Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Stocked up on End of Season Spring Bulbs at Lowe's

The other day I was quite pleased with my spring bulb purchase that I had gotten at Lowe's nursery center. I thought the 40 medium-sized Dutch master daffodils were a great buy considering I paid under $10. for them. Then this morning I went to Lowe's to shop for some pet-safe ice melt and a new snow shovel and saw while I was there that the spring bulbs were all on sale for 25 % off.

Needless to say, I felt like I was in a chocolate candy store and did not waste any time in selecting bags of spring bulbs; daffodils, crocus, paperwhites, tulips, and hyacinths to name a few.

While some people may think it is too late to plant since much of the US is presently bitter cold with snow in the forecast.  This weather will prevent many gardens from planting bulbs in the ground.  

I will store these spring bulbs in a wood box in my root cellar that is covered with dry peat moss until early spring and then plant them in container gardens for clients or my personal garden.



Today was a great day for shopping at Lowe's home improvement store and I am so glad that I checked out the spring bulb section in the garden center.





Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Plants That add Interest to Winter Gardens

Normally after a hard frost I will go out and cut back my plants in my garden however some plants I leave because they will provide interest through out the winter months.
Fountain grass in winter

The dried ornamental grass plumes as they add not only interest but also movement in the garden. I also find that the seed heads from the autumn joy sedum. Black-eyed Susan’s and the dried hydrangea flowers look eye appealing during the winter season.
Dried Hydrangea Flowers in in late fall

What I usually do is leave these garden plants alone throughout the winter months and then cut them back in early spring.

After a hard frost after I clean up the garden (cut back all other plants)  I will apply a layer of cypress mulch around the stems of the plants that I am leaving for winter interest.  This year I am using  Scotts nature scapes mulch in the color of red for winter because it is a nice contrast.

Here is a YouTube video that will show you how beautiful grasses look in winter.


Saturday, November 8, 2014

Admiring my November Garden

Looking out my picture window I can see hardy copper, red and purple coleus, white inpatients, and purple wandering jew plants that are full, healthy, and covered with new leaves and blooms. These annual flowers when grown with perennial ornamental grasses and other plants really make my November garden look nice and all of my neighbors when they walk past my house compliment me on my late-in-season flower gardens.
red coleus garden: http://pixabay.com/en/red-coleus-flowers-garden-plants-60836/

Know that my plants usually are not this healthy, in fact, if the summer heat did not kill them then the first cold night in fall would. I am really thankful that I took a chance with Spray n grow because this product feeds my garden plants and flowers with micronutrients which are vitamins for your plants.

Here is a photograph postcard that I created from one of my fall garden photographs.  I think you will agree that the November garden plants look amazing.  I know it is not due to my green thumb.  I am certain it is due to the spray-n-grow garden product that I used to feed my plants.


Getting Ready to Plant Daffodils

Today while shopping at Loews garden center I picked up 40 daffodils Dutch master bulbs for $9.99 and I intend on planting them in my garden this afternoon.  

My husband was surprised that I bought the bulbs because I usually only buy from the nursery where I can pick the bulbs up, feel them for soft spots, inspect for mold, or shop online at respectable landscape nurseries.  But today I took a chance at buying prepackaged daffodils.



Granted it took some time for me to find a package of bulbs that I liked.But after I checked several packages I did find a package of 40 daffodils bulbs.  

So after this post I will be heading outdoors to plant daffodils today in the back garden the is located next to the garden path.  This garden is viewed from my picture window; a perfect location for the mid spring blooms. 

I will also be adding a few mid spring blooming daffodils bulbs to my kitchen window-box.  The flowers will look so pretty when they bloom and I can gaze out at them while doing the dishes. 

Transplant Sweet Autumn Clematis

I transplanted some sweet autumn clematis vines so they would grow my privacy fence the runs down my driveway. I thought the vines would look pretty in the fall when the white flowers bloomed. I also liked the idea of looking out the kitchen window at the pretty star shaped white flowers and thought it would be fun to watch the hummingbirds, honey bees and butterflies that enjoy sipping nectar from this flower.

