Caring for and Planting a Balled in Burlap

Tis the season when lots of people drag a real tree into their house and decorate it. Some people buy live trees that are balled in burlap instead of a cut tree. A live tree is a great idea, but many people make serious mistakes when it comes to handling a live tree, and they end up losing their money. The information in this article also pertains to any live tree you are planting, be it now during the winter, or during the summer.

1. Before you even take the tree in the house, dig a hole for the tree where you expect to plant it after the holidays. Put the soil in a wheelbarrow and park it in the garage. You'll need loose soil to backfill the hole, and the ground might be frozen after the holidays.

2. Keep your live tree in the house for as short a time as is possible.

3. Keep the ball plenty moist while in the house, but not in a tub full of water. You don't want the ball to dry out completely, but by the same token it shouldn't be soggy all the time either. Just moist. You can wet it thoroughly, but then don't water again until the water is almost gone.

4. After Christmas move the tree outdoors as soon as possible and plant it immediately. If you were not able to dig the hole earlier, the ground is frozen, and the tree can not be planted, leave it outside and pack bags of leaves or bales of straw around the ball. Find a way to heel it in in such a way that the amount of sun and wind the root ball receives is minimal.

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Summer Gardening Tips

Don't be afraid to trim those flowering shrubs and trees that need it. Failure to prune is probably the biggest gardening mistake a person can make. I spent 20 years landscaping homes and businesses, and I watched people make the investment in my services, then they failed to prune when the plants needed it, and before you know it their landscape looks terrible.

If you make a mistake pruning, don't worry about it. It's like a bad haircut, it will grow out. Of course use common sense and read the previous articles that I've written on pruning.

Along with summer time comes high humidity. High humidity can cause a lot of problems with the plants in your garden and around your house. One of the simple things you can do is don't water just before dark. Make sure your plants are nice and dry when you tuck them in for the night and you can cut down of the chance fungus being a problem.

One of the more common fungi that I get asked about a lot is powdery mildew. This appears as a white film on the leaves of ornamental plants. Dogwoods and Purple Sandcherry are often the victim of powdery mildew. Powdery mildew isn't extremely harmful to the plants, it's just that the foliage is damaged, and little growing takes place once it sets in. Your local garden center will have a general fungicide you can spray if you'd like to try and control it. Usually once the plant defoliates in the fall the plant is back to normal.

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When Gardening What Are The Right Tools That Anybody Will Need

For different kinds of gardens you will need different kinds of tools. Most hardware and DIY stores now have a wide range of tools available in stock, but if you want there are shops that specialize in the more expensive ranges that shout quality to you. But wherever you decide to purchase your tools from here a few points to help you make an informed decision.

Firstly you need to look at the size of your garden, is it small or is it large? A small garden does not require the same large equipment that would be used in a bigger one. Why bother purchasing a ride-on lawn mower if you only have a small lawn. Also you need to look at who in your household does most of the gardening. If you say it is your wife that spends a vast amount of time gardening then you need to look for tools that will suit her, there are some out there that are too heavy for women to use.

You are looking to purchase a pair of secateurs and you should always ensure that the blade is kept sharp to avoid causing undue damage to your plants. If you can look for a pair where the blades can either be sharpened or they can be replaced, as well as a pair that have a tension control system and a pair that best fits your hand size. Normally a good quality pair of secateurs can cost from around $50 to £130.

If you have a hedge or considering growing one (to provide that all important privacy that you crave) then you need to look at purchasing a good quality hedge trimmer or a good quality pair of shears. You may find that some hedge trimmers have a curved blade which stops branches from sliding out when cut, and as with secateurs the shears you decide to purchase need to be suitable for the blades to be sharpened or replaced.

Essential items you should have in your gardening tool kit are a fork, shovel, rake, chipping hoe and a pruning saw (not essential unless you have trees or large shrubs in your garden).

