Winter Window Box Dressing

If you are lucky enough to have window boxes on your house, you know just how much fun it is to change your window box display. Many window box owners find they enjoy matching what’s in their window boxes with the change of the seasons. This keeps your house looking fresh all year long. It is important to have window boxes that will not rot as it is a place where water can get trapped, and they do need to be changed and cleaned out occasionally. There are many different styles of window boxes available today to choose from, so keep this in mind if you want to add window boxes to your house to join in on the fun.

In the spring and summer the task is very easy with many plants available in bloom. The difficult part is choosing which plants to fill your boxes with among the many choices. In the fall and winter seasons the task becomes a bit more challenging.

A favorite fall window box decoration is to incorporate a Thanksgiving type theme. This can be achieved with an assortment of pumpkins, squashes, cornstalks, mums and leaves with autumn colors in them. Use the reds, oranges, and browns to match the color of the changing leaves in your yard. Some plants survive the cold temperatures the fall starts to bring. Mums and decorative cabbages are successfully used in fall window boxes. For a nice trailing effect geraniums, petunias, and sweet potato vines can be incorporated. A good mix of both vines and colorful flowers can create a great combination in a window box. Try a flowering centerpiece such as a chrysanthemum or aster to create drama and then add an assortment of colorful gourds, small pumpkins and squash off to either side of the box.

In the winter you can decorate your window box with cut evergreens such as rhododendrons, holly, pine, spruce, fir and balsam. The rhododendrons leaves will add a smooth surface. The holly leaves will add a shiny surface. While the other cut branches will give a spiky or almost furry appearance with their needles. Use your creativity and mix up all the different textures and shades of green. You can also add some large pinecones, red berries from the holly, or orange berries from bittersweet branches for even more interest. As you place the greens remember that snowfall will top off your display occasionally. Try to stick the ends of some of the branches in left over soil that is in your window box, if it is not frozen already. This will add some stability to your display.

No matter what the season, dressing up your house with colorful, decorative window box displays is always a fun thing to do.

Dayelle Swensson is an avid writer for the web on a number of topics. Having gardened herself for many years, she is able to advise others about a variety of things including gardening tips, lawn and tree care, watering, hose reel and keeping your home garden looking good and healthy.

Some Greenhouse Tips

The most important thing you must do when you build a greenhouse is to brace the structure securely before winter sets in, especially if you live in an area that gets snow. When the snow load accumulates on a big structure, all your hard work can be destroyed rather quickly. Suggested support is to add 2-by-4 vertical braces to the framing as soon as possible to avoid any kind of disaster.

The next important tip is to provide adequate ventilation. If you plan to use your greenhouse for growing vegetable crops during the summer, you will need heavy-duty exhaust fans and roll-up sides. However, if your greenhouse is for the purpose of growing during the winter, all you need to do is just leave the doors open once in awhile to provide adequate ventilation. Any exhaust fan is superfluous.

Caring for the soil used in your greenhouse is as important as the air. Using compost is a good idea in that this will help boost the microbial populations in the soil. Mulches have benefits, too. They will moderate the temperature in the soil, conserve moisture and decompose over time to increase fertility. There are advantages to leaving the greenhouse soil fallow over the summer. Soil “solarizes” in intense heat burning off soil pathogens. Also, this practice will desiccate even the most die-hard slug!

Avoid over fertilizing with nitrogen. Especially in the low light conditions of a winter greenhouse, green leafy crops can accumulate unhealthy levels of nitrates. Never add nitrogen fertilizers in the greenhouse. Always use plant-based rather than manure-based (higher in nitrogen) composts.

Since the greenhouse is usually too hot for direct sowing in late summer and early fall, when most winter crops need to be started, a common practice is to start growing the plants for your greenhouse as seeds under grow lights in your house, perhaps in the basement. When they get too big for the grow bench, move them into the greenhouse.

Some greenhouse crops to consider are salad-oriented. Lettuces are quite resistant to frost, though not as cold hardy as some other winter garden plants. Chicories are an excellent choice to grow during the winter. If you’ve been turned off by the stringy, bitter taste of endives and escaroles you buy from the supermarket, be assured that the chicories grown in the chill and reduced light of a winter greenhouse taste sweet, and the stringy toughness is replaced by a delightful juicy crunch. Other cold hardy crops are the edible chrysanthemum and miner’s lettuce or claytonia. Scallions are also easy to grow in a greenhouse and a delightful addition to winter salads.

Green onion and garlic tops also make great cooking greens. Spinach is extremely cold hardy and several sowings can be made during the winter growing season. Crucifers including mustards, Oriental greens such as pak choi and tatsoi, and chard are all are tasty and nutritious. If you start your transplants early enough, loose leafed kale is an excellent crop for the fall-winter greenhouse. Brassicas that head such as cabbages and broccoli produce later in the winter large, tight heads grown in the greenhouse.

Dayelle Swensson is an avid writer for the web on a number of topics. Having gardened herself for many years, she is able to advise others about a variety of things including gardening tips, lawn and tree care, watering, hose reel and keeping your home garden looking good and healthy.

Keeping Your Holiday Poinsettia Looking Festive

Nothing says “Merry Christmas” like a beautiful red poinsettia in bloom. Poinsettias have been a part of holiday celebrations ever since the Mexican flower was brought to the United States in 1925 by the first U.S. ambassador to Mexico and botanist, Joel Roberts Poinsett. Their beautiful crimson flowers and green leaves bear the colors of Christmas proudly in a way no other houseplant can. Their place is so ingrained in American life and Christmas celebration that they even have their own day to celebrate the flower and Poinsett’s beautiful contribution: December 12th is National Poinsettia Day in the United States. With attention to several easy details concerning their care, you can ensure your poinsettia retains its beauty through the holiday season and even beyond.

