• Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Home Grown

Gardening Tips, Tricks, & Advice

Planning Your Garden Redesign

Hochbeet

Image via Wikipedia

When you plan to redesign your flower garden, the first thing you need to consider is how and where you will be putting the plants. There are a number of reasons that a gardener may want to redesign a garden such getting rid of old flower beds or to prevent overcrowding. Moving plants that have already taken root is very similar to transplanting a seedling that began indoors then was transferred to an outside garden. Sometimes gardeners have to deal with the added expense of redesigning a garden. When extra cash is not available,  using a prepaid credit card can be helpful to ensure all the supplies are available.

There are times when an old garden bed that has been constructed of wood may begin rotting or a plastic, cement or brick flower bed begins to crack or crumble. During these times, take the opportunity to redesign your garden and also save portions of your old flower bed in order to make a new one. You should also make sure you have adequate amounts of healthy soil which means if you haven’t practiced changing your soil or compost annually with a completely new supply, do so now.

After you have removed the plants that you plan to keep, removed unwanted plants, above-ground level soil, and bed structures, you can take apart your wooden flower beds and save the nails for reuse with your new bed later. You can also reuse cement blocks and bricks and any plastic bedding structure from an old bed, then dispose of broken or rotting materials. Your new bed can be made of new materials as well as old materials. If you are adding an in-ground flower bed, you can use a wagon wheel for added structure.

Filed Under: Environment, Gardening Tagged With: Garden, Plant, Soil

4 Tips for Starting Your Own Garden

When spring rolls around, people enjoy the warmth and being outside. This is the time of year that many think about starting a flower garden. If you’ve never planted one before, don’t despair! Here are four simple tips for starting your own garden.

1. Think small. Sometimes planting a garden is like eating a meal in which your eyes are bigger than your stomach. Don’t fall victim to thinking you need a huge garden with lots of flowers. A big flower garden could need more work than you have time and energy for. If you’ve never grown a garden before, start small, with a space no bigger than ten square feet.

2. Test soil. You need to know what type of soil you have because different types require different preparations. Take a handful of dirt and squeeze it. If it crumbles when you open your hand, your soil is a sandy loam. Bring in some compost to build it up. Clay soil is really sticky when wet. Bring in sand to break up your clay soil.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

3. Select plants. Because you have a small patch of ground, you should avoid plants that are big and spread out. Annuals are the easiest types of flowers to start with. Petunias, zinnias, marigolds, impatients, alyssum, cosmos, and verbena are easy flowers to grow. When you’re ready to buy your flowers, check canada 411 to help you find a local nursery.

4. Mulch. Your garden should be in a sunny spot in your yard so your plants will grow well. However, sun dries out the ground, so mulch will help keep moisture in.

Filed Under: Gardening, Technique Tagged With: Garden, Plant, Soil

That lawn is so yesterday: How to remove it

ContentWhen deciding to re-decorate the garden, there is primarily one factor that stands in the way; the lawn. Although relatively easy to install, headaches can arise when one attempts to remove a stubborn lawn.

Before venturing into the world of grass removal, one should first discover what type of lawn they are dealing with. Whereas cool season grass can be manually removed or smothered, warm season grass has strong roots that make the manual and smothering process a complete waste of time if done improperly. When removing warm season grass as an amateur, the best method is poison.

While poison may appear to be the easy road in lawn removal, it is just as time consuming as the smothering method. When one decides to smother the grass they must cut it to the ground and either cover it with newspaper or cardboard. After covering the dirt, the only assignment for the gardener is to wait for the covering to produce rich soil that can be used for various purposes. When poisoning, however, the individual must spread the chemicals abroad making sure to not poison useful crop. In addition, the poisoned area must be checked often to determine the amount of poison that is needed for second, third and fourth dosages. The purpose of re-poisoning is to kill the grass and weeds that failed to die the first time. It usually takes around two years to successfully poison a lawn, and too much poison will ultimately ruin the soil.

If one has no desire to endure such process but has warm season grass, they should try the manual way of mowing the lawn to the ground and digging up the roots. Since the tough roots of warm season grass will produce a new lawn from stems, digging up the roots from the ground will ruin any chance of life, and allow the individual to re-decorate as desired.

Filed Under: Gardening, Home Improvement Tagged With: Gardening, Grass, Home, Landscaping, Lawn, Season (sports), Seed, Soil

Escape Stress with a Home Garden

LONDON - JULY 26:  Presumptive U.S. Democratic...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

The backyard of your home can be your escape from the problems of the workday world, a way to clear your mind of the projects and deadlines and stress at work. There are a variety of different garden or landscaping projects you can choose that can be accomplished in a weekend or that will take a little longer and may require the help of a landscape architect or other expert. In either case, the goal is to transform your backyard into a place where you can relax, enjoy nature and recharge after a demanding day at work.