The green leafy vine grew up the wood privacy fence quickly and this week the flowers bloomed. Now this part of the yard smells sweet like vanilla and when I open the kitchen the scent fills the room.

If your fall is mild the clematis will continue to bloom until a frost.  Today is November 8th and my clematis still has pretty white blooms.  

In the late fall the seed heads will appear. That is when I remove the seeds and put them in a trash bag to throw out. This particular clematis can become invasive if you do not remove the seeds and prune after the flowers bloom. 

Tips for growing: Clematis is drought tolerant and grows well in full sun to part shade. I add a layer of mulch around the stems and feed with miracle grow bloom booster in mid August and always get prolific blooms throughout the fall season.

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Flowers Blooming in My Garden: Photo Gallery

Even though the weather has changed and the evenings have been dipping into the low thirties there are still flowers blooming in my gardens. These white, yellow, and pink flowers add interest and are also eye appealing.

Sweet Autumn clematis 
 
Today I awoke to find that the change in temperature has caused the autumn leaves to fall from the trees onto the garden beds.  These golden and red leaves make a nice background for the burgundy and yellow Chrysanthemums and magenta and salmon-colored Four O clock flowers.

Yellow daisy-like Chrysanthemums 

Other autumn wildflowers are blooming in the woods that is adjacent to my home; delicate white flowers of the sweet autumn clematis, and goldenrod, and then a compact weed has delicate white flower clusters that look so pretty. I noted a few lavender phlox-type flowers blooming along the trail and thought this flower would be lovely if grown in masses.

Flowers blooming in the woods along the nature path


I suspect that these flowers will continue to bloom until there is a hard frost, hoping that does not occur any time soon.  I hope you enjoyed the photographs of the autumn flowers that are blooming in my yard and gardens. 



What flowers are blooming in your yard?

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Early Fall Yard Work: Trimming Grass / Brush

For the last three days my husband and I have been working together to clean up the yard and gardens.  The weather is cooler and we find is agreeable when working long hours in the yard. 
Trim grasses around pavestone and stepping stones


Husband has been using our greenworks chainsaw and pole to trim the tree branches and I have been using the 10 amp string trimmer to clean up the tall grass growing next to the garden edgestones, and along the rock wall.  

This trimmer is light weight so I could use it easily to get close to the base of the rock wall and cut down the tall grass. Cleaning up the wall will discourage snakes from wanting to winter in the crevices.

When the overgrowth by rock wall was cut back I moved to the side yard to trim the tall grass growing up against the dog pen.  In order to get this grass I needed to stand on a large limestone rock and lean up hill.  If I had used the gas trimmer I would be really sore right now, but the greenworks is light and I could get the trimming done without feeling discomfort.

Next on my list was to work on the evasive vines that were choking out the blackberry and raspberry bushes, so I got busy in removing the wild sweet autumn clematis.   When I get the vines removed I will use my trimmer to cut back the grass and brush growing around the berry bushes and then remove clippings with rake. 

There is a lot of work that needs to be done during early falls and I am thinking that I will need two more days to get every section manicured.  Then I can relax on the patio and enjoy looking out at a well maintained yard and garden.

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Gardening to Relieve Stress: Great Therapy

In my desire to rid my body of stress, I put on my gardening gloves and went outdoors to do some hand-pulling of weeds in the flower garden.  Being outdoors and being productive is a good way to cleanse your body of any negative energy and anxiousness.

While I was gardening I could watch the birds at the ground feeder and in the distance I saw a groundhog posing on the river rock.   The garden was alive with wildlife and biting bugs which I found took away from the good feelings I was getting from the garden.

My garden after a day of removing weeds

Whenever I perspire it seems the gnats go for my eyes and they are aggravating.  I sprayed myself with deep woods off before going outdoors but I do not spray my face.  So I went and got the protective glasses that I wear when I am painting or doing other home improvement projects.  The glasses worked but then my ankle felt itchy and sure enough there was a tick crawling on me.

