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10 Aug 2012

Container Gardening for City Dweller

Sometimes, the urge to garden might be stopped by other circumstances, such as living arrangements or space constrictions, but container gardening can help you. If you live in an apartment, you obviously can’t grow a garden, as you don’t have a back or front yard! One of the best solutions for this problem is to start container gardening. You can try sitting them near the window or on your balcony, or even hanging them. Just a few containers and your whole living area will look much more beautiful and serene. Even though you miss out on the full garden experience, there are benefits to container gardening.

Getting Started in Container Gardening

One benefit of growing in small containers is the fact that you can move them around to suit your needs. If you rearrange your furniture and feel that it would look nice better if it were in the other area, you can just move it over. No transplanting or labor required! As long as the lighting is about the same, your plant won’t mind moving at all. Another benefit of container gardening is the fact that you can adapt it to any environment. Depending on the type of soil you fill it with and where you place it.

container gardening

One way to give container gardening an interesting look is to hang them at different heights. Hanging plants is a great use of space and clears up your counters and windowsills. This is called “vertical gardening”. If you pull it off right, you can make a beautiful arrangement of plants while conserving your valuable space. If you live in an apartment, you know how important it is to conserve space! One method of vertical gardening is the use of a wooden stepladder. If painted correctly, you can arrange all the plants on it in a stylish cascade of color.

A downside to container plants is that you can’t use an irrigation system. Thus, have to go around and water your plants one at a time. However, the square footage for container plants is much less than that of an actual garden, so the time spent on maintenance and watering is more balanced. You won’t have to worry about weeds or pests. It is important that you don’t over-water your container plants. This can be just as fatal to their health as under-watering.

When choosing containers for your plants, buy some extra containers in case it breaks or other unforeseeable circumstances. Change things up by buying different sizes, shapes, and colors. Try to make sure that they complement each other. Plastic containers are the best and require the least amount of watering. But if you want clay or earthen pots then you should line the inside with plastic. This helps it retain water more, as the clay will soak up water.

container gardening

Another thing to remember when buying pots is the fact that the size of the pot will ultimately constrict the size of the plant. In other words, the smaller the pot, the smaller the plant. Make a careful choice of pots according to what you wish to grow in each one. If you search for the plant you chose on the internet, you should be able to find specifications as to how much root space it should be given. This can even be an advantage for you if you choose a plant that can grow very large. If you have a limited amount of space for it, you can constrict it by choosing a pot that isn’t large enough to support huge amounts of growth.

Tools for your Container Gardening

A lot of gardeners find the hobby to be both relaxing and therapeutic. Without the right information, though, it can be confusing. Gardeners have to know not only how to do the actual gardening, but what tools and equipment are most useful. Spend some time relaxing in the sun, tending your garden.

If you’re growing veggies in the garden, they need to be in a spot that lets them get about six hours of sun daily. Many veggies require this amount to properly grow at a faster pace. This is true of some flowers.

 

Two items you need to invest in when working in a garden are a wheelbarrow, and a kneeling stool. Using a large portion of your time near or on the ground working on your garden puts a huge strain on your knees. Therefore, having a portable, lightweight garden stool will greatly assist you in making gardening easier on them. A wheelbarrow will help you move heavy items without hurting your back so ensure that you invest in one promptly.

In a dark area, pre-soak your seeds overnight. Put a few seeds in a small container and fill it near to the top with water. This lets water soak into the seeds, giving them an extra boost of hydration when they start growing. The seeds will most likely have a greater chance of maturing and surviving.

As you have learned from this article, container gardening can seem like quite the task. Yet, it is manageable if you know what you’re doing. If the benefits of container gardening sound appealing to you, then you should start planning out your container garden today. If you write a list of all the plants you desire to have, you can do the necessary research. Find out what size and shape of pots you should get. After that, it’s just a matter of arranging them in a way that makes your home look the nicest.

