Posted: Friday, December 6, 2013 11:00 am

Gardening Tips: Caring for your Christmas tree

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The Christmas season is here and with it brings many traditions, including putting up and decorating a Christmas tree. Although artificial trees are very popular, I’ve always thought nothing can beat a real Christmas tree. North Carolina ranks second of all 50 United States in the number of Christmas trees harvested each year. Most of this production takes place in the Western part of the state.

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Friday, December 6, 2013 11:00 am.

As our temperatures cool, lengthen the days between watering plants. Most established landscape plants will need deep watering 1-2 times in December and January. Cover frost-sensitive plants if evening temperatures drop below freezing.

Annuals: Plant annuals. (African daisy, calendula, geranium, candytuft, Iceland poppy, larkspur, pansy, petunia, snapdragon, stock, sweet alyssum, lobelia, dianthus, primrose)

Bulbs: This is the last month to plant spring-flowering bulbs (amaryllis, anemone, bearded iris, crinum, crocus, daffodil, Dutch iris, freesia, ranunculus, and gladiolus).

Grapes: Plant bare-root Thompson seedless grape stock in a sunny location. Prepare a hole 1½ ft. deep and wide and plant grape stock, leaving 2 inches of stem above ground. Water well. Do not prune grapes until all leaves have fallen off the vines.

Groundcovers: Plant Gaillardia x grandiflora ‘Mesa Yellow’ (a groundcover with bright-yellow, daisy-like blooms), moss verbena, asparagus fern, wandering Jew and vinca.

Perennials: Plant brittle bush, penstemon, chocolate flower, ruellia, chaparral sage, Texas sage, desert marigold, carnation, geranium, English daisy, globe mallow, and agapanthus.

Roses: Begin researching roses to plant in January. #1 grade roses are recommended. Climbers, floribundas, grandifloras, hybrid teas, and miniatures all grow well in Yuma. Prune dead canes and dead-head old blooms. Do not prune roses heavily this month. If leaves show powdery mildew, spray both sides of leaves, Dec.-March, with Neem oil on a cool day.

Shrubs: Plant butterfly bush, myrtle, gardenia, orange and yellow bell, fairy duster, greythorn, honeysuckle, desert barberry, Baja senna, Cape plumbago, lantana and datura. Do not fertilize or prune established shrubs.

Trees: You might wish to purchase a potted Christmas tree this year and transplant it in your yard after the holidays. Aleppo pine, Afghan pine, Italian Stone pine, Arizona cypress, and Mondell pine grow nicely here. Fruit trees can be planted now (choose a variety requiring less than 400 chill hours to set fruit). Fertilize established fruit trees. Water citrus trees once a month and fruit trees every three weeks. Do not prune fruit trees this month.

Vegetables: Continue to plant vegetables from seeds or transplants to insure a continual supply of produce. (Asparagus, beet, artichoke, salad greens, bok choy, broccoli, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, peas, radish, green onion, spinach, and turnip) Continue planting herbs. Thin seedlings. Plant strawberries.

It is the season of giving and gardeners can’t be left out. Plan ahead and your gifts could come from your own garden or from local nurseries and farmers.

Linn County Master Gardener Becki Lynch shares her gardener gift-giving ideas so that the gardeners on your list will be happy this season.

Q: The holidays are fast approaching, and once again I am looking for something for the gardeners in my family. I have an aunt in her 80s and a nephew in his 20s, so what are some ideas that will appeal to all ages?

A: For any gardener, there are certain gifts that are always welcome. First, I recommend picking up the 2014 Wonder of Trees Garden Calendar available at the local Iowa State University Extension office. For $8, this year’s calendar celebrates the wonderful gifts that trees provide for other living things. In addition to striking photos, find monthly garden tips, tree-planting instructions, Iowa’s state forests, vignettes of historical trees, and quotes that trees inspired.

The Linn County Master Gardeners have a handbook that is perfect for the novice and expert gardener. It is called “Getting Your Hands Dirty Your Feet Wet, Again,” and it is available at the Linn County Extension Office for $20. Call (319) 377-9839, email mkenyonb@iastate.edu or stop by the office.

If there are any magazines that your favorite gardeners love, renew their subscriptions or begin new subscriptions for them. These gifts are usually $20 or less. If your gardener has a particular interest, such as vegetables or roses, Google to see whether there are any specialty publications related to their interest. Go beyond the generic publications, and your gardener will appreciate it. Nothing is better to while away the winter months than a gardening magazine.

Any gardener will love having a cleanser for any poison ivy, oak or sumac that we might get into — and we always do. And since we get into trouble before we realize it, we need a product that works after the fact. To have a product easily on hand at the beginning of the season is a great gift, and a product called Tecnu Outdoor Skin Cleanser has good reviews and is inexpensive ($10 to $15) and effective on skin, tools, clothes and pets. It works up to eight hours after exposure.

For the young gardener, the Root Viewer gives a child a project for right now, not spring — which is too long to wait. Budding botanists will love watching root vegetables grow from the tops up and the roots down. Carrots, radishes and onions are grown from sprouts to full harvest right before their eyes. Includes seeds and growing instructions. For $10, everything needed comes in the package. Available online, there is still time to get it.