Poinsettias enjoy sunlight, but not full, direct exposure. Your poinsettia plant is more delicate and will experience its best growth if its required six hours of daily sun are diffused through a shade or curtain to curtail the wilting produced by direct sun exposure. Moist soil is essential, so while your plant is indoors, water it daily or whenever the soil is dry to the touch. After the holidays if the weather is warm enough and threat of frost has passed, your plant may be moved outdoors, its daily water may be administered with your hose reel, but while inside, a pitcher, spray bottle, or any receptacle will suffice. While indoors, you must control the poinsettia’s climate, 68-70 degrees is the most suitable range for your plant to flourish and bloom. Common houseplant fertilizer may be administered once a month (not while the plant is in bloom) to make sure the proper pH balance of the plant’s soil is maintained. Though your poinsettia might look fantastic perched on a mantle, this is to be avoided as excessive heat and alternately, cool drafts are harmful to its health. Proper drainage is essential for your plant, for sitting in standing water is extremely detrimental to its growth and overall health, as with most houseplants. Whether in its purchased container or transplanted within a more decorative one, drainage is of utmost importance.

By following these easy maintenance tips, your poinsettia can add its beauty to your holiday arrangements, holding onto its red flowers as long as possible. You and your holiday guests will appreciate and admire its lush reds and greens, helping your home’s decor instill the spirit of the holidays to all who enter!

About the author: Jon Bassfarm is an Internet content writer who enjoys researching and writing about many subjects including hose reel and landscaping.

Choosing a Christmas Tree and Keeping it Green

As the holidays approach, many Americans are getting ready to decorate their houses in red and green, showing holiday cheer and providing a festive feel to themselves and their guests. As garlands, ribbons, and trinkets go up, sooner or later focus will hone in on the largest of holiday accoutrements, the evergreen, the centerpiece of American Christmas celebrations. Nobody wants a “Charlie Brown” tree that looks pitiful and undeserving of choosing, but selecting just the perfect tree for your holiday living room or den can be arduous and yes, is growing ever more expensive. Choosing your tree is only half the struggle, of course. After picking your tree and carting it home, you want it to last throughout the holiday, green as it was in its forest home, an even greater challenge itself.

Latest survey information shows that the most popular tree chosen for American homes is the balsam fir tree, also one of the least expensive at a price of $30 or less for a seven footer. But in the case of the balsam, cheapest does not mean less desirable, for the balsam possesses several characteristics making it an economical and attractive choice this holiday season. A balsam fir has the ability to keep its fresh, “green” fragrance, hold onto its needles stingily, and keep its dark-green appearance throughout your holiday.

On the other end of the spectrum, standing proud and tall, is the noble fir. Its name could be a tell-tale giveaway of what it will cost you at checkout: $100 or more for a seven-footer! The noble’s needle retention is one of the best, and its bluish-green needles are festive and thick throughout the season; a much more densely covered specimen than the more-affordable balsam. Both the balsam and noble hold onto their needles much better than the white spruce, the worst in this category. The white spruce will lose its needles soonest of all types of evergreens, though, its sharp, callous needles make it an excellent choice for cat owners. The felines will cut a wide swath to avoid the spruce’s sharp points.

No matter which type of tree you choose, before gathering it up and tying it to the roof of the “family truckster”, you need to feel its needles, making sure they’re soft, never brittle, and do not drop off at your touch. When you get your tree of choice home, make sure to cut the trunk off a few inches more than the cut made at the tree lot, exposing a fresh spot for the water to absorb, ensuring less needle loss and continued health. What most tree owners are not aware of is the trees extreme need for fresh water, nearly two gallons a day, in order to stay its healthiest. Your tree has been conditioned to the outdoor elements and the climate-controlled warmth of your living room can provide a shock to your tree’s system if not given adequate hydration, not from your garden hose reel, of course, but from a gallon jug or the like, emptied into its water tray each and every day. Ensuring your tree has ample fresh water will allow you and your holiday guests to enjoy your evergreen, its green needles, and fresh smell well into next year!

About the author: Jon Bassfarm is an Internet content writer who enjoys researching and writing about many subjects including garden hose reel and landscaping.

Lemons in Your Living Room

“Plant a seed and watch it grow”, isn’t that how the old adage goes? Often times, simply planting a seed does not actually ensure growth, prosperity, or a coming harvest; of this, all gardeners are aware. Growing plants from seed to harvest often requires patience, perseverance, and vigilant care. Some plants also require ample space to grow, and this fact often discourages budding gardeners that happen to be spatially-hampered, whether living in an apartment, condo, or otherwise yard-deprived home. The excellent adaptability and growing characteristics inherent to lemons can allow an indoor gardener to, in all actuality, simply grab a seed from a store-bought lemon, plant it in a pot, and watch it grow. This could be ill-advised, however, if, unbeknownst to the grower, the plant from which the lemon came naturally grows to a height of fifteen feet or more! For this reason, it might be a better idea to visit your local nursery to find a lemon variety whose growth properties are more conducive to your space and lifestyle.

An excellent, hardy variety of lemon which could be a perfect fit for your living room is the Meyer lemon. Meyer lemons produce medium sized fruit that are extremely juicy, and the plant itself exhibits white blossoms which are at the same time quite lovely and fragrant. At your local nursery, you should look for specimens that are currently container grown, indicative of their ability to adapt to this style of gardening at your house. Houseplants in general, grow most successfully in slightly-acidic soil, so a soil mixture found at your lawn and garden store with a slightly-acidic pH should work excellently. A well-draining container (the larger, the better) helps promote growth of your houseplant “crop”, and situating it in a sunny spot with southern exposure will be very advantageous as well. An advantage to growing indoors is of course your ability to exercise extreme control over the plant’s environment, even supplementing the necessary sunlight with an artificial light when necessary. Your lemon plant needs soil that is kept moist while not being excessively wet; this is why adequate drainage is required. Indoor plants are most probably not watered using your hose reel, but instead should be diligently watered using a misting bottle and pitcher daily. While bees would naturally help in the pollination of your plants outdoors, indoors, you will need to be the bee. Often your plants will produce fruit without your aid in this matter, but transferring of pollen from the male plant (with the stamens) using a Q-tip to the female plant (with the pistils and small fruit) will help ensure juicy fruits will reward your hard work in the future.

