Hummingbird Garden Tips and Tricks

You can create a garden that is the perfect habitat for hummingbirds. They need shade for nesting, sun for feeding and plenty of water for drinking and bathing. Learn which plants and flowers have the best color and nectar for attracting hummingbirds to your garden.

First, make sure that you have the appropriate habitat ready. If you have a fountain or other water structure in your yard, this could be the perfect place. You will need to provide shade, as well as plenty of water, to keep your hummingbirds happy. They need to build their nests in the shade. They also like to use tiny mosses that grow around fountains and ponds to build their nests.

Mosses make great ground cover in shady areas. They are low maintenance and can give your yard great texture. Mosses grow best in full shade and humid climates. If you do not live in an area where moss can thrive, then you may want to provide materials for your hummingbirds to build nests. They like materials that they get from willow trees or eucalyptus trees. If you do not have these in your yard, then you can rub dryer lint or hair from your hair brush on the nearby trees or plants. Do not remove spider webs from your hummingbird habitat and they will use them for nesting, too.

Besides nesting materials and shade, hummingbirds need lots of water to survive. If you do not have a water structure in your yard, you can provide shallow dishes to catch rainwater. Hummingbirds will need water to drink and bathe. A soaker hose or regular frequent watering of your hummingbird garden will keep the moisture levels high enough for hummingbirds to live.

Next, you will need the proper plants for attracting hummingbirds. They check red flowers for abundant nectar before deciding where to nest. Tubular flowers generally have the most nectar. You can attract hummingbirds even when flowers are not in bloom by placing something red in your hummingbird garden. Paint a bench or chair red and place it in the shade. You’ll have a nice viewing area while attracting hummingbirds to nest. Some people simply use red planters or red hummingbird feeders to do the trick.

Plant perennials whenever possible so that you do not have to replant your hummingbird garden year after year. Like all birds, once you start feeding them, they will become dependent on you for food. Make sure that you fill a hummingbird feeder with one part sugar to four parts water during the times when flowers are not abundant.

Flowers are either pollinated by insects or birds. Each flower is designed to reward the pollinator with nectar. Since the hummingbird has a long beak, flowers with tubular flora are usually pollinated by hummingbirds and will attract them. Shorter tubes or flowers with tiny openings are usually pollinated by moths or butterflies. The flower will grow to the exact length of the insect’s tongue that needs to drink the nectar and pollinate the flower. The snapdragon will only open and expose pollen for bees because bees are the right weight to open them.

Using this knowledge about flowers, you can determine which flowers to plant. Choose based on which flowers that fit the bill grow best in your area. Remember to keep the area moist with frequent watering. Use a programmable automatic hose reel to make watering easy. You will be enjoying hummingbirds in no time!

About the Author: Stacy Pessoney is an award winning author and writer of web content for many different web sites. She is well versed in many different areas, including gardening, hose reel, lawn care and landscaping.

Grow Natural Fences

The most natural boundary you can have in your yard is a thicket or hedge comprised solely of shrubs or trees with texture lined up in a row. This natural fence can filter out noise, deflect wind, add privacy, and provide habitat for small birds and other creatures.

Use your house’s style as a starting point in deciding what kind of boundary you want to plant. Clipped branches all at the same height in a straight row like boxwood, for example, give a more formal look. For a more natural, relaxed look try using several different types of shrubs, even mixing up evergreens with deciduous. The advantage of this type of boundary is that it will need little maintenance except for the yearly pruning and mulching.

For more depth in your boundary you can plant two layers of shrubs with the forward row shorter in height. Try evergreens in the back with flowering shrubs in the front for interest. Another interesting effect is to weave evergreens and deciduous shrubs together like braids of contrasting color and texture. Some shrubs will take awhile to fill in and look full. The spaces can be filled in the meantime with fast-growing ornamental grasses.

The three major groups of shrubs used in borders are needle evergreens that remain green all year, broadleaf evergreens that loose their leaves when the winter is unusually cold, and deciduous shrubs that turn yellow and red in the fall and are a network of twiggy branches throughout the winter.

Some dependable evergreen shrubs are boxwood, Japanese holly, juniper, dwarf hemlocks and dwarf arborvitaes. Boxwood used in more formal types of landscape design, should be kept pruned three times a year. Japanese holly is very tough, flexible, and tolerates drought. Most have shiny dark green leaves and some have reddish leaves. Junipers come in a variety of sizes ranging in color from greenish blue to greenish yellow.

