Growing an herb garden is easy. A lot comes up every year because they are hardy. Parsley and dill you may have to plant again every year. Basil, oregano, chives come up every years and do well in all kinds of soils.
Basil flourishes in warm soil and produces dark green to purple leaves and grows white flowers on 1-2 foot stalks.
Dill loves the full sun and produces blue-green feathery leaves and doesn’t require much care other than thinning. It has cluster of yellow flowers. After the dill has flowered gather the seeds for next year’s plantings by cutting the flowers and hanging them upside down over paper to collect the seeds.
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The best time to plant your flower bulbs is during fall. They need the winter chill before they are ready to flourish and bloom in the spring.
Spring flower bulbs have it in their genes to come back year after year and make for a luxurious display come springtime. They’re the earliest flowering plant. But what do you do if you want to plant spring bulbs when you’ve heard that they have to lie dormant for a time to winterize?
You’ll need to fool them. You can do that by putting them in the refrigerator crisper for 6 weeks to a few months to trick them. Use a ventilated bag keeping the bulbs away from other vegetables. When the soil temperature outside begins to reach 60 degrees, it’s time to plant them.
Make a hole large enough for the bulb and the roots to spread. Soft soil is better than hard ground when planting. Water thoroughly. If you’re transferring a plant from a potted plant, make sure the bulb is planted at the same depth in the hole as it was in the container. If you plant them early enough you should see them bloom. If you wait till late spring you’ll perhaps have to wait till next year to enjoy them.
Another idea is to force the bulbs in pots and planters. You can even give some away as gifts. The bulbs can be put into vermiculite to grow or a water medium with pebbles. Adding fertilizer to the water will help the plants grow and you should see green shoots within a few weeks. In three weeks you should see the first blooms appearing. Popular bulb plants are Tulips, Crocus, Hyacinths, Daffodils, Paperwhites, Amaryllis, and Narcissus.
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Roses need the right type of soil, sun and water. The best time to water your roses is early morning. Watered in the evening causes water to stick onto the leaves. Left alone it will eventually cause black spots and mildew to form one leaves. It can possibly cause mold.
Roses should be watered twice a week. If the soil is such that it doesn’t soak in fast, or at all, it is better to water your roses more often. Sandy type soil will not hold water as well as soil that is more clay based.
Also if the roots are deep on your roses, the more water you should be applied. When it gets hot they’ll need more water. All these common sense issues can be ascertained by observing the leaves of your roses. That’s the first place the water goes. The larger the leaf the more water it needs. If you see the leaves getting dull or wilting your roses need more water.
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Inter-planting vegetables usually causes something to suffer. Carrots do grow better with garlic and radishes but they grow very poorly with tomatoes. Seems tomatoes rob nutrients from the carrots. If you plant tomatoes with garlic, the garlic suffers.
Sun is one of the important ingredients to a successful vegetable garden but if half the yard is in shade and vegetables need sun you may consider container gardening. Vertical gardening let’s you stage many plants to take advantage of space. Tomato plants thrive in containers, but remember to help out with compost nourishment. Even in urban areas you can save kitchen and garden scraps in a compost bin.
You’ll find correlation between plants and insects. For instance, pyrethrum (a type of Chrysanthemum) in has been marketed in the West as a bug repellent since at least 1828, but the Chinese are thought to have used it for perhaps 2,000 years.
A full blooming thriving rose bush is a wonder to behold. There are over 5,000 varieties of roses in the United States so you have a huge variety of choices. Roses come as shrubs, climbers, creepers, vines, hedges or just as rose beds of pure color. See Award Winning Roses
First you’ll want to plan your rose garden according to what type of rose your planning to grow. Choices include climbers, tea roses or rose bushes. You may want to design around a color theme and fill in plants to plant around your garden. Complementary colors do well as eye-pleasers to fill in the gaps. Common favorite roses are the bush roses that are shrub like and the most commonly planted type of bush rose being the hybrid tea rose.
Other bush roses include polyanthas (roses in large clusters), the hybrid perpetual (vigorous growers with a great crop in June and continuous blooming throughout the summer) and the fioribundas (large-flowered polyanthas). Climbing rose bushes produce canes that require some sort of support. The climbers include ramblers with long canes for covering walls, fences and ground, pillar roses that can grow near buildings or on posts and the climbing hybrid tree roses.
Roses need around 6 hours of sunlight and ample drainage is vital to success. If the soil is poor replace it with topsoil, last years compost, mixing in manure and bones at the bottom of your bed will do well as a future source of rich nutriments for your roses. Bones take years to decompose and are a future source of nutrition. The best time to plant roses is in the fall, but most forgets and are left with the spring alternative.
The first thing you want to do is inspect the roots and trim back weak or broken ones and be sure to soak them before planting. Dig a hole large enough for the roots to spread out. The bud (the part of the plant where the top attaches to the roots) should be just under the surface soil. Hybrid perpetual and heavier-growing climbers like a heavier clay or loam soils. Teas and hybrid teas, bourbons like a lighter soil with more sand or leaf mold. Rugosas like sandier soil.
Most rose growers like the organic material. Before planting your roses, it’s best to prepare your beds months ahead of time in order to let everything filter out and settle. Plants should be spaced 18" apart. Prune any branches back to about 8" from the soil. Cultivate the roses by pruning and spraying. If you have a good bed chances are they’ll not need watering in the summer. But if they do in hot weather, water the roots thoroughly about once a week.
Spraying roses guards against insects and diseases. Make sure that your roses have good air circulation to prevent mildew. Roses are also susceptible aphids and a simple hosing will rid most of them. Nicotine sulfate also kills the green lice.
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Ever think about planting a "pizza garden?" A theme section for your garden can be a fun spot for everyone for all ages. It makes for a good conversation piece. For a pizza garden, plant foods such as green peppers, jalapenos, tomatoes, onions and a variety of herbs and seasonings like oregano, basil and thyme.
Another theme is a salsa garden. Organic gardening isn’t as difficult as many may think. Not only is it healthy to get outdoors and makes for a fine hobby, it’s relatively simple to grow a bountiful crop.
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