Since most gardeners have their own preferences in tools, gloves and brands of bulbs and plants, a great gift for any season is a gift card to a local nursery. We have many greenhouses with a wide selection of plants, tools, artwork and plant materials from which to choose.

Events

• Overview of Farm Legal Issues Webinar, 6 p.m. Monday, online. Learn about the most common legal issues encountered by direct-to-consumer and organic farm operations. For more information, visit Farmcommons.org/webinars.
• Our Woodland Legacy Symposium, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Doubletree Hotel, 350 First Ave. NE, Cedar Rapids. $50 to $75. Contact: Jo Ann McNiel, jmcniel@treesforever.org, (319) 389-3488.
• Crop Planning Workshop for Produce Farms, 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Johnson County ISU Extension Office, 3109 Old Hwy. 218 S, Iowa City. Free. Register by today: www.eventbrite.com/event/9207364475

 

Questions on gardening, land use or local foods? Contact Michelle Kenyon Brown, community ag programs manager at Linn County Extension, mkenyonb@iastate.edu.

Garden to do list for may

It is getting toward the end of the spring season by May.

-Be sure and keep things neat and tidy as the season ends.

-Add anything you used as winter mulch to your compost bin.

-Don’t forget to turn the compost often and keep it moist.

-Inspect the mulch and be sure you still have 4-6 inches of it. If not then add more fresh mulch to your beds.

Gardening Tips: To do list tips for garden chores in May

-If you have plants that are top heavy with flowers, you will need to stake them well to prevent breakage.

-Any faded or spent blooms on roses should be pruned.

-Keep vines tied up well and guide them to grow where you want them.

-If you have strawberry plants that are new keep the flowers pinched off until the second year and you will have a better harvest of larger strawberries.

-Move your houseplants outdoors for a few hours every day.

-Plant new rose bushes.

-Keep the weeds from getting too large before removing them.

-Keep all plants watered as needed.

-Water in the morning to prevent disease problems.

-If fruit trees have suckers they need to be removed.

-Protect any fruiting plants like watermelon or cantaloupe from coming in contact with wet soil. Place hay under the fruit for protection.

-Sow seeds of annuals like Poppies, Larkspurs and Asters.

-Cuttings can be taken from most plants now and rooted with a rooting hormone and placed in peat moss.

-Plant any trees or evergreens before the weather gets too hot.

-Stake your tomato plants well.

-Continue to plant succession crops in your vegetable garden.

-Water your plants with compost tea, by putting compost in a barrel of water and let it stand in the heat for awhile. The solids will settle to the bottom and the water can be used for all plants, indoors or out.

-For a more formal look you can prune hedges or shrubs into pretty shapes. This pruning will keep them compact and bushy.

-Re-pot any plant that is root bound. If you see roots coming out of the bottom of a container then it is time to re-pot in a container one inch bigger in diameter. The roots may have to be trimmed a little bit. Be sure the roots are not growing in a circle when you put them in their new container. This circling will strangle the plant.

-For larger flowers always pinch off any side shoots such as the Peony.

-Take herb cuttings to start new herb plants.

-Harvest herbs by pruning and dry for later use.

-When you are sitting outside in the evening think about which white flowering plant would be good to plant in your garden. Moonflower seeds grow fast and look great in the moonlight.

-Enjoy the aromatic herbs and beautiful flowers of your garden.

-Don’t work too hard as it is easy to over do things when you have so much garden work to do.

One of the many challenges faced by greenhouse growers is keeping the plants height short and controlled. We nurture our plants providing the proper amounts of food, light, water, and temperatures and, even with all that, the plants stretch and get leggy anyway. Are there ways to control plant height and keep them from stretching?

There are three methods of control: biological, physical and chemical. Lets look at these methods separately.

Gardening Tips: Controlling Plant Height In the Greenhouse

Biological Method: thoroughly research the cultivars you want to grow. Many bedding plants have varying maturity heights; short, medium and tall. Select the cultivars that best suit the area in the greenhouse where it will grow. It is best to grow varieties that stay short, as this is an easier way to control the plants height. The plant takes care of itself.
Schedule your start times so the plants will mature on time. Starting seeds too soon and allowing them too much time to grow creates a need to “hold back” the plant. Trying to hold a plant back from maturing is very hard to do and in the efforts made to try and accomplish this, the quality of the plant can diminish. I remember starting tomato seeds in late February for a May planting. I was a little over anxious. The seeds germinated right on time and continued to grow rapidly. There was no holding them back and I wound up with tomato trees. I lost many of the plants along the way as I was trying to maintain them. The following season I adjusted the start times, what a difference a few weeks made.

Physical Method: this control method encompasses many aspects of the plants growth from the growing environment to the cultural practices used.