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15 Tips For Making A Container Water Garden

Potted plants, they're common. But when container water gardens
are mentioned, chances are, not too many people will be able to
answer what it is. Do you know what they are for? No? You'll
know in a minute.

Before, most people who would want to enjoy the beauty of water
garden plants would need to set up a pond in their homes. Today,
that is just an alternative. Container water gardens are for
water plants as pots are for flowering plants.

1. Just like planting the usual garden plants, water plants such
as water hyacinth or water lettuce should be packed with clay
while submerged in water. 2-3 potted plants together with some
plants with broad leaves would be attractive enough.

2. Container water gardens should be kept in places with a high
distribution of sunlight (at least 6 hours in a day) and ample
supply of water. The containers should be refilled as soon as
some of the original content has evaporated. During the
afternoon, though, a bit of protection is required for your
containers.

3. You must never worry about mosquitoes that might make a lair
out of your creation. The water in the container would not
become stagnant because of the plants in it. In rare cases where
mosquito larvae do develop, take them off immediately and put in
fresh water right away.

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Green Gardening Tips

The winter has lived up to being a cold and windy months (for
most of us). Annual rye will stay green throughout the winter
months and begin to die off in the summer heat. You should be
able to plant just about anything, including pansies, (which
will last through next May) mums, winter veggies (starts), most
trees and shrubs.

There are a few exceptions: Palm trees might be better planted
in the spring and summer, in order to get a good root
establishment before the winter sets in. Preparing for the
Winter Months: Gardening in October. They can be used in vases
in the house throughout the winter to brighten the decor.

This will keep them in the warmest water available and allow
them to go dormant for the winter without sustaining damage. I
am delighted for the opportunity of presenting free �-day
vegetable gardening seminars again this winter and spring to a
limited number of groups who request them.

These are just a few gardening tips for you to consider here in
late June. In gardening, there are some tips that many have
found more useful over others. Whether you have a green thumb or
simply want to start learning the art of gardening, it's a good
idea to be prepared for all of those little surprises that may
pop up along the way.

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How To Decide The Style Of Your Garden

All garden have styles, just as with furniture and interior
decorating. Sometimes styles can be blended and sometimes not.
Generally, you want your more intensive formal-looking areas,
like roses and annual flower beds, closer to the house; then you
can let the garden become more natural as you move farther away.

Adding a small perennial flower bed next to the garage works
beautifully. But a yard starts to look funny if you have a
Japanese cloud-pruned pine, an English perennial border, some
natural-looking shrubs, and a fish pond all at one time. If you
live in the woods, among towering forest trees, one sheared bush
will look odd. Pollarded trees look good next to the chateaux in
France, but they look silly as the only two treated that way out
of a row of trees on the parking strip in front of your house.
Pollarded trees are the ones pruned to look like 6-foot
lollipops.

Below are seven examples of popular garden styles:

1. Formal English: Clipped hedges, roses, knot gardens 2.
English Cottage: Lots of fruit trees and perennials rambling
around in great profusion 3. Japanese: Highly trained and
maintained pines and other trees with masses of low sheared
shrubs, placed rocks, and sand seas 4. Early American:
Forsythias, quince, peonies, bearded iris 5. Pacific Northwest:
Rocks to look like mountain outcroppings, rhododendron, pines,
heather, vine maples, Douglas firs 6. Woodland: Tall trees with
understory plants and groundcovers 7. Prairie: Grasses and
sun-loving wildflowers

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Container Gardening Should Include The Herbal Plant Scented Geraniums

Planting an herbal garden that includes scented geraniums is not common to container gardening. Most gardeners think of scented geraniums as a floral plant, not an herbal plant but the species, called pelargonium, is an herb with many uses. This delightful herb has many different aromas and gorgeous colors to delight your senses. The scented geranium is best used in container gardening for two reasons. One, you can control the soil and moisture, and two you can bring it indoors when a frost is imminent.

