Category: Gardening

Can Plants Help Indoor Air Quality?

Houseplants can brighten up a room and make it much more inviting. However, can they clean the air and make it healthier for you to breathe? If so, are some houseplants more beneficial than others? We’ll break it all down for you below.

Why Do People Believe Houseplants Clean the Air?

In the late 1980s, NASA published a study by their scientists that claimed some houseplants were effective at removing small amounts of volatile organic compounds or VOCs from the air. This caught on because it’s common for household items like nail polish, drywall, shampoo, and virtually anything with a scent to release small amounts of VOCs. The harmful effects of these compounds range from mild respiratory inflammation to developing nasopharyngeal cancer.

Naturally, people took this study and ran with it. Today, it is still widely believed that houseplants can help clean the air a small amount. However, they’re not going to be able to handle huge amounts of VOCs or other pollutants. Also, some plants are more effective than others at removing air contaminants. So, if you want to improve your indoor air quality slightly, you can start keeping a few indoor plants. As a bonus, they can boost your mood.

Plants That Work Well to Purify the Indoor Air

Since there are thousands of plants you can choose from to have in your home, you want to concentrate on the ones that help with your indoor air quality the best. These plants include but are not limited to:

1. English Ivy (Hedera helix)
English Ivy is beautiful as a houseplant and a groundcover, and it offers an elegantly classic look while removing harmful chemicals from your air. You can grow it in full sun or full shade and train it to grow in different shapes. It can easily survive for years with the proper care, and it’s an excellent beginner plant.

2. Chinese Evergreen (Aglaonema modestum)
Chinese evergreen is a very low-maintenance plant that grows best in medium or low lighting conditions. It will get between one and two feet high at full maturity, and it offers larger leaves that droop down. It comes with speckled leaves that are deep green with pink or yellow splotches. However, the leaves contain an irritant if you touch them with your bare hands, and they can be toxic to pets.

3. Dragon Tree (Dracaena marginata)
The leaf color on this pretty houseplant ranges from purple to green, and they grow in longer and thinner spikes on top of a woody stem. They make a gorgeous outdoors or indoors, and it works wonderfully in an office setting under harsh fluorescent lighting because it tolerates low light well. It needs well-draining but rich soil to be happy and healthy.

4. Mother-in-Law’s Tongue (Sansevieria trifasciata ‘Laurentii’)
Finally, this is another indoor plant that is excellent for beginner gardeners because it’s very hardy. It’s a succulent that can tolerate neglect and drought very well. It also isn’t picky about temperature or light, so that you can place it just about anywhere in your home. You want to be careful not to overwater it or keep the roots soggy.

Contact Evergreen Landscaping

If you’re not sure which plants will help purify the indoor air or how to care for them, contact us. We’re happy to help you pick out the perfect cheerful plants to add a splash of green to your home and help purify the air.

Alternatives to Chemicals for Weed Control

Crabgrass and dandelions are the banes of many gardeners and homeowners once summer is in full swing. These eyesores can distract from your space, so you want to eliminate them. However, you don’t want to use chemical weed killers. Standard household supplies can help you get rid of the unsightly weeds to the root without dousing the area in chemicals. We’ll go over a few of our favorites below.

1. Landscape Fabric
   Ideally, your weed control routine should start before you see the weeds growing. Consider adding a layer of landscape fabric right to the ground with a layer of straw or mulch over it. The landscape fabric acts like a physical barrier that stops unwanted weeds from sprouting and taking hold. They can’t get any air or sunlight, and the mulch adds a nice splash of color to your garden or flower bed.

2. Salt
   At the end of winter, stock up on discounted rock salt to sprinkle on your garden paths to fight the weeds when the weather warms up. Table salt will also do the trick if you can’t get rock salt. Salt also works for an excellent weed barrier in spaces where your lawnmower can’t reach or in lawn edging. However, you want to apply it carefully because salt can erode concrete and leave the ground bare for years.

