Replanting Your Christmas Memory

What a sad sight it is to see suburban cul-de-sacs and streets post-Christmas, with the “carcasses” of evergreens waiting to go to the landfill. More progressive and forward thinking cities, thankfully, at least, supposedly, deposit these into compostable piles along with the yard and kitchen waste that is regularly collected. Many cities simply toss these once stately, green holiday stalwarts on a pile to be crushed along with last year’s wrapping paper and refuse; piles that grow higher every year, in landfills that are doubling and tripling in size.

A more Earth-conscious alternative for many has emerged from the current trend of “green-mindedness”, namely, replanting that evergreen in lawn or garden, to (hopefully) continue its growth and add beauty and Christmas memories to your home’s landscape for many years to come. This, though not the easiest of tasks, is worthy of the attempt, as the sight of your stately tree will bring joy to your family and visitors alike, as retelling of “that special Christmas when…” goes on indefinitely.

After the holidays have passed, and provided your tree has survived its indoor environment by receiving adequate water to its base, find a place on your lawn where your holiday friend can grow and prosper. Remember of course, that if and when it grows, it will take up more and more space, so choose wisely, as moving it again will probably provide undue stress and harm to your tree. Some of the varieties of Christmas trees that are often replanted successfully are fir, spruce and pine, so choosing one of these trees is highly recommended if your chosen path is replanting instead of disposing after holiday celebrations. Replanting a tree is really only a viable option provided you have made the conscious choice of purchasing a living tree to begin with; one with root ball intact, wrapped in burlap, and readied for replanting. A tree that has been hacked at the base, most probably, will perish over the holidays and will have no hope of growing in the wild. To transition your living tree back to its outdoor climate, it is helpful to place it in a medium-cool, interim resting-place such as a garage or outbuilding. In this manner, your tree can become better acclimated to its new (again) outdoor environment. It is then necessary to dig a hole in your chosen spot, nearly twice as large as the tree’s fragile root ball, and then, carefully lower it into place within. Remove the burlap from the roots and water the roots thoroughly with your hose from the garden hose reel. Recover the tree’s roots with the soil removed, and your tree will be on its way. Watering your tree twice weekly will help ensure it gets adequate moisture for growth; fertilizer can be added as well to provide more nutrients to its soil.

By replanting your Christmas tree, you are making a choice to conserve and recycle, continuing the giving spirit of Christmas and “transplanting” it into your daily landscape.

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

Watch the Show: Grow a Venus Fly Trap!

Okay, all you “Little Shop of Horrors” fans out there, this article’s for you! Just kidding. Of course many gardeners, musical fans or not, might enjoy the subject of this entry, namely, the Venus Flytrap. The Venus Flytrap is such an amazing plant due to its carnivorous nature. Excitingly, an owner or visitor with a watchful eye can actually view the flytrap in action. Its color and scent it gives off act as a magnet for unsuspecting flying insects. Inside the mouth of the plant, there are several hairs that act as triggers, alerting the green carnivore when touched by a tasty intruder. When a fly or other insect touches two of those hairs, the “jaws” of the plant close, trapping its prey. The Venus Flytrap is indigenous to North and South Carolina in the United States, but with the proper environment, can be grown and admired anywhere.

Flytraps do need a warm and humid climate to thrive and grow, so unless this is true where you live, you will need to grow your plant indoors instead of out. A controlled environment like a terrarium will suffice, and is necessary to begin growing a flytrap even if transferring it outdoors at a later time. When outdoors, your garden hose reel can supply the necessary water, but indoors, a checking of the soil by touch, and often will be necessary. Also, tap water is extremely harmful to the finicky flytrap, so if outside, attach your hose to a rain barrel that collects the rain water as it falls to be administered later to your flytrap. Indoors, bottled water will work sufficiently or take some from your outdoor rain barrel or other rain-capturing receptacle for later use. Transferring your purchased plant from its pot to your terrarium or outside spot if climate permits, is very much like transferring any other houseplant. You must make sure to take the entire root system with as little handling or disturbing as possible. A peat moss and sand mixture will work best as the moss absorbs water and the sand drains well. If encased in a terrarium, it will be necessary to spray the soil each day to keep it moist; if outside, it is good to keep a dish of water underneath your Venus, and simply keep that dish filled, and sprinkle water from it daily over the plant soil’s surface. Your flytrap will flower each year because the Venus self-pollinates. As your plant grows and matures, new bulbs with “mouths” will form and can be transferred to new pots or left together, your choice.