The scented geranium was found in Africa in the 1600's and shipped to England where it became most popular. The gardener of King Charles I grew a variety of scented geraniums in the royal greenhouse. The Victorians thought they were geraniums rather than an herbal plant but if you look at their asymmetrical leaves you can see the difference between scented geraniums and regular geraniums.

The scented geranium is truly a herbal plant for all seasons. It grows and has a lovely aroma throughout the spring and summer and when the chilly winds of autumn threaten this sturdy herbal plant will gladly co-exist inside with you. Nothing could be better when container gardening includes scented geranium with their exquisite flowers, lovely scented leaves, and sturdy characteristics for year round enjoyment of your senses.

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Grow Great Tomatoes Using Container Gardening Methods

CONTAINER TOMATO GARDENING Tomatoes can be grown easily in container gardens.

Here's how:

USE LARGE CONTAINERS Tomatoes are large plants when they mature. For this reason, your container size should be at least 12 – 14" in width or diameter. Any smaller container than this and your tomatoes will not last the season. With smaller pots, the plant dries out early in the season and the bloom simply doesn’t happen. The choice is yours. Whether you want to be stingy now or repent later. Pay for the bigger pot to ensure that you get great tomatoes in August.

GOOD QUALITY SOIL Use good quality soil all the way to the bottom of the container. By using an artificial soil mix rather than the garden soil; you prevent the soil from compaction. Compaction stunts the growth of the tomatoes and kills them. The soil should also have the right pH balance for the tomato to thrive fully. The soil should be mixed properly and good quality fertilizer should be added at the time of filling the container this is why garden soil is seldom used. Tomatoes need lots of soil with constant watering. You should put in at least six shovels of soil in the container. Any less than that can spell doom for the plant.

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Green House Gardening Tips and Tricks

Gardening enthusiasts in the more interesting temperate climates
and any place where there are four seasons are faced with great
benefits as well as challenges. Because of the four seasons,
gardeners are blessed with huge plant varieties conducive for
planting on one or two of the seasons. In the period of a year,
they are given an opportunity to plant varieties that must grow
in cooler climates, and take advantage of the sunny summer to
plant those that would require more exposure to the sun.
However, the seasonality of plant varieties may pose challenges
to those who would rather grow plants continuously, regardless
of season. This is especially true for flower and fruit
varieties that require continuous sunlight for an entire year,
for example, or fruit and vegetable perennials that do not bear
fruit and instead shrivel up in the winter.

The response to these challenges is the creation of greenhouses
or greenhouse facilities. A greenhouse is a structure made of
glass or plastic that stores up the sun's rays in order to
simulate the temperatures in the spring all year long inside. By
storing up heat inside a greenhouse, it allows individuals to
grow plants continuously even while winter rages hard outside
it. Greenhouses also go by the name glasshouses or hothouses.
The glass or plastic used in the construction of greenhouses are
specially designed to have transmission qualities that will
allow for the sun's ultraviolet rays to be stored inside the
greenhouse facility, providing a warm atmosphere inside, and in
effect, warming the plants and the soil. A greenhouse leaves
little or no openings through which the air heated by the stored
sunlight can escape; leaving a small window or hatch open in a
greenhouse will lead to a drastic drop in temperatures.

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An Introduction to Greenhouse Gardening

Greenhouses come in a wide variety of different styles and
types. Each is suited to a special need or want and degree of
seriousness for greenhouse gardening. For the beginning
greenhouse gardener there are smaller versions available that
come in the form of portable greenhouses, a hobby greenhouse, or
mini greenhouses. There is also the option to build your
greenhouse from scratch with a foundation.

What exactly is a greenhouse? A greenhouse is a structure that
creates a protected environment for plants to grow in, thus
extending the productive lives of plants. Greenhouse gardening
is a fun and functional way to garden all year around. You can
pick tomatoes in the winter. Grow herbs and vegetables and start
seedlings and cuttings. Some of the reasons to start a
greenhouse:

Carrying over garden plants to be used as Greenhouse plants next
season Getting an early start for tender plants started from
seed Increasing the possibilities of a greater variety and
continuous supply Easier culture of small vegetables for winter
use To propagate and experiment with various plants as a hobby
Develop new varieties of plants.