1. Light intensity is one of the easier ways to keep plant height controlled. Give the plant ample room to grow. Crowding the growing area creates competition for all available light giving less to each plant. Grow only the amount of plants that you can feasibly fit in your greenhouse. Once a plant senses the others presence next to it, the plant will start to grow upward. Keep the canopy open by limiting the amount of hanging baskets grown. The plants below will be shaded too much for proper growth. I ignored these suggestions when I grew for retail purposes. I would try to squeeze out as many plants as I could from the greenhouse and indeed some plants did suffer; growing tall and leggy and ultimately not surviving the season due to the stresses they were put under.

2. If your greenhouse is made of glass, make sure it is kept clean as much as possible. The amount of light that is able to come through a dirty glass panel is diminished considerably. Plastic coverings that are old tend to turn yellow. This too causes less light to come through. Replace the covering when it is showing signs of aging. Poor lighting conditions cause the plants to stretch and grow leggy. Provide as much light as you can.

3. Container size helps to control plant height as well. Using containers that are too small, creating restricted root systems, reduces the stretching of bedding plants.

4. Watering a plant less often, allowing it to wilt slightly between waterings, gives a shorter plant, but you risk poor quality if wilting is allowed to occur too often. Plants can tolerate a certain amount of wilting. Be careful to not allow the plant to wilt to the point of no return.

5. Fertilizing less is an old time favorite way to control plant height. This method can be quite successful, so long as it is controlled. The nutrients that effect plant size are nitrogen and phosphorous. Nitrogen withheld has the biggest effect on plant height; however, allowing too much deprivation of the N nutrient for too long a period can cause yellowing of the leaves and overall poor quality. There are special fertilizers sold at garden centers that have predetermined nutrient combinations, for example, regular use of the water- soluble 20-1-20 or 20-2-20, has been shown to produce shorter, stockier plants.

6. Temperature control, using a method known in the industry as DIF, has been shown to be a useful method in controlling plant height. Developed by researchers from Michigan State University back in the 1980’s, their research basically showed that the average temperature (the average day plus night temp) affects a plants growth rate with higher averages resulting in more rapid growth and development.

DIF, the difference between day temps and night temps affects stem elongation and height. Stem elongation is the distance of the stem from one node to the next. DIF is calculated as the day temp minus the night temp and can be either positive DIF (day temp is higher than night), zero DIF (day temp = night) or negative DIF (day temp is less than night).

Trying to keep a greenhouse in negative DIF is a difficult task for most. Another way was found that accomplished reducing a plants height and is the easiest DIF treatment to use, it is called “cool morning pulse”. By reducing the greenhouse temperature 5 to 10 degrees F lower than the night temperature for 2 to 3 hours, starting 30 minutes before dawn, reduced plant height as effectively as negative DIF and was easier to do. Here is an example: night temp of 68 -degreesF, two hour drop to 60 -degreesF (30 minutes before dawn), and then 65 -degreesF maintained during the day. For warmer plants: 72 -degreesF at night; 64 -degreesF pre-dawn for 2 to 3 hours; 65-degreesF day.

There are thermostatically controlled devices that you can set up to automatically change these temperatures at the correct times. Salvia, Rose, Snapdragon and Fuchsia had very good responses to this DIF control compared to Aster, French Marigold, Tulip and Squash which showed little or no response.

Mechanical Methods are used and have been known for a long time to be a good control. By brushing, shaking or bending the plant on a regular basis caused the plants to stay short. A mechanical device was created for use in commercial greenhouses that grow vegetable seedlings. A bar is drawn across the tops of the seedlings once or twice a day. The bar is low enough to make contact with the plant without breaking the tops. A 40 percent reduction in height was recorded. Other systems using vibrations, periodic shaking and blowing air movement are also good methods of height control.

Chemical Method is really the last resort that should be taken. Improperly applying these chemicals can cause extensive damage to the plant and can be unhealthy for anyone entering the greenhouse. Chemical growth regulators are not approved for use on vegetable seedlings. A hormone called gibberellins is responsible for a plants cellular growth and elongation. Growth regulators and retardants are anti-gibberellins that inhibit gibberellin’s synthesis thus keeping the plants from growing tall. Common growth regulators and retardants are A-Rest, B-Nine, Bonzi, Cycocel, Florel and Sumagic, each used on different plants and performing different functions.

These chemical controls are considered pesticides and are best left to the professional. For the hobby greenhouse grower the non-chemical methods of control are best.

If you are planning a new garden or refurbishing an existing one, these guidelines will help you create an interesting and abundant garden for every season

There are many ways to make a garden grow, but one of the most fascinating is the organic way. Organic gardening is easy and economical, and an important contribution to the future of our planet. What’s more, organic gardens are dazzling in their endless variety. They also are attract beneficial wildlife, like birds and pollinating insects.

So go ahead, make your fellow gardeners curious about how you grow such a diverse and beautiful garden. Whether your flowers are annuals, perennials, bulbs or shrubs, you will benefit by following organic gardening guidelines for your garden.

Laying the Groundwork

The soil is the most basic building block of any garden. The healthier the soil, the healthier your plants will be. When preparing your plot, take a little extra time to examine the texture and acidity levels of the earth you’ll be working with.

