Planting flowerbulbs is one of my favorite fall gardening tasks.
I like to plant them on crisp, sunny autumn days, imagining how, in just a few months, my spring bulbs - colorful crocuses, tulips and daffodils - will brighten winter-weary spirits.
If you plan carefully, the show of bulbs can last from late winter to June. The beauty of spring-flowering bulbs is their incredible variety, in size and shape, color and bloom time.
In fall when the garden is still full of foliage from summer's perennials, it's hard to recall how stark the beds can look in early spring. So try to plant abundantly so your spring show has a bigger impact.
The big three for spring: Tulips, daffodils and hyacinths
If there's one bulb that seems to personify spring, it has to be tulips.
These bulbs are the ultimate visual spring tonic, and there are scores of wonderful tulip varieties to choose from. You can even go for the drama of 'black' tulips.
Next to tulips, daffodils are amongst the best-loved spring bulbs, and unlike tulips, their flowers are deer and squirrel-proof.
Beloved for their spring fragrance, modern hyacinths come in showy colors, and are easy to force for indoor display.
Other attractive flowerbulbs
Tulips may be the most popular spring bulbs, but there are many lovely, easy-to-grow, lesser-known bulbs.
More tips for gardening with flowerbulbs
When in fall to plant bulbs? Hint: not too early
Bulb planting: How and where to plant, squirrel solutions
Designing with spring bulbs: How to get more bang from your buck
Bulb leaves: What to do about daffodil and tulip leaves after blooming
Didn't plant bulbs last fall?
You can now buy bulb plants in containers and pop them into your garden at normal bulb-blooming time. So why not try bulb plants in spring?
They include windflowers (Anemone blanda), wild hyacinth (Camassia), guinea-hen flower (Fritillaria meleagris), Persian fritillaria, (Fritillaria Persica) and Bulgarian ornamental onion (Nectaroscordum siculum).
Fortunately, most of them are unappealing to garden menaces such as deer and squirrels.
If you're looking for easy-care gardening, many of these lesser known, unusual spring bulbs also naturalize well to come back year after year, spreading if they're happy.
http://www.flower-gardening-made-easy.com/flowerbulbs.html
Friday, September 05, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
August Gardening Jobs From Farmers Almanac
Compost should be watered during dry periods so that it remains active.
Prune only to retain the shape. Do not prune spring-flowering shrubs such as azaleas and rhododendrons.
Mid-August through September is a good time to transplant any shrubs that you've purchased with root balls wrapped in burlap. Make sure you get them in the ground two to three days after purchase. Do not fertilize until the second year, when the feeding roots have become established.
Lawns or bare spots reseeded with grass now will have a chance to get established before winter sets in. Water often and mulch with hay.
In colder regions, houseplants that have been outside for the summer should be brought in at the end of this month. A sudden cold spell will be too much of a shock for them to survive. This is also a good time to take cuttings.
You can still enjoy garden flowers indoors. Sow these annuals inside: sweet alyssum, dwarf marigold, browallia, ageratum, and nasturtium. Grow them in a moderately cool (60 degrees F), sunny window.
Plant fall-flowering bulbs now.
Two or three leaves should be left when cutting gladiolus, so that the bulbs can ripen.
This is the month for transplanting Oriental poppies.
Rock-garden pants should be checked to see if they need thinning. Overcrowded plants will not stay healthy or attractive.
Sow these perennials outdoors for next spring: aquilegia, Phlox paniculata, digitalis, centaurea, and primrose.
Hardy lily bulbs may be planted in the ground and left to overwinter outdoors.
Cut back the flower stalks of perennials that have finished blooming. Cut delphinium flower stalks to the ground, and a new, though smaller, flower stalk will develop. The flower will survive the coming cold days and even light frosts.
Lift, divide, and replant Japanese and Siberian irises soon after bloom. Transplant them to places where they will have "wet feet but dry knees."
If you notice a gap in your perennial bed between spring and fall blooms, visit a local nursery to see what's in bloom there and ask the experts for advice on what to plant.
The vegetable garden is likely to require daily harvesting now. Cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers should be picked as soon as the fruits are ready. This not only captures the best flavor, but it also makes way for new fruits.
Maximum flavor of herbs for drying is achieved by cutting them just before their flowers open.
Make sure that potatoes are not escaping into the sunlight. Hill or mulch them if they are.
Trenches of new asparagus beds should receive their final filling in this month.