As your lemon plant grows, visitors will exclaim with delight at the fragrant smells wafting within your living room and line up to taste the fruit you produce in homemade pies, lemon bars, lemonade, and more!

About the author: Jon Bassfarm is an Internet content writer who enjoys researching and writing about many subjects including hose reel and landscaping.

Growing Grapes at Home for Beauty and Taste

Grapes have been grown and harvested by humans for thousands and thousands of years for their satisfying, thirst-quenching properties, and distinctive taste among fruits. Though grapes are grown commercially on large farms or vineyards for use in wines and jellies, they can be just as successfully grown in a budding green-thumb’s backyard garden. Besides their obvious taste factor, growing grapes can be attractive for gardeners due to their beautiful climbing fronds, allowing them to be adaptive to growing on walls and slopes, providing decorative properties as well. Whether for jellies, wines, or simply snacking, growing grapes for personal use is a well worthwhile endeavor.

It is essential to make an annual visit to your local lawn and feed store before embarking on your grape planting in order to find starts of the best varieties which grow hospitably in your area. Pick the brains of the friendly staff, tell them what your objective is, and they will surely be able to point you in the right direction of the starts you need. Pick up a couple of large bags of compost/manure to help your soil quality improve, grab your starts, and head home.

Grapes prefer full sunlight for successful growth. Frost is a definite factor when growing grapes, so a sunny, southward facing slope would work well. In order to prepare your soil for planting, it is necessary to work it intensively, removing all weeds. Grapes are deeply rooted plants so the soil must be loosened by tilling with either a pitchfork or machine to help ensure your soil drains adequately. While working your soil, introduce the manure and compost in order to make sure all the essential minerals are present to encourage growth. Grapes grow best in soil with an acidic pH between 5 and 5.5; hopefully you picked up a handy-dandy soil tester at the feed store as well. Raising the pH is easily achieved by simply working in enough manure or compost.

One or two-year-old grape vines will work best for your planting so hopefully some were available at your lawn and garden store or local nursery. It is best to plant them at the depth at which they were growing in the nursery, providing little change between the two environments can help promote successful growth. After forming a hole, spread the roots out inside the hole to encourage taking root in your soil. It can help to have a trellis or wall in place as your grape vine will enjoy climbing it, and training it to do so is fairly easy.

By taking care to remove pests and weeds while always watering your grapes adequately from your garden hose reel, your vine will prosper and reward you with a tasty crop for harvest for this and many seasons to come.

About the author: Jon Bassfarm is an Internet content writer who enjoys researching and writing about many subjects including garden hose reel and landscaping.

Consider Building a Greenhouse

A greenhouse gives the ardent amateur gardener the opportunity to keep on growing through the winter months. Since the soil doesn’t freeze inside a greenhouse, you can continue the satisfaction and pleasure of growing your own plants, flowers, and vegetables all year long. Discover what a joy it is to bring unusually fine quality to some particular specie or variety. With a greenhouse you can raise plants for setting out in the spring doing it easier and more efficiently than in a hotbed or cold frame.

A greenhouse attached to the southeast corner of your house is the most practical solution to the concept. This lowers the heating cost considerably. On sunny winter days the greenhouse absorbs a lot of heat and contributes this extra heat to the house making it an economical arrangement. You will probably find that your fuel bills will be no higher than before adding the greenhouse. Actually a greenhouse is one of the most valuable additions you can make to your property. If you want to be more self-reliant by raising more of your own food, a greenhouse can help you meet many of your needs and goals.

Start with simple components for your greenhouse structure. Most greenhouses are made from sheets of plastic stretched over a metal frame. Many kits are available with all the essential components. Some are styled so that if there is a lot of snowfall where you live, the snow will shed off easily. You can choose different priced parts according to how strong and sturdy you want your greenhouse to be. If your area gets heavy winds, wider pipe is recommended.

To resist ultraviolet breakdown, it also is recommended using 6-mil plastic that has been treated. Protect your foundation with as many applications of sealant as needed to last a long time. Pine boards sealed with several coats of linseed oil will last only about five years. For a more lasting foundation, install a single course of 4-inch hollow concrete block on a small poured footer, then lock a better grade 2-by-4 (sealed against moisture) onto the top of the block foundation using J-bolts pushed into wet concrete in the holes of the blocks.

Choose the right size for your greenhouse. Larger ones buffer temperature extremes better because a larger greenhouse will have a larger amount of thermal mass (in the form of soil) that is warmed by the sun during the day, making warmer temperatures linger through the night. Choosing a larger greenhouse is also a good thing because you will discover more and more things to do with it as the years go by. Usually buying a larger greenhouse kit makes more sense because you will pick up much more growing space for just a matter of a few more dollars.


Dayelle Swensson is an avid writer for the web on a number of topics. Having gardened herself for many years, she is able to advise others about a variety of things including gardening tips, lawn and tree care, watering, hose reel and keeping your home garden looking good and healthy.

Which Garlic Do You Choose to Grow?

Garlic has never been so widely appreciated and more than ever before garlic cultivators are available. This actually can be called a garlic renaissance. Among the hundreds of different varieties in eleven horticultural groups, garlic serves many different needs. Climate, growing practices and storage conditions all affect the way garlic performs. It is a matter of trying what works best for you. After some exploration, you will develop your own list of favorites.

The three basic kinds of garlic are Common Garlic, Elephant Garlic, and Hardneck Garlic. Appropriately named, elephant garlic has enormous cloves, but contains very little garlic flavor. Common Garlic is the white skinned type usually found at supermarkets sometimes called soft neck garlic or Italian garlic. The silverskin types of common garlic are the ones used for braiding found at farmers’ markets.