You will find the Venus Flytrap to be the most interesting plant you’ve ever grown, and will most likely look to grow more of them, intrigued by their unique nature. If taken care of, your flytrap will live up to a decade and beyond.


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

Get Rid of Dandelions? No, Grow Them and Eat Them!

Don’t worry that your neighbors will think you’re crazy. Just tell them that your favorite color is yellow or that you’re a horrible gardener and want some success in growing something. While most all of your neighbors are doing their best to rid their yards of dandelions, you will be the lone pioneer, watering them from your garden hose reel, nurturing their growth, and being the sole beneficiary of their medicinal and nutritious worth, that is, until your neighbors catch on.

My four year old son is simply fascinated (as we all were) and enthralled with the fun of blowing the wispy seeds of dandelions into the air. At first, I would admonish him, beg him to cease, telling him that the seeds would produce weeds and not flowers, that we wanted to remove them from our yard, not propagate them. He could only see that the yellow flowers, to him, were pretty, and couldn’t disagree more with their “weediness”. So I performed some research. I remembered distinctly, being from the South, my grandmother, “Mamaw”, using dandelions in salads, combining it with several other “weeds” to make delicious, hearty, and inexpensive fare for us all. I wondered if that was simply frugal cooking, or if there was actually some nutritional value in these yellow-headed scourges dominating my otherwise lush, green lawn. Surprisingly enough, “Mamaw” knew what she was doing and wasn’t just cutting corners to save some money. Dandelions have long been eaten in salads, and their leaves are actually more nutritious than spinach. The benefits of eating dandelion flowers and leaves or by steeping them in a boiling liquid are astounding. Dandelion is an excellent digestive aid, a relaxant to the body and nervous system; steeping it in a pot would help make an excellent bath time beverage for relaxation and as part of a detoxification routine. Dandelion root has long been used as an effective cleanser of the liver and is often a prime component in herbal supplements for just that reason. The uses of dandelion are many and varied and growing a bed of them is easy, requiring little tending as they are wild growing flowers. So that they don’t infringe upon your lawn and other flowers, make sure they are in a raised bed, alone, in full sunlight. Soil conditions are not to be of concern, so save the nutritious additives for your flowers and plants that need them.

With adequate water, sunlight, and little else, your dandelions will soon flourish. Harvesting them young, before the flower bud fully develops will help them be sweeter for your kitchen concoctions. With the rewards you’ll receive, you’ll never look at a dandelion the same way again. Now that crabgrass is a different story.


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

Time To Grow Thyme? Of Course, Always!

Everyone surely is aware of the delicious attributes thyme brings to the dinner table, but besides cooking, thyme has many other uses that help to make it one of the most popular herbs grown by gardeners today. Its edible medicinal properties extend helpfulness into many areas of daily life, and its wondrous scent is intoxicatingly fragrant, making it a wonderful addition as décor, inside and out. Thyme’s hardiness allows it to flourish in many geographical locations, including many in the United States, making it a favorite for gardeners in the Americas. Growing thyme in your garden, inside or out, is an endeavor well worth undertaking.