Natural Beauty – Growing Flowers the Organic Way

First, test the pH factor of your soil. The soil’s pH is measured by a numbering system from 0 to 14 — 0 being the most acidic and 14 the most alkaline. Most plants prefer a neutral pH. Whatever pH you have in your garden, you can amend it to match the pH your plants prefer. For example, if your soil is too acidic, simply add hydrated garden lime to reduce the level of acidity.

It is always a good idea to add compost to your soil. Compost, the organic gardener’s best friend, will fertilize your soil and make it healthy. Make compost yourself out of vegetable scraps, grass cuttings, wood ashes, coffee grounds, eggshells and disease-free garden foliage, all of which will decompose into nutrient-rich soil. Be careful to never add coal ash, charcoal, animal by-products (including meats, oils, and even droppings) or hair to the pile. These items can be too hard to break down, attract scavengers or introduce diseases to your compost.

In addition to testing the pH and adding compost, you may need to amend your soil type. If your soil is too sandy, dig in up to six inches of compost and add an all-purpose organic fertilizer with humus. If it is claylike, add sand, humus and organic fertilizer, in addition to compost, to the garden bed. Also throw in some gravel or small stones to create better drainage.

Planning Your Plot

As you select a site for a flowerbed, take note of its unique environment — the location of the trees, and the hours of shade and sun the plot receives. This will help you plan the garden’s design. Within any garden there may be several local climates — sunny and dry, shady and moist, semi-shade, or even boglike at a water’s edge. Therefore, you should know your plant’s preferences and place them in the plot accordingly.

Next, think about the colors, heights, textures and bloom times of the plants you are considering. Try to come up with a design that features interesting and creative combinations. Whether your design is simple or complex, pay special attention to planning for sequential flowering. If you place plants that flower at slightly different times around your garden, you are sure to extend your garden’s blooming season.

For example, if you want a flowerbed that features yellow and red blossoms, plant forsythia, yellow daffodils, and red and yellow tulips, which bloom in the spring. For summer blooms, plant yellow and red zinnias, yellow marigolds, red tithonia or yellow coreopsis, red geum and rudbeckia. Finally, plant yellow and maroon chrysanthemums for fall color. This way, you keep the red and yellow theme blossoming through most of the year.

Finally, make sure to keep a garden notebook with the bloom times, performance and any other notes of problems with each plant. If you order your plants by mail, cut its photo from the catalog and paste it in your notebook. Also, you may want to take pictures of your garden during different times of the bloom season. The photos will help you see where holes or problems in your design might be and influence your decisions for next year’s garden.

Picking the Plants

The climate helps determine which plants will thrive in your geographic area. To learn the hardiness of plants in your area, consult a horticultural zone map, found on the Web or in most garden catalogs. Usually, the recommended planting zones will be included in the description of the plant you buy. Also, when picking plants for your garden plot, keep in mind their specific life cycles. Certain plants will last for only one season, while others will return year after year.

Annuals, Perennials and Biennials
Annuals complete their life cycle in one season. The flowers germinate from a seed, mature, and produce flowers and new seeds within one growing season. They do not regenerate for the next season. Annual flowers are mostly summer flowering and are useful fillers in between and around the space when perennials have finished flowering, as well as being attractive on their own.

Perennials also grow and flower in one season; however, they will regenerate each spring. The foliage on most perennials dies back during the cold months when the plant goes dormant, then surfaces again in the spring. Most perennials flower for only a few weeks out of their growing season. In general perennials increase in size and need to be divided in about three years, so give them plenty of space to grow when they are small! Also, try planning your garden with a series of perennials with different bloom times.

Biennial plants complete their life cycle in two growing seasons. Some flower in both the first and second year. Sweet William, foxglove and hollyhock are good examples of common biennial plants.

Roses
Roses have the reputation of being temperamental and difficult to grow. Although they do require special pruning and some extra care, they will reward you with bounty as well as beauty. Roses grow as shrubs, climbers and miniatures. Some roses bloom only once a season, while others provide continuous flowers from late spring to late fall.

Plants for Semi-Shade Environments

Pine and holly trees and azalea, mountain laurel and rhododendron shrubs all prefer acidic soil. Plant them together and add an organic fertilizer formulated for acid-loving plants to produce beautiful spring-flowering shrubs. Ferns will also thrive in this environment.

Many early spring-blooming bulbs — like snowdrops, crocus and muscari — will also flower in a partially shaded location. Plant the small bulbs two to four inches deep around the shrubs early in the fall. Add organic bulb food or bone meal to the planting hole. Fertilize them again in early spring.

For early summer flowers, grow blue flowering hydrangea shrubs. Perennial astilbes bloom in late summer and early fall and prefer an acidic soil. Their fernlike flowers have a color range of pink to dark red. Pansies, begonia and impatiens are among the annuals that do well in a semi-shade environment.

Plants for Sunny Sites

If you have an area of your garden that receives full sun, there are countless sun-loving annual, biennial and perennial plants to suit your space and taste.

Perennial dianthus, or pinks, are delightful after a long winter. Fall-planted, spring-blooming tulips and daffodils may precede or be interplanted with all spring, sun-loving perennial flowers, such as poppies and peonies.