The bulbs of the artichoke types of Common Garlic have an outer white or off-white parchment skin. There is a row of decent-sized cloves around the outside with smaller, thinner cloves among the interior. Removing the skin from these cloves is not easy. The bulb is wrapped in many layers of parchment, which continues up to form a soft parchment like neck. These layers are ideal for using to braid all your bulbs together on a string to hang in the kitchen. Garlic keeps well and braiding it is a nice way to store it. Silverskins have a strong flavor with numerous small cloves. Their white neck is sturdy so they are well suited for plaiting. The Creole sub-group of the silverskin type is atypical because they have only 8-12 cloves, are mild in flavor, and have a rose colored outer skin.

Hardneck Garlic has many varieties such as Serpent Garlic, Stiffneck Garlic, Rocombole Garlic, Top Setting Garlic, Bavarian Garlic, Porcelain Garlic, and Purple Stripe Garlic. These garlics have stiff, sometimes thick, necks. They usually have fewer, even-sized cloves arranged around their center neck. The number of cloves run from four to twelve or so, depending on the variety. They are generally less reliable in changeable weather conditions (especially hot) than Common Garlics, with the exception of the Rocombole type.

The most distinctive of the three main hardneck types is Rocambole Garlic. The most significant property this type has is that it throws up a flowering stem, called a scape. Another difference is that the bulb has relatively little outer parchment skin leaving the cloves often exposed to being knocked off or withering. However because they have very little skin, they are very easy to peel. The tall flowering scape makes a twisting loop as it unfurls the head containing not flowers, but tiny little bulbils. Purple Stripe Garlic has very white, thick, bulb skins, streaked with bright purple. Some are strongly flavored and others are mild tasting. Some are ready to harvest mid-season and some are late maturing. They all store fairly well. The Porcelain Garlic variety has few (between four and eight), large fat cloves and is covered with a very thick and very white bulb skin. The taste of this garlic is usually strong.

Be guided in making your choice by the local varieties available. However, make sure they genuinely are local. A variety that is reliable in one location may be marginally reliable in another. Ask around and get the advice of knowledgeable local home gardeners.

Dayelle Swensson is an avid writer for the web on a number of topics. Having gardened herself for many years, she is able to advise others about a variety of things including gardening tips, lawn and tree care, watering, hose reel and keeping your home garden looking good and healthy.

Growing Garlic in a Home Garden

Growing garlic in your home garden is relatively easy. It does require care and attention. The simple maintenance is weeding because garlic does not like competition and watering. It is important to harvest on time and cure it properly.

Even though garlic will grow under a wide variety of soil conditions, it is said to prefer free draining loam with lots of organic matter. Therefore soil preparation could be building up your soil with green manures. A way of putting organic matter, nitrogen and other nutrients into the soil is to grow a nitrogen-fixing cover crop such as clover, alfalfa or field peas. When the crop is anything around a foot high till it back into the soil.

Under most conditions, garlic does best when planted in the fall. You should plant in time for the roots to have a chance to develop and the tops do not reach the surface before winter. If you live in a warmer climate remember that hard neck garlic needs to go through a cold period in order to start sprouting. If your soil temperatures stay warm, store the garlic in a cool, dry place for about three weeks before planting.

Shortly before planting garlic you will want to break the bulbs apart into cloves—a process called ‘cracking’. The cloves are attached to the basal plate, and from this the roots of the garlic grow. Each clove should break away cleanly, leaving an intact little mark on the basal plate. Take the larger cloves to plant. Set aside the smaller ones to cook with, eat soon, dry or to make into pickles. Each larger clove will produce a good sized bulb by the end of the growing season. The smallest cloves require just as much space, care and attention in the garden and produce significantly smaller bulbs. It is best to separate the cloves or crack the bulbs close to when you know you are going to plant, preferably within 24 hours. The garlic will be able to set roots quickly.

Garlic can be planted in single or double rows or in intensive beds with four to six plants across. Plant garlic in well-tilled beds with about eight inches of space between the rows and between the plants. If you have to plant with tighter spacing in the beds, you will produce a greater number of smaller bulbs. It is important to plant hard neck garlic with the top (pointy end) of the clove up, at least two inches below the surface.

After the garlic has been planted, consider adding a layer of mulch. Mulching is good to conserve moisture, moderates soil temperatures, puts weeds at bay, and deters rodents from digging up all your hard work. Mulching is not recommended in wetter climates where excess water can be a problem for garlic. Garlic grows best in soil maintaining an even moisture regime. Not enough moisture means that garlic does not develop a full sized bulb. Too much water causes the garlic to have burst skins and mould.

A few weeks before you plan to harvest stop watering the garlic. To know when to harvest, inspect a few bulbs in the ground. They can be harvested when the bulb has reached a good size, the wrappers are intact and have not deteriorated, and the bulbs have not begun to split open. Learning exactly when to stop watering and when to harvest comes with experience. Use a flat, narrow-bladed shovel to loosen the ground beside the garlic and pull the plants by hand. Garlic bruises easily so be careful. When left in the sun, harvested garlic can bake and will change the flavor of the garlic. Take each batch of harvested garlic indoors to be cured.

Dayelle Swensson is an avid writer for the web on a number of topics. Having gardened herself for many years, she is able to advise others about a variety of things including gardening tips, lawn and tree care, watering, hose reel and keeping your home garden looking good and healthy.

Shaping Your Rose Bushes

Pruning allows you to shape rose bushes to the desirable height and size making them compliment your garden. When you prune, you are able to encourage the production of large, long-stemmed flowers from hybrid tea roses or smaller but more abundant clusters from floribundas. It depends on what type of rose you are shaping to get the result you want to achieve. General pruning recommendations are used for hybrid tea, floribunda and grandiflora modern roses. Climbers, miniatures, ramblers and heirloom varieties have different pruning requirements and techniques.