If you have children, then container gardening can be a great hobby for your family to bond with each other. Most children enjoy choosing the plants and flowers that will go in the garden. Not only do most kids enjoy getting dirty, they will also take extra pride in everything you grow together.

Your garden will start giving you enjoyment after you realize you have the abilities to make it happen. A beautiful garden requires the right tools, soil, water and sunlight. If you need more container gardening assistance, contact us today! Or call 805-773-5395.

27 Jul 2012

Beautiful Garden Creation With These Great Tips

Creating a beautiful garden can be relaxing, but it doesn’t really require plenty of money. Performing necessary garden chores can be an excellent way of spending time together as a family. If you have children, they will be awe-struck by how seeds transform into colorful flowers and tasty vegetables. Additionally, gardening is a powerful teaching tool that helps people and children appreciate the outdoors and nature. The article below has tips that will make gardening easier, more enjoyable and inclusive to others.

Cover any wall or fence with climbers. Climbers have many different uses and spread quickly. They also work to cover up old, and possibly dead, vegetation. Some must be tied onto a support, but a number of climbers attach to surfaces with twining stems or tendrils. Plants such as clematis, wisteria, climbing roses, or honeysuckle are always great choices.

Your vegetable plants need about two or three inches of mulch placed around them. Mulch helps the soil surrounding the plants remain moister for a longer time. It will also dramatically decrease weed growth. Time and effort will be saved pulling out all the weeds.

If you are planning on growing peas, start them indoors before putting them outdoors in your garden. Pea seeds tend to germinate much better when planted indoors, before being moved to an outside garden. The baby plants will also be stronger and will resist pests and disease better. You will be able to transfer the seedlings outdoors after they become better established.

A small shed or an area in your garage makes the perfect storage facility for garden tools. Do not leave anything laying around in the yard; you do not know who might come by and steal it!

3 Tips in Landscaping your Beautiful Garden

Landscaping is usually a pretty big task that takes up a bunch of time and energy. Before you hire a professional, here are some tips that could save both time and money for your beautiful garden.

  1. There are some tasks that you will be able to do on your own, if you are willing to invest your time. However, if you have an awkward block such as very steep ground, a pro might give you the expertise to save costly mistakes.
  2. Spend some time thinking about exactly how you want the final outcome to be. Think about the style and function of your landscape. Do you want an area for entertaining? A barbeque? Is there to be an area for children to play, a fishpond or a swimming pool? An idea of the plants you want to be there will help. Focus on the area where you spend most of your time.
  3. The style of your home must be taken into account. If you have a rural cottage, formal gardens surrounding it will look out of place. Think also about your lifestyle. Do you want to spend hours caring for many beds of annuals or pruning beds of roses? If so, go ahead and plant them, but if you’d rather spend your free time at the beach, then go for an easy-care garden and landscape.

Here are some different landscape styles you can choose for your own  beautiful garden:

  1. Formal: This style uses lots of straight lines and perfect geometrical shapes. Orderly arrangement of plants instead of random positioning is employed. Close arrangement and pruning is seen on many landscaped gardens with this style.
  2. Informal: This kind of landscaping workds well with cosy cottages. Beds with curved edges instead of straight lines and random placement of plants suit this landscape style.
  3. Woodland: This landscaping suits a house that has a wooded backyard and sloping ground.
  4. English Garden: This style emphasizes the harmony between the house’s architecture and the garden.
  5. Oriental: It is often the kind of garden found in small backyards. It uses rocks, evergreens and water. A wide variety of plants create several interesting angles with this style.

In conclusion, whether you are creating a beautiful garden on your own or with friends, the tips you’ve read above are sure to be helpful. You’ll find ways here to bring the joy of gardening to friends and family. It also helps you to learn more in-depth understanding of your beautiful garden for yourself.

For more tips and suggestions on landscaping ideas for your beautiful garden, make an appointment with us for a consultation or contact us at 805-773-5395. We’ll help you keep your beautiful garden looking great all year round.