An extremely attractive attribute of thyme, especially from a grower’s standpoint, is its ability to for the most part take care of itself once it has taken root. Equally happy under paving stones, lining a wispy garden path, or even as part of an entire “lawn” bed, thyme is able to flourish even in harsh, dry climates where water is scarce. Of course, in your garden, water should be plentiful, supplied by your hose reel when the soil feels dry to the touch. Thyme is more easily started in your garden from a start, rather than seed, and many varieties should be present at your local nursery that would grow most hospitably in your area. There are nearly 350 species of thyme, each with different characteristics, including flower color and scent. As thyme is a member of the mint family, some varieties possess a minty scent, while others display scents of rose, lavender, lemon, and even orange. Imagine how delightful an evening stroll down your garden path would be surrounded in the emanating scent of orange or lemon!

Thyme will grow well indoors in containers if the space at your home is limited, and its scent wafting throughout your sunroom, kitchen, and the like will be much appreciated. Keep in mind, if you have space outdoors, that thyme will grow and flourish, even in winter months, so do not shy away from putting it near an outdoor swing, reading nook, or meditation bench, as it is hardy and will provide pleasurable scents all year. To harvest thyme for whatever use you have in mind, simply clip off a bit of the extended sprigs, and you’re good to go. Thyme may be used fresh in cooking or dried as well. Dried thyme is an excellent addition to a hot bath, a digestive aid and throat soother in a cup of warm tea, and can even aid in dandruff treatment and prevention in hair rinses. With so many uses for thyme and its relative ease in growing and tending, there is always time to grow thyme!


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

Honeysuckle, The Sweetest Climber Imaginable

Some of my fondest summer childhood memories include running and playing in the woods and fields near our home, traipsing along trails and blazing a few of my own with my trusty dog. Of all sense memories, smells can be the longest lasting, and the odiferous sweetness of a southern Tennessee wood and pasture is unforgettable. One of my favorite smells, bar none, has to be the deliciously sweet smell of a wild honeysuckle in full bloom. Smelling that honey to this day, brings back memories of lollygagging through summer afternoons, picking at honeysuckle vines, plucking the fronds from their blooms, and relishing the tastes from the honeyed tube within those blooms. As a homeowner, I am excited to tell you how easy it is to replicate these summer memories by planting and growing honeysuckle vines in your own yard or garden!

There are many varieties of honeysuckle available, with blooms of different colors, but all exude the sweet scent of honey, a fantastic natural air freshener for your garden bower or home entryway. One of the most appealing aspects of the honeysuckle, especially for novice gardeners, is its adaptability and heartiness. While honeysuckle vines prefer well draining soil that is rich in nutrients and possessing a pH between 6 and 7, they are truly adaptable to many environments, including those with full sun exposure and semi-shade. I have found that the southern exposure enjoyed by the front steps and railing of my house have provided my honeysuckle vine an excellent opportunity for growth. A vigorous climber, my vine has been easy to train and continues to wrap its tendrils around and around the railing, even extending up the fascia of the house as well. Tartarian Honeysuckle is the variety I chose for the front of my house, in yellow, and its blooms erupt in late spring and early summer, providing gorgeous colors and wonderful smells all summer and into late fall. The best way to pick and decide on the exact right variety for your taste and geographical location is by making a trip to your local garden supplier. Their expertise will be much appreciated in finding the start that will adjust and prosper best in your yard. Planting a honeysuckle is fairly simple, just remember if there is not room for it to expand, it will make its way, often “bullying” and growing around and through neighboring plants. Watering your honeysuckle daily from your garden hose reel will assure rapid growth and that its roots take hold. Taming and pruning may become necessary, but the beauty and smells provided by your burgeoning honeysuckle vine is well worth any of your efforts!

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 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.

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.

Getting Rid of Pestering, Digging Moles

If you’ve ever seen Bill Murray in “Caddyshack”, you might think that a mole in your lawn or garden can be a cause of hilarity and hi-jinx. If you’ve ever had one of these petulantly persistent pests under your soil, you know, however, that fun and games are not on the agenda; it is time to get rid of the furry marmot, and quick!

