It’s easy to spend a fortune every year creating a beautiful yard. These five tips can help save you money in both this, and future gardening seasons.

1. Plan your vegetable garden according to what your neighbors are planting so you can share your vegetables when they’re ready for eating. Often I’ve had too many of one kind of vegetable I couldn’t give away because my friend’s were ripe at the same time.

2. Select perennials rather than annuals for your flowerbeds. As they multiply each year, cut them back and exchange with your friends so you both have lovely gardens and save money at the same time.

3. Compost your kitchen scraps, as well as your coffee grounds. The end result is much better than any potting soil you can ever get buy from a nursery or hardware store. The price is right, and this is definitely recycling!
Read more

Here are several tips for creating a wonderful hanging basket or container garden. The first gardening tip is to use an artificial soil composed mostly of peat moss.

Good soils such as Fafard or Pro-Mix use perlite, peat, and other ingredients to produce a soil that will not compact over the summer.

Real garden soil compacts and turns into concrete under the pressure of regular watering. And when it does, plant roots stop growing because they require good open spaces to move into and absorb nutrients.

Hard, compacted soils do not grow good plants so do not use real soil in your containers. I re-use my artificial potting soil from year to year.

I dump it out of the pot. Chew it up with a shovel to cut up all last year’s roots and add approximately 10 % by volume of compost.The compost increases air spaces and gives plants a boost in healthy nutrition.

Read more

When the Vine Twines
Twiners - These are the type of vines that possess very flexible stems which twine around a support – an arbor or even a tree trunk, for instance – and examples of these would be wisteria, morning glory vine and hyacinth bean.

Root Attachment – These are the types of vines that attach its self – rather than twine – to walls, posts, roots or any adhesive disc for support. Examples of these would be the well-known English ivy and a number of forms of Virginia creeper.

Tendril – There are some vines that have modified stems or leaves that wrap themselves on supports; examples of these would be the popular passion flower – also known as clematis - and sweet pea vines.

Read more

If you find yourself bored with the usual assortment of flowers and shrubs in your latest landscape design, maybe it’s time to do a little experimenting by adding VINES to your garden.

Advantages of Having Vines In Your Garden

Vines are often overlooked as a lovely complement to your garden. Not only do they bring additional and much needed color and enchantment to your yard but also extra shade, screen and shelter when you wish to spend a quiet afternoon reading your favorite fruit.

Vines make maximum use of the vertical space in your garden; a feature you’d no doubt welcome when you’ve used up every inch of space of the soil.

What’s more, there are also a number of vines that can provide you with edible fruit, bringing your one garden one step closer to Eden-like perfection.

Read more