15 Jul 2012

Successful Gardening: How To Have A Healthy And Happy Garden

There is a lot of information you must learn before taking your garden and turning it into a masterpiece. Successful gardening takes some effort. But, it is also a pleasant and rewarding hobby. The advice in this article will help you learn everything you need to know in order to enjoy a successful gardening.

How to start a successful garden

If you are gardening with a cut, make sure that you adequately protect it from dirt and chemicals. Cuts have a much higher likelihood of getting infected if they are in contact with dirt when you garden. The key is to use bandages capable of covering cuts in their entirety.

Start your garden by using mulch. Using mulch around your plants helps retain moisture and prevent the growth of weeds. You can buy mulch, but you can create your own by using grass clippings or leaves. You can even lay down plastic sheeting and plant your plants in holes in the plastic. All these methods help the plants retain the moisture they need for growth. This also help reduce the chances that weeds will grow.

successful gardening

Use plants to get some autumn color. It doesn’t have to be that way! In the fall, the foliage displays every color of the rainbow. There are many variations in leaf color with different varieties. Maple, Beech and Dogwood trees can give you lively yellows and deep crimsons. Barberry, conaneaster and hydrangea are all wonderful choices in shrubs.
Learn the proper way to handle chemicals. Learn also the right way to use garden tools. If you ignore them, you can irritate your skin in most painful ways. Be careful when it comes to your body, and always follow directions.

If you know that you’ll be in the garden for an extended period of time, protect yourself from the sun with proper attire. This includes wide-brimmed hats, sunscreen, and sunglasses. If you cover up from the sun, you are less likely to become burned or get skin cancer.

Helpful tips for a successful gardening

Your garden can be an important part of your life. Just like you, it needs to be properly maintained. You need to research, work hard and be patient to watch your work translate into progress for your own personal garden. These tips below can help you with growing a successful garden.

Try to fill your garden with a variety of plants instead of just a few types. A successful garden with a wide variety is more resistant to garden pests. It attracts more beneficial insects that eat the bad bugs. This will cut down on the need for pesticides. A garden with just a few types of plants will sustain more damage from pest invasions.

A great tip to consider to have a successful gardening is making sure that you won’t damage your plants while dragging your watering hose around. This is important because this is very easy to do with a simple tug of the hose. Consider using guides that prevent your hose form accidentally coming into contact with fragile plants.

Another important advice to having a fantastic garden is to be realistic. When shopping the glossy packages of seeds are very appealing. Yet, many of them only grow in specific climates. Be realistic to what grows in the area. Do not plant items that do not grow well. It is so disappointing to plant a garden and have almost no fruits and vegetables come from it.

successful gardening

Grow shade-loving annuals. Most annuals (and tender perennials) thrive in full sun. Others prefer a little shade. They do well on the north side of a house, or under the canopy of trees and shrubs. Remember to provide good soil and plenty of moisture. For constant bloom in shady areas, plant flowers like impatiens, balsam, clarkia and lobelia. Nicotiana is particularly striking, growing 5 feet tall, and producing beautiful tubular white flowers with a glorious fragrance.

Gardening, if done correctly, can help supplement you or your business. While the plants may not be human, they still have lives and deserve to be well-cared for. So, do yourself a favor and do your research, work hard in the dirt, and have a bunch of patience to help grow and take care of your garden.

With these tips, you’re better equipped to grow the most beautiful garden you can imagine. In learning how to create your dream garden, you’ll also be growing as a person. That’s because learning how to nurture your plants will  help you reach the goal of having a great garden. Additionally, it will also help you learn to nurture yourself.

Looking for more tips and suggestions for successful gardening? For a free consultation, contact us today!

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14 Jun 2012

Protect Your Garden from Bad Weather

One of the most hazardous stuff that may happen to your plants is weather. Many a garden continues to be demolished overnight because of this phenomenon. And seemingly, there’s nothing we are able to cause by prevent it. Of course, if weather didn’t exist at all only then do we wouldn’t have that nice sunshine that is good for the growth in our plants. Protect your garden with these tips in preparing from cold weather.

How to protect your garden?