When a thief enters your private property and steals some of your belongings you’ve worked hard for and saved to buy, you are left with a feeling of violation, helplessness, even fear. A mole might not leave you fearful, but helpless and violated, for sure. It is a thief. It has come to steal your vegetables, to burrow under your fastidiously tended, lush, green lawn, and wreck havoc on your landscaping and plantings. If there is a thief on your property, you have two choices: notify the authorities or take the law into your own hands. That same choice is yours when dealing with the furriest of thieves. You can thumb through your yellow pages or perform an Internet search to find local pest control that would be happy to take your hard-earned cash in exchange for removing the critter. You could, however, take the do-it-yourself route and instead employ tried-and-true methods to achieve your own mole removal. By doing it yourself, you will probably save quite a bit of money, but it will of course require some determination, ingenuity, and time.

Let’s talk about an effective way to start that will require absolutely no money at all. This method involves your garden hose reel and trusty shovel. Locate an active hole by observing fresh, wet soil above the surface, as well as it being the newest of holes. Moles can’t breathe underwater, so I imagine you know what will be suggested next. Insert the business end of your garden hose into the hole’s entrance and pump that tunnel full of H2O. With any luck, you will see the fuzzy intruder exit at another spot in an effort to stay dry and alive. Be quick about it, before thinking, and bop it on the head with your shovel. Yes, that’s right, did you think you would be sending it off to boarding school for wayward moles? You mean business, right? You have to remove that mole one way or another if you want to effectively protect the sanctity of your lawn and garden, and the easiest way is if it is unconscious or dead. I suppose a good whack on the head could possibly stun it long enough for you to pop a bag over its head and call the local Humane Society in to do the dirty work. Most probably, in the heat of the moment, your crack on the mole’s head will crack his or her fragile skull. Good thing you have your shovel handy! That mole can help enrich the soil it has tormented for so long.

Moles are pests you don’t want anywhere near your lawn and garden. Removal of these critters can be excruciatingly difficult and may require a professional’s touch. Your lawn and garden is in jeopardy until you make the decision to take the mole’s removal extremely seriously.

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

Make Van Gogh Proud: Grow Some Sunflowers!

Perhaps their brilliant yellow coloring inspired him. Their intricately constructed heads containing 1,000 to 2,000 conjoined individual flowers might have provoked his attention to and eye for detail. Could it have been their sunny disposition, so diametrically opposed to his constant state of melancholy? Whatever the reason, Vincent Van Gogh was inspired to paint twelve canvases displaying their likeness, as well as surrounding himself with the plants for most of his short adult life. The beauty and lush color of the sunflower is undeniable. Their rapid growth and beauty will add depth and majesty to your home garden should you endeavor to grow them.

Sunflowers are indigenous plants to North America having provided food and oil to the continent’s native population for centuries before the first Europeans arrived. Sunflower seeds are used to make the sunflower oil we often use in cooking, are a main ingredient in most commercial birdseed, and are delicious and nutritious for healthier snacking. If you are an avid bird watcher, sunflowers will attract more winged creatures to your yard than ever before, so be forewarned, if you’re not! One of the most fascinating facts about sunflowers is their tracking of the sun, known as heliotropism; if you took a time-lapse photo series of the plants, you would notice their “faces” turn throughout the day to gather the sun’s rays as the sun changes positions across the sky.

