Container Garden 411

Choosing Plants for Your Garden

Many times we buy plants on impulse then find there is nowhere in the garden that really suits them. Carefully examine your garden before buying plants to see how much sun it gets, to see whether the soi is waterlogged or well drained. Then you’ll be ready to go and buy the best plants that suits you; shade loving plans, sun-lovers for warm spots, drought-resistant plants for parched areas that could either be sunny or shaded.

But hold on! Test your soil first, to determine the pH level of your soil and what kind of nutrients you need to add, if any. Is the soil acid or alkaline? Most plants prefer soil that is slightly acidic, but there are some that must have alkaline soil to grow. You can alter the soil’s pH level, but it’s much easier to simply plant for the soil you have.

Now you are ready to plant. Well…. almost. Will you plant in groups or singly? If you buy ‘one of everything’ your garden may seem rather spotty. Group plantings are organised, harmonious and you can vary the color for interest.

Before planting out, place your chosen plants around the garden bed in their pots to see how they will look. Re-arrange them until you are satisfied. Grouping plants in sets of threes or fives usually looks better than planting in groups of even numbers. Be sure that you have an interesting combination of colors and textures of plants. If you have tall plants, they should go towards the back or center for equal views from all sides. Try to keep your plants away from trees. The roots of trees are fiercely competitive and will steal all the nutrients and moisture meant for your flowers.

A way to maitain harmony in your garden is choosing the right color scheme. Imagine the color of the flowers when they are in bloom. Some colors may not go with others, but can still be planted side-by-side if they have a different blooming season. Foliage color is also important. Many flower plants have silver, grey or purplish foliage that is just as attractive as the flower. This signifies that they’re still in good standing well past the blooming season and therefore have value.

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There’s nothing worse than an inefficient tool when an important garden job needs to be done. After so many uses, your garden tools can easily become dull, rusted, dirty, and sometimes they break. It’s an inconvenience to stop your activity and go buy another. You just want to get the job done, and you really don’t want to spend any extra money. Continual maintenance will help you to save money and time with your gardening tools. The following article will give you some handy tips on caring for your tools. These tips include the why and how of cleaning your tools, sharpening them, and storing them.

Cleaning Your Garden Tools

You want your tools to stay clean and looking good. If tools are dirty, it can make them dull. It can also enable them to rust more easily. So what you’ll want to do is clean excess dirt and rust off of them with water. Dry them off after you clean them because if you leave them wet, they can rust. Scrape and wipe off extra stubborn dirt and rust. Cleaning your tools can be done with an old towel. You can also clean off some dirt after use (if they don’t need a thorough cleaning) by wiping them through and on grass. But this won’t do it if the tool needs a thorough cleaning. If joints in your tools are creaking, you’ll want to lubricate them. Any lubricating spray will work fine. This helps ensure that rusty bolts and joints don’t break and work smoothly.

Storing Your Garden Tools

You’ll want to store your tools properly to keep them safe from harm, theft, rusting, and other things. If you uncaringly toss your tools to the side when you’re done with them, there’s a possibility of breaking or losing them. So what you want to do is have a specific safe and dry place to store your tools, such as a barn, basement, or garden shed. Always try to keep your tools organized and stored where they are easily accessible. When you’re done with the tool, clean it off and put it back where it was. If you leave tools sitting in bad positions, they can break or bend, and they won’t work properly. Tools should always be kept in a safe secure place. Put them in a place where you know they are, and only you have access to them. Garden sheds have some great storage systems and are probably the best way to store your tools.

Sharpening Dull Garden Tools

Dull tools don’t work as well as they should. If they are not maintained they can be dangerous to the user and harm the plants they are being used on. They can make bad or dull cuts, or not make cuts at all. If you have a dull tool, you don’t have to buy another one. You can simply sharpen your tools. Before sharpening, you’ll want to make sure your tools are clean. This will help them sharpen better and it will keep your tools for sharpening safe from dirt and rust as well. You can use sharpening blocks and stones to sharpen things such as knives and scissors.Knives and scissors can also be sharpened with a file but you will need a different file for each utensil.You can use a file or sharpening stone for sharpening your hoe.You can also use sharpening stones or metal files for sharpening things such as shovels and rakes.You can use a file to keep your tools sharp.

Sometimes it is difficult to achieve colors for all seasons. There is no iota of doubt that everyone would love to see a garden full of blooms through out a year. You have to plan well for your garden to have colors for all seasons. You have to go into every detail of the flowers. Like when is their bloom time? What kind of soil they need? What is their range of height? Do they require full sun or partial sun and partial shade? When you come to know all the above details you can plan your garden in such a way that they have colors throughout.