The horrors of hail

When rain begins to fall, usually the first reaction of a gardener is pure joy. After all, this means you don’t need to bother about heading out and watering it manually. Natural rain can’t be anything but great for all your thirsty plants, can it? Well once that same gardener starts to see the beautiful rain drops turn into small globules of ice, usually a complete emotional breakdown is in order. I know this from experience, because when I would be a blooming gardener, I had my garden completely demolished by about 10 minutes of severe hail. When I first learned my lesson around the damage hail can perform, however devised a method of coping. I started to help keep large clay pots within 10 feet of my garden, to ensure that at any sign of hail I possibly could run outside and have the plants sheltered within seconds. This saved me from having to watch my plants be ripped to pieces on multiple occasions. I’ve never dealt with hail a lot more than an inch across, but I’m guessing that if there had been any baseball sized chunks then those pots could have been quickly demolished.

protect your garden

However, because the quantity of fragile plants in my garden grew, it became somewhat unrealistic to have a pot for every plant, and run outside to place each one of these before significant damage had already occurred. After much thought, I ended up creating a horizontal, retractable screen mechanism made out of a powerful but flexible wire mesh. At any sign of rain I possibly could pull the screen out over my entire garden and also have instant protection. Not only made it happen let the rain through, however the collected hail provided a stable drip of water as much as a day afterwards. This project cost me hundreds of dollars, and much more blood, sweat, and tears than could be measured with earth dollars. Therefore I wouldn’t recommend it to everybody.

If it’s too late for you, and you’ve recently lost your precious plants to wicked balls of ice, then you’re probably looking for a way to help the plants recover. Unfortunately there aren’t many choices for you. The best thing you should do is give them the tender care they deserve, and try to nurse them back to health over a long time. The numbers of weeks after seriously being damaged by hail were essential to whether the guarana plant survives or not. Should you expect more rain or wind, you need to keep the plant covered. Within this brittle stage, even raindrops or perhaps a strong breeze could cause more damage. If you live in a place that experiences frequent hail, you should definitely have in place some emergency arrangements for protecting your plants. Sitting by and watching them be ripped to shreds should never be a choice!

Preparing your garden for the winter

protect your garden

Some people believe that once the weather starts getting colder and the leaves start to fall, it’s about time to store the gardening tools and wait until next spring to operate on their garden again. Wrong. Winter is an important time to keep your garden’s health and assure yourself a good crop for next year. You might think that might take too long to prepare your garden, but the fact is that it requires less than 1 day to organize your garden for the upcoming winter. Once the nighttime temperatures drop to less than forty-five degrees Fahrenheit for over four days in a row, or frost is forecasted for your area (usually around late October or November) you know it is time to begin setting up your garden. You need to start by evaluating your garden design, check which plants grew well in the previous season, and which plants didn’t do well. Fall is a good time to choose which plants will stay in your garden next year, and which ones should go. It is also a great time to choose which new plants you wish to grow. For making your garden more colorful and healthy, be sure only to plant the more hardy plants during the fall to enable them to withstand the winter. Some plants that will do fine being planted in fall are: rudbeckia, Aster Novi-belgii, Anemone Japonica, panicle hyandea, endive, escarole, and Brussels sprouts. You could find most of these and more in gardening magazines or your local nursery.

After you have finished this you need to begin cleaning up your garden. Start by taking out weeds that could have cropped up, and raking fallen leaves. Weeds and rotten leaves can carry insects and diseases that could be bad for your garden. You should also rid your garden of spent annual plants, and harvest your vegetables and other plants that can’t tolerate the winter weather. After fall has come and gone, the leaves will likely be off your trees and you could see the rotten branches. Cutting off the unwanted branches from the trees is not needed to your gardens health, but may help later on by not dropping branches on your plants and not blocking too much of the sun.

protect your garden

If you have younger trees you should consider wrapping them and supporting all of them with stakes to help them survive the winter wind and cold. Putting mulch over your plants for the winter can be a helpful way to protect your garden from sudden temperature changes and heavy snow. For mulch you can use about five inches of shredded bark, pine needles, or a variety of other materials. You need to be careful not to mulch too early, because some insects might still be alive and able to take shelter in it for the winter. Once you are finished with your gardening tools, you need to clean them and make sure they’re in a safe place where they will not rust and you know where they’ll be for next year. Before winter comes you should always set out slug repellent, as slugs are one of the worst bugs to have in your garden. If you have a pool or fountain in your garden, make sure to consider out any fish which you have in them and bring them inside. There’s nothing sadder than a fish frozen in a block of ice.

