The Perfect Mum

Chrysanthemums are very popular perennials. You can get mums in a variety of colors as well as in various growths all the way from the smaller dwarf plants all the way up to the Maxi-Mums.

These plants are very easy to grow so they would be good for a beginner gardener to try. If taken care of correctly, they will give you years of enjoyment.

Make sure you choose an appropriate variety, plant your mums in a sunny, well-drained location and protect them during the winter.

Planting Time

The best time to plant your chrysanthemums is after the danger of frost has passed. You are able to use small plants that you have obtained from rooted cuttings or divisions or you may even use the larger container plants that you have bought from nurseries.

The chrysanthemums may be put in the ground at anytime in the spring, summer or even during the early fall.

Soil, Site, and Fertilizer

Garden mums will grow very well in a variety of soils but they must all have excellent drainage conditions. Mums also enjoy sunny locations. Try to mix in two to four inches of peat moss or compost into the soil. If you only use peat moss, then try to add a fertilizer in the spring.

Pinching

If your mums are pruned or pinched on a regular basis, then they will have a bushy and compact plant form. The traditional method includes pinching out the tip in order to induce branching so that stockier plants will be produced.

All pinching must be completed by the 4th of July to assure that your plant flowers before the frost.

The Horrors of Hail

One of the most hazardous things that can happen to your plants is
weather. Many a garden has been demolished overnight because of this
phenomenon. And seemingly, there is nothing we can do to prevent it. Of
course, if weather didnt exist at all then we wouldnt have those nice
sunny days that are beneficial to the growth of our plants. But then
again, we wouldnt have the tragic hailstorms that tear down everything
weve worked for so many hours to grow.

When rain starts to fall, usually the first reaction in a gardener is pure
joy. After all, this means you dont have to worry about going out and
watering it manually. The natural rain fall cant be anything but good for
all your thirsty plants, can it? Well once that same gardener starts to
see the gorgeous rain drops turn into small globules of ice, usually a
complete emotional breakdown is in order. I know this from experience,
because when I was a blooming gardener I had my garden completely
demolished by about 10 minutes of severe hail.

When I first learned my lesson on the damage hail can do, I quickly
devised a method of coping. I began to keep large clay pots within 10 feet
of my garden, so that at any sign of hail I could run outside and have the
plants sheltered in a matter of seconds. This saved me from being forced
to watch my plants be ripped to pieces on multiple occasions. Ive never
dealt with hail more than an inch in diameter, but Im guessing that if
there had been any baseball sized chunks then those pots would have been
quickly demolished.

However, as the number of fragile plants in my garden grew, it became
slightly impractical to have a pot for each plant, and run outside to
place each one before significant damage had already occurred. After much
thought, I ended up building a horizontal, retractable screen mechanism
made out of a strong but flexible wire mesh. At any sign of rain I could
pull the screen out over my entire garden and have instant protection. Not
only did it let the rain through, but the collected hail provided a steady
drip of water for as much as a day afterwards. This project cost me
several hundred dollars, and more blood, sweat, and tears than can be
measured with earth dollars. Therefore I wouldnt recommend it to everyone.

If its too late for you, and youve recently lost your precious plants to
those wicked balls of ice, then youre probably looking for some way to
help the plants recover. Unfortunately there arent many choices for you.
The best thing you can do is give them the tender care they deserve, and
attempt to nurse them back to health over a long period of time. The
several weeks after being severely damaged by hail are vital to whether
the plant survives or not. If you expect more rain or wind, you should
keep the plant covered. In this brittle stage, even raindrops or a strong
breeze could cause more damage.

So if you live in an area that experiences frequent hail, you should
definitely have some emergency plan for protecting your plants. Sitting by
and watching them be ripped to shreds should never be an option!

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THE GENESIS OF SOIL.

Soil primarily had its beginning from rock together with animal and vegetable decay, if you can imagine long stretches or periods of time when great rock masses were crumbling and breaking up. Heat, water action, and friction were largely responsible for this. By friction here is meant the rubbing and grinding of rock mass against rock mass. Think of the huge rocks, a perfect chaos of them, bumping, scraping, settling against one another. What would be the result? Well, I am sure you all could work that out. This is what happened: bits of rock were worn off, a great deal of heat was produced, pieces of rock were pressed together to form new rock masses, some portions becoming dissolved in water. Why, I myself, almost feel the stress and strain of it all. Can you?