3. Vinegar
   If you douse your weeds with vinegar, it’ll kill them quickly. You want to try to get the horticulture-grade vinegar because it offers 20% acetic acid. Vinegar is a non-selective weed killer, though, and this means that it’ll kill anything you splash it on, be it weeds or flowers. Additionally, since vinegar is acidic, it can lower the pH value in the soil, and this can cause problems with growing plants that need a higher pH level, like lilacs or crocuses.

4. Lemon Juice
   If you douse unwanted weeds with lemon juice, they should start to die in a few days. Take 12 ounces of tap water and add it with the juice from one freshly squeezed lemon. Put it into a spray bottle and spray the weeds or problem areas. You most likely won’t need a second application due to the acid content. However, it can also kill grass and any surrounding plants, so use it with care.

5. Essential Oils
   Essential oils have a very large usage range, from pest control and mold to bed bug and mosquito prevention. They’re also a handy weed killer. Mix 10-15 drops of clove or cinnamon oil with 12 ounces of water in a spray bottle and spritz your weeds with the solution. They’ll take care of them with a few applications. Make sure to only get it on the items that you want to kill, though, as they can also damage flowers and plants if you’re not careful. You can also mix it stronger with more oils if you don’t mind the scent.

Contact Evergreen Landscaping

If you’re wondering about weed control alternatives to pesticides, contact us. Our friendly and professional staff will suggest a few items for you to help you take care of any weeds in your yard or garden and leave it looking lush, full, and green all season long.

Top Ten Dangerous Plants and Flowers

How to Build a Beautiful Raised Garden

There are several reasons why you’d want to build a raised vegetable garden. They sit above the ground inside of a frame that you make out of wood or another durable material. If your land has clay, sandy, or hard-packed soil, you can create the perfect growing environment for whatever flowers, vegetables, or plants you want to grow.

Plants get lifted out of the way of pests and pets or kids, and the soil will warm up much quicker and stay warmer for longer. This will extend your growing season and give you gentler conditions for delicate transplants and new seeds to thrive. Vegetables, fruits, and ornamentals will send deeper roots in to look for water, and this gives them a stronger foundation while improving their health. Raised beds also keep your yard neat and tidy. Best of all, it’s not a difficult project to make a raised garden bed. We’ll walk you through how below.

Step One – Gather Your Supplies

The beauty of this raised garden bed is that it’s easy to build and cost-effective. The rebar and wood you need shouldn’t cost more than $50.00 if you’re going to use untreated planks. You can complete the entire build from start to finish in a few hours. The untreated pine may only last between 5 and 10 years, but due to this build’s nature, each board is easy to replace when it breaks down without ripping the whole thing apart. To create a 4-foot by 8-foot raised garden bed, you’ll need:

• Two 2-foot by 12-foot planks cut into 8-foot sections
• Two 2-foot by 12-foot planks cut into 4-foot sections
• 12 pieces of 2-foot rebar
• Cardboard or newspaper
• Rubber mallet
• Soil

Step Two – Position the Boards

Find a level section of ground and lay your boards down so the inner corners touch. Stand a single long board up on the side and hammer two pieces of rebar a foot from each corner with your rubber mallet. The rebar should go a few inches into the ground.

Step Three – Prop up Your Short Sides

Get a piece of rebar for the center of each for the temporary supports. Next, prop up your second long side and adjust your frame’s alignment as necessary. Hammer your rebar a few inches into the ground a foot from the corner of each second long side to secure it.

Step Four – Add Additional Support

Hammer your rebar pieces a few inches deep into the ground a foot from each corner of the short sides before removing the temporary supports. Add two pieces of rebar along each long side, two feet apart. This will help reinforce your frame when it’s full of soil. Next, hammer your rebar into the ground until 6 to 10 inches are sticking up above the ground level.

Step Five – Fill

Once you get the frame in place and supported, take your newspaper or cardboard and line the bottom of the frame. Get some water and wet it thoroughly. When you finish, fill your new bed with the soil until it’s a few inches from the top of the walls and plant your items.

Contact Evergreen Landscaping

If you’re like assistance or advice on how to create a beautiful and lasting raised garden bed, contact us today.

Indoor and Outdoor Plants for Those without a Green Thumb

You may love the look of houseplants or outdoor plants, but you may not

have a green thumb, and you’re worried about keeping them alive and healthy. If this is the case, you can start with some low-maintenance plants that take real effort to kill but look stunning. We’re going to list out several options for you below to get you started.