Lets us see all the ways which will help us to keep our gardens in color all season:

1. Deadheading

Removing dry blossoms is the easiest and simplest way to keep your plants blooming. Annuals particularly will profit from an occasional deadheading. Flowers actually produce seeds. Once seeds are formed the plants have no reason to bear flowers any more.

Many recurrent flowers will also bloom again if deadheaded. Exclusions are recurrent that bloom on one tall flower stalk. They are the astilbe or iris. Also perennial flowers that require a chilling season to blossom are also exclusions to recurrent reblooming.

2. Shearing

Deadheading cannot be applied to flowers that have multiple buds on their flower stalks. Deadheading becomes a nightmare in that case. In this case they can be sheared unto 1/3 of the plant. This you can do till all the buds fade. This rejuvenates the plant. New fresh leaf and lots of new flower buds will appear. The plants retrieve quickly. Early bloomers seem to be draggled by the middle of the season.

3. Pruning

A cunning way to sustain the perennial blooms is to clip the plants in steps. Try to divide the plant into three sections like the front, center and back. As soon as the plants grow about 6-8″ tall, you can cut the front and center by about 1/3 to 1 / 2. Now let the plant grow again to 6-8″ tall and now you have to prune the front section in the same dimension.

This type of trimming will ensue plants turning into 3 levels and so it can bloom in sequence. The rear part blooms first and as it fades the center portion blooms. Finally the front part will bloom. The front section actually grows very tall and this helps in hiding all the withering plants behind it.

4. Re-Seeding

To extend the bloom of annuals you can re-seed quick growing annuals. This will be about 4 weeks soon after the initial seeding.

5. Feeding

Plants spend a lot of vigor in flowering. The more they blossom, the more food they demand. So take care and keep on adding good soil, water them properly and add fertilizer.

6. Produce colorful foliage

Flowers come and go but the foliage remains. Sprinkle the beds in your garden with a few shrubs and include sprinting annuals. You will have colors through the season.

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Container Vegetable Gardening

People have been gardening for centuries they produced fresh vegetables and fruits and other eatable plants but also flowers as a hobby. Next to productive gardening there is a type of gardening that is just for the pleasure of the gardener and the visitors of the garden. These type of gardens contain often of threes, shrubs and lots of flowers. But for both type of gardens there is one thing the same, you need to work in your garden to get some results. For gardening you need tools, big tools, electrical power tools, small tools and hand tools.

There are hundreds of tools but in this article we want to talk about the ergonomic garden tools in general and ergonomic power tools in particular because they are truly essential to get started in gardening. The big landscaping chores that need to be done when you start with a new garden are essential because when you hurt your back in this stage of gardening you are going to end up with an aversion against gardening all together. Can you make the job easier with ergonomic garden tools?

Digging the dirt

Especially with rough land that needs to be made in a beautiful garden you need to do an awful lot of hard back braking work. There are however ergonomic garden tools like a Mantis Tiller that can help you do this with no back pain at all. If you need to dig a piece of land just with a spade or shovel you will have a very hard time, an electric tiller can help you do it better, quicker and is one of those real practical ergonomic garden tools you just can’t do without.

Small ergonomic garden tools

There are tools that are designed specifically to be comfortable and not make your hands sore after you are done using them. This is a huge benefit to gardeners because it means that you will be able to spend lots more time out in your garden without getting tired or sore.

For example in the section small ergonomic garden tools you can find:

• grafting knives
• budding knives
• hand pruners
• saws
• indoor garden tools
• trowels
• loppers
• weeders
• grass shears
• hedge shears
• sheaths

And a lot more. All these ergonomic garden tools can be used for the same chores as normal and can be stored in the same way, they can be put away in your regular garden tool belt so you can keep your tools all in the same place. This way you wont lose anything.

If you hate sports, going to the gym and working out then gardening is a great alternative because gardening may not seem particularly strenuous, but if you really think about it and look at how much effort is put into gardening, You realize that in reality you are using almost every muscle in your body and so it is no wonder that your muscles end up getting so sore. You need to pick the chores that are good and healthy to do and do the big landscaping duties with ergonomic power tools like a Mantis Tiller.

Hank Gordon has a passion for gardening and wants the world to know how relaxing and rewarding it can be. On his website GardenersInfopoint.com he talks about organic gardening tips and products like the Mantis Tiller.