Then, too, there were great changes in temperature. First everything was heated to a high temperature, then gradually became cool. Just think of the cracking, the crumbling, the upheavals, that such changes must have caused! You know some of the effects in winter of sudden freezes and thaws. But the little examples of bursting water pipes and broken pitchers are as nothing to what was happening in the world during those days. The water and the gases in the atmosphere helped along this crumbling work.

From all this action of rubbing, which action we call mechanical, it is easy enough to understand how sand was formed. This represents one of the great divisions of soil sandy soil. The sea shores are great masses of pure sand. If soil were nothing but broken rock masses then indeed it would be very poor and unproductive. But the early forms of animal and vegetable life decaying became a part of the rock mass and a better soil resulted. So the soils we speak of as sandy soils have mixed with the sand other matter, sometimes clay, sometimes vegetable matter or humus, and often animal waste.

Clay brings us right to another class of soils clayey soils. It happens that certain portions of rock masses became dissolved when water trickled over them and heat was plenty and abundant. This dissolution took place largely because there is in the air a certain gas called carbon dioxide or carbonic acid gas. This gas attacks and changes certain substances in rocks. Sometimes you see great rocks with portions sticking up looking as if they had been eaten away. Carbonic acid did this. It changed this eaten part into something else which we call clay. A change like this is not mechanical but chemical. The difference in the two kinds of change is just this: in the one case of sand, where a mechanical change went on, you still have just what you started with, save that the size of the mass is smaller. You started with a big rock, and ended with little particles of sand. But you had no different kind of rock in the end. Mechanical action might be illustrated with a piece of lump sugar. Let the sugar represent a big mass of rock. Break up the sugar, and even the smallest bit is sugar. It is just so with the rock mass; but in the case of a chemical change you start with one thing and end with another. You started with a big mass of rock which had in it a portion that became changed by the acid acting on it. It ended in being an entirely different thing which we call clay. So in the case of chemical change a certain something is started with and in the end we have an entirely different thing. The clay soils are often called mud soils because of the amount of water used in their formation.

The third sort of soil which we farm people have to deal with is lime soil. Remember we are thinking of soils from the farm point of view. This soil of course ordinarily was formed from limestone. Just as soon as one thing is mentioned about which we know nothing, another comes up of which we are just as ignorant. And so a whole chain of questions follows. Now you are probably saying within yourselves, how was limestone first formed?

At one time ages ago the lower animal and plant forms picked from the water particles of lime. With the lime they formed skeletons or houses about themselves as protection from larger animals. Coral is representative of this class of skeleton-forming animal.

As the animal died the skeleton remained. Great masses of this living matter pressed all together, after ages, formed limestone. Some limestones are still in such shape that the shelly formation is still visible. Marble, another limestone, is somewhat crystalline in character. Another well-known limestone is chalk. Perhaps you’d like to know a way of always being able to tell limestone. Drop a little of this acid on some lime. See how it bubbles and fizzles. Then drop some on this chalk and on the marble, too. The same bubbling takes place. So lime must be in these three structures. One does not have to buy a special acid for this work, for even the household acids like vinegar will cause the same result.

Then these are the three types of soil with which the farmer has to deal, and which we wish to understand. For one may learn to know his garden soil by studying it, just as one learns a lesson by study.

Summer Gardens for Small Spaces

There are many people who relish the idea of having a summer garden but feel that the reality is well outside the realm of the possible. The good news is that in the modern world in which we live nothing could be further from the truth. The only thing is you may have to rearrange your idea of what a summer garden is and is not. You can still manage to have the beauty of flowers or fresh picked vegetables in almost any situation if you are willing to take the necessary extra steps required to do so.

First of all, those who live in high rise buildings often feel as though they have no options larger than a window sill for their gardening needs. This is often not the case. Discuss with the landlord the option of establishing raised gardens on the roof top of the building in which you live. These are becoming more and more popular and some buildings also offer greenhouse possibilities, usage, or space to tenants to satisfy the urge many of us get to give our green (or not so green as the case may be) thumbs an adequate workout. Raised gardens are a great choice for many landlords and building owners as long as they are created and maintained at the expense of the tenant who proposed the garden. Some buildings even offer gardening coops as perks to those who live within the building and a system of contributing and sharing the fruits of the labor of those who have contributed to these gardens by planting and maintaining flowers, plants, fruits, and/or vegetables. This is also a great way to meet neighbors that may share your passion.