Remove dead pea vines, bolted lettuce, and other plants that have gone by and add them to the compost pile. If they show signs of disease, however, burn them.
Separate melons from the ground with a thin board to prevent decay or damage from wireworms.
Cut out raspberry and blackberry canes that have just finished fruiting.
Most perennials outgrow their containers and require repotting every two or three years.
Check out all the great info the Old Farmers Almanac has to offer.
http://www.almanac.com/
Prune only to retain the shape. Do not prune spring-flowering shrubs such as azaleas and rhododendrons.
Mid-August through September is a good time to transplant any shrubs that you've purchased with root balls wrapped in burlap. Make sure you get them in the ground two to three days after purchase. Do not fertilize until the second year, when the feeding roots have become established.
Lawns or bare spots reseeded with grass now will have a chance to get established before winter sets in. Water often and mulch with hay.
In colder regions, houseplants that have been outside for the summer should be brought in at the end of this month. A sudden cold spell will be too much of a shock for them to survive. This is also a good time to take cuttings.
You can still enjoy garden flowers indoors. Sow these annuals inside: sweet alyssum, dwarf marigold, browallia, ageratum, and nasturtium. Grow them in a moderately cool (60 degrees F), sunny window.
Plant fall-flowering bulbs now.
Two or three leaves should be left when cutting gladiolus, so that the bulbs can ripen.
This is the month for transplanting Oriental poppies.
Rock-garden pants should be checked to see if they need thinning. Overcrowded plants will not stay healthy or attractive.
Sow these perennials outdoors for next spring: aquilegia, Phlox paniculata, digitalis, centaurea, and primrose.
Hardy lily bulbs may be planted in the ground and left to overwinter outdoors.
Cut back the flower stalks of perennials that have finished blooming. Cut delphinium flower stalks to the ground, and a new, though smaller, flower stalk will develop. The flower will survive the coming cold days and even light frosts.
Lift, divide, and replant Japanese and Siberian irises soon after bloom. Transplant them to places where they will have "wet feet but dry knees."
If you notice a gap in your perennial bed between spring and fall blooms, visit a local nursery to see what's in bloom there and ask the experts for advice on what to plant.
The vegetable garden is likely to require daily harvesting now. Cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers should be picked as soon as the fruits are ready. This not only captures the best flavor, but it also makes way for new fruits.
Maximum flavor of herbs for drying is achieved by cutting them just before their flowers open.
Make sure that potatoes are not escaping into the sunlight. Hill or mulch them if they are.
Trenches of new asparagus beds should receive their final filling in this month.
Remove dead pea vines, bolted lettuce, and other plants that have gone by and add them to the compost pile. If they show signs of disease, however, burn them.
Separate melons from the ground with a thin board to prevent decay or damage from wireworms.
Cut out raspberry and blackberry canes that have just finished fruiting.
Most perennials outgrow their containers and require repotting every two or three years.
Check out all the great info the Old Farmers Almanac has to offer.
http://www.almanac.com/
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Garden not looking its best? Yvonne Cunnington
Almost every flower border needs a mid-summer garden tune-up. By mid-season, chances are strong that the twin scourges of heat and drought have battered your plants.
If your annuals and perennials look exhausted with few flowers, lots of deadheads, and tattered and scorched leaves, don't just give up.
Treat your flower beds to a thorough weeding, cut back plants that don't look good, deadhead finished flowers, and fill gaps with fresh new plants, or pop a container into that bare spot. Also be sure to give thirsty plants a good thorough watering. With luck, your garden will look refreshed when relief appears with cooler fall temperatures and renewed rainfall.
Some annuals, impatiens and newer petunia varieties like the Wave and Fantasy series don't need deadheading and bloom until frost, but if they're leggy with fewer flowers, cut them back to half their height.
Perennials: For their mid-summer garden tune-up, shear back early perennials by half their height. Some, such as Lady's Mantle (Alchemilla spp), have fresh leaves under old ones.
Cutting back spent flower stems and browned leaves promotes also lush new foliage in rock cress (Arabis and Aubrieta), cushion spurge (Euphorbia polychroma) perennial candytuft (Iberis), creeping phlox (Phlox subulata), catmint (Nepeta), cranesbills (hardy geraniums).
A great resource for your mid-summer garden tune-up
The Well-Tended Perennial Garden: Planting and Pruning Techniques, by Tracy Disabato-Aust (Timber Press, 2006) is an indispensable guide to caring for perennial flower gardens.
