Spring and Fall are the best times to plant a new lawn or rehab your tired old lawn. Follow these 5 lawn care tips for greener grass if you want a healthy, green lawn that will be the envy of the neighborhood. If you're ready to replace your old gas-powered lawn mower with a new, quiet electric mower, be sure to read our guide to the Top Cordless Electric Lawn Mowers. Millions of homeowners seem to be on a never-ending quest to have more perfect, greener grass. That’s because a well-manicured, emerald green lawn in the front yard is a source of personal pride. Plus, your neighbors will appreciate the “curb appeal” you are adding to the neighborhood. But that’s just the beginning. A healthy lawn can improve the property value of a home, and it can make a house more attractive to prospective buyers when it’s time to sell. Perfect, greener grass might even make your neighbors green with envy. A gorgeous green lawn might seem unattainable, because healthy turfgrass doesn’t … [Read more...] about 5 Lawn Care Tips for Greener Grass
Garden
Small Container Water Garden Creates Big Impact
When you install a water feature in your garden, you install a delightful destination. Friends will marvel and birds and bees will rejoice. But a large water feature, such as a pond with a rock wall covered by cascading water, can require a great deal of work to create and maintain. Instead, create a small container water garden that makes a big impact on your yard. There are three basic types of container water features: Still Water, Splashing Water and Disappearing Water. Still Water Garden The simplest kind of water feature is a Still Water garden. In this type of container water garden feature, the water stays still. The water provides a nice visual respite from the garden, but it provides no movement to attract your attention. To create a Still Water feature, start by finding an attractive bowl or pot without drainage holes. Fill it with water and add a few aquatic plants that prefer still water – such as water lily or lotus. As with all gardening endeavors, … [Read more...] about Small Container Water Garden Creates Big Impact
Best Roses for Backyard Gardens
The best roses are truly the superstars of garden flowers. They are revered all over the world for their beauty. As a lifelong gardener, it was difficult for me to select the 10 best roses to grow in a backyard garden. Many great roses didn’t make the cut. (Such is the downside of creating a Top 10 list!) All of the roses on my best roses list have edible petals. In fact, these roses have delicious edible petals. That’s one of the reasons they made this list of Top 10 Roses. (Just cut off the white part at the base of the petals, which can be bitter.) If you would like more information—including six recipes that use edible rose petals—read Garden Roses: Queen of Edible Flowers. A word about growing roses All roses need full sun, preferably at least 6 hours of sun per day. Roses prefer to grow in moist, rich, sandy, well-drained soil. Rose bushes also like to be mulched with a 3-inch-deep layer of organic mulch. Roses like to be watered deeply but infrequently—perhaps … [Read more...] about Best Roses for Backyard Gardens
Grow More Vegetables in a Square Foot Garden
A square foot garden is a relatively new spin on a traditional vegetable garden. A vegetable garden, also called a kitchen garden, is where delicious herbs and vegetables are grown by a family for the family’s daily meals. Typically, the garden is grown in the backyard (sometimes just outside the kitchen door), and it is designed to be both attractive and efficient. To learn expert tips about how a square foot garden can increase vegetable harvests, I talked to the recognized expert. Steve Bartholomew, Director of the Square Foot Gardening Foundation, was kind enough to share his knowledge about how to create the most efficient and productive vegetable garden. Best-selling garden book The book Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew (Steve’s father) is the most popular gardening book ever published in North America. Introduced in 1981, the original book and later revised editions have sold 2.5 million copies. The book literally launched a gardening movement that … [Read more...] about Grow More Vegetables in a Square Foot Garden
How to Fertilize Clematis (and other flowering plants)
When I first started growing clematis plants and was learning about how to fertilize clematis, I learned about the N-P-K numbers found on plant fertilizer packages. N-P-K is short for Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium. These are the primary components of plant fertilizer, and the numbers are always listed in N-P-K order. For example, the numbers 10-10-10 might be prominently listed on a fertilizer bag. The fertilizer numbers represent the percentages of each primary nutrient in the fertilizer. A 10-10-10 fertilizer contains 10% nitrogen, 10% phosphorus and 10% potassium. I learned that these numbers could be interpreted as Up, Down, All Around. Up referred to plant foliage Down referred to plant roots All Around meant plant vigor and strength As I became experienced in growing clematis, I gained a mentor in Holland named Ton Hannink. Ton is a retired clematis expert who now devotes his time to clematis breeding and collecting. Way before the “blossom booster” … [Read more...] about How to Fertilize Clematis (and other flowering plants)