If you live in a smaller apartment type of setting that has little or no lawn space you still have a few options available to you. First of all, many of these types of apartments come with balcony space or a small patio area. This means that you can use ferns or flowering plants to add a little bit of green and other colors and have the plants hanging along the patio or balcony. Another thing that is growing in popularity for small spaces is hanging vegetables such as tomatoes. This is a little outside the area of traditional but provides the opportunity for fresh tomatoes to even those who have very limited gardening space. Small peppers also do well growing upside down though this isn’t recommended for the larger sweet peppers as they are too heavy for the vines to support. Going up with your garden frees up that valuable ground space for must have plants to be planted in raised gardens that can be made quite small to accommodate your specific needs.

A vertical garden is yet another option. This requires some degree of handyman skills or knowing someone that has these skills for designing and building a platform for your gardening needs that allows you to grow the flowers or vegetables you crave without taking up nearly as much ground space. This is also a convenient way of gardening for those who are in wheelchairs and cannot get up and down for regular gardening tasks as easily. A vertical garden can be planted with very little ground space, such as what would be available on a patio or a balcony and allows for many more plants that one might expect with such a small growing space. Combine this method with hanging plants and you may find that you have quite an impressive little summer garden growing.

Do not allow limited real estate to be an obstacle for your summer garden needs. One way to overcome this is to begin thinking vertically when it comes to real estate rather than horizontally. You may discover that you have a lot more room with which to work than you realized. The important thing to remember is that your summer garden does not have to conform to anyone’s idea of what a summer garden should be. Make it your own and have fun.

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Summer Gardens for Butterflies

There are many different reasons that different people decide to plant summer gardens. One common reason that is becoming more popular these days as people to seek to entertain their children through little things done closer to home is to attract butterflies. This is much easier done than one might think if you live in the right environment for these beautiful creatures to thrive and flourish.

Butterflies are beautiful creatures with very short life spans. For this reason they seem to be attracted to beautiful things during their short lives. Brightly colored flowers attract butterflies in droves. This means that flowers such as aster, marigold, black-eyed Susans, and butterfly weed are well known to attract butterflies.

Another thing you may wish to consider when selecting flowers for the purpose of attracting these delightful winged creatures to your summer garden is the nectar. This is the essential food for butterflies so a garden that is filled with more nectar producing flowers is likely to garner more than its fare share of attention from the butterflies nearby. The greater the selection of nectar producing flowers the greater the number of butterflies your garden is likely to attract so be sure to plant plenty and prune them in a manner that produces maximum flowers for maximum impact.

In addition to the flowers in your summer garden there are other methods that may be used to attract butterfly to the delight of young and old alike. One of those methods is by placing a several pieces of ripe fruit in your garden. This is another treat for butterflies to enjoy and will attract many that may be in the area.

One thing to remember when planting to attract butterflies is that they do adore worshipping the sun. This means that shady types of gardens aren’t best suited for attracting them and won’t keep them long if it happens to do so. Plant your butterfly garden in an area that benefits from the full force of the sun most of the day in order to entertain the most possible butterflies and keep in mind that different butterflies are attracted to different plants both as caterpillars and as butterflies. A little further study may produce the best results when seeking the most suitable plants for your butterfly garden depending on the type of butterflies you most hope to attract.

You should also avoid using pesticides in a flower garden built to attract butterflies. It wouldn’t make sense to attract butterflies to your garden only to harm them through the nourishment they receive while paying your summer garden a visit. Employ organic gardening methods in your butterfly garden for the best results.

You should also make sure there is a source of water nearby in order to keep the butterflies well hydrated. They need water just like any other animal. Many gardens these days add water features that keep the water moving (best for avoiding mosquito infestations) while having it freely available for the animals that we are hoping to attract such as birds and butterflies.

Our summer gardens are an investment of both time and attention. It is great when we can accomplish more than one beauty as the result of our hard work and effort. A summer garden designed to attract butterflies is a great way to achieve just that.

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Summer Garden Pitfalls

We all love learning great ways to create a summer garden fit to rival them all. What we do not really take the time to check out often enough are the things we should avoid when creating a summer garden. Learning the potential pitfalls of summer gardening can often lead to much better results in the long run while allowing you to learn these sometimes painful lessons from the mistakes of others rather than your own personal gardening flops and nightmares.

One thing that we are all guilty of is landscaping for the neighbor’s enjoyment. If you spend the vast majority of your free time in the great outdoors, this is one thing but if you are like the typical family you spend the vast majority of your time inside your home looking out. For this reason it is wise to plant your summer garden in an area that you can easily view from within the walls of your home rather than in an area that only the neighbors are likely to see on an average day. In other words, garden for your enjoyment and make it so that you actually get to view the benefits of your labor on any given day.

