Category: Gardening

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.

How to Use Leftover Egg Shells and Coffee Grounds in Your Garden

One of the best things you can do for your garden is to create a healthy compost to add to the soil. Many people consider the ingredients in compost to be trash, but they can give your plants a host of nutrients to help them thrive. Two common ingredients are leftover eggshells and spent coffee grounds. They have decently high amounts of calcium and nitrogen. They also work well as mulch. To get the most out of these ingredients, you have to know how to prepare and store them after you use them, and we’ll outline this below.

How to Use Eggshells and Coffee Grounds in Your Garden

You don’t want to throw your eggshells or coffee grounds straight into your compost pile without doing a little work first. For the eggshells, you want to give them a good rinse right after you crack them. Once you rinse them, shake them dry. You can also leave them to dry on your counter on a towel. When they’re dry, you’ll crush them as much as you can with your hands. Put the crushed eggshells in a container and set them in a sunny location to dry out. This can be indoors or outdoors.

Coffee also requires a few steps before it’s ready to go. When you brew coffee, you have grounds leftover. Instead of throwing them out, place them in a small bowl and let them dry out for a few hours. When they dry, you can put them in a sealed container with a lid.

You want to repeat these steps until you’ve managed to compile enough of both components to give a moderate amount to every plant. Before you feed your plants, combine the dried coffee grounds and eggshells together. Try to crush the eggshells down even more and sprinkle the whole mixture across your soil bed.

Continue to stockpile these two ingredients because you’ll want to repeat the process every few months to refresh the soil. Always add coffee grounds and eggshells before you start a new growing season. However, you want to ensure that you don’t overdo it. Adding too much compost or fertilizer can overwhelm your plants.

Add Coffee Grounds and Eggshells to Mulch

If you don’t want to add these two items to your compost for whatever reason, you still have another alternative. Instead of adding them to compost, you can mix them into your mulch. Mulch is a great thing to add to your garden, flower beds, or other landscaped areas in your yard.

Mulch can help regulate the soil temperature to keep it cooler when the scorching summer temperatures and humidity levels come around. Mulch is also great for locking moisture into the soil to help you reduce how much you have to water. All you have to do is get mulch from your local garden center and mix your coffee grounds and eggshells in. Once you do, spread a thick one to three-inch layer around all of your plants or vegetables.

Contact Evergreen Landscaping

If you’re not sure how much eggshells or coffee grounds to put in your garden, contact us. Our dedicated and experienced staff are ready and willing to help ensure your plants thrive all season long.

How to Choose Dog-Friendly Plants for Your Garden

Gardens can be stimulating, wonderful spaces for your dog to roam. But, it’s easy for dogs to cause havoc by digging up plants. Gardens can also contain hazards in the form of plants that are potentially toxic to dogs. So, unless you plan to ban your dog permanently from the garden, the following tips will help you pick out dog-friendly plants for your garden.

Tip One – Plant Dog-Friendly Plants

You can start by doing a little research and looking for plants that are beautiful and safe for your dog to be around. A few of these plants include camellias, snapdragons, sunflowers, roses, impatiens, cornflowers, Michaelmas daisies, and calendula. For vegetables and herbs, you can plant dill, purple basil, carrots, spinach, kale, green beans, beets, celery, rosemary, peppermint, parsley, and oregano.

Tip Two – Make the Garden Stimulating

If you want the dog to come in the garden with you, you have to make it stimulating for them. You can set up clearly defined digging or play areas away from your plants. Another option would be to create different routes through the space. Ornamental grasses and plants like salix provide texture and entertainment as they sway and dance in the wind.

Tip Three – Get Hardy Plants

Your dog may have the time of their lives running through the garden, but they can easily damage young plants. They may dig or run through your plants, and this can damage any with delicate stems. Try to plant robust, large perennials in your garden. Astilbe, nepeta, and hardy geranium are all good picks. Avoid the Pelargonium species of geranium as it is toxic to dogs. Shrub roses and viburnum can form a sturdy backbone for your garden.

Tip Four – Avoid Known Toxic Plants

Although this one sounds simple, you may be surprised at how many plants are toxic to dogs. Aconite, chrysanthemum, daffodil, buttercup, delphinium, daphne, hydrangea, foxglove, oak, wisteria, tomato, and yew are all examples of potentially toxic plants. Don’t court danger and plant them, hoping your dog stays out. It doesn’t take much for them to get sick and you to have an emergency vet bill to worry about.