1. Golden Pothos Vine (Epipremnum pinnatum)
   In this plant’s native habitat, it’s a tree-swallowing monstrosity that has huge green and yellow leaves. As a houseplant, it’ll grow very aggressively from trailing baskets or pots with very minimal care. They can root in a glass of water too. Put them in a place that gets partial sunlight with well-draining soil. Try to water them when the soil feels dry to the touch. If you forget, they’re drought-tolerant.

2. Snake Plant (S. trifasciata or S. trifasciata laurentii)
   There are several varieties of this houseplant, and they like a large amount of light. However, they can survive in the partial sun without a problem, and they’re not too picky about watering as long as you don’t soak the soil. They do exceptionally well in an office environment, and you can easily divide the main clump to get smaller plants as it grows. You’ll get green on green bands with sword-like leaves.

3. Lucky Bamboo (Dracaena sanderiana)
   This is a perennial office plant, and they can thrive in truly awful conditions. You can put them in a space with poor air quality, bad lighting, and forget to water it, and they’ll still thrive. As a bonus, a lot of people think that they bring a lot of good luck and enhance the energy in the space you keep them. You’ll get slightly longer stalks that you can train to twist around things, and they have bright green leaves.

4. Pansy (Viola tricolor var. hortensis)
   Pansies are very pretty and hardy smaller flowers that thrive in a range of environments. You should plant them in a bright and sunny spot in the late spring months. Make a point to water them once or twice a week, depending on how hot it is. They do best in well-drained but moist soil, and they come in a huge range of colors with cheerful faces and smaller deep green leaves.

5. Marigold (Tagetes)
   These plants originated in Mexico, and they’re the official flower of the Day of the Dead. They have vibrant colors with a stronger fragrance, and they’re also popular in Diwali or the festival of lights. They like dappled shade or full sunlight, and the soil must drain well. They like drier conditions, and you should only water them when the topsoil dries out.

Contact Evergreen Landscaping

Not that you know three hardy indoor plants and two hardy outdoor plants you can grow if you don’t have a green thumb, we’re happy to help you add to this list. You can contact us today for more information, and we’re happy to help you pick out a gorgeous and all but un-killable garden indoors and out.

The Perfect Indoor Plants for the Holidays

The holidays are a perfect time to showcase your beautiful plants, and some are much more festive than others. Knowing this, it makes sense that you want to have colorful and bright plants around, and we’re going to outline several great houseplants to consider below.

1. Easter Cactus (Schlumbergera gaertneri)
   Better known as the spring cactus, this houseplant will flower in the later winter to early spring months. The flowers can range from white or red to lavender, pink, peach, or orange. The flowers will bloom on the segmented green stems that are the leaves of the plant. A single plant can sprawl out and have a large range of flowers, so it’s an eye-catching option.

2. Poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima)
   No list of indoor holiday plants would be complete without the iconic poinsettia. It has colorful bracts that have very close ties to the holiday season, and the brilliant red leaves contrast beautifully with the deep green foliage. A lot of the time, people use this houseplant as the center focal point in a holiday flower arrangement or centerpiece. It blooms the best when you put it in the partial sun during the shorter winter months.

3. Snow Rose (Helleborus niger)
   People also call this pretty houseplant the Christmas rose, or the winter rose because it only blooms in the colder winter months. It’s a perennial plant that has an old European legend that ties it to the Christmas season. You’ll get five-petal flowers that form a saucer shape at the end of each stem with it. The flower sits above the deep green leaves, and it’s a more compact option that is quite happy in partial sun with well-draining soil.

4. Christmas Cactus (Schlumbergera bridgesii)
   This is one of the most popular festive houseplants on the list. The flowers on this houseplant come in striking shades of yellow, red, purple, white, and pink. They contrast beautifully with the plant’s glossy green foliage to help them stand out even more. The foliage tends to hang down, and it’ll bloom for days on end when you keep it in partially shaded conditions with a decent amount of warmth and humidity.