As with most flowers, richness of soil is important to a sunflower’s growth, but you will enjoy success with clay-like or sand-like soil as long as it drains well, allowing for no standing water to well within. As “sun” is part of their name, it makes perfect sense that optimum positioning in your yard or garden would allow them to capture all-day sun, as is their want. Sunflowers do best if grown in a pot at first, making it easier for germination as soil temperature can be more easily maintained at 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Leaves will appear quickly, and when the second leaves do, make sure to fertilize the pots, keeping them in a sunny spot. After several weeks of fertilizing weekly, the plants should now be large enough to transplant to your garden. Making sure to find a sunny, mostly windless spot, dig a hole for each plant that is one and a half times the size of their pot, while keeping each hole at least a foot from the next. Taking care to keep precious root systems intact, place each flower in its hole and fill with soil, patting it down gently. Water from your hose reel should be applied gently, so regulate the flow as not to displace any of the soil from around each plant. By keeping the soil moist, you will encourage quick growth. Because a sunflower’s cycle is so rapid, you will have fully mature plants within 3 months, and be able to enjoy them as they shoot ever higher. Most plants grow to between eight and twelve feet tall. With care, your sunflowers will last all summer, providing nutrition for your local bird population as well as beauty for your viewing pleasure.

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

Keeping Weeds at Bay Naturally

Maintaining a relatively weedless garden might seem impossible, and it mostly is. Yet, keeping your garden free of out-of-control weeds, weed infestation, or other weed related problems is possible, and it can be done without the use of harmful chemicals or sprays. With some diligent attention, good old-fashioned elbow grease, patience, and a few trips to your local garden store, you can have a garden free of problematic weeds and bursting with bountiful vegetables, flowers, and whatever you desire to plant.

Poor soil with little nutrients naturally present can allow weeds to grow, getting a good foothold, and soon running rampant throughout your precious garden space. Instead of using commercial fertilizer to add the required nutrients your soil so desperately needs, organic mulch and compost made from your own lawn clippings and kitchen waste can do wonders. Extra nitrogen is usually what soil needs most and can be found in organic fertilizers at your local garden store or supplied by adding alfalfa, cottonseed, or soybean meal, also found at your garden or feed stores. Compost made in your own backyard is much cheaper than purchasing these meals and often richer in essential ingredients like phosphorous or potassium as well. Of course only use grass clippings from your naturally or non-treated lawn for your mulching. Remember that fall brings falling leaves that should be mulched as well, as they are chock full of nutrients that will benefit your garden as well. If you want to be able to visually see how well each particular plant or vegetable is doing, it is helpful to keep them separated into rows, so that you may walk between them, providing yourself the easy access you need to do the necessary maintenance. Also, keeping your plants neatly bunched in this way allows you to apply water from your garden hose reel in a focused, well-meaning way, making sure the necessary H2O is never wasted and will benefit your garden in the ways it should. Now for the elbow grease; many find weeding their garden relaxing, even therapeutic. Hoping you feel this way as keeping your weeds at bay, organically, involves a lot of pulling by hand, and often. If you’re lucky, as I am, you have a budding gardener that really likes to get dirty. A four-year-old weed-puller can be most helpful, and only requires minimal education as to what should and should not be pulled out. Family time at our house is often spent on knees around our garden and flower beds, pulling weeds, singing songs, and just enjoying ourselves, so give that a try too!

Through diligent manual weeding, organically mulching and composting, you can have a garden you can be extremely proud of while at the same time being environmentally conscious, and reap the rewards of a bountiful garden each and every year.

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

Strawberries In Your Backyard Garden

Nothing tastes better (in my opinion) than sweet and warm strawberry shortcake with fresh whipped cream on top. My stomach is grumbling just thinking about it! Even better than having a tasty dessert at a restaurant is possessing the ability to create it anytime you want from the bounty just outside your door. Growing strawberries in your backyard is easily accomplished and can be extremely rewarding for years and years to come.