A simple home garden, for example, can be something fun that you create on your own. The garden can produce beauty and attract nature, or you can concentrate on fruits and vegetables and grow some of the food for your family. Either way, gardens can also be a great teaching tool for your kids. There are plenty of guides available, both at local nurseries and online, providing step-by-step directions that outline the plants and bushes or fruits and vegetables that are best for your region of the country and when you should begin planting and how. Your garden will require plenty of attention – watering, fertilizing and protection from insects and pests. That means plenty of time outside, which experts say is a great way to reduce stress.

However, perhaps you want something on a grander scale – maybe a fish pond or a new landscaping plan for your entire backyard. Larger projects will cost more money, but don’t ignore the possibility of refinancing a mortgage to get the cash for a total landscaping of your backyard. Real estate experts say that a home with a landscaped yard is attractive to potential buyers and can bring in offers between 5 and 15 percent more than homes without gardens or landscaping.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Filed Under: Environment, Gardening, Landscaping Tagged With: Back garden, Garden, Home, Home & Garden, Landscaping, Personal, Plant, Soil

Tabletop Water Garden

Water Garden
Image by cmkalina via Flickr
Easy to make a Tabletop Water Garden
You don’t need to wait for warm weather to enjoy nature in your home, create a tabletop water garden. Making a small garden, filled with bright, fragrant flowers will surround you with serenity and peace. Tabletop versions of an outdoor water garden will fit any budget and take very little time to make. With a little assistance from your local do-it-yourself home center, you can choose a large non-porous container, river rock, black plastic pots for the aquatic plants, top soil, water conditioner, nutrient tablets and your water plants. If you’re considering ornamental fish, a clear glass bowl works very well. Of course, one of the many benefits of adding a water garden is the minimal gardening time required to enjoy the fragrant blooms.
Choose Colorful Plants
Chose a spot that receives 6 hours of sun every day and consider a rolling stand for ease of moving your garden once Spring arrives. Place a group of floating water flowers, like waterlilies and lotus in the black plastic pots on a brick for the blossoms to reach the surface of the water. Next use a bog plant like King Tut to anchor to the bottom of your pond and add visual interest to your garden. Keep the top soil in place once you fill the container with conditioned water by adding pebbles or stones to the pots.
Enjoy your Garden
If you’re considering ornamental fish like Koi or goldfish, wait three days for the water to become room temperature. Keep the water level consistent and add fertilizer tablets when necessary for your plants to thrive. Remember to get expert advice on the care of your fish–how to feed them, oxygenation and nutrients. Now sit back, unwind and enjoy the beauty of your garden just as the Egyptians and Romans did centuries ago.

Easy to make a Tabletop Water Garden
You don’t need to wait for warm weather to enjoy nature in your home, create a tabletop water garden. Making a small garden, filled with bright, fragrant flowers will surround you with serenity and peace. Tabletop versions of an outdoor water garden will fit any budget and take very little time to make. With a little assistance from your local do-it-yourself home center, you can choose a large non-porous container, river rock, black plastic pots for the aquatic plants, top soil, water conditioner, nutrient tablets and your water plants. If you’re considering ornamental fish, a clear glass bowl works very well. Of course, one of the many benefits of adding a water garden is the minimal gardening time required to enjoy the fragrant blooms.
Choose Colorful Plants
Chose a spot that receives 6 hours of sun every day and consider a rolling stand for ease of moving your garden once Spring arrives. Place a group of floating water flowers, like waterlilies and lotus in the black plastic pots on a brick for the blossoms to reach the surface of the water. Next use a bog plant like King Tut to anchor to the bottom of your pond and add visual interest to your garden. Keep the top soil in place once you fill the container with conditioned water by adding pebbles or stones to the pots.
Enjoy your Garden
If you’re considering ornamental fish like Koi or goldfish, wait three days for the water to become room temperature. Keep the water level consistent and add fertilizer tablets when necessary for your plants to thrive. Remember to get expert advice on the care of your fish–how to feed them, oxygenation and nutrients. Now sit back, unwind and enjoy the beauty of your garden just as the Egyptians and Romans did centuries ago.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Filed Under: Gardening, Home Improvement Tagged With: Aquatic plant, Flower, Soil, Water garden

Categories

  • DIY
  • Environment
  • Gardening
  • General
  • History
  • Home Improvement
  • Landscaping
  • Technique
  • Tulip

Recent Posts

  • Planning Your Garden Redesign
  • Gardening to get the Kid’s Outside
  • What to Know When You Start to Build
  • Adding Koi to Your Water Garden
  • Aluma Wallet Reviews
  • Sitemap

© Copyright 2012 Home Grown . All rights reserved.