5. Norfolk Island Pine (Araucaria heterophylla)
   Many people argue that this is one of the best-looking indoor houseplants you can buy. It has an upright growth habit with frilly branches that mimic the look of a small tree. You can even decorate it with small ornaments, bows, and tinsel during the holiday season. You want to give it plenty of light and water it when the topsoil dries out.

6. Holly (Ilex)
   The final favorite houseplant for the holidays is holly, and it’s been a favored choice for hundreds of years. It’s also widely accepted as the symbol of Christmas. It’s a favorite holiday plant that is renowned for the pointed leaves, white blooms, and red berries. This plant will thrive in well-draining soil under full sun conditions.

Contact Evergreen Landscaping

If you’d like to know more about the perfect conditions to keep your brilliant holiday indoor houseplants healthy, contact us. We’re happy to help you get the right conditions to ensure you have stunning blooms all season long.

What a Permaculture Garden Is and How to Create it

Permaculture gardening is a great choice for anyone who wants to grow their own food while having a sustainable system in place. The principles of this gardening method let you build a garden that relies solely on natural processes to promote growth, and you get a host of vegetables and fruits each season in return.

Defining Permaculture Gardening

This gardening design comes based on the concept of using your local environment to design your garden. It considers the needs of the local climate and natural ecosystem while meeting human needs. This gardening style also focuses on gradually building up the soil quality to help rejuvenate it as you make your plants stronger by adding nutrients. The basic ethics of this gardening style are to take only your share and return the surplus, care for people, and care for the Earth.

Steps to Start a Permaculture Garden

There are a few basic steps you take to start this sustainable garden, and we’ve outlined them below.

1. Learn About the Environment
   Learn the native insects, plants, and predators that live in the area where you’ll create your garden. Find out which parts of the garden get the most sun, and look for slops that could cause rainwater pooling. Do you see any unique features that you could use? For example, you could use taller native plants as natural trellises for some vegetables.

2. Pick Plants Based on the Environment
   Do a little research and find out which annuals and perennials will do best in your space. Set up companion plants by picking crops that deter pests, attract good insects, and fertilize the soil naturally. Green manure crops increase your soil’s nutrient levels over time, flowers attract butterflies, and certain herbs keep insects away.

3. Design a Layout
   Once you have your plants and understand your surroundings, plan your layout. Consider your water sources, light requirements, and the existing landscape to place each plant in an ideal location to encourage healthy growth. Try to grow herbaceous plants as your ground cover, shrubs in the middle layer, and trees at the top layer.

4. Build Up Your Garden Beds
   Raised beds work very well for this gardening method because you won’t till the soil. The raised beds should be between 6 and 12-inches above the ground. You can also incorporate sheet mulching by layering compost materials like wood chips, cardboard, stray, and leaves over your grass without tilling anything.

5. Plant the Garden
   Start planting by growing the taller plants first, so they provide shade for your shorter plants. Also, make sure that you group plants that have similar water and light needs together. This way, you can reduce how much you have to water to keep everything healthy.

6. Add a Layer of Mulch
   You won’t use chemical-based weed killers in this gardening method. But, you can suppress weeds and keep the soil moist by adding a layer of organic mulch over your newly planted items. Some options include newspaper, leaves, wood chips, straw, grass clippings, and shredded bark.

7. Add Compost
   Use natural compost over chemical-based fertilizers. Kitchen scraps and manure are both common natural compost ingredients. Worm tea and worm castings are also great because they have a high nutrient content.

8. Use a Sustainable Watering System
   Try to use the minimum amount of water to keep your garden healthy. A drip irrigation system is a good start to help prevent evaporation and keep the soil moist. You could also collect rainwater and use it to water the garden.

Contact Evergreen Landscaping

If you’d like to know more about this sustainable gardening method, contact us. We’re happy to help get you on the right track to get a healthy and thriving garden.

Foodscaping Planter Ideas For Edible Aesthetics

Take a good look at your neighbor’s landscaping in their front yard. What do you see cleverly hidden between their hydrangea bushes? If your neighbor started foodscaping, they could be using the hydrangea bushes to camouflage their tomato plants. The hydrangea bushes have stiff branches that nicely hide the tomato plant’s lumpy fruit and floppy stems. The goal is to mix ornamental plants with edibles in the same planting space so you only really see the ornamental plants.