It is best to pick out strawberry varieties that grow well in your geographical location, so checking at your local garden store and picking the brains of the experts working there is advised. Looking at the starts they have on display, it is essential to choose plants with healthy leaves and root systems. After carefully choosing your plants, it is time to take them home and prepare your beds for planting. It is necessary to find a nice spot on your lawn for the strawberry plants to call home. Strawberries require full sun and excellent drainage. A spot with a nice slope is recommended for better drainage and because a flat planting field can make it easier for frost to roost in early spring, which would be very bad for your crop. It is best to plant your strawberries in early spring so this is when you should begin preparing your proposed strawberry bed for planting. Tending and maintaining your crops will be much easier if they are in a raised bed. Work your soil with a shovel, hoe, tiller, or other tools in order to aerate and spread nutrients throughout. Organic compost has been shown to promote growth and prevent against disease so working organic compost into the soil at this time is advised as well as raking your bed into a raised mound for easy tending. After raking your worked, nutrient-rich soil into mounds, you will need to level the tops of them to prepare for your planting. It is best to plant your strawberry starts about four inches apart in order to allow adequate room for their spreading growth. Also allow for a foot between rows to give yourself plenty room for plant maintenance. Plant the plants with the crown (part from which leaves develop) at the soil’s surface. Pat down the soil over the roots of each plant and then make sure to water amply, pulling the hose from your garden hose reel near so as to not use too much force from the spray. Your strawberries need to receive about one to one and a half inches of water a week in order to grow successfully. As soon as the flowers begin to appear, you should pinch them off, promoting quicker growth and earlier formation of runner plants. Patience will be needed as your first harvest will most probably take a year. Oh won’t you be excited, however, when your first crop is harvested? I bet your mouth is watering just thinking about it!

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

Growing Pumpkins With Your Children for Halloween and Holiday Pies

Pumpkins are an excellent, hardy member of the squash family and grow in all sorts of shapes and sizes. You might envision a pumpkin for Halloween only, but pumpkins can be a decorative part of your garden’s landscape throughout their growing season. Decorative pumpkins make a beautiful addition to your holiday table and of course, in the favorite dessert, pumpkin pie. Instead of visiting your local pumpkin patch and buying your pumpkins by the pound, you might be surprised to know just how easy growing your own pumpkins can be. Growing pumpkins can be an excellent opportunity to introduce even the youngest of children to gardening and the occasion of enjoying the priceless smiles on their faces when harvest time comes will be irreplaceable!


The first thing to do is scout out your spot for planting. A large plot is unnecessary, and it really doesn’t even need to be flat. As aforementioned, pumpkins are extremely hardy and will take root in most types of soil provided they get the attention they need, water-wise, from your hose reel. A pumpkin requires diligent waterings, daily, and this is something that the kids will love doing. Something to keep in mind when choosing your spot is that pumpkins do grow quickly and spread; they share areas well with other plants, and will make their own way if allowed to. If you are worried about specific plants being overrun by your pumpkins, you might do well to afford your pumpkins their own special spot.

After choosing where you’d like to plant them, your next stop is running over to your local garden shop to get the seeds. After choosing the variety of pumpkin you’d like to grow (there really is quite a variety), it’s time to work the soil a bit. Believe me, while your kids are young, take advantage of the fact that they like to dig in the dirt. They will help you turn that soil over in no time. Your growth will be more successful if you enrich the soil with nitrogen rich compost or fertilizer, so by all means, work that into your soil as well. Now, give your kids the seeds and instruct them to place them in water for 24 hours. This helps jumpstart the seeds’ growth by making their outer shells softer and quicker to sprout. The next day, let your children plant each seed, a few inches apart in your small (or large) patch. Make sure you remind your children to water their plants daily, as pumpkins do demand a large amount of water to grow successfully. To allow your plants to grow fruit, you will need to grab a small paintbrush and pollinate your flowers by carrying pollen from one flower to the next. Bees just might do this, but depending on your geographical area, you might not be able to rely on a squash bee to get the job done. This will be fun for the kiddos too! Then, there is nothing left to do but water them, and watch them grow.