The bugs in the garden were going against my stress-free therapy so I went to the shed to look for the natural pest control that I got at amazon.com and found that the mosquito and other biting insects barrier was empty so I went inside and put some diatomaceous earth food grade in a powder sugar shaker and then went back to the garden to dust the gardens with the natural pest control.
Diatomaceous earth food grade safely rids garden of biting bugs
 
Normally it takes 20 minutes for the DE food grade to kill any ticks, fleas, chiggers, mites, and ants that may be lurking in the garden.   By tomorrow morning the garden pest will be gone and I can resume my gardening therapy to get rid of stress.


I really love gardening especially when I need to overcome stress or feeling of anxiousness but hate when the bugs bite me and make me feel itchy.

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Gardening in the Heat of the Summer

Now that the peak heat of the summer is here I make a point to get up at dawn so that I can get whatever yard or garden work completed.  During this time I can weed the gardens, deadhead the flowers, and water the plants.  However, I need to wait a few hours to use any of my electric or gas-operated garden tools. 
Watering lilac shrubs in summer

I was going to use the electric grass trimmer to manicure around the flower gardens but decided to hold off on this project until next week when the weather will be 20 degrees cooler. At 9:00 this morning, the temperature was 89 degrees and I thought it was too hot.

Other than that maintaining the garden, I find it is a full-time job to keep the container and specialty gardens hydrated. The plants get a good watering in the am with a soaker hose but come noon the topsoil in containers and garden beds looks like dust.  So I am outdoors again in the late afternoon to water the hosta, coleus, and fern plants because the heat of the summer is causing them to feel stress.

Cosmo flower-like hot weather
Zinnia flowers grow best in the hot sun


The only plants in my garden that are flourishing are the zinnias, cosmos, and four o'clock flowers. These heat-seeking plants are producing multiple flowers and the plants do not bolt when the summer weather gets hot.

Monday, June 16, 2014

Transplanted Herb Plants During Growing Season



A couple days ago I transplanted my indoor herbs into outdoor containers because they weren't doing so good indoors and thought the natural sunlight would do them good.  Plus I like the way fragrant herbs repel mosquitoes, so it seemed like a good idea at the time. 

When I transplanted the herbs it was on a cloudy and cool day but today the weather had changed it is extremely hot.  Of course, this means I need to take extra steps to prevent outdoor herb plants from stress.

Read the first post about these herbs here transplanting kitchen herbs to outdoor garden

Anything planted in a container will dry out quickly and if you water the plant in the morning by midday when the sun is hot the soil with dry out.  Normally when I check with my index finger the soil is dry an inch down after a hot day. 

To prevent dry soil I generally water in the morning at the soil level until the water drains from the holes on the bottom of the container.

Applying mulch is good also as long as you do not put the mulch close to the herb stem.  Mulch is great because it absorbs the water and then releases moisture back into the soil slowly. A mulch that I use and recommend is nature scapes advanced garden mulch by Scotts  I bought this brand mulch at lowes.com, had watched sales, and got a good buy on 2 cubic feet.

What I like about this mulch is that it retains the water and slowly releases it back into the soil which means you will not need to water your flower or herb gardens daily.  On average you will save up to 30% on your water bill.  Plus you will save time and energy because you won’t need to water the garden daily.

When I get home from work I will need to check on the newly planted herb plants and will mist the leaves and stems with the garden hose because this will prevent them from wilting.

The best way to care for any newly transplanted herb in the growing season is to make sure the soil does not dry out. Keeping it evenly moist but not wet will ensure that the roots will take hold and the plant does not get stressed out.


Also helpful when transplanting during the growing season is to use a Green Light organic root stimulator.  I would not dream of putting a plant in the ground without a root stimulator.  I have bought the green light product at amazon.com and am pleased with it.

Here is a great way to keep the plant sauce full of water, thus the plant roots will never dry out.