It’s possible to foodscape if you only have a small yard. Trendy foodscaping is planting edible crops throughout your existing landscape or available area. It’s a nice strategy to help you grow healthy, fresh produce while making the most of your current landscape design.

How to Mix Edibles and Ornamentals

To start, you want to look for a space to start planning your foodscape. For people who live in an area that has a HOA, you should get in touch with a landscaping professional to help you put together a viable plan to determine your exposure and scale your area. Food crops will usually need more sunlight exposure than shade each day. You can make this area as large or small as you want, depending on your space. Maybe you have 10-square feet, or you’ll plant between your existing shrubs.

You also have to decide what you want and like to eat. One of the biggest oversights people make when they grow vegetables is that they don’t think about what they like to eat. Start by writing down the top five vegetables that you plan to use on a weekly basis. For example, if you like to eat cabbage or eggplants, they can be pretty enough to mix right into your foundation landscape.

You should also plan to build your soil. Once you pick out your area to plant, you want to top dress a layer of compost over your existing mulch. You can contact your state or county extension service agent and ask them to test your soil. This will give you a good idea of what you’re working with. Learn what your nutrient ratios are, your soil’s pH levels, and what type of fertilizer you should add, along with how much. Don’t overfeed the area, or you risk killing some of your plants.

Once you get your soil ready to go, you can start planting. Plant tomato plugs, seeds, eggplants, peppers, or other edibles in your newly built-up soil. Generally speaking, it’s better to start with direct-sow small seeds to ensure you get a good crop. This means you have to plant sooner in the season rather than later.

Next, add a layer of mulch around your plants. Use a very light layer because you don’t want to attract voles, and they like organic, loose materials. You’ll only need a 1/2-inch of mulch. If you plan to sow seeds, you want to use 1/2 to 1-inch of mulch for warm-season crops and cut back to 1/4-inch of mulch for cool-season crops. You will get some weed growth, but you can take care of them as you see fit.

Foodscape Ideas

There are several ideas you can use to set up your first foodscape. These ideas include but are not limited to:

• Plant strawberries as a groundcover for your foundation. They go well around existing shrubs below your window.
• Consider adding blueberry plants around the border of your property, or they can work to help disguise your air conditioner. Adding peanuts around them will add nitrogen to the soil, and the cover will help keep your blueberry plant’s roots cooler.
• Lettuce, garlic, arugula, and greens go well into edges or your small available spaces, as do herbs like basil and parsley.
• Vining plants with bigger leaves like sweet potatoes, squash, or pumpkin work well as groundcovers. All you have to do is pull them up at the end of the season.

Contact Evergreen Landscaping

If you’re ready to come up with foodscaping planter ideas for your yard, we can help. We invite you to reach out and get in touch with our talented staff to design a viable foodscape to mix ornamental and edible plants.

How to Combine Ornamentals & Edibles in Your Garden

You don’t necessarily have to lock your vegetables, herbs, or homegrown foods into neat, straight rows. Instead, you get a host of exciting new options when you start tucking edibles into your landscapes, and they can go right around and in your ornamental plants without stealing nutrients or competing.

Edible landscaping is fondly called foodscaping, and it’s the process of using edible plants as part of your overall landscape design. By expertly adding edible plants into your landscape, you can easily enhance how pretty it looks while still getting large harvests and gorgeous flowers. There are several ways you can do this, and we’ll outline a few below.

Containers and Pots

Ornamentals and edible crops blend very well in pots or containers. If you want to get a Mediterranean feel, grow lavender, salvias, and Santolina, with sage, rosemary, and thyme. Annuals also work well, and you can mix fiery chili peppers with colorful chard.

Raised Garden Beds

Putting a mixture of ornamental plants with edible ones in your raised garden boxes can transform them from a very controlled look into a productive, eye-catching centerpiece. You can dot bedding plants amongst your crops for a pop of color, and they all thrive in the rich soil that the vegetables need to grow.