Tip Five – Elevate the Plants

Strategically placing or elevating your garden bed is a great way to restrict your dog’s access to it. You can build raised plant beds, or you can make them by planting your items in large pots or sturdy horse troughs. Plant shelves or hanging baskets are other good ideas. If all else fails, you can fence in your garden to ensure your dog doesn’t get in and damage something or get sick.

Tip Six – Do Your Research

There are thousands of different flowers and plants you could choose for your space. If you have perennials in place already, take inventory of them. Take your list and do your research to see if any of them are poisonous. You can do a quick Google search, or you can take your plant list to your local nursery or garden center and ask if they’re safe to have around dogs.

Contact Evergreen Landscaping

Do you have questions or concerns about your plants and want to know if they’re safe for your dog? If so, contact us. Our friendly and professional staff will help you pick out gorgeous plants that are safe for Fido to play around.

Front Yard Landscaping: How to Turn Your Yard Into a Garden

Although you may like the look of your lawn, you have to admit that it can easily be much more work than a typical garden. So, a lot of people are turning their lawns into gardens. Not only can they be easier to upkeep, but they can also provide your family with food that you can dry or can to have fresh vegetables or even fruit throughout the growing season. If you’re wondering how to turn your lawn into a garden, there are a few avenues you can take. We’ll outline them for you.

1. Sheet Mulching

One of the easiest ways to make the conversion from lawn to a garden is sheet mulching. Cut the grass as short as you possibly can to start. Get a thick layer of newspaper or cardboard and cover the newly cut grass. Make sure that your newspaper or cardboard overlaps, so you don’t accidentally let any sun through. You’ll cover this with at least four inches of compost or mulch. Cut holes through the newspaper or cardboard for your plants. You can also wait a season for your newspaper to decompose to add plants.

2. Raised Garden Boxes

If you want to keep patches or your lawn or paths, you can install raised garden beds. Spread a thick layer of cardboard or landscape cloth on the ground to help suppress the grass and build boxes on top. The boxes can be in any shape. Fill them with organic garden soil, and they’re ready for your plants. It’s a great technique if you have back problems and can’t bend to reach a traditional garden. You will need to amend and refresh the soil in the boxes each growing season.

3. Sod Tilling or Cutting

One of the oldest ways to make the switch from a lawn to a garden is sod tilling or cutting. You can cut strips of sod away with a sharp tool or till the ground to turn up the soil. Once the grass is gone, cover the exposed soil with a 6 to 10-inch layer of newspapers. Add another four to six inches of compost and three to four inches of mulch on top of the newspapers. This will enrich the soil to provide nutrients while preventing your grass from growing back. Plant whatever you want in the new space.

4. Solarization

This is the process of keeping light from reaching your lawn to kill it by covering it with a sheet of black plastic. It works best in areas that get a lot of sunlight with hot summer weather. Cut the grass as short as possible and cover the area you want to convert into garden beds with polyethylene plastic. Add garden stakes or rocks to hold it in place. The plastic will trap heat in the soil to kill weeds, grass, and some plant diseases. It has to stay on for four to eight weeks to kill the grass. Once it does, you can remove it and add mulch and compost before planting whatever you like in your new garden.

Contact Evergreen Landscaping

Do you have more questions on how to turn your lawn into a garden? Maybe you’d like professional help with this project. Either way, contact us at Evergreen Landscaping. We’re ready to help you grow a thriving garden in your yard this season.

How do Self-Watering Gardens Work

Over or underwatering can cause your garden to fall below its potential yield. You could end up with curling leaves, fewer vegetables or flowers, yellow spots, and a droopy appearance if you’re not careful. It can be tricky to know how much water your plants need at any one time, and this is where self-watering setups come into play. They essentially allow your plants to hydrate themselves, so you have less maintenance.

Consequences of Over or Under Watering

When a plant gets too much water, the water can collect and sit around the root system, and this causes oversaturation. When this happens, capillary action is impossible. This is why giving your plants too much water is the leading cause of plant death and root rot. A self-watering system separates the plants from the water, so it can’t drown the roots.

If your plant doesn’t get enough water on a daily basis, the water it manages to get usually sits on the top of the soil. This can cause the roots to dry out. As long as you make a point to refill your self-watering planter periodically, you won’t have to worry about the roots drying out.

How Self-Watering Beds or Planters Work

It’s common to water your plants from the top-down, even though plants actually absorb water from the bottom up. Self-watering setups usually come with a water reservoir that sits at the bottom of the planter or bed. The water gets drawn up from this reservoir as needed through a capillary action process.

