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16 Aug 2012

Home Gardening and Landscaping Ideas

During the last couple of years home gardening has become an increasingly popular past-time and hobby. Actually, research has shown that home gardening is at an all-time high in America at this time. In the USA 8 from 10 households take part in some form of home gardening activity. Obviously from the number of individuals which are doing the work, home gardening is one of the most widely used outdoor recreation in nation.

No time is better than the present. You probably have a lot of inquiries on how to start and what to do, but no worries, this article has you covered. It contains some great information about home gardening. And before you know it you will be on your way to growing an amazing garden.

Home Gardening and Landscaping Ideas

Many people that try their hand at home gardening plant flowers; at least they begin out planting flowers anyway. Roses will probably be the very first thought into any gardeners mind, but roses will require extra time and work, and really should probably be left to people who’ve gardened before. When planting flowers many choices can be found, for example bulbs, perennials, and annuals.

Edible vegetation is another big thing in home gardening. Perhaps the best thing about edibles is the reward of eating them. The list of edible plants that gardeners can grow at home is endless. Some of the most common edible plants in the vegetable arena are potatoes, peas, corn, carrots, squash, and cucumber. Many gardeners go for fruits, such as, watermelons, tomatoes, peaches, plums, apples, pears, and apricots. Small fruits, such as strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries often require less work and less space. These are making them much more feasible for home gardening.

Herbs, most often used as spices in cooking, are growing in popularity every single day. The most grown include basil, thyme, oregano, parsley, and cilantro. Probably the most essential things to watch whenever planting edibles is insects and disease. In the end, you don’t want to lose out on the feast you’re going to get to savor from healthy plants.

Many people don’t realize it, but landscaping is a form of home gardening. Landscaping covers many different areas and types of gardening. You may also classify mowing your lawn as landscaping! Keeping in the line of grasses, landscaping usually involves decorative grasses, and the great thing about them is they don’t take much work for upkeep. Kinds of grass include monkey grass, pampas, buffalo grass, flame grass, and ornamental millet. Landscaping is not just limited to plant life. Additionally, it includes anything completed to a yard for decoration, for example adding rocks or stones, placing a small pond, statutes, or a waterfall.

Learning More about Home Gardening and Landscaping

Humidity might be needed by some houseplants. You can create humidity in any environment by grouping different plants together in one pot, or replanting the specimen into a larger pot and filling the gap in with compost or stones. You can also provide the requisite humidity for your houseplants by using a spray bottle to mist it one or two times per day.

Clay is difficult to dig through with a shovel, as it is sticky and compact. To make working in clay easier, rub the shovel with floor or car wax and then buff it with a cloth. This will both make the clay fall off of the surface, and prevent the surface from rusting.

Collect rainwater for your plants to become more ecologically friendly. Using a barrel or any sort of container to collect any amount of rainwater can not only save you money on your water bill every month, but you are using a natural resource as well. Bear in mind this tip to have a chemical-free garden while saving money.

When deciding on which plants to include in your home gardening projects, consider evergreens which produce colorful berries. These types of trees can offer your garden a splash of color, especially during the winter when all other plants and trees have lost their hues. Some evergreens that will add life to your yard in the wintertime are the American Cranberrybush, Common Snowberry, Winterberry, and American holly.

There isn’t much difference between home gardening and gardening anywhere else. Plants still have to be planted inside a good location. The plants still need water plus they still require the same nutrients. Home gardening shouldn’t cause anyone to get nervous. Should you choose decide to use homing gardening and finding out that you simply don’t possess a green thumb, don’t get discouraged.

After reading this article, you should be well on your way to growing a fantastic garden. If you think that you were ready before, you should see yourself now. Acquire some information, read up on home gardening, and try it again the next planting season. Hopefully, the tips that were provided gave you some pointers that will help you get started with your gardening adventures so that you can begin growing like a pro.

Need a jump start with your home gardening? Call 805-773-5395 for a Free Consultation or 

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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