Avoid cluttering your lawn with too much of anything. Keep your summer garden on scale with your lawn. It will look completely out of place if you have too much in garden on a postage stamp lot and will look completely under maintained to have very little landscaping in your summer garden on a lot the size of a grand estate. Try to keep everything in perspective and appropriate to the amount of land available as well as the climate of the area in which you are planning your summer garden.

You should also avoid looking as though you have no plan in your summer garden landscaping and design. Planning is the most important thing you can do for your summer garden. Without a solid plan upon which to build the design of your summer garden your garden is doomed to either fail or look as though it was poorly planned and executed. Invest the largest portion of time and energy towards the planning stage of your summer garden in order to achieve the best possible results.

Another common pitfall when planning and creating summer gardens is failing to consider the long-term implications of the plants and flowers selected for the garden. If you are not interested in heavy maintenance it makes little sense to purchase plants and flowers that are high maintenance by nature. Select plants according to your summer garden needs and not simply because you think they look good in a brochure or on the store shelves.

If you take a little time to make a concerted effort towards properly planning your summer gardens according to your personal tastes and the desired level of maintenance you wish to invest in keeping your garden in top form you will find that you will enjoy your garden much more than if you throw some plants in the ground and hope for the best. One thing to remember is that while there are summer gardens that require a little less maintenance than others there is no such thing as a no maintenance garden. Expect to spend some time and effort keeping your garden looking sharp and in order.

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Soil Solarization

Would you like to know what one of the best ways is to get rid of pesky weeds and pests and some diseases as well? It is to solarize your soil.

This technique is largely used in areas that have abundant sunshine and high temperatures. However, it can be adapted for cooler areas as well. The results may not be quite as effective, but it can do wonders in your battle against weeds.

What exactly is solarization? It is a technique that does not use chemicals, but it captures the suns radiant heat and energy which, in turn, causes physical, biological and chemical changes in the soil.

These changes are able to control or eliminate soil borne plant pathogens including bacteria, fungi, pests, and nematodes along with weeds.

In order to solarize the soil, you must cover it with a clear plastic tarp for approximately 4 to 6 weeks during a time of the year when it is very hot and when the soil will be able to receive maximum direct sunlight.

The soil heats up to temperatures that are hot enough to kill some soil inhabiting pests including root rot fungi, wilt, noxious weed seed and root knot nematodes.

Soil solarization also stimulates the releasing of nutrients from organic matter that is present in the soil. It is very effective in treating garden soils where it is intended to plant herbs, vegetables and flowers.

Now that you know what soil solarization is, you may want to give it a try to your soil rather than using different chemicals to control weeds and other pesky little critters!

Rose Growing Tips

Planting a rose garden can greatly enhance your landscape. However, it intimidates many beginners to try to grow roses. Rose growing is thought to be quite difficult by many.

Reports of roses getting such things as powdery mildew can make the novice fearful of giving rose growing a try. Yet, by paying attention to four basic elements, your rose growing can turn out to be a huge success.

1. Soil The best soil for a rose to grow in is if it has a pH from 6.5 to 6.8. The soil must have good drainage for rose growing. You are able to promote a soils drainage by using peat moss.

2. Irrigation The best thing to do is to give your rose bushes a good drink at least twice a week. If you give your roses two deep waterings each week, this is better than four less thorough waterings. It is best to try not to water your roses late in the evening. This could foster powdery mildew which is a common disease among roses.

3. Spacing If you do not adequately space your roses, you are inviting powdery mildew to form on your roses. It is best to let them breathe. Be sure to follow the spacing requirements that are indicated on the plant label when you buy your roses.

4. Sun Roses enjoy six hours of sunlight each day. It is preferable to have the roses get morning sun rather than the afternoon sun.

There is nothing more beautiful than a rose bush in full bloom. Do not let the growing of roses intimidate you. Just follow the above tips and you are bound to be a success at rose growing!

Preparing Healthy Soil

If youre getting ready to go on a new garden venture, you need to prepare
your soil to ideally house your plants. The best thing you can do in the
soil preparation process is to reach the perfect mixture of sand, silt,
and clay. Preferably there would be 40 percent sand, 40 percent silt, and
20 percent clay. There are several tests used by experienced gardeners to
tell whether the soil has a good composition. First you can compress it in
your hand. If it doesnt hold its shape and crumbles without any outside
force, your sand ratio is probably a little high. If you poke the
compressed ball with your finger and it doesnt fall apart easily, your
soil contains too much clay.