Not only is a more pleasing affect achieved, the health of your rose garden is accelerated by pruning. Proper pruning consists of removing dead, diseased and damaged canes. By thinning canes from the interior of the plant, air circulation is increased and the possibility of some common fungal ailments such as mildew is decreased. By removing dead or damaged canes you increase the overall wellness and beauty of the roses and allow more of the plant’s energy to go immediately to its growth.

Typically you should wait until after the last frost before pruning your roses. In warm climates it might be as early as January or as late as May in areas subject to a late frost.

The main tool you will need for pruning roses is a good pair of bypass pruning shears. The clean cut made with these is beneficial when making precise cuts near a bud eye. A pair of long handled bypass loppers is necessary for large canes. The long handles provide extra leverage necessary to cut thick old growth. And, of course, a good pair of gloves is necessary to protect your hands and forearms from cuts and injury from thorns. Wearing a long sleeved shirt and long pants is also a good idea.

Before pruning think about the overall shape you desire for your rose bush. For many roses and gardens the classic “urn” shape promotes an appealing, full shape. Because of an open center there is better air circulation too.

The first cuts to make when you start to prune remove all the dead branches and canes. Dead canes are generally gray or brown while healthy growth generally appears green or red. As you cut into the canes if the pith (center) is dry and brown continue cutting further down until you reach a green or cream color. If canes cross or rub on other healthy growth, wherever possible, remove these.

Now you can start to cut on the healthy part of the plant contributing to its shape. Cuts at a 45 degree angle about ¼” above a bud eye should be made facing outward or in the desired direction of growth. Remove all branches thinner than a pencil because branches need to be a sufficient size to support your new spring growth. Thinner branches usually do not add to the overall shape you seek.

If you want more abundant blooms on smaller stems, leave most of the canes, pruning back lightly or about 30%. Medium pruning general removes more foliage, leaving up to 8 to 10 well placed canes, fewer on hybrid tea roses. The canes should be reduced to about one half their original height. This amount of pruning will work well for most healthy roses.

When a severe winter has left a fair amount of damage to your roses, heavy pruning may be the best step to take. Make sure to cut back the wood to where the center is healthy, living wood.

During the blooming season you may want to do some deadheading which encourages the plant to re-bloom. This allows you to enjoy new blossoms throughout summer.

And remember roses are resilient. Have fun and experiment to see what type of pruning works best with your rose garden.

Dayelle Swensson is an avid writer for the web on a number of topics. Having gardened herself for many years, she is able to advise others about a variety of things including gardening tips, lawn and tree care, watering, hose reel and keeping your home garden looking good and healthy.

Making Timely Cuts on Your Hydrangeas

Hydrangeas do not require annual pruning, but occasionally snipping these plants can improve their performance. Knowing if your shrub blooms on old or new wood will help you make the cuts necessary in a timely fashion.

The three most common reasons for confusion about pruning hydrangeas are the plant’s dead-looking appearance in winter, its failure to bloom in summer, and the fact that it is basically a shrub, so it needs to be pruned. But contrary to most shrubs, these woody plants can live long and floriferous lives without any pruning. In fact, hydrangeas pruned at the wrong time can cause them not to bloom. So take care as to when you prune. Pruning can be beneficial if you do not like the look of the fading blooms or your shrub may be a bit too tall. Pruning hydrangeas at the right time can improve a shrub’s vigor increasing the size of its flowers. In most cases, the flowers of these shrubs are the most significant reason why you selected these plants for your garden.

It is important to keep in mind that not all hydrangeas should be pruned at the same time. Shrubs that have blooms on old growth should only be pruned after flowering. The hydrangeas that bloom on new growth should be pruned in early spring or as they are going dormant in the fall.

To determine if your shrubs bloom on old growth, think about when it flowers. Do the blooms begin in early summer and slow down by midsummer with sporadic blooms appearing afterward? These shrubs typically form next year’s flower buds in late summer or early fall as the days get shorter. Prune just as the flowers begin to fade to reduce the risk of removing the buds. The earlier you get it done after bloom, the quicker the shrub can recover, rewarding you with more and larger blooms next season.

When a hydrangea gets old and woody, it can produce smaller blooms. It is best to regularly remove of a few of the oldest canes at the ground. This also can keep the shrub vigorous, productive, and at the height that is most pleasing.

If you determine your hydrangeas bloom on new wood, cut back these shrubs in late winter before the new growth appears. Shrubs that flower on new wood generally start blossoming later than old-growth bloomers, beginning in midsummer and continuing all the way into the fall until the first frost. These shrubs are forgiving, just do not cut when the flower buds are opening.

In late winter or early spring, these hydrangea shrubs can be cut all the way back to the ground. If you practice this each year, smooth hydrangeas will produce much larger blooms.

If your hydrangea branches tend to flop with the weight of the blooms, especially after a good rain, alleviate this by cutting the height of the stems to about two feet. This will provide a sturdier framework for new growth.

Dayelle Swensson is an avid writer for the web on a number of topics. Having gardened herself for many years, she is able to advise others about a variety of things including gardening tips, lawn and tree care, watering, hose reel and keeping your home garden looking good and healthy.

The Versatility of Hollies

Hollies have gained their popularity through being so very versatile. They have unique traits such as textural, decorative foliage, ornamental berries, and varied growth habit. Hollies also acclimate easily to many different environments. But just like good, rich soil, adequate soil nutrients, water, and sun, proper pruning is important to keep hollies healthy and looking beautiful.

Whenever you prune your plants, they typically send out new growth, so when you prune hollies is an important factor to consider. Susceptible to sudden drops in temperature and frost, evergreen hollies are best pruned in early summer. This will prevent the new growth being damaged by cool temperatures. After pruning, don’t be surprised if female hollies have fewer berries. The pruning process removes most of the summer flowers that develop into winter fruit. Pruning can give hollies either a formal shape or, with thinning, an informal look. Either look you create, pruning will keep your hollies looking good year-round.