The plant’s root systems will attract water from the reservoir and pull it upwards using cohesion, adhesion, and surface tension of the water. Once the water gets to the plant’s leaves, the plants can use the water in the photosynthesis process and for other essential functions.

Using Self-Watering Planters

There are two main types of self-watering systems that you can get. One comes with a removable water tank at the bottom of the setup, and the other setup has a tube that runs alongside it. There are also self-watering inserts that could turn traditional garden beds into self-watering ones. They all work in the same way, but the aesthetics will be different for each one.

The only thing that you need to do to keep them running at peak levels is refill the water chamber when it starts to get low. The number of times you refill it will depend on the sunlight levels, types of plants, and the time of year. However, you can plan to refill it every two to three weeks.

In between refilling the reservoir, you can keep watering the top of your plants with a light mist every few days. This will help raise the humidity levels around the plant’s leaves. If you’re growing an indoor garden, you’ll want to mist the leaves and wipe them down to get the dust off. If you don’t, the dust can stop the plant’s ability to photosynthesize. Other than this, the setup should handle all of your plant’s watering needs with minimal input from you.

Evergreen Landscaping Can Help with Self-Watering Setups

If you’re interested in getting a self-watering setup in place for your garden, contact us. We’re happy to walk you through your options and pick the one that is going to work best for you.

Understanding Sun Levels and the Seasonality of Shadows

The key to getting a lush and beautiful lawn or garden relies heavily on sun levels and how every plant has different needs. Some plants do wonderfully in bright and full sun while others burn, and some plants need shade and cooler areas to thrive. How the sun changes throughout the day and during the season also factors in, and we’re going to give you a quick breakdown of the most important points below.

Understanding Sun Levels

When you purchase plants or even pick out grass seed, it’ll have a preferred sun level listed on the package. You want to get as close to this sun level as possible when you plant them to ensure they get enough but not too much light and heat. The most basic sun levels include:

• Full Sun – Six hours at a minimum of direct sun every day
• Part Sun – Three to six hours of direct sun every day
• Part Shade – Three to six hours of sun every day, but they’ll need protection during the middle of the day from the most intense sun
• Full Shade – Less than three hours of direct sunlight a day

Unless the plant is full or partial sun, you want to put them in an area where shadows shield them from the direct mid-day sun. This is too hot for them to be in the direct light, and it’s very easy for them to burn or wilt. Once they do, it’s difficult to get them back to full health unless you immediately take steps to fix how much light they get and at what time of day they get it. Also, water in the early morning or evening hours to avoid magnifying the light and burning your plant’s leaves.

What is the Seasonality of Shadows?

When you think of the seasons, shadows come into play. Spring and summer are the seasons where the days get longer, and there are fewer shadows. Once fall and winter hit, you’ll get less direct sunlight and much longer shadows. So, an area that was perfect for your part sun plant may now be too shaded for them to continue to grow well. If this is the case, you may find yourself moving your plants to continue giving them the correct light amount.

The season with the shortest shadows starts during the Spring Equinox in March, and it goes until the end of August in the Midwest climates. Then, the days slowly start getting shorter and the shadows longer. This will change, depending on your location. However, almost every part of the United States will notice shorter days in the fall and winter months over the spring and summer months. You want to plan accordingly, especially if you have plants out all year-round.

Doing things like planting things in containers where you can easily move them from space to space or putting up temporary shade structures in the warmer months that you can take down in the cooler months can help your plants thrive.

Contact Evergreen Landscaping

Are you not sure which plants will work best with your sun levels? Maybe you have questions on how to optimize your garden or landscape level, so they all get the correct amount of light. Whatever the reason, you can contact us at Evergreen Landscaping. Our staff will answer your questions and help you find the perfect balance of sun and shade for your plants.

What is Hydroseeding?

When you perform seeding applications, you want a method that is going to cover a lot of areas while giving you full and even results. This is where hydroseeding comes in. If you’ve never heard of it, this quick overview will fill you in on everything you need to know.

How Hydroseeding Started

Maurice Mandell of the Connecticut Highway Department gets credit for starting hydroseeding or hydro mulching in the 1940s. His concept involved mixing water and seed before spraying it on areas around the highways and roads in Connecticut to sow grass to prevent erosion and encourage grass growth after construction. Hydroseeding is a very technical process that involves some specialized equipment, and it’s good for any size project but small. In 1953, Charles Finn of Finn Corporation invented the world’s first hydroseeder. They’re currently the biggest hydroseeder manufacturer in the world.