Some broadleaf evergreens are privet, nandina and abelia. Border privet is fast-growing and virtually indestructible. Because they grow so vigorously, they should not be used in a formal clipped hedge.

Some deciduous shrubs used in borders are burning bush, rosa rugosa and lilac. Burning bush is famous for its leaves turning red in the fall. Their leaves will turn a more bright red in the fall if planted in a place where it will get more sun than shade. Rosa rugosa bushes are thorny and root suckers. They bloom heavily in early summer and grow colorful rose hips in the fall. Lilacs grow tall and should be planted in the background if used in a tiered hedge.

Any one or combination of these will work as your living fence to border your property or be used in groupings throughout your overall landscape design.

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 attractive and healthy.

Mid-Summer Gardening Tips

Gardening in the spring is exciting and new. But, as the summer heat kicks in and the rains subside, summer gardening must begin. Some of your flowers are probably looking weak. Your garden may be looking dry and famished. Weeds have taken hold and many blooms have already seeded and died.

Do not neglect your garden at this crucial time. Clear out the dead debris. Some flowers can be deadheaded at this time and show more blooms before summer is over. Cut back roses down to the first leaf to encourage new clusters to come in before fall. Slumping stalks and browning flowers can be removed to promote new growth. Seeding takes many valuable nutrients, so removing dying flowers can reserve these precious nutrients for new blooms.

Vegetables need to be picked as well. Even if you do not plan on eating a veggie that did not quite turn out right or that got destroyed by insects, pick it anyway. It will deprive the plant of nutrients and water and can even prevent the plant from producing more vegetables. Pick vegetables as soon as they are ripe to avoid stunting the production of what you have left.

Add a layer of compost or peat moss to give your garden a mid-summer boost. Remove any weeds that have sprouted before they get a chance to seed. You can avoid breaking off roots by heavily watering the garden before you weed. If you do not want to get muddy, then use a small spade to weed. Dig deep enough to remove as much of the weed as possible.

This is the time when many plants get ravaged by pests. Japanese beetles, rabbits, slugs, potato beetles and more can chew up a lot of your foliage. These pests can eat up your vegetables or at least make your plants unsightly.

Try some natural pest control before resorting to chemical pesticides. Beer traps are a popular way of controlling slugs. Human hair mixed into the top layer of soil will keep rabbits out and also compost well. Potato beetles can be deterred by planting jalapeno peppers or horseradish between your potatoes. You can also cover the ground around the potato plants with hay, or encourage spiders and ladybugs to live around potato plants.

If you have Japanese beetles, you may have to battle them for a few years to get rid of them. Spread milky spore, or bacillus papillae all over your yard. The grubs will ingest the bacterium and die. Over the next couple of years, more grubs will ingest the bacterium and help spread the milky spore. Traps and other methods can sometimes attract more Japanese beetles without trapping them.

After removing dead flowers and withering limbs, clearing out weeds and combating pests, make sure that you water your garden often. Use a hose reel to make watering your garden an easy chore that you will not dread, even in the summer heat.

About the Author: Stacy Pessoney is an award winning author and writer of web content for many different web sites. She is well versed in many different areas, including gardening, hose reel, lawn care and landscaping.

Pruning and Dividing Flowers

Many flowers can be removed when they die or turn brown to encourage a second bloom late in the season. Removing dead flowers can also help prevent some plants from spreading when you do not want them to.

Most bulbs and roses can be pruned when the flowers begin to die. This helps to keep them from spreading if you have a specific pattern in your landscaping that you want them to adhere to. If you would like them to spread, leave the old blooms. This naturalization can help encourage spreading and a second bloom later in the season.

This is true of most perennials. After they flower, they use up a lot of nutrients producing seeds. By removing old blooms, you not only make the landscape look better, but you also help the plants to use their energy to make more flowers. Many people find that they can help plants produce more and more flowers by removing old ones promptly.

Some can be snapped off, some can be cut, and others need to be gently pinched off to avoid damaging new growth. This is true of marigolds and a few others that hold the growth buds directly under the old bloom.

Annuals will usually drop flowers on their own and then flower again before dying. If they don’t, then you can encourage them to bloom again by removing dead or dying flowers. Some hybrids have been introduced that will drop off by themselves.

If you have perennials that do not seem to be doing well, you can divide them into separate clumps giving them a chance to grow healthy again. After many seasons of being cut back, many perennials will have a lot of dead matter and old chutes in the center. Dividing helps new stalks and flowers to break free from the old clump and flourish once again.