There are deciduous and evergreen species of hollies. Some have serrated leaves and some have drop-shaped foliage, Female hollies provide festive fruit and male hollies are less showy.

Deciduous hollies such as Winterberry and Possumhaw need a radical pruning technique of cutting each year. Japanese holly, Inkberry and Yaupon hollies are rounded hollies which need to be thinned only in the first few years of growth. Formal shaping can continue throughout the life of the plant. Indeterminate hollies such as Blue holly, English holly, and Chinese holly need thinning and formal shaping throughout its life. Pyramidal hollies require thinning when they are young, but formal shaping is usually not necessary. Pyramidal hollies are the American holly, English holly, and ‘Nellie R. Stevens’ holly.

The three ways to prune are thinning, shaping, and radical cutting. Thinning consists of reducing interior by removing crossing or intersecting branches to a branch union. This prevents overcrowding in the framework of the holly and a better organization of branches. Cut parallel to the main branch to help hide the unsightly stub and make it appear natural. Shaping gives hollies a strong outline. Use a series of deliberate cuts that remove the end of a branch to a bud or leaf node. This process shortens the branch to create the desired shape but doesn’t remove it. The angle of these cuts should slope upward in order to conceal the stub. Radical pruning suits the loose form of deciduous hollies. Since they are vigorous growers, deciduous hollies should be thinned back every year in late winter to improve their shape and encourage new growth. Stems that are thicker than a thumb should be cut to the ground. Never remove more than one-third of the shrub. This type of pruning may seem drastic, but it is the best way to keep these hollies healthy.

General maintenance should always be done. Remove unsightly damaged branches. Any diseased branches must be cut and taken away from the property to prevent further spread or recurrence.

When pruning any woody plant, use tools with sharp blades. Bypass-blade hand pruners and loppers are ideal. Use a saw specifically sold for pruning trees and shrubs for the larger, thicker branches.

Dayelle Swensson is an avid writer for the web on a number of topics. Having gardened herself for many years, she is able to advise others about a variety of things including gardening tips, lawn and tree care, watering, hose reel and keeping your home garden looking good and healthy.

Growing Fresh Corn in Your Own Backyard

Everyone knows that corn tastes its best when it goes straight from the garden to boiling water to plate, at least those who have ever had the privilege of tasting truly fresh corn know this to be true. The corn bought at the local grocery has probably sat for a good amount of time, losing its flavor incrementally as it is held and not consumed. The sugar inherent to corn’s delicious kernels rapidly disappears after picking, turning to starch. Why not expedite fresh corn’s arrival to your family’s plates by cutting out the middleman (grocery store or market) altogether? Grow delicious corn for yourself in your own backyard.

The best site for your corn will also be the best site for many other of your garden’s fruits and vegetables: a spot that possesses nutrient-rich, moisture-retentive soil and gets a full day’s worth of precious sunlight. To ensure your soil is as rich as possible, it should be worked thoroughly beforehand, working deep within organic compost from either your own compost bin or your local trusted lawn and garden store. While at the garden shop, use available resources well by asking the local experts what variety of corn would work best to your particular climate and geographical location. After obtaining this helpful information, purchase corresponding seeds, compost, and some nice straw, for mulching and get thee home for planting! Corn’s growing season starts as the first signs of Spring arrive, at about a week after the last frost has done its worst. Soil temperature should be in the mid-fifties, so this could be sooner or later, depending upon where you might be located. When your soil is at this temperature, it is much easier to work and loosen for proper planting, so waiting will make the growing easier for your crop as well as the work easier on you, to work the soil and plant in it. Seeds should be planted into the soil at an inch below the surface, allowing for about five inches between each seed. Make sure to water your plants diligently each day from your garden hose reel, being watchful that water runoff is minimal, ensuring waterings are most effective. Soon your seeds will sprout, and as they reach about four inches in height it will be necessary to thin them a bit, allowing the healthiest of plants to remain, and to exist with about a foot of space between each. Mulching and fertilizing is advised to ward off weeds, pests, and keep valuable moisture within.

An inch of water each week is advised in order for your corn crop to remain successful. Excitedly, you and your family will watch the stalks grow ever taller, anticipating the flavorful kernels housed within each husk. Make sure to wait until husks are a dark green before harvest, allowing the cob to be fully covered with the juicy nuggets that are desired. From harvest to boil, remember, for the most satisfyingly delicious corn you’ve ever tasted. Growing it yourself will assuredly intensify the satisfaction and flavor as you enjoy your crop!

About the author: Jon Bassfarm is an Internet content writer who enjoys researching and writing about many subjects including garden hose reel and landscaping.

Seasoning for All Seasons: Grow Your Herbs in Pots

Gardening is a productive hobby that should and can be enjoyed by all, not only those who are backyard endowed. An exciting project for the budding gardener, and even children with a hint of green thumb interest, is growing herbs of various sorts in pots and containers. Container or pot gardening is extremely beneficial for city dwellers, as little space is to be had, and little space is needed. A fire escape terrace can be made oh, so much more inviting by adding a little greenery to all that metal. Small spaces are actually quite conducive to herb growth, making an herb garden an ideal candidate for one’s first foray into backyard gardening, especially if space is limited, as when there is no backyard at all.

If your household is one that enjoys eating well, and you and your family especially enjoys cooking, an herb garden should be especially attractive. Adding herbs to your favorite recipes, especially fresh herbs grown in your own little garden will only increase exponentially the wonderful tastes you bring to your dinner table each and every night. Depending of what kinds of cooking you naturally gravitate to, be it Mexican, French, Italian cuisine, etc., a special pot or grouping of pots can be tailored to grow for each style. Now for the growing preparations, because taste buds are growing impatient with all this tasty talk!