Defining Hydroseeding

Hydroseeding involves spraying a water-based slurry of mulch, seeds, soil additives, and fertilizer to plant seeds. This is one of the most efficient methods of planting for virtually every application but very small areas. The key to the higher efficiency rate of this process is that you combine all of the essential materials for healthy, quick seed germination in a single application. You’ll need:

• Fertilizer
• Great seed to soil contact
• Seed protection
• Moisture retention

The first thing you have to do determine which additives you need to add to condition your soil for the highest rate of growth and germination for your seeds. You have to get the soil ready for planting by loosening up any highly compacted soil to let the plant roots break in and grow deep. When you get your soil test results back, you can pick out the correct seed blend to create the grass or plants you want to grow.

You’ll usually plant grass during hydroseeding, but it’s typically a mix of plants and grass in the seeds. Pick out the correct fertilizer and additives. These additives could include aluminum sulfate, elemental sulfur, nitrogen, iron sulfate, or lime. If you’re hydroseeding on a hill or slope, add tackifiers. Finally, you should add mulch to give your seeds the best opportunity to have a healthy and quick start with even and sustained growth.

When is the Best Time to Hydroseed?

Your climate will be the biggest factor that impacts when it’s the best time to hydroseed. Ideally, the temperature will fall in the cool but not cold range, and you should have a reasonable amount of rainfall in the forecast. Rain will help offset your watering costs. Generally speaking, fall is the best time to hydroseed because the seeds can establish themselves before going dormant.

Hydroseeding in the early spring months is also acceptable. The cooler temperature and rainy spring weather can create excellent growing conditions. However, if the spring gets directly followed by a hot summer, you’ll spend more watering for the first year to keep the grass alive and growing. Don’t plant it in the summer unless you have a cheap and abundant water source and a lot of time to tend to it.

Evergreen Landscaping Can Help with Hydroseeding

If you’re interested in learning more about hydroseeding or if you want to use it to help create a lush lawn, contact us. Our staff is ready to help in any way they can.

Themed Garden Designs

Does your garden have a theme? Maybe you’ve never tried to create a theme with your garden, and you have no idea where to start. At the core, a themed garden design is landscaping based on a specific idea or concept. There are several more well-known garden themes out there, including:

• Butterfly gardens
• Chinese gardens
• Desert gardens
• Japanese gardens
• Wildlife gardens
• Zen gardens

Arguably one of the hardest parts of this process is coming up with the central design idea. Once you pick out an idea that you like, everything else should gradually fall into place. The easiest way to go about this is to think of what you enjoy and let the concept grow from this thought process.

Your garden theme design can vary widely, and you’re spoiled for choice. The only limits to your theme are your imagination. However, this can also be overwhelming, so we’ll give you several theme ideas with examples of flowers you can incorporate into your own yard below.

Wildflower Themed Garden

If you love how wildflowers look, you can easily design a wildflower-friendly garden that you’ll fill with native plants. Depending on your location, bluebells, penstemon, lupine, and coneflower are all excellent picks. Maybe you love wildflowers, but you’re more of a night person. If this is the case, the moonflower, Casa Blanca lily, Queen of the Night, and Gardenia Augusta are all solid choices that bloom during the evening hours.

Color Themed Garden

Do you have a favorite color or colors? You could go for a cool green garden that showcases pops of vibrant yellow or orange blooms, or maybe you want a blue garden. Marigolds, yellow roses, sunflowers, lilies, tulips, and some daisies come in shades of yellow and orange. For a blue garden, try hydrangeas, larkspur, sage, bellflowers, or morning glories. Whatever colors you choose, you can incorporate them into your plant pots or borders too.

Elizabethan Themed Garden

Perhaps you’re someone who is into a more classic design with a calming look and feel. If so, you could incorporate carefully placed benches with deep green hedges framing the garden. Other nice classic touches are water features like fountains, statues, or even a low rock wall.

Consider Your Climate and Home Style

In the early stages of developing your garden theme, consider your local climate because this impacts what will and won’t thrive in your garden. For example, it would be challenging to have a desert garden in Florida, or you would have a challenging time creating a tropical-themed garden in the American Southwest.

Your home’s style will also impact which garden theme you choose. If you live in an older, stately home, incorporating a formal Victorian garden is a great fit. But, having a rock garden with this type of home could look out of place and impact your overall aesthetic.

Contact Evergreen Landscaping

Would you like help bringing your garden theme to life? Maybe you’re not sure which plants will do best in your local climate. Either way, our staff is here to help. You can reach out and get in touch with us to start the design process and get tips and advice.