If youre still not sure about the content of your soil, you can separate
each ingredient by using this simple method. Put a cup or two of dirt into
a jar of water. Shake the water up until the soil is suspended, then let
it set until you see it separate into 3 separate layers. The top layer is
clay, the next is silt, and on the bottom is sand. You should be able to
judge the presence of each component within your dirt, and act accordingly.

After youve analyzed the content of your soil, if you decide that it is
low on a certain ingredient then you should definitely do something to fix
it. If dealing with too much silt or sand, its best to add some peat moss
or compost. If youve got too much clay, add a mixture of peat moss and
sand. The peat moss, when moistens, helps for the new ingredient to
infiltrate the mixture better. If you cant seem to manage to attain a
proper mixture, just head down to your local gardening store. You should
be able to find some kind of product to aid you.

The water content of the soil is another important thing to consider when
preparing for your garden. If your garden is at the bottom of an incline,
it is most likely going to absorb too much water and drown out the plants.
If this is the case, you should probably elevate your garden a few inches
(4 or 5) over the rest of the ground. This will allow for more drainage
and less saturation.

Adding nutrients to your soil is also a vital part of the process, as most
urban soils have little to no nutrients already in them naturally. One to
two weeks prior to planting, you should add a good amount of fertilizer to
your garden. Mix it in really well and let it sit for a while. Once you
have done this, your soil will be completely ready for whatever seeds you
may plant in it.

Once your seeds are planted, you still want to pay attention to the soil.
The first few weeks, the seeds are desperately using up all the nutrients
around them to sprout into a real plant. If they run out of food, how are
they supposed to grow? About a week after planting, you should add the
same amount of fertilizer that you added before. After this you should
continue to use fertilizer, but not as often. If you add a tiny bit every
couple of weeks, that should be plenty to keep your garden thriving.

Basically, the entire process of soil care can be compressed into just
several steps ensure the makeup of the soil is satisfactory, make sure
you have proper drainage in your garden, add fertilizer before and after
planting, then add fertilizer regularly after that. Follow these simple
steps, and youll have a plethora of healthy plants in no time. And if you
need any more details on an individual step, just go to your local nursery
and enquire there. Most of the employees will be more than happy to give
you advice.

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Preparing Your Garden fo the Winter

Some people believe that when the weather starts getting colder and the
leaves start to fall, it is time to put away the gardening tools and wait
until next spring to work on their garden again. Wrong. Winter is an
important time to maintain your garden’s health and assure yourself a good
crop for next year. You may think that might take to long to prepare your
garden, but the truth is that it takes less than one day to prepare your
garden for the upcoming winter.

When the nighttime temperatures drop to less than forty-five degrees
Fahrenheit for more than four days in a row, or frost is forecasted for
your area (usually around late October or November) you know its time to
begin preparing your garden. You should begin by evaluating your garden
design, check which plants grew well in the past season, and which plants
did not do well. Fall is a good time to decide which plants will remain in
you garden next year, and which ones should go.

It is also a good time to decide which new plants you want to grow. To
make your garden more colorful and healthy, be sure only to plant the more
hardy plants during the fall so that they can withstand the winter. Some
plants that will do fine being planted in fall are: rudbeckia, Aster
Novi-belgii, Anemone Japonica, panicle hyandea, endive, escarole, and
Brussels sprouts. You can find all of these and more in gardening
magazines or your local nursery.

After you have finished this you should begin cleaning up your garden.
Begin by pulling out weeds that may have cropped up, and raking fallen
leaves. Weeds and rotten leaves can carry insects and diseases that might
be harmful to your garden. You should also rid your garden of spent annual
plants, and harvest your vegetables and other plants that cannot withstand
the winter weather. After fall has come and gone, the leaves will be off
your trees and you can see the rotten branches. Trimming off the unwanted
branches from your trees isn’t necessary to your gardens health, but may
help later on by not dropping branches on your plants and not blocking too
much of the sun.

If you have younger trees you should consider wrapping them and supporting
them with stakes to help them survive the winter wind and cold. Putting
mulch over your garden for the winter can be a helpful way to protect
plants from sudden temperature changes and heavy snow. For mulch you can
use about five inches of shredded bark, pine needles, or a variety of
other materials. You have to be careful not to mulch too early, because
some insects may still be alive and able to take shelter in it for the
winter.

Once you are finished with your gardening tools you should clean them and
make sure they are in a safe place where they won’t rust and you know
where they’ll be for next year. Before winter comes you should always set
out slug repellent, as slugs are one of the worst bugs to have in your
garden. If you have a pool or fountain in your garden, be sure to take out
any fish that you have in them and bring them inside. Theres nothing
sadder than a fish frozen in a block of ice.

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