Find a pot or pots that have excellent drainage, because you never want the water added from your hose reel to sit in your potting soil, increasing the chances of mold formation. Your potting soil will need be of a high grade and can be purchased at your local garden store. While you are at your garden shop, of course, you’ll peruse the seed section, and find the herbs you require for your styles of cooking. Cilantro would add savory goodness to your Mexican dishes, and you can never go wrong growing basil or thyme because they add so much to a wide range of dishes from poultry to vegetables. Now that you’ve picked out your soil, pots, and seeds, it’s time to go home and get that growing started. Set up your pots, either inside or on your back terrace (fire escape will do nicely) and fill them 3/4s full with your high quality soil. Plant your selected herbs, water them nicely, and then cover them with a little straw or similar mulching material in order to keep the precious moisture in. Watering your herbs diligently each day, while allowing them ample, but never too much sun, will ensure quick and successful growth. In no time, you, your family, and lucky dinner guests will be reaping the taste rewards from your potted paradise!

About the author: Jon Bassfarm is an Internet content writer who enjoys researching and writing about many subjects including hose reel and landscaping.

Carrots, Different Colors, Shapes, and Sizes, All Nutritious

If I were a carrot, I would be up at arms; in surveys worldwide, it always comes in second to the potato in popularity. The potato is a delicious and nutritious vegetable, easily adaptable to many ways of cooking and varied recipes, no doubt, but the carrot’s virtues are plentiful as well. Like the potato, the carrot comes in a multitude of eye-pleasing colors: orange, white, yellow, red, and maroon to name a few. While carrots do grow in the wild, most are familiar with the cultivated carrot that most commonly makes its way to the world’s dinner tables. There exist several hundred varieties of carrots with over fifty different kinds of seeds readily available. Carrots are extremely rich in nutritional value and are such hearty growers; no backyard garden should be without them.

Of the two large subdivisions of the cultivated carrot, Eastern or Western carrots, Western carrots are the most popular grown and can be divided into three smaller categories by length. Short-rooted varieties mature the quickest and are harvested earliest. The most common commercially grown carrot variety is the medium-rooted type and the deepest growing, long-rooted variety demands the most thoroughly worked soil and requires the longest time to grow and mature before harvest. Depending on climate and geographical location, a particular variety may be more adaptable to your backyard garden. If growing in containers in an artificially lit, climate-controlled area, the only limits that could apply would be size and length of carrot, of course dependent on the room your containers provide. Thumbelina and Chantenays, both shorter growing varieties in both length and maturation, are excellent choices for spatially limited, container gardening. Chantenay’s taste especially sweet, with a brilliantly rich orange or red skin that maintains quite a crisp crunch and provides its eater with the essential Vitamin A needed for excellent healthy vision.

All carrots, regardless of color contain vitamins and minerals that are extremely useful to human health. Orange carrots contain beta carotene, processed by our bodies as Vitamin A, and is essential for healthy eyes. Yellow and red carrots contain lutene and lycopene, respectively, both helping fight against macular degeneration, lung disease, as well as a variety of cancers. Purple carrots contain anthocyanins that help with healthy heart functionality as well as aiding in blood clotting capabilities. Each color of this special vegetable provides necessary components to helping keeping a body healthy. Color of carrot is determined by variety, but deepness of color is affected by the amount of water added from your garden hose reel with more water lessening the richness of color the carrots contain. Water should be added faithfully, while never overwatering, in order to keep nutrition at its peak.

Proper respect should always be shown to the potato for its hearty addition to any meal, but for its nutritional value and aesthetic beauty, the carrot will always reign supreme!

About the author: Jon Bassfarm is an Internet content writer who enjoys researching and writing about many subjects including garden hose reel and landscaping.

Growing Attractive and Healthy Carrots Naturally

Whether for shredding over fresh salads, using in vegetable medleys or casseroles, or simply for healthy anytime of day snacking, carrots are one of the most popular root crops enjoyed and consumed worldwide. A hardy growing vegetable, carrots are excellent growers in nearly all regions of the world, and their fresh taste and snap are so pleasing. Carrots are excellent additions to backyard gardens and container gardens alike, so read on, to find the basics of growing delicious tasting organic carrots year after year.

Carrots, especially being that they are a root crop, enjoy and need soil that drains well and has a nice, consistent texture. Rocky or clay-like soil can be problematic, as deformations can occur as the carrot grows due to restraints caused by less than hospitable and inflexible soil. Before planting seeds, it is necessary and quite helpful to loosen your soil by working in organic compost either produced by you or purchased at your local garden store. Fully decomposed compost can add much needed nutrients as well as making the soil less static, allowing for quicker and more stereotypical root development, growing carrots long and ideally shaped. Rocks and chunky soil are enemies of typically developing root crops, so it is necessary to be diligent in keeping your soil loose and easily draining so that it never becomes an impediment to healthy growth. For some gardeners with unruly soil, it might do best to grow carrots in above ground, container gardens instead. Container gardens are especially useful as the gardener can more easily control soil quality, thereby ensuring a more successful crop. A deeper container is better, of course, for carrots to reach the desired length, and if many carrots are to be planted, many containers will be necessary; carrots require adequate room to grow.

Carrots should be planted in early spring, just after the threat of frost has passed. Seeds should be planted about 3/8 of an inch below the soil’s surface, in rows about a foot apart in order to leave you adequate room to tend to them and maintain adequate room for their growth. Add an ample amount of water from your garden hose reel to moisten the soil, but not drench it. Cover the planted seeds with straw and wait for the first growths to emerge. Straw or shredded bark will do its part to keep the soil moist. Make sure to thin your carrots as they grow, allowing for ample growing room for each plant.