Packed with maintenance tips and lists of perennials by growing conditions, need for regular division or not, re-blooming or not, and much more. Highly recommended!
For later perennials, deadhead when the seedpods outnumber the flowers or when the flower spike is about 70 percent finished with flowering. This encourages repeat flowering with some plants, but the second flush won't be as prolific.
Repeat bloomers include baby's breath (Gypsophila paniculata), campanula, coreopsis, delphinium, foxglove, purple coneflowers (Echinacea cultivars), perennial sage (Salvia cultivars), veronica, summer phlox (Phlox paniculata), and, of course, repeat flowering roses.
Diseased-looking or dead-looking plants: To cope with excess heat and drought, some perennials jettison their foliage; the leaves may be dried out but the roots are alive and ready for next season's growth.
The same applies to eaten by pests, such as hosta foliage decimated by slugs. To test if your plant is alive give it a gentle tug; if the roots hold fast, it should be fine.
The plants most likely to succumb to dryness are new plants that didn't have enough moisture to grow a wide ranging root system.
As for plants with diseases, for example, older varieties of phlox that get mildew on leaves, cut them back (don't compost, put in garbage); for next season, consider replacing them with disease-resistant varieties and slug-resistant hosta cultivars.
If your annuals and perennials look exhausted with few flowers, lots of deadheads, and tattered and scorched leaves, don't just give up.
Treat your flower beds to a thorough weeding, cut back plants that don't look good, deadhead finished flowers, and fill gaps with fresh new plants, or pop a container into that bare spot. Also be sure to give thirsty plants a good thorough watering. With luck, your garden will look refreshed when relief appears with cooler fall temperatures and renewed rainfall.
More summer garden tune-up tips
Annuals: True annuals flower, produce seeds and die, so a mid-summer garden tune-up that includes deadheading helps prolong bloom. This, plus regular water and fertilizer, keeps cosmos, geraniums, marigolds, snapdragons and zinnias flowering longer.
Annuals: True annuals flower, produce seeds and die, so a mid-summer garden tune-up that includes deadheading helps prolong bloom. This, plus regular water and fertilizer, keeps cosmos, geraniums, marigolds, snapdragons and zinnias flowering longer.
Some annuals, impatiens and newer petunia varieties like the Wave and Fantasy series don't need deadheading and bloom until frost, but if they're leggy with fewer flowers, cut them back to half their height.
Perennials: For their mid-summer garden tune-up, shear back early perennials by half their height. Some, such as Lady's Mantle (Alchemilla spp), have fresh leaves under old ones.
Cutting back spent flower stems and browned leaves promotes also lush new foliage in rock cress (Arabis and Aubrieta), cushion spurge (Euphorbia polychroma) perennial candytuft (Iberis), creeping phlox (Phlox subulata), catmint (Nepeta), cranesbills (hardy geraniums).
A great resource for your mid-summer garden tune-up
The Well-Tended Perennial Garden: Planting and Pruning Techniques, by Tracy Disabato-Aust (Timber Press, 2006) is an indispensable guide to caring for perennial flower gardens.
Packed with maintenance tips and lists of perennials by growing conditions, need for regular division or not, re-blooming or not, and much more. Highly recommended!
For later perennials, deadhead when the seedpods outnumber the flowers or when the flower spike is about 70 percent finished with flowering. This encourages repeat flowering with some plants, but the second flush won't be as prolific.
Repeat bloomers include baby's breath (Gypsophila paniculata), campanula, coreopsis, delphinium, foxglove, purple coneflowers (Echinacea cultivars), perennial sage (Salvia cultivars), veronica, summer phlox (Phlox paniculata), and, of course, repeat flowering roses.
Diseased-looking or dead-looking plants: To cope with excess heat and drought, some perennials jettison their foliage; the leaves may be dried out but the roots are alive and ready for next season's growth.
The same applies to eaten by pests, such as hosta foliage decimated by slugs. To test if your plant is alive give it a gentle tug; if the roots hold fast, it should be fine.
The plants most likely to succumb to dryness are new plants that didn't have enough moisture to grow a wide ranging root system.
As for plants with diseases, for example, older varieties of phlox that get mildew on leaves, cut them back (don't compost, put in garbage); for next season, consider replacing them with disease-resistant varieties and slug-resistant hosta cultivars.
Check out Yvonne Cunnington's site for great gardening tips.