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

Making Your Very Own Pickled Vegetables at Home

So your backyard garden was a little over-ambitious this year, and after the harvest, you’re finding it difficult to eat or give away the delicious vegetables you produced before they expire. Storage is often at a premium in most of today’s households, so freezing your vegetables (unless you have a dedicated freezer) is not always an option. Many backyard gardeners realize that pickling can be an excellent way to preserve those precious veggies that were diligently watered from hose reels and fed with nutrients from compost piles all season long. Pickled vegetables are great additions as sides or as snacking items when visitors drop by. How excellent would it be to offer them to guests, and be able to say you produced them as well?

A few basic kitchen items are needed before beginning your first foray into pickling. A deep bowl is needed for mixing and seasoning the fruits and vegetables, a strainer of some sort, pans for laying out your bounty, muslin for wrapping with some recipes, and finally jars for storing your finished product. The best quality vinegar is necessary to delicious tasting pickled vegetables and fruit. Brown or white distilled vinegar works best, as wine or cider vinegars most probably will lose their inherent taste post-pickling. An essential step in the pickling process is the choosing of the vegetables or fruits to treat. Youngish vegetables should be chosen as well as fruits that have recently ripened. When making pickled apples or other fruits, you can proceed straight to the pickling, but pickling cucumbers and other vegetables requires a soaking in salt before proceeding. Allow your veggies to soak in a salty solution, four ounces of coarse salt (pickling salt works well) to every two pints, for 24 hours and then drain. Rinse the excess salt from the vegetables and lay them out on the pans to dry.

Cold pickling is the easiest as you now simply need to put the vegetables or fruits into the storing jars, making sure to drain off the excess water, and fill the jars with the vinegar, leaving an inch at the top for expansion. Making sweet or dill pickles from cucumbers will require a few extra steps to secure the dill or sweet taste, but other vegetables will be ready to store simply after the soaking. Maturing your vegetables might take a little patience, but after two months, they will be ready to enjoy with your favorite meals or for healthy snacking.

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

Secrets to Growing Succulent Home Grown Lettuce

Everyone has had at least one delicious salad in their lives that knocks their socks off. Remembering one of my favorites, it was at an upscale steak restaurant, and the salad consisted of simply a crisp quarter of a head of iceberg lettuce and a light vinaigrette dressing. What made it so delectably delicious was the crispness and freshness of that lettuce, undoubtedly organic, and most probably grown locally. Lettuce that is bought at most grocers is often limited to a few varieties with homogenously subpar quality, texture, and taste. Growing your own lettuce in your backyard is not only fairly simple, it also is self rewarding, producing a quality of product that you will be proud to serve to your family and friends again and again.

Perhaps the most difficult part of growing your own lettuce is deciding on which variety to plant. If this is your first venture into growing, perhaps it might be best to grow the easiest variety first: loose-leaf lettuce. Loose leaf varieties are more heat tolerant so you don’t have to worry as much about an unpredicted heat wave ruining your crop. It might be fun to research and find a variety of loose leaf that isn’t carried by your local grocer, so take your time picking your seeds at the local garden shop. For the most part, lettuce is a cool season crop. For best success, seeds should develop from seed to starts indoors, and then transplanted into your backyard garden as soon as the soil is soft for tilling and working. Lettuce should not be planted (again, for the most part) in warm weather, as it will all too often grow too quickly and taste overly bitter. Early Spring after the last frost (you hope) is the best time to get your plants in the ground. Soil that is extremely nitrogen rich is much appreciated by lettuce and many other plants, so working large amounts of compost or organic fertilizer into your soil can be most helpful in encouraging growth. Allow for sufficient, yet not overwatering your lettuce from your garden hose reel, being attentive to keeping your crop moist, not flooded.

Perhaps the secret to enjoying healthy lettuce is in the harvest; when is the right time to enjoy it at its best? The best thing about leaf lettuce is its ability to be harvested a leaf at a time, a method that can actually encourage its growth. In this way, whenever you’re having salad for dinner, simply take the amount of leaf you need, leaving the rest to sprout and grow new leaf growth for your next salad. Be forewarned, you will quickly become spoiled by the freshness of your homegrown lettuce and will demand the same quality from the rest of your produce. You might just be forced to grow all your vegetables at home, so be prepared!