By following these steps, a backyard gardener should be able to harvest three to four carrot crops a season, if a new crop is started once a month. Carrots usually require three months to mature, so space out your plantings, keep track of your harvest times, and grow, grow, grow!

About the author: Jon Bassfarm is an Internet content writer who enjoys researching and writing about many subjects including garden hose reel and landscaping.

Toads for Your Garden

Toads, the stocky little amphibians hopping around your garden usually sporting tan, gray, and brown camouflaged patterns so that they can stay hidden in the dry leaves or rocky terrain, are an essential part of the healthy ecosystem which makes your garden work best.

To attract this useful type of frog to your garden, you must build it up with mostly native plants. Native plants provide lots of food for toads, not because toads eat plants, but like all amphibians, they are carnivorous, consuming any living thing they can snatch with their long, sticky tongues and stuff down their throats. Toads’ most common prey happens to be insects and other invertebrates. Some large species tackle mice, snakes, and even other frogs. The native plants in your garden will bring in a healthy insect population that will keep toads very happy.

There are many species of toads. They generally have a dry, spotted, bumpy skin and short, thick legs with little webbing between their toes unlike the frogs that live in the water most of the time. Toads move around by walking and taking short, quick hops rather than massive, long leaps or underwater dives. Toads can range further from water for longer periods of time and survive in dryer ecosystems (like your garden) than other types of frogs.

Gardens not overly neat and tidy can provide good habitat for insects and shelter for toads. Remember that toads will help keep the garden pests in check. Toads are actually a far better method of pest control than toxic chemicals. These toxins just don’t kill insects; they kill or harm other garden life too. Amphibians as a group are extremely sensitive to toxins. Their dry skin readily absorbs chemical toxins.

The bumps on a toad’s skin are not warts, but are called parotid glands that produce toxins that make toads taste bad to their predators. And for the record, you cannot get warts by touching a toad.

For the most part, toads are terrestrial, but they rely on standing water for their eggs and tadpoles. If you don’t have a lake or pond nearby, create a simple garden pond. In your pond provide gradually sloping sides, plenty of vegetation and branches dipping into the water to allow the toads to easily enter and exit. Toads lay their eggs in long strings and attach their eggs to plant material. Other aquatic vegetation and underwater branches provide tadpoles places to hide from any fish in the pond considering tadpoles a tasty treat.

Another way of attracting these important little creatures is by making a toad abode to provide shelter. It could be as simple as chopping out a half circle at the rim of an old clay pot. Turn it upside down and the hole becomes the door to a toad’s abode. Place it in a shady part of the garden so the toads will seek it out to escape the sun and predators. Stack some rocks around it and plant some ground covers or ferns nearby, and it should become a place to savor on some insects too. Being one of your garden’s best friends, keep toads happy.

Dayelle Swensson is an avid writer for the web on a number of topics. Having gardened herself for many years, she is able to advise others about a variety of things including gardening tips, lawn and tree care, watering, hose reel and keeping your home garden looking good and healthy.

Maintenance Check on Rhododendrons

There is a common notion that rhododendrons can’t be pruned. However, with some easy maintenance, trimming, and removing of any dead or overextended branches, these plants respond well looking much healthier, fuller, and contained. After pruning and this kind of continued maintenance, rhododendrons retain a pleasing shape with dense branching, plenty of leaves, and more blossoms.

There are notable differences among the types of rhododendrons and how well they respond to pruning. The three common reasons for pruning rhododendrons are maintenance, shaping, and rejuvenation.

Maintenance pruning is the easiest type of pruning and only necessary once during a year. Basically it consists of removing spent flower clusters, called trusses, and also of any dead or diseased wood. The trusses should be removed because will eventually form seed, which uses the energy that would normally be going to the plant for vegetative growth.

You can either remove the unsightly, old flower trusses on rhododendrons by grasping the stem with your thumb and forefinger and snapping it off or using a pruning shear to snip the truss at its base. Occasionally the hands-on method causes the truss to break off too taking some of the new growth with it. By using a pruning shear, such accidents are avoided, but the shears might not be close by when feeling the urge to do some of this maintenance work.

Of course, branches damaged by storms or a harsh winter should be clipped from the plant, and any diseased stems, often identified by their wilted, curled yellow-green leaves, should also be removed. Maintenance pruning is best done when the flowers have faded and before the new growth rises more than an inch or so tall. Many types of rhododendrons can benefit from maintenance pruning, including some deciduous azaleas.

Pruning for shape enhances the rhododendron's natural habit and form. To shape the plant, follow the branch down to the last whorl of leaves you want to keep and cut just above those leaves. This action, in time will improve the overall look of the shrub as well as encourage denser branching making it more full.

With shaping the plant’s width and height can be controlled developing the most aesthetically pleasing aspects of the plant's natural form.
Shaping is most easily done in late winter, while the plant is dormant. Although this sacrifices some of the flower buds, it ensures a complete growing season for the new stems that emerge.

If you find a rhododendron with long, leggy branches without much vegetation or a plant that is just grown out of control and too large, more drastic pruning is needed. This technique is called rejuvenation pruning when cuts are made much farther back on the shrub. On the primary branches, make your cut just above a latent bud, or even better, a cluster of buds. In severe cases, you can sometimes cut your rhododendron to within 6 inches of the ground.

Severely pruned rhododendron many times come back better than ever. Rejuvenation pruning initiates the rise of vigorous flushes of new growth from previously leafless old stems. As the new growth matures into a new framework of branches it then can be reshaped into a beautiful shrub over the years producing many flowers. It's best to perform this type of pruning in winter, while the plant is dormant.

Rhododendrons are very forgiving, so do not worry about making a mistake while pruning. All three methods of pruning keep your plants the most healthy and more attractive.

Dayelle Swensson is an avid writer for the web on a number of topics. Having gardened herself for many years, she is able to advise others about a variety of things including gardening tips, lawn and tree care, watering, hose reel and keeping your home garden looking good and healthy.