Hope these tips help you protect your garden during cold weather. If you still don’t know what to do, protect your garden

or Call 805-773-5395 to schedule an appointment.

 

02 Jun 2012

Pool Landscaping Tips for Your Backyard


It is a plan of action to get your pool looking its best by making use of around the pool landscaping. This sort of pool landscaping can turn your boring old backyard into the backyard of the stars. You could have a Hollywood looking backyard in no time if you play your cards right.

Pool Landscaping Design

A good pool landscaping design can make your pool the focal attraction and convey out so much more in your yard. Should your yard be large, you can think about adding gorgeous brick walkways around the pool. This sort of pool landscaping can result in other areas of the yard as well. You can have a larger grouping of brick on which you could place your patio furniture, a table and chairs can look fantastic. Breaking up the brick in the pool landscaping will some sections of greenery is a good touch. These bits of green will take in life to the whole picture and remove the hard stone look. Brick is a good choice of stone since it is a softer looking stone. The red brick color is attractive and warm it won’t leave your yard looking cold and unwelcoming. The green plants will simply enhance the attractiveness of the brick as a pool landscaping tool. You can throw in some landscaping stones round the plants and also the edges of the patio. Light colored Stones will add a lot to the entire pool landscaping design. Choose small and sharp stones and you have just added a whole other layer of texture to the landscape and this on its own can make your yard look fantastic.

Can I Have Plants Around My Pool?

You may also consider putting in some colorful flowers. If you spend a lot of time by the pool during the night, then add night blooming flowers as well. By doing this you will be surrounded by some fantastic blooms and scents all day. While there is nothing inherently wrong with placing a few plants around your swimming pool, you still need to make sure that you are making the correct pool landscaping decisions. You don’t want to put too many plants near the pool because it will make it much harder to keep your pool clean on a regular basis, and you should also make sure that your plants fit well with the rest of your backyard pool theme. Most people just think about adding something tropical more than anything else, but in reality, there are quite a few different things to think about before you add plants around your swimming pool.

Avoid Big, Bountiful Plants

The first thing you should try to avoid when adding plants around your pool is to stick to options that don’t come with a lot of extra fruit and flowers. It’s one thing to add plants for a bit of extra greenery to your pool, you don’t want to overdo it by adding extra materials into the mix.

Think Twice Before Planting

It’s usually a good idea to stick with potted plants rather than large bushes or trees around your pool because the roots of those larger plants can actually affect the structure of your pool in the long run. Any oak, ficus, or elm trees are out of the question because you don’t want to deal with the long list of problems that occur when you have roots invading your pool’s plumbing system.

Low Maintenance Options

One last thing to remember is that your pool is supposed to be the area of your home where you are able to relax and enjoy time with family and friends. You don’t want to add an extra stress to your life by creating a situation where you have to maintain your new plants around the pool on a regular basis. Stick with options that won’t force you to spend most of your time around the pool trimming leaves and fertilizing the plants. It’s always a good idea to just keep things simple in this department.

Mixed most of these ideas will make your pool gardening the best ever seen. Begin looking to the way to go about this kind of pool landscaping today. Some of it you could be able to perform by yourself while the other aspects might need some professional help with. Your pool landscaping is likely to impress your entire friends when you are done so get started today and it will be done in no time.

Need help with your pool landscaping? The professional landscapers at Evergreen Landscaping are here for you. Contact us today to get started!

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