Most perennials are best divided in early spring. They will have all summer to grow and establish roots. There are a few that are best divided in fall, usually ones that bloom first in the spring. However, many perennials do not survive early frosts.

The best time to divide is the spring or fall after the plant is as big and healthy as you want it to get. If you wait until it has a lot of small leaves in the center or weak stalks, then it can be harder to divide. Loosen roots as deep as possible to keep as many as you can intact. Then, cut from the top through the center into two halves or four quarters.

Replant and water liberally, taking great care to keep the roots moist and warm, but not hot. In the next few months, take care of your divided plants. Use a garden hose reel to make watering easy so that taking care is not a hassle. By dividing and removing old flowers, you can have a landscape that flowers beautifully year after year.

About the Author: Stacy Pessoney is an award winning author and writer of web content for many different web sites. She is well versed in many different areas, including gardening, hose reel, lawn care and landscaping.

Grow Your Choice of Gourmet Salad Ingredients

Growing your own salad ingredients in your backyard garden makes having healthy gourmet salads right at your fingertips easy! There are several lettuces and other greens that are fast growing and easy to maintain. The added advantage is that they also are very beautiful showing off different shades of color and texture. They can be grown in rows in your vegetable garden, planted in containers placed on your deck or patio, or edge them around a flowerbed.

Lettuce is a cool season crop, as are many salad greens and vegetables that go into a salad including spinach, cabbage, radish, and peas. Cucumbers and tomatoes being summer crops help bridge the gap. Many salad greens have different colors and textures. It is fun to grow a mix of lettuce varieties and this will keep your gourmet salads very interesting with different flavors too. For the best growth for the longest period of time keep the soil moist and well weeded. Once lettuce bolts into a flowering stalk, its taste becomes bitter and unusable.

The classic iceberg head type of lettuce is very crisp and takes a long time to mature, where the looseleaf varieties mature easily and quickly. Some looseleaf lettuces include salad bowl which is oakleaf shaped and lime green, red sails that are ruffled bronze-burgundy, and black-seeded Simpson that is light green and crinkly. Butterhead or bib (sometimes called Boston) lettuce forms loose heads that are soft (rather than firm) in structure. These varieties range in color from lime green to red or red edged to dark green. Romaine lettuce grows upright heads that shed water easily and grow best where the springs are wet. Forming barrel-shaped heads is Batavian or French summer crisp.

More salad loose greens to add interest and taste include arugula which has a peppery flavor, endive or escarole with a nutty and bitter taste, and mache which has a very tender and mild taste. Mesclun is a blend of several gourmet salad greens that can be mild, pungent, or bitter depending on what mixture you choose. Swiss chard and spinach both have smooth to crinkly leaves.

Other vegetables you can grow to add to salads are turnips and scallions. A Japanese sweet variety ‘Hakurei’ and the French ‘De Milan’ turnip variety can be sliced raw or shredded into your salad mix. Scallions, also called green onions grow in bunches and have no bulbs. These are perennials and their clumps just need to be divided. A variety of scallions called ‘evergreen hardy white’ even grow over the winters in Maine.

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 attractive and healthy.

The Vegetable Garden Season

When people think of their kitchen garden they think summer corn and tomatoes. But the true food gardener knows that the time span between spring and fall frosts is not the limit to the edible garden, From early spring to the last days of fall, with good planning, a garden can keep being productive. If you live where the winters are mild, you can actually keep growing several vegetables right through the winter.

The most hardy or cold season crops can be started from seed in early spring or as soon as the soil will permit being dry enough to be tilled. This variety of seed can be also planted again in mid-summer for a fall crop. Some examples of these vegetables include arugula, beets, cabbage, endive, kale, radish, Swiss chard, and turnips. All of these respond to cold and frost favorably making them taste sweeter and crisp. After all danger of frost has past, the warm-season seeds can be planted or transferred into the garden. These can also be started indoors to get a head start. Some warm-season vegetables are basil, beans, cucumbers, eggplant, squash, peppers, sweet corn, sweet potatoes and tomatoes.

Although the spring season varies from area to area, there is usually a period of time in which it rains consistently and heavily. This weather will drown or ruin any early seed planting. In order to avoid this fate, make a raised bed letting the water drain properly. And consider using cloches, tunnels or other season–stretching devices. By mid-spring the garden’s salad season is in full swing.