Underplanting

Underplanting is an easy way to combine your ornamental and edible plants. If you’re working on a larger scale, it works very well if you have fruit trees and underplant them with a range of many plants. It works well with lavender, spring bulbs, or native wildflowers. If you want to plant on a smaller scale, you can fill in the gaps in your containers with lettuce, herbs, or mizuna.

Vegetable Plots and Borders

In your garden border, you shouldn’t be afraid to plant vegetables and fruits with your dahlias. Along with getting a nice harvest, they can make elegant, architectural, and colorful additions. In your vegetable plot, edge it with a mixture of wildflowers. This can make it more appealing to pollinators, and it’s a great option to grow calendulas, fennel, and borage.

Window Boxes

If you don’t have a garden and you’re short on space, a window box is a great idea. You can grow lettuce, tomatoes, strawberries, and herbs for edibles. For the plants, you can use nasturtiums to keep pests away while attracting beneficial hoverflies that prey on aphids.

Container Combinations for Edible and Ornamental Plants

• Basil and fennel
• Fuchsia and sage
• Gazania and black-eyed Susan
• Kohlrabi and daisies
• Lavender and thyme
• Pansy, thyme and olives
• Rosemary and pansies

Planting Edible Flowers

You can plant and grow edible flowers to garnish your salads or plates or freeze into ice cubes for drinks. A few great options include:

• Chive blossoms
• Elderflowers
• Marigolds
• Nasturtiums
• Pansies
• Snapdragons
• Violets
• Zinnias

Contact Evergreen Landscaping

If you’re someone who is interested in combining ornamental flowers with edible ones and you’re not sure where to start, contact us. We’re happy to give you recommendations to help you create a stunning space while ensuring you get a bountiful harvest.

Three Tips for Regenerative Gardening

Regenerative gardening is a garden management style with planting that keeps waste and emissions in mind. The practice gets specially designed to nourish the garden soil naturally instead of depleting it and refilling the space with fertilizers. Many of these fertilizers can damage plants and the microscopic life in the soil.

Soil and any plants, vegetables, or herbs you grow it in are generally healthier when you take steps to nourish and preserve the fungi, invertebrates, and decomposers. There are a few ways you can try out this specific gardening method, and we’ll outline them for you below.

1. Don’t Till the Soil

Digging is very labor-intensive, and it can break down the soil’s structure as it releases built-up carbon. Instead, you can use landscape cloth to help control the weeds and a broad fork to turn the soil without digging in. Mowing is also a safe way to get rid of any unwanted plants before seeding.

Digging up the soil isn’t simply just labor-intensive; it can also break down the structure of the soil and release built-up carbon. There are a few options you can use to prepare for planting without disrupting your garden bed. Sheet composting is also very helpful, and you lay down cardboard, stray, or other safe materials that will degrade over time in your chosen space in the fall months. It’ll revitalize the ground before spring.

2. Attract Helpful Wildlife

Many garden plants and crops use pollinators like flies, bees, and butterflies. Planting borders around your garden and adjacent areas with native grasses and wildflowers will give these beneficial insects a nice habitat so they can help with your landscape and garden.

By setting up this habitat right around your garden, you’re creating more places for the local wildlife to gather in. Promoting this healthier ecosystem can also mean you have fewer destructive pests and better yields. Doing this can save you resources and effort that you’d usually spend clearing out these areas.

3. Feed the Soil

Regenerative gardening requires that you nourish the soil and give back to the land. Treating your garden patch with a thicker layer of compost will help inject nutrients that could be depleted back into the soil. It can also encourage the natural communities of micro-organisms because it returns organic matter into the soil and reduces erosion by improving the soil’s structure.

Spread a one to three-inch layer of compost during the fall or spring months over your garden patch. You can make your own compost, or you can look at your local farms or vendors and see if they’re selling any. Several plants like legumes can add nutrients back into your soil. So, leave the plant matter into the garden instead of removing it to keep these nutrients in the soil.

Evergreen Landscaping Can Help With Regenerative Gardening

If you’re going to dive into regenerative gardening, it’s a good idea to talk to a professional company. Evergreen Landscaping has experienced and professional staff who are ready to answer your questions or help with this process. You can contact us for more information.