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Layer Your Landscape

If you're planning to redo your landscaping design, don't think
'flat'. By incorporating elements of height, you can layer your
landscape and bring new excitement to your gardens.

While gardening is a great way to clear the mind and soothe the
soul, garden landscaping can get your imagination working
overtime and let your creativity run wild. It's fun to plan and
to implement all of your wild designs.

When you layer your landscape beds, you will be adding an
entirely new level of beauty to your property. Your yard is the
first thing that people see when they visit your home, and it's
exciting to cap a home visit with a grand tour of a really
fabulous garden. Taking the time and effort to create striking
landscaping will make you the talk of the neighbourhood -- for
all the right reasons.

It's actually quite easy to layer your landscape. First, choose
the flowers and plants that you really want to have, and study
their planting requirements and growing habits. Echinacea, for
example, comes to you as a six-inch plant, but can grow to an
impressive six feet tall! This planning stage is crucial to the
success of your landscape design. Be sure to position taller
plants behind shorter ones.

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How to Make a Weed Dabber

The tool that I am going to tell you about is for using herbicides such as RoundUp. The biggest mistakes that people make when using non-selective herbicides like RoundUp is over spray getting the herbicide on plants that they did not intend to spray, and over applying the product. If you spray to the point of run off, you are applying way too much.

The weed dabber is a tool used for spot treating weeds without getting the herbicide on other plants.

Start by going to your hardware store and buying a piece of 1- ½” PVC pipe. You only need a piece 30” long, but they might make you buy a 10' section. It's pretty cheap though. You'll need a plastic PVC cap for one end of the pipe, and on the other end you'll need an adapter to convert the PVC pipe to a standard pipe thread. You'll have to let the clerk at the hardware store help you find the best combination of fittings to use. What you need to do is to get the PVC pipe reduced down to a male garden hose type fitting. Hardware stores sell brass fittings that convert standard pipe thread to the same thread used on garden hoses.

Probably what you'll end up with is an adapter that will convert the 1-½” PVC to 3/4” male pipe. Then an adapter to convert the 3/4” male pipe to a male garden house fitting. They also make a cap that you can install on the end of a garden hose, you'll need one of those. This cap must have a rubber garden hose washer in it so it seals properly.


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How This Simple Landscaping Tip Can Save You Big Money

A beautifully decorated backyard can serve you in many ways. It
is proved by the experts that proper landscape gardening in the
backyard not only increases the beauty of the house but also
saves money by reducing the cost of hot or cooling system during
the winter or summer, which amounts nearly $250 worth a year.

To make the yard energy efficient, the following steps may be
taken for both the existing and soon-to -be-developed landscapes.

Keep out the Sun

The main thing, which should be taken into account, is the
weather prevailing in the area. If there is Sunshine, the path
the sunray follows should be taken into consideration as almost
90% of heat is absorbed if the house is hit directly by the Sun.
This imparts extra load on the cooling system.

Deciduous, dense and big trees can be planted to the south or
west of the house, and this would protect the house best from
Sunrays during the summer as their foliage creates shades.
Temperatures up to 10degrees Fahrenheit can be reduced in this
way.

Throughout the winter these deciduous trees lose their foliages
making access to the Sun's heat which the walls and the
foundation of your house need during this season.

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5 Tips To Make Organic Gardening Easier

Organic gardening has many advantages and this article will
offer you 5 tips to make organic gardening easier.

Organic Gardening Tip #1: Mulch your trees and flower beds with
3" of organic material. When you use this organic gardening tip
you will be able to add humus and nutrients. You can also
conserve water and keep weeds at bay. If you are growing plants
that need acid you can use a thick layer of pine needles.
Organic gardening with pine needle mulch will be perfect if used
in the fall because over the course of the winter they will
decompose and the needed acid will be added naturally to the
soil.