The summer kitchen vegetables thrive on the warm temperatures, intense sunlight, and long days. It is important in the summer to keep you vegetable garden watered every day. The plants need to be monitored by weeding and providing feed fertilizer when necessary. Several summer plants require stakes, screens, or trellises to lift them off the ground for better growing conditions. This also will help with controlling the insects. The vegetables that stay ion the ground for long periods of time will do well with a layer of mulch. Mulch helps with the weeds and will keep moisture in the soil. Both peppers and tomatoes benefit with mulching.

A way of extending the harvest season is in doing a succession of plantings. For instance, snap beans can be planted two times, same with kale. Plant a row of seed, and in the next three to four weeks, plant a new row of this plant. Or you might want to plant eggplant or peppers after the spring spinach has been all harvested. Broccoli or cabbage, both cooler season vegetables, can be planted after the radishes and lettuce have been harvested. As one plant bears all the crop it is going to give you, simply replace it with something else. In this way your small kitchen garden is capable of producing many abundant harvests and with a sufficient variety too.

After a busy summer of working in the garden, it is hard to muster up the energy to keep your garden growing into the fall, but it is well worth the effort. The cool nights will improve the quality of your vegetables. Most fall harvests taste fantastic being are much sweeter and crispier. Because the conditions have changed, it will take longer for your crops to grow. Adding about three weeks to the normal maturity date is usually a good rule of thumb. If you mulch and plastic tunnel some cool-season plants, you can grow hardy varieties throughout the winter in milder climates.

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 attractive and healthy.

The Organic Gardener

Organic gardeners are notoriously obsessed with their organic garden. After all, it is an endeavor that can take many years to perfect. The organic gardener has most likely spent more time studying about organic gardening than they have cumulatively spent doing it.

The organic gardener is probably very passionate about their compost. Getting that compost to the exact carbon to nitrogen ratio may become an obsession. With exactly the right amount of moisture and air, the compost will become black gold in the organic gardener’s eyes. Composting is almost a requirement for becoming an organic gardener. If you are in the organic gardening circle of discussion, you better know your stuff about composting!

The next major interest of organic gardeners is balancing pest control with leaving beneficial insects alone. Chemicals and man-made materials are strictly forbidden, so do not even think about using that ant killer to get the ants out of your garden. About ninety percent of insects are beneficial to your garden and some organic gardeners decide to let nature take its course and leave the bugs alone. But what if they are eating your vegetables? Then you really have to get serious about crop placement.

Crop placement is everything to the organic gardener. If you have to get rid of the hornworms eating your tomatoes, you would probably plant marigold around it. Garlic can deter Japanese beetles and so forth. If you are serious about being one with nature, then you will gently redirect bugs that inconvenience you with plants that they do not like. This leads up to the need for a garden journal.

The first time you plant an organic garden, you will probably have some catastrophes. You need to keep a journal of problems that you encounter so that you can prevent it the next year. Organic gardening involves a lot of advance planning and prevention of suspected problems. Keep track of the order that you plant your garden in and adjust it as necessary. Garlic, onions, basil, peppers and marigolds are common plants that repel most insects that annoy us or destroy our crops. Figuring out what bugs are annoyances in your area will be something that you need to ask fellow gardeners about or find out the hard way.

Getting your organic garden just how you like it may take you a few years. You will still enjoy the endeavor, the health benefits and the learning experience of going organic. You will not need to purchase fertilizer, pesticides or weed killers ever again. Using nature to support nature is rewarding and fun. Just get that hose from the garden hose reel and water. With a little studying and record keeping, you could have your dream organic garden sooner than you may think.

About the Author: Stacy Pessoney is an award winning author and writer of web content for many different web sites. She is well versed in many different areas, including gardening, hose reel, lawn care and landscaping.

Living Life while Relieving Arthritis Pain

There are a lot of things that you may not be able to do with arthritis pain. But there are some recommended exercises that strengthen, improve flexibility and even relieve arthritis pain. Incorporating these moves into your everyday life will make it easy to keep it up on a regular basis. In turn, participating in the activities that you enjoy can be not only therapeutic mentally, but physically as well. Just a few simple changes can help you live your life to the fullest.

You should talk to your doctor before trying any of these activities or exercises if you are not comfortable. No strengthening or flexion building exercise should ever be painful, so be sure that what you are doing is safe for you and will not worsen your condition. In general, badly damaged joints should not be exercised unless you are only doing exactly what your doctor or therapist told you to. If your arthritis is mild and only in the ligaments or tendons surrounding the joint, then some mild activities may help the pain. .

