegetable garden planting.
There are four questions you need to ask yourself before you even begin planning a vegetable garden:
- What do you and your family like to eat
- How much of these things CAN you eat
- How much space do you have for growing vegetables
- What grows best in your area
Taking these factors into account before you even begin will prevent you from wasting the food you grow, making vegetable gardening just that much more pleasant. After all, the sight of rotting vegetables after you’ve done all that work to plant vegetable gardens is never pleasant.
Vegetable Garden Planting:
Depending on how much room you have, you might consider vegetable container gardening. In fact, if you already have a flower container garden that grows a little tall, you can plant some herbs in with the flowers and make a border out of lettuce.
Green onions, carrots and herbs all make excellent vegetable container gardening plants, and are actually nice green plants to look at.
Also, when planning a vegetable garden, plan for the timing of harvesting your crop. Just because you get a million seeds in a packet doesn’t mean you have to plant them all at once. If you plant everything at once, it will all become eatable at once. Plant a few seeds the first time, then maybe a week or two plant a few more depending on how long it takes them to grow.
Hopefully this gives you some ideas to start planning a vegetable garden, and also how to do your vegetable garden planting so you’ll be eating fresh garden greens all summer long – and beyond!
For more good advice, check out Bartholomews All New Square Foot Gardening Cookbook: Taking the Harvest to the Table
April 20th, 2010
When I visited Epcot Center last month, I took a tour of the vertical gardening area and I was very surprised. They are now experimenting with tons of plants that can be grown vertical, saving space and water, so more plants can be grown in the same amount of space.
Vertical Gardening is not really a new concept. The first time I saw a vertical gardening plant was in tomatoes gardening. This was actually upside down vertical gardening, but it solves the problem of having to use a bunch of wire to hold the tomato plants up. The tomatoes gardening vertical concept has now been redesigned into a Revolutionary Planter for Tomatoes and has been improved upon to include a self watering system!
Most vertical gardens don’t grow upside down though. You can grow plants vertically on garden arbors, fences, a trellis, or other structures that make the plant grow upright instead of flowing over the ground.
Many times vertical gardening is used for vines. When growing vines this way, be sure to keep about four inches of mulch at the base of the plant to make sure the soil will retain water in the summer. Vertically-growing plants tend to dry out more quickly than ground flowing plants, so make sure to check them often for watering needs.
At first, you may have to train your plants to grow where you want them to (waterproof twine is good for this), and it may take a few years to get a nice vertical garden growing.
But as you know, you need to be patient when growing vertical gardens, or any other garden. In a few years, or months depending on the plant, you will be an expert in vertical gardening and can start creating shapes and forms that make your garden just that much more interesting.
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April 12th, 2010
It’s no wonder herb gardening is one of the most popular forms of gardening. Herbs are not only used for flavor while cooking, but some herbs have been used to treat illness. They were even believed to have magical powers. That’s why many people look for herb garden how to information and get pretty excited about growing an herb garden. That being said, here are a few ideas on growing herb gardens.
Planting Herb Gardens
Before you buy your herb garden seeds, carefully consider what type of herbs you want to plant, and how much room you will allow each herb to take up. Some herbs are like weeds and will take over everything!
Also think about what types of herbs you will need when growing herb gardens. Do you want annuals, biennials or perennials? You may have to test what works best for your space, but be sure to address this question and know what you’re buying so you don’t pull out something that would have come back next year.
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Before planting herb gardens, and especially square foot gardens, it’s a good idea to draw your garden on paper first. Make notes or separate the annuals from the perennials so when the time comes to pull out the annuals, you won’t be disturbing the perennials.
Many herb garden how to’s recommend planting Perennials on the edge of your garden so you can till it later without disrupting them.
Another thing to remember when planting herb gardens is to plant the taller plants at the back and the shorter ones in front. Also, provide your herb garden plants with enough space to grow – as we said earlier.
When planting herb gardens, consider planting the more invasive herbs in herb pots. The pots best for herbs are the large containers with three or more outlets for the herbs. Fill the planter up to the first outlet and plant, and then continue filling and planting as you get to the next spaces. Make sure to plant the herbs that requires the most water in the bottom hole, while the variety that requires the least goes in the highest hole.
Herb Garden How To Design Ideas
Here are a few different ways of growing herb gardens:
- Consider having a square foot garden herb bed. You can have your square bed divided into four by two paths crossing at mid point measuring 3 feet. You can border it with stone or brick.
- A wooden ladder can be used for climbing herbs.
- When using herb garden seeds, that wooden ladder can also be laid down on your garden before you begin planting the herb garden, then plant your herbs between its rungs.
- How about a wagon wheel bed for growing herb gardens? Lay the wagon wheel down and plant your herbs in between the wagon wheel’s wedges.
Growing Herb Gardens is one of the easiest things to do. But as with other plants, you need to be aware of effective drainage needs, sunlight, humidity or moisture and fertile soil. But even with just minimally meeting these requirements they will be bound produce a good harvest.
April 2nd, 2010