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

Spuds A’Plenty in Your Own Backyard

Sometimes nothing hits the spot like a good baked potato, especially when pairing it with a nice New York Strip or other fine cut from your local butcher. While you may not have the room to house, feed, and raise your own cow for the carnivorous part of said meal, you can grow the starchy part in the warm confines of your backyard, no matter how small.

The first thing to be accomplished is deciding what type(s) of potatoes you would like to grow. Small reds, deep blues, small fingerlings, or everyday russets/baking potatoes all are excellent choices. It might be interesting and exciting to have a crop that is not heavily represented at your local grocer, so take your time and choose wisely. Acquire the appropriate seeds from your local lawn and garden supplier and begin scouting out your area for planting. It is good to start your planting in the early spring, about the time the soil becomes most fertile and workable. If you have a tiller, it would be most helpful in turning the soil over, but a simple shovel, pitchfork, hoe, and a strong back can do the job nicely. Work the soil fully, turning it over again and again, allowing the precious oxygen to circulate and nutrients to be evenly spread throughout. Using organic soil enhancers from your local gardening shop can help your soil achieve a more fertile state, so incorporate it deeply within the soil as well. Straight manure is not advisable, because it is a leading cause of scab, a disease found in growing potatoes. Add water from your garden hose reel sparingly, you do not want to waterlog the soil your potatoes are in because it can cause potato rot. Before planting your seeds, you need to let them begin sprouting in a dry, warm spot at about 60 to 70 degrees for several weeks. Making sure that your potatoes have sprouted, remove them from the warm area and plant them in a mound of dirt and cover just the seed part with soil leaving a protective mound around each potato seedling. When the plants have grown to about six or seven inches in height, you will be able to add more dirt around the plant. Make sure to check the soil often and water your budding spuds when necessary.

With attentive care, the right amount of water, and sunshine, your potatoes will be ready for your dinner table before you know it!

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

Growing Your Own Juicy Tomatoes

With the health scare at restaurants and retailers earlier this year concerning tomatoes, you might be thinking, why am I not growing my own to enjoy? Good question. Tomatoes are quite easy to grow in many areas of the United States, they are a beautiful addition to any garden, and biting into a juicy tomato, bursting with flavor and goodness, is its own reward for the diligent attention it received while growing. You’ll also notice the taste difference between your backyard garden variety and the store-bought product; yours will taste unbelievably more delicious and satisfying than you had ever imagined they would!

In most areas of the U.S., it is best to start your planting in late spring, unless planting indoors, when temperatures are securely 65 degrees Fahrenheit or above, the necessary temperature for successful germination. Make sure that the spot you pick gets adequate sunlight, around six hours each and every day. Ensuring that the soil is warm and kept nice and moist, as seeds that are planted in this hospitable environment should start to sprout within only a few days. When planting from starts acquired from your local garden store instead of seeds, the same conditions apply, though it is often easier for starts to take hold and prosper sooner than seeds since they are farther along already.

As your plants sprout or your starts take hold, you must make sure to water them adequately, but never too much. Simply make sure to use the H2O from your garden hose reel wisely, allowing the plants to be moist, but not swimming. Plant fertilizer can be most helpful as it can help contribute to whatever nutrients your soil inherently contains, amplifying and augmenting these nutrients for more successful growth and heartiness.

Though it is hard to resist picking your tomatoes early, you must wait until they achieve a deep red color, ensuring they are at their ripest condition. You will be so glad you did as you slice into that very first one. Whether you enjoy it in a deliciously healthy salad, paired with other healthy vegetables from your garden, on a sandwich with your favorite spread, or simply biting into it in your backyard, the reward of growing your own healthy tomatoes will be so deliciously satisfying, you will undoubtedly repeat the process year after year, forever forsaking your local grocer for your beautiful, backyard bounty.

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