Organic Gardening Tip #2: You need to maintain healthy soil if
you want to be successful at organic gardening. The most
important step in maintaining healthy soil while engaged in
organic gardening is to keep on top of pest management. When
pests are controlled in organic gardening the plants will be
healthy and more able to withstand insect and disease damage. If
you are bothered while organic gardening with aphids you can
spray the infested leaves, stems and buds with a diluted
solution of soapy water followed with clear water.

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What Makes For A Beautiful Garden?

What makes a garden look good? Generally, you want shrubs and
trees, plus grass to soften the hard, angular lines of your
house and lot. Some people eliminate grass altogether and use a
patio surrounded by beds. However, a flat sea of green grass add
contrast for your shrub beds. Grass is also good if you have
kids. Cool grass on the sole of a bare foot in summer is a much
savored treat.

A few very tall things are essential to put your house in scale,
or set it off, especially if it's a tall or big house. But you
don't want so many tall things that they block all the light. A
tall tree takes up a lot of space but it adds the element of
'grandeur.' A big tree goes on the south or west side to protect
you from the blazing hot sun. It also adds habitat for kids and
songbirds.

Carve out your beds in gentle sweeps around the outside
perimeter. Make them three times as big as you think you need
them. The amount of grass you need is really quite small, maybe
enough for six chairs and a picnic table or perhaps three beach
towels. A 50/50 ratio of lawn to beds is recommended. If you are
lucky enough to have a lot of land, you may wish to break it up
into 'rooms' with shrub bed peninsulas or fences, the path
winding from one 'room' to another. These rooms are not square,
they are just spaces that are separated, more or less.

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Weed Control Facts, Winning the Battle of the Weeds

Keeping your landscape plantings, flower beds, and nursery crops free of weeds is a battle, but if you approach it with a strategic plan, you will prevail. In order to develop a plan, you first must understand how weeds work, and what kind of weeds you are dealing with.

Basically weeds grow either from seed, or they reproduce from their roots. As the roots grow outward from the parent plant, new plants sprout up from the lateral roots, creating more parent plants and the process continues and the weeds thrive. Weeds that tend to reproduce from the root are usually more difficult to control.

Weed controls facts? Weeds are plants, and they function just like the desirable plants in your yard. They need water, sunlight, and nutrition to survive. Of these three key survival needs, the easiest one for a gardener to eliminate is sunlight. Through proper mulching you can eliminate the sunlight.

But first, let’s look at the steps you should go through before you mulch, then we’ll discuss the best mulching techniques to use. In order for your weed control efforts to be truly effective, you should do everything in your power to make your gardens as weed free as possible before you plant or mulch. There are a couple of ways you can go about this, either organically or with chemicals. I don’t like using chemicals, but I do use them for weed control, and I use them for pest control when necessary.

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Training Beautiful Flowering Shrubs into Unique Ornamental Trees

There is nothing more beautiful than a flowering shrub in full bloom, except maybe a flowering shrub in full bloom that has been trained to grow as a single stem tree. Imagine having a fragrant Viburnum Tree next to your patio or outside your bedroom window, waking up to such a wonderful aroma.

Don’t confuse what I am about to explain here with the common technique of grafting flowering shrubs on to the tall stem of some sort of rootstock. Grafting is very effective, but not so easy to do. This is much easier. Not only that, when you train the shrub to grow into a single stem tree, you can end up with some very interesting plants.

Training a flowering shrub to grow into a single stem tree is actually pretty simple. The younger the shrub you start with, the easier it is to train. I have a friend who grows thousands of Tree Hydrangeas a year, and this is how he trains them. The variety that he grows for this purpose is P.G. Hydrangea. (hydrangea paniculata grandiflora) This is the one with the huge white snowball blooms.

He starts with rooted cuttings and lines them out in the field about 30” apart. The first year he allows them to grow untouched as multi-stem shrubs. Being a fast growing shrub, they typically produce 3 to 4 branches that grow to a height of about 3 to 4’ that first season. The following spring he goes into the field, examines each plant and selects the one stem that is the straightest, and is likely to grow straight up from the roots if tied to a stake.