Some of the many mainstay summer perennials that love the sun are daylily, scabiosa, campanula and potentilla. Many annuals — such as zinnia, cosmos, calendula, marigold and nasturtium — will continue to produce flowers over a long blooming period if you remove the faded flowers promptly.

Rudbeckia, or black-eyed Susans, return every summer and are good companions to many of the summer annuals like sunflowers and tithonia. Perennial chrysanthemums bloom in the fall for late garden color.

Helpful Hints for Organic Flower Gardeners

All organic gardening is based on the philosophy of prevention rather than cure. The healthier your soil and the stronger your plants, the less likely you’ll be to encounter pests or disease as your garden grows. Therefore, if you plan carefully and take the proper precautions, you will be rewarded with a healthy, abundant and beautiful garden.

Here are some more helpful tips:

Planting

• When planting into your garden plot, make a circular channel at the root base of the plant to catch water. This will help it become established in its new home faster.
• Plant honeysuckle, columbine and bee balm (Monarda) to attract hummingbirds to your garden.
• Plant flowers grouped in masses instead of rows. This will convey a more natural look to your garden.
• In order to achieve an effect of a natural flowering pattern in the spring, gently toss bulbs to the ground and plant them in where they have landed.

Prevention

• Birdbaths are essential to attract and keep birds in your garden. Birds feed on insects and provide visual delight as well.
• Butterflies are important as prey for spiders and other predators. They love hot weather and brightly colored flowers.
• Plant herbs with your flowers for their protective properties. For example, rosemary repels slugs. Basil and tansy repel mosquitoes.
• Plant chili peppers in the organic flower garden and sprinkle dried pepper flakes on the garden to ward off rabbits, raccoons and other wildlife that disturb your flower beds.
• It is important to keep the garden clean of weeds and diseased foliage to prevent the spread of diseases.
• If your roses have aphids, hose them with a jet stream of water. Repeat if you still see them after two days.
• If you discover lacy leaves, you have Japanese beetles. Pick the bugs off in the morning and drown them in a solution of soap and water.
• Do not prune roses after Labor Day. This will give the plant time to harden off for the winter.
• If your roses are plagued by slugs, use a barrier of copper tape wrapped around the base of the plant. You can also use an organic slug deterrent that is sold through catalogs.
• Spray roses with an organic copper or sulfur fungicide weekly to prevent fungus diseases. Remove and discard all diseased foliage.
• As a last resort, use a botanical spray such as Soap Shield or Safer Insecticidal Soap for flowers infested with pests like whiteflies, mealybugs and scale. Check the spray’s label to make sure you are choosing the proper formula for your pests.

Vegetable garden design. . . What the heck is that? You just dig up the ground, throw down some seeds, and add water. Right?

“Back in the day” when my wife and I first decided to grow our own food, we knew absolutely nothing, nada, zero, zip, zilch, about designing a vegetable garden. But that was okay since our first experience in the field (small pun intended) took the form of a community garden sponsored by our church.

A select group of knowledgeable members handled all the details of planning a vegetable garden. They selected the site, prepped the soil, and let the rest of us know what needed to be done and when to do it. It would have been difficult to get it wrong under those circumstances.

The Six Steps of Successful Vegetable Garden Design

So, what do we know now that we didn’t know then? Glad you asked. What I’m going to tell you is based on the assumption that you’re starting a vegetable garden on your own property and that you will be the one responsible for the vegetable garden design.

Step One: Consider Your Reasons for Starting a Vegetable Garden

Your reasons may consist of one or more of the following:

• Love of growing things
• Desire for self-sufficiency
• The need for physical activity
• Therapy and/or stress relief
• Eat inexpensive healthy foods
• Sense of accomplishment/success

A word of caution, however… If your sole motivation for starting a vegetable garden is to eat inexpensive food, you might want to consider your plan more carefully. While a good vegetable garden CAN be a source of inexpensive food, there are costs in both money and time for you to consider. Careful reading, studying, and planning will help you avoid the trap into which so many novices stumble – spending more money to grow their own food than they would have spent simply to buy it.

Step Two: Consider Your Needs and Abilities

At this point, we’re still a ways off from planting anything. First, you have some important choices to make. Choose correctly, and you’ll assure yourself maximum gardening enjoyment and productivity not only now, but for years to come. Ready? Let’s get started.

Take a moment to assess your level of gardening knowledge. Are you an experienced or inexperienced vegetable gardener, or do you fall somewhere in between? Your level of experience should be a determining factor in the size of your garden as well as the quantity and type of plants. If you’re just getting started, try to keep it small and relatively simple your first year. Your goals should be to gain some practical, hands-on experience and to enjoy a sampling of homegrown produce. Learn as much as you can by visiting web sites like this one or by reading books on the subject.

Are you healthy and able to meet the physical demands of gardening? Do you have problems kneeling? Is the problem serious, or is it something you could remedy with a good pair of kneepads? If kneeling is a hardship, you may want to consider purchasing or having someone build a raised garden with wide edges on which you can sit while tending your garden.