Also Yvonne's book is a must have.. http://www.flower-gardening-made-easy.com/index.html
Thursday, July 17, 2008
How To Care For Your Lawn: Debunking Lawn Care Myths
Three Lawn Care Myths
Myths are abundant when it comes to caring for the American lawn. In this article, I'll address just a few in hope of setting the record straight.
Myth One: Chemical fertilizers and insecticides are necessary in order to get golf green grass.
In truth, using chemicals is not only unhealthy for us, our children, our pets and the environment, but it does nothing to build up the health of the lawn. Because these fertilizers act quickly, they can make an unhealthy lawn look better faster. Meanwhile, these chemicals can chase away earthworms, kill off the soil microbes involved in decomposition and soil formation, and cause tremendous top growth of the grass blades without allowing the roots to grow at the same pace.
For expanded organic thought, take a look at Chemical-Free Lawn: The Newest Varieties and Techniques to Grow Lush, Hardy Grass by Warren Schultz. It can help you figure out easy ways to keep your lawn green and chemical free.
Myth Two: The foundation of a healthy lawn is the consistent use of fertilizers and weed controls.
Not true. The foundation of a healthy lawn is healthy soil! What makes a soil healthy is its texture, structure and what's called soil life. A healthy soil will allow water, air, nutrients and roots to move through it with ease. It's filled with good stuff like microorganisms, worms and other beneficial life forms. Without sponge-like soil (that can soak up water and drain with ease) as your foundation, you will find yourself treating the symptoms (with weed controls and over-fertilizing), rather than getting to the "root" of the problem.
A great book to read to gather tips on soil is The Soul of Soil: A Soil-Building Guide for Master Gardeners and Farmers by Joe Smillie and Grace Gershuny. What's great about this book is they give important information about how to get your soil in top shape without bogging you down with overly-scientific information.
Myth Three: Watering lawns every day is critical (especially in the sweltering heat of summer) to keep it looking green.
If you have a sandy soil (test it with a soil pH meter to find out), you may have to water twice as much. Not only is it a waste to water on a daily basis, but it's also unhealthy for the grass. If the grass stays wet for too long, it becomes more susceptible to diseases and insects! Also: Use common sense and conserve water.
Note: I'd like to pay special thanks to Stuart Franklin, the author of "Building A Healthy Lawn." This book has been helpful to me over the years in understanding good lawn-care practices.
Myths are abundant when it comes to caring for the American lawn. In this article, I'll address just a few in hope of setting the record straight.
Myth One: Chemical fertilizers and insecticides are necessary in order to get golf green grass.
In truth, using chemicals is not only unhealthy for us, our children, our pets and the environment, but it does nothing to build up the health of the lawn. Because these fertilizers act quickly, they can make an unhealthy lawn look better faster. Meanwhile, these chemicals can chase away earthworms, kill off the soil microbes involved in decomposition and soil formation, and cause tremendous top growth of the grass blades without allowing the roots to grow at the same pace.
For expanded organic thought, take a look at Chemical-Free Lawn: The Newest Varieties and Techniques to Grow Lush, Hardy Grass by Warren Schultz. It can help you figure out easy ways to keep your lawn green and chemical free.
Myth Two: The foundation of a healthy lawn is the consistent use of fertilizers and weed controls.
Not true. The foundation of a healthy lawn is healthy soil! What makes a soil healthy is its texture, structure and what's called soil life. A healthy soil will allow water, air, nutrients and roots to move through it with ease. It's filled with good stuff like microorganisms, worms and other beneficial life forms. Without sponge-like soil (that can soak up water and drain with ease) as your foundation, you will find yourself treating the symptoms (with weed controls and over-fertilizing), rather than getting to the "root" of the problem.
A great book to read to gather tips on soil is The Soul of Soil: A Soil-Building Guide for Master Gardeners and Farmers by Joe Smillie and Grace Gershuny. What's great about this book is they give important information about how to get your soil in top shape without bogging you down with overly-scientific information.
Myth Three: Watering lawns every day is critical (especially in the sweltering heat of summer) to keep it looking green.
If you have a sandy soil (test it with a soil pH meter to find out), you may have to water twice as much. Not only is it a waste to water on a daily basis, but it's also unhealthy for the grass. If the grass stays wet for too long, it becomes more susceptible to diseases and insects! Also: Use common sense and conserve water.
Note: I'd like to pay special thanks to Stuart Franklin, the author of "Building A Healthy Lawn." This book has been helpful to me over the years in understanding good lawn-care practices.
Friday, July 11, 2008
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