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Fertilizing to Create more Blossoms on Your Flowers, Flowering Shrubs, and Trees

The secret to making your flowering trees, shrubs, annuals, and perennials bloom more is in the numbers. All fertilizers have analysis numbers on package.These numbers represent the percentage of each chemical the contains.

For example, 12-12-12 is a typical garden garden fertilizer that would contain 12% nitrogen, 12%phosphorous, and 12% potassium. The quick explanation is; nitrogen produces vegetative, or top growth, phosphorous produces flower buds, fruit, and root development, while potassium builds strong healthy plants.

Most lawn grasses are vigorous growers and therefore require significantly more nitrogen than the other plants in your yard. A lawn fertilizer would have an analysis of 26-3-3, indicating a fertilizer high in nitrogen. You would not want to use a fertilizer containing such a high percentage of nitrogen on landscape plants because it would be very easy to burn them. You must also keep in mind that many lawn fertilizers contain broad leaf weed killers, and most ornamental plants have broad leaves. The fertilizer doesn’t know the difference, and it will damage or kill ornamental trees and shrubs.

During the summer months the growth rate of most plants slows down, and when plants are not actively growing, they need very little nitrogen. Although not vigorously putting on new growth, many plants such as Dogwood Trees, Rhododendrons, and Azaleas are quietly working to produce flower buds for next year. Annual and perennial flowers are also busy making new flower buds.

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Hard-Times Gardening – Sustainable Without Fertilizers

I teach the Mittleider Method of vegetable gardening. It’s often called better than organic gardening, because we use only natural mineral nutrients, and eliminate weeds and pests without pesticides and herbicides. In addition, virtually nothing is left to chance – much different from those who depend on the unknown composition of manure and compost as their only source of food for their gardens.

I’m asked occasionally if the Mittleider gardening method is sustainable in the long run, “since it seems to be based on the availability of modern day fertilizers.” Since some folks feel that today’s fertilizers may not always be available in the future, how viable is this system for ongoing sustainability in the long run?

First, the Mittleider method is NOT dependent on commercial fertilizers for viability. Our experience around the world for over 40 years, however, is that everywhere we have been - including several countries in Africa, Armenia, Madagascar, Papua New Guinea, Russia, and 23 others - fertilizers have always been available.

The careful use of natural mineral fertilizers increases a family's gardening yield many times - sometimes as much as 10 times what they were growing without them. This is what has allowed America to change from one person feeding 4 or 5, to one person feeding 100 other people. So why would we NOT use them?? And why would we not want to teach people in the developing countries to use them - unless perhaps we WANT them to stay in the 19th century?

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Hydroponics Gardening

What do the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Floating Gardens of China, and a popular science fiction television program have in common? Hydroponics gardening!

You may have heard of a hydroponics gardening system before this, in which case you'll understand what I'm talking about. If you haven't heard about hydroponics gardening, don't worry. Hopefully by the time we reach the end of this article, you will have a clear idea of what a hydroponics garden is, and if someone asks you whether you think a drip system, or an ebb and flow system is better, then you won't have to squint at them and say 'eh?' in that confused way.

Before we get on to the subject of drip, and ebb and flow systems, let's take a crash course in hydroponics gardening.

Coming from the Greek words 'hydro' for water, and 'ponics' for labor, the word hydroponics in gardening terms is used to specify a type of gardening that doesn't have its roots in soil, if you will forgive the pun. This soil-free type of gardening depends entirely on a water based system that is enriched with nutrients.

These nutrients can either be in the form of specially formulated chemicals for hydroponics gardening, or they can come as a variety of natural nutritional ingredients found in nature itself. The use of either nutrient form is solely dependent upon the gardener.

Since hydroponics gardening is a soil free system, containers are the best methods for growing, and a number of different varieties of containers, and pots are available to buy.

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