Are you, or is the person for whom you are designing a vegetable garden, handicapped? There’s no need for anyone with even a modicum of physical ability to be left out of the wonderfully therapeutic and stress-reducing activity that is gardening. A square foot garden mounted on a table offers easy access for anyone who is confined to a wheelchair or who needs to use a walker.

Are you able to tolerate heat and direct sun? I’m on a medication which forces me to limit my exposure to direct sunlight. What do I do? I wear a comfortable, wide-brimmed gardener’s hat, a lightweight, long-sleeved shirt (unbuttoned, over a t-shirt), gardening gloves, and jeans. In addition, I take frequent breaks and drink lots of water.

Before you turn over even one shovelful of soil, please give careful consideration to all of the above, especially those factors which may impact your physical well-being.

Now that you’ve taken your abilities, your own needs, and the needs of your family into account for your vegetable garden design, you’re ready to start constructing your vegetable garden.

Step Three: Location, Location, Location!

Guess what! One of the most significant elements of your vegetable garden design is its location.

The closer to your residence, the better. Why? Because if the expression, “out of sight, out of mind,” ever were true, it’s especially true when it comes to gardens. A garden you can’t easily see probably won’t get the regular attention it needs and deserves. And regular attention is what keeps your garden productive and attractive.

In an ideal world, your vegetable garden design would include a site on the southern face of a slight hill, a location that tends to be a bit warmer than the surrounding land and thus better able to help prevent damage inflicted by frost. If you don’t happen to have a gentle slope available, don’t worry about it. There’s no such thing as the perfect garden. All we’re trying to do here is maximize your success factors.

Consider your location in terms of how much sunlight the selected site will get. With 8 or more hours of sunlight, you can grow anything you want. If the site gets less than 8 hours sunlight, you can still grow sun-demanding vegetables like tomatoes, but your yield will be lower, your crop less productive.

While you’re at it, see if there are any young trees nearby. While they may not block your garden this year, in years to come, as the trees continue to grow, they just might.

Water has to be available for those days when Mother Nature simply refuses to cooperate. For the smaller raised-bed garden or square-foot garden, an ideal solution is a barrel of sun-warmed rainwater from which you can refill your watering can. For larger plots or row gardens, you’ll need to be able to run a sufficient length of hose.

Speaking of water, another important consideration as to location is drainage. A low-lying area where water tends to pond will not make a good gardening site, unless you do your gardening in raised beds.

Step Four: Put Your Vegetable Garden Design on Paper

Map it out. Draw out the rows or squares and list what you’re going to plant in each one and when. In your vegetable garden design, try to list subsequent plantings for each space as well. This will be a big help to you in keeping track of where everything is, at least until each plant has grown enough that you’re able to recognize it. Those of you who fall into the category of geeky and/or detail-oriented (you know who you are) may want to consider purchasing some vegetable garden design software for your computer. It’s amazing what some of these programs can do.

Step Five: Don’t Just Stand There Mulling Over Your Vegetable Garden Design… Plant Something Already!

But whatever you do, don’t overplant. You’ll quickly tire of all the extra work. Your family, friends, and neighbors may soon tire of you dumping your excess produce on them. Okay?

Now as to what to plant, here are some great recommendations from the University of Illinois Extension – Urban Programs Resource Network.

Types of vegetables – Choose vegetables that you and your family enjoy. Make sure they can be grown successfully in your garden considering space and sunlight conditions.

For shady gardens use this rule of thumb. The sunniest spot goes to vegetables grown for their fruits or seeds such as corn, tomato, squash, cucumber, eggplant, peppers, beans, and peas.

Plants grown from their leaves or roots like beets, cabbage, lettuce, mustard, chard, spinach, and turnips can be grown in partial shade.

For small gardens plant vegetables with a high yield per plant space such as bush snap beans, bush lima beans, Southern peas, leaf greens, tomatoes, and bell pepper plants.

Vegetables that take a lot of garden space for a long time and produce less are vining melons, squash, pumpkins, and sweet corn.

Step Six: Prepare Your Vegetable Garden Design for Next Year

That’s right… It’s mid-summer, and you’ve found a moment of calm somewhere in between harvesting and succession planting. This is the ideal time to sit down and take some time to think about your vegetable garden design for next year.

Why now?

Well, next year you’re going to want to go bigger and better, maybe experiment a little. Planning your vegetable garden becomes even more important. You’re going to want to make sure your soil conditions are just right and that, for the most part your garden site is prepped and ready. This is best accomplished in the fall. You’ll have all winter to order seeds, peruse gardening catalogs for ideas, order whatever you need, and come out swinging (planting, actually) early in the spring.

You might even want to develop three vegetable garden designs… one for Spring, one for Summer, and one for Autumn.

There you have it… the six steps to successful vegetable garden design. So why are you still reading this page? Go plant something already!

Rock lovers that enjoy gardening find great satisfaction in combining beautiful stones and their favorite flowers into essential parts of their landscape. Rocks create wonderful gardens. Their size, weight, and stability make them highly suited for use as a border, and even as a containment barrier in a raised-bed garden, as we’re going to discuss in this guide.

