Gardening Services Guide

Archive for the ‘General Gardening Tips’ Category

Fall is an incredibly suggestive moment for every aspect of nature; the changing and warm colors of the trees, the intoxicating perfumes of the fruits and flowers are all responsible for the magic, hypnotic beauty of autumn. For lovers of flower gardening, fall represents a major and crucial moment, as there is an incredible number of plants that are ideal for fall flower gardening.

These flowers will give an important contribution to the landscaping of your yard as well as diffuse natural perfumes in the air and even offer small pleasures for your appetite. An example of these is represented by ornamental cabbage, kales and peppers; ornamental peppers will offer beautifully colored fruits and flowers which will be delightful to see and can also become a natural addition to dishes. Other very common plants that are a part of fall flower gardening are pansies and asters; while pansies are plants that bloom all fall into winter and in the spring (with bulbs), asters are perennials and will flower every year in the fall.

To start your fall garden, you have two options. You can choose plants that have a late bloom period that you know will bloom in your garden before the first frost hits (do some research on this). In this case, these flowers will have been growing all summer and have accumulated lots of foliage; you’ll need to either stake these plants or prune them. Remember, though, you delay bloom time when you prune plants.

A second option is to newly plant a fall flower garden as soon as you can before the fall. If you go to your local garden center at the end of summer, you’ll find a number of plants whose price has been cut to unload what wasn’t sold in the spring. Even though these plants look kind of shabby, don’t despair. If there are no bugs, take some of these cheap plants home and nurse them back to health in containers. Then, when temperatures are consistently cooler, transplant them into your garden and voila!

This last option leads to the inevitable question as to when you should start your fall flower gardening. If you live in a very warm climate, you could get away with planting your fall flowers, the annuals that is, the same fall you’d like them to bloom. But if you live in cooler climates, this isn’t going to work, because you won’t have a lot of time to enjoy what you’ve planted.

The answer is that there is no fixed answer. The opportune time to plant your fall flower garden varies from year to year, and you’re just going to have to try and take advantage of whatever small window of opportunity presents itself. For example, some summers are relatively mild and see a rainy period at the end of August; this would be a great time to plant your flowers. Other years, you’re just going to have to wait until September.

A wide variety of plants can be included in your fall flower garden, from tender annuals to hardy perennials. Obviously, the hardier the plant, the more likely it will survive the first frost and sustain a prolonged bloom. But even the tender annuals can be a wonderful addition to the garden, though their presence will only be felt briefly.

Marigolds are always a lovely addition to your fall flower gardening endeavor, blooming with classic fall colors, such as orange, yellow and gold. To continue with harvest colors, you could display orange and yellow nasturtiums and reddish-purple plumed celosia. For something slightly different, you can choose silver king artemisia and bronze coleus.

You can deviate slightly from the traditional autumn hues and go for some pinkish-purple mums or the New England aster, or something even more eccentric, the reddish-purple love-lies-bleeding.

Finally, some other good perennials which bloom in the fall include aconite, autumn crocus, black-eyed susan, goldenrod, phlox, ragged coneflower, sunflowers, Russian sage, tall verbena, and yellow wax bells. To complement your fall flower gardening experience, you can also add shrubs, vines, and ornamental grasses with striking foliage.

Indoor gardening for kids is fun and it can teach children a lot about how plants grow. There are several different types of indoor gardening children can try.

One of the easiest forms of indoor gardening for kids is the root-top garden. Cut the tops off root vegetables like turnips, carrots, beets and parsnips. If the leaves are still on the vegetables, cut them off, leaving half an inch of stem. Place the root-tops on a dinner plate, with just enough water to cover the bottom. You can make your garden more attractive by covering the spaces between the root-tops with clean pebbles. Put the plate on a window sill where it will get plenty of sunlight. Remember to keep the root garden well watered. Soon leaves will begin to sprout, and in two or three weeks you will have a leafy garden.

Mustard and cress are also great for indoor gardening for kids. Put a paper towel on a dinner plate and soak it with water, then drain off any excess water. Sprinkle some cress seeds over half of the paper towel. Cover the seeds with a dry paper towel or with another plate to keep out the light. Three days later sprinkle mustard seeds on the other half of the paper towel. Keep the paper moist, but not saturated. Cover the seeds again. When the cress is about half an inch high, uncover the garden and put it on a window sill where it will get plenty of sunlight. Remember to keep the paper moist. When the cress and mustard plants are three inches high, they are ready to be used for sandwiches or salads.

Use citrus pips for indoor gardening for kids. Take the pips from oranges, lemons, limes or grapefruits. Fill some flowerpots with compost. In each flowerpot, put two or three pips just beneath the surface of the compost. Don’t forget to label the flowerpots. Keep the pots in a warm, dry, airy place and keep the compost moist. In several weeks the pips will germinate. When the first shoots appear, place the pots on a windowsill where they will get plenty of sunlight. When the plants have two pairs of leaves, carefully transfer each one to its own pot. In a few months you will have little citrus trees.

Indoor gardening for kids can be done with many kinds of houseplants. It is important to read the instructions that come with the seeds or the plants, because different plants have different needs. All houseplants require compost, fertilizer, water and sunlight, but some need more or less than others. Spray the plants with water from time to time, and wipe dust off the leaves. You can turn any room in your home into an indoor garden.