Most people find it hard to stick to a rigid routine of stretching and exercise. But, if you combine it with something that you love, like gardening, then you can really benefit without ever feeling like you worked at all. I mention gardening because it is something that many people with arthritis feel that they have to give up. This is not necessarily true. There are a few ways of doing things that can actually help make your arthritis pain better.

For example, planting your garden on an elevated garden bed will put the plants up at a level where you can reach it. You will not need to bend all the way over or spend long periods of time working in the ground. Elevated beds that are four or five feet across provide just enough distance for you to stretch, only slightly, while tending to your plants.

For watering your yard, flower beds or gardens, use a hose reel. Automatic hose reels will retrieve the hose for you so that you do not stress your back, hips, shoulders and hand putting away the hose. Some even have forward assist so that you do not have to pull on the heavy hose to get it to where you need it.

You may be thinking that the spray nozzle of your hose is nearly impossible to use with arthritic hands, and you are right. Get an automatic garden hose reel that has clamp on attachments so that you do not even have to screw them on or to the faucet. Some come with a clamp on fireman’s hose nozzle that has a handle that pulls back. Use the tips of your fingers to clasp and pull the handle. This replicates the stretching exercise most recommended for people with arthritic fingers.

Work with your doctor to find other ways that you can enjoy your life and incorporate stretching and strengthening into daily activities.

About the Author: Stacy Pessoney is an award winning author and writer of web content for many different web sites. She is well versed in many different areas, including gardening, hose reel, lawn care and landscaping.

Summer greets us with colorful blooms

Summer brings the widest variety of flowers of any season. Blooming begins with the daffodils and tulips in the spring; in June the roses open up; and from the tiny ground-hugging variety of violets to the towering lilies and hollyhocks, color continues to appear amongst the shades of green background throughout the summer season. Plus during the summer, you get the added pleasure of gracing your table with freshly cut flowers—every time putting smiles on the company who visit.

Like most blooming plants, the flowers of summer are the result of years of cross-pollination of wildflowers. The common white or red alba rose that still grows wild along highways and in fields all over the Northern Hemisphere, with breeding, has become the aristocratic hybrid tea rose. Because of this cross-pollination and breeding, flowers in our garden today have much larger blooms and bloom for longer periods than their predecessors. Some tropical annuals growing in temperate climates have shown up in northern areas as perennials.

In areas that normally freeze during winter, blooming flowers are such a welcoming contrast shining like stars in the summer garden. Because there are more of them in a greater variety than flowers for spring or fall, it's easier to assemble a collection that is right for your specific growing zone and your particular garden design. Shallow-rooted summer annuals can be planted in the spaces left after the spring bulbs die back. The summer perennials act as the dependable, low-maintenance anchors in your garden. Some summer flowers work well right beside your growing vegetables. For example, cosmos, marigolds, and sunflowers make terrific vegetable garden companions.

The flowers that complete their growth cycle in one season are called annuals. Annuals like salvia, ageratum and zinnias spring from seeds in the first warm days of late winter, develop dense root systems during the spring and then flower all summer long. If the plant is deadheaded as the blooms die, it will continue blooming until it produces seed or is killed by the first freeze. Several annuals will self-seed and are classified as tender perennials. For example, the drought-resistant black-eyed Susan will often be seen growing in the same spot for years.

Perennials are the plants that bloom again and again, year after year. The trick is planning the planting of them in places where their period of bloom will be replaced with another blooming in another place. So there will be a subtle succession of bloom in your garden making a perennial plant blooming always. Summer-flowering bulbs like alliums, true lilies, gladiolus, dahlias and cannas will continually bloom all summer long and appear again every summer. Some bulbs are tender and must be lifted each fall, stored in a cool place, and replanted in the spring. Some perennials like hostas, purple coneflowers and daylilies will grow spreading out and can be easily divided almost anytime during the gardening year to form dozens of new plants, sometimes within only a few years.

When planning a garden, start with summer blooming plants. Choose perennials as accents and annuals for the continuity of bloom. Spend careful time choosing your perennials that will bloom in profusion and succession. The hosta or daylily varieties will provide a succession of bloom, but they will need accent plants to add interest to the garden. Annuals, because they are annuals, can be changed each season with a different variety or color to spice things up. Change is considered good here.

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 attractive and healthy.