Step one is to choose a location for your rock garden. Stroll around your yard imagining possibilities. Popular options include a hill slope that is difficult to mow, a ring or rectangle formed around a favorite shade tree, a focal point easily enjoyed from a large window or the deck, or a corner of the yard, perhaps where fencing comes together. Leaf through some of your favorite gardening books for location ideas, as well as inspiration for design.

How to Build a Rock Garden

Step two is to finalize that design through trial and error, by laying it out in the chosen spot, using newspaper. Explore different shapes, and expand or shrink the design until you are happy with it. Add several layers of paper, which will act to smother the vegetation beneath, while allowing for drainage in the garden.

The third step is to form the outside border with stones large enough to create a bed at least 6-8 inches deep. Bunch stones tightly next to adjoining ones, so they will better hold the soil. When the containment border is complete, fill your garden with quality top soil. Water the soil thoroughly to compact it, and then fill in settled spots. If you plan to add an elevated section within the garden, perhaps with a smaller course of rocks, now is the time to do that, filling it with soil, also. Circles within circles, rectangles within rectangles, or mixed shape combinations can be very attractive.

The fourth step is to begin planting your flowers. Here we have to take a step back and talk about plant selection. Let’s begin with color. Different types of rock feature different color characteristics. Field stone is varied, yet quite different than assorted shades of sandstone or ledge stone. It is important to choose flowers that will complement the colors found in the rocks. The best thing to do is to have a few rocks with you when you select your flowers. You’ll easily see that some colors are a good fit and others are not. The principle is the same as matching carpeting with furniture fabrics or curtains indoors. The other plant selection issue involves choosing the right height plants for where you plan to place them. Shorter plants will go in front, taller, bushier plants should go in middle or back. The point is that as you view the garden, all rows of plants should be visible. Sketch on paper your planting configuration before you start planting. Finally, plan for there to be color through each season. Know when each bulb or plant blooms, and locate them so that all sections of your rock garden will have several plants in full blossom at all times.

The last step is to plant the flowers in your rock garden. The essential thing is to begin in back and plant toward the front, so that you won’t damage what you have already planted by accidently stepping on it, for example. Keep a few of the nicer stones set aside to place here and there in the garden as attractive accents. These basic steps to building a rock garden will produce a unique, natural space employing some of the choicest bounty the earth has to offer.

Think before you squish is the advice here. Many garden bugs are beneficial and aid organic gardening practices.

For years, well-meaning gardeners routinely maimed, swatted, sprayed and squished every bug they could get their hands on. However careful observation of nature and the move to organic practices have shown that encouraging “good” bugs, or beneficial insects (the politically correct name) is one way to give Mother Nature a hand. She was doing a fine job, however the use of pesticides, combined with overzealous tidiness resulted in loss of normal bio-diversity in our gardens.

Just as when you take antibiotics, and your doctor advises yogurt to normalize the flora within your body, the attraction of beneficials back to your garden can restore balance and harmony in your back yard.

Gardening Tips: The Good Bugs – Hoover Flies, LadyBugs, and Beetles

How about “Think before you squish” as your mantra for the new season…? Remember that you may not always know why this creature is climbing the clematis, lurking on the lobelia, or sniffing your snapdragons.

It is generally agreed that aphids are “bad”. They spread disease, and cause problems throughout the garden. However, aphids need to be present on your rose bush for a week or two before the beneficial insects will show up. Recent studies show that injured plant tissue sends out distress signals (!) attracting appropriate predators. Be patient, and keep your spray trigger finger occupied with something else, like knitting.

Beneficial insects are attracted to plants from families including compositae (daisy family); the mint family (all kinds of mints, lemon balm, and more); umbelliferae (carrot family, which includes anything which makes an umbel, or umbrella-like shape in the flower head: parsley, fennel, for instance); and the brassica family, a huge family which includes cabbages, cauliflower (all the “stinky when overcooked” vegetables) oriental greens, arugula, radish and more.

All these produce flowers containing the type of nectar which beneficial insects use as fuel for flight and movement, just as humans use carbohydrates, and “bad” bugs are the protein course. Now a look at three common beneficials, and how to attract them to your garden:

Beetles.

You undoubtedly know these large, fast moving, shiny metallic-blue-black beetles! Their full title is predacious ground beetles. I am always dismayed to see one crushed on the sidewalk, the victim of a shoe whose owner may have had good, but misdirected, intentions. Beetles thrive in deep, loose humusy mulch, like the bouncy kind found in the woods, where leaves, coniferous needles, etc., have formed a soft carpet on the ground. They snooze underneath pieces of rotten logs and stones and are nocturnal, dining ravenously in the dark upon cutworms, root maggots, and slug eggs, miscellaneous larvae and pupae of undesirables, flea beetles, and leaf hoppers.
To attract more beetles, imitate nature. Along a shady edge, away from foot traffic, dig a ditch three to six inches deep, and a foot wide. Plant mint, or lemon balm, or even red or white clover, along the inside edges to prevent erosion and to provide low ground cover. Drop shovels of peat moss, leaf mulch, coniferous needles, whatever, here and there along the slopes, then place a couple of big, flat rocks in the ditch. The beetles will hide under the rocks in the daytime. Beetles are supposed to be attracted to the nectar of evening primrose.

Syrphid Flies

AKA “hover flies”, so named because they can hover in one place, resemble slender black and yellow bees. Syrphids are important pollinators, but there is another reason to attract them: their larvae prey on many undesirable insects, and most especially, aphids. Adult syrphids drink the nectar from the flowers, lay eggs, and the larvae gobble up aphids.
With the naked eye it is possible to see eggs on the undersides of leaves near aphid colonies, laid in two symmetrical rows by the female, a hundred at a time. Once hatched, the larvae decimate aphid families in a hurry. The 1/2″ creature is often mistaken for a nasty “worm” or slug, so if you come across a legless, see-through greenish-beige creature, slightly pointy at one end, do not kill him, but wish him ‘bon appetit’! To attract syrphids, choose plants of the umbelliferae family: fennel, dill, caraway, parsley, coriander, yarrow, or allow carrots to winter over. All produce symmetrical seed-heads called umbels, which are a favourite of many beneficials.

Buckwheat, usually planted as a cover crop, can be sporadically seeded anywhere in the garden, and not only does it enrich the soil when turned in, but according to a recent Oregon State University study, the flowers are maximally attractive to syrphids. (Some people even consume buckwheat “greens” as food – check it out.) Other favourite flowers: cornflowers (bachelor buttons), marigolds, chamomile, coreopsis, and feverfew.

Lady Beetles

AKA “ladybugs”, feed heavily on aphids. If you think about purchasing them, remember…in most cases, the ladybugs go into dormancy or diapause when packaged, and when they are set free their natural instinct is to fly away. Don’t waste your money, instead attract ladybugs by your choices of plant materials. Become familiar with the ladybug in the larval stage. It looks a bit evil, like an elongated grey-black dragon with many little legs, and orange to red markings. The larvae fix themselves onto leaves, trees, or wood surfaces then pupate for about a week, emerging as the familiar round ladybug of our childhood.
All stages of ladybugs from larva to adult feed on aphids. Ladybugs are attracted to cosmos, especially white, and to goldenrod, coreopsis, fennel, yarrow and other umbelliferae. All are easily grown from seed. Lady beetles and other beneficials including the spider (yes, he is beneficial) like to lay their eggs amongst the long grass, so try to leave a strip un-mowed if you can.

It is good manners to provide your insect guests with a drink, in this case water, to wash down the aphids. This can be achieved simply: placing a plastic tray or any kind of pan in your garden and fill it with water. Put rocks in the water for them to stand on while they drink.

Annual flower garden design tips

Annuals are used in the cutting garden more than any other type of flower. Usually they are planted in rows for the convenience of cutting although they can be placed in such a manner in your garden design to have a beautiful and colorful scheme. Annuals can be purchased either in the form of seeds or as plants in the early summer. One could design a formal annual garden as in the Victorian era with an intricate design or place them in groupings to have certain colors in one location. There are so many ways to design your annual garden and the suggestions below should be of help to you in making your decisions on planting if using seeds or plants.

Design tips for planting an annual flower garden

There is great variation in the growth habits of annuals. It is possible to make a beautiful garden completely of annuals by making judicious selection of species and varieties. An annual garden blooms the same year the seeds are sown making it the quickest to produce results.

In planning your design for the annual garden the dwarf annuals would most likely be placed around the exterior of the bed for the purpose of edging. The floss flower has dense heads of blue flowers. The Midget Blue is one of the best for edging having a height of 3″-4″. Pimpernel, a member of the Primrose Family has 6″-8″ star-shaped flowers of scarlet blue and white. Lobelia has many forms of dwarf varieties of blue with white for excellent edging. The African Daisy has tiny yellow and white flowers of 6″-12″ in height. Sanvitalis will have miniature zinnia-like flowers of 4″-5″. Tom Thumb dwarf varieties of the snapdragon have miniature flowers and are used for edging.
Marigolds bloom yellow, orange and brown plus many other combinations and will reach. The French Marigold comes in a dwarf form as does Harmony.

Taller annuals would be placed to the rear of the annual cutting bed.

Bachelor Buttons, Cornflowers and Ragged Robins will have blue, pink, white, purple and yellow blooms reaching to a maximum height of 3′. Spider Flowers reach to 4′with blooms of white, pink, yellow. Cosmos reach to 3′ with blooms of yellow, white, red and pink. The Dahlia can reach a height of 6′ with many colorful flowers. The Larkspur has flowers of lavender, blue, shades of pink and white with heights of 5′. Sunflowers reach heights of 8′ with blooms of yellow, orange and brown. Flowering Tobacco plants show blooms of lavender, rose, and white reaching a height of 6′.

Annuals can be planted in such a design to have flowers for: cutting, fragrance, tolerating semi-shade, full sun, poor soil, hot, dry conditions and moist conditions. According to the zone of the garden it would be helpful to be aware before planting of your intentions for the flowers such as cutting and also the soil, temperature and moisture content.

The above suggests a design for your annual garden that would help in planning the annual garden. The color groupings, heights of the annual flowers would be naturally a personal preference.