How to Build a Brick Raised Bed
Here’s how to build a raised brick garden bed for a decorative and long-lasting addition to your landscape. Building with brick can be pleasant work, but it takes some practice before you become proficient. This handsome wall will be strong enough for a planting bed up to 2 feet high. Anything higher requires a double brick wall. It will take a couple of weekends to become competent at bricklaying, but the results will be well worth the effort. The completed project will be a permanent landscaping feature you can be proud of. Choose bricks that will survive well in continually wet conditions. Common brick may not be strong enough. Be prepared to give your material supplier the length and height of the wall you plan to build. If the bricks have holes in them, purchase special cap bricks for the top course. Arrange to have the bricks resting on a strong…
How to Save Seeds from Your Garden to Plant Next Year
Want to grow your favorite annuals, perennials, and veggies again next growing season? Here’s how to collect their seeds. Many types of plants produce seeds that you can save from one year and sow the next. That way, you can easily grow the same varieties in your garden again. Plus you’ll often end up with plenty to share with friends and family. And after the new coronavirus led to seed shortages earlier this year, it’s just a smart idea to save seeds now in case that happens again next spring. The best plants for saving seeds are heirlooms, old-fashioned varieties, and open-pollinated plants, because the seeds usually grow into plants that look just like their parents. If you save seeds from hybrids, they likely won’t grow into the exact same plants next year. But if you want to experiment and see what you get, hybrids can be fun to grow from saved…
Use This Spring Gardening Checklist for a Pretty Landscape All Year
The garden is waking up, and you’re in charge—it’s time to start planting, pruning, and preparing your flower beds. Just as you give your house a good spring cleaning to freshen it up after a long winter, take a similar approach to getting your garden back in shape for the warmer months. Once the snow and ice melt, it can feel a little overwhelming to consider tackling all the work a picture-perfect spring landscape requires. Use this checklist to help pace yourself as you get your flowerbeds, trees, shrubs, and other garden areas ready for summer. We’ve broken things down into early, middle, and late spring to help you plan your tasks so you hit each area of your landscape before summer arrives. Early Spring Start here to get your yard ready for the growing season ahead. 1. Clean the flowerbeds Clear away dead leaves or any other winter debris from the soil surfaces…
How to Create a No-Dig Flowerbed for an Easy Start to a Garden
Transform your yard with this easy-to-build, no-till, no-dig flowerbed that you can build on top of your grass for a healthy planting spot. Put down that shovel! There’s an easier way to make a new flowerbed. Similar to lasagna gardening, this method harnesses the natural forces of the weather, plus soil inhabitants such as earthworms, bacteria, and fungi to transform bare turf into a planting space. No digging, no sweat. After you layer newspaper and compost on top of the turf and wait several months, the grass will decompose into 6-8 inches of topsoil. You can start this process any time of year, but one good strategy is to do so in the fall so the soil can develop over the winter and be ready to plant in late spring or early summer during the growing season. Step 1: Outline Garden Bed Once you’ve decided where to build a new garden bed, mark the plot’s…
How to Plant and Grow Roses
Learn how to plant and grow the easiest rose varieties for the best blooms all season long. One of the most popular flowers in the world is the rose. This shrub is a perennial, with over 100 species, primarily native to North America. Roses are prized for their many colors, and some have a beautiful scent. The sizes of rose blooms range from small and compact to large and lush. Nearly all rose varieties have thorns. The three main types of roses are shrubs, climbers, and ramblers. Shrubs are suitable for gardens and borders, climbers are best for camouflaging walls or adding color to outdoor structures, and ramblers are suited for groundcover and to give a more natural look to a garden. Roses are sometimes considered difficult plants to grow and care for since they require regular pruning and maintenance. While that may have been true for roses before, in…
Follow This Fall Garden Checklist to Prep Your Yard for Winter
Changing leaves signal that the growing season is winding down. Here are fall gardening tips for what you should do to prep your landscape for colder months. As temperatures begin cooling off and daylight hours dwindle, it’s time to finish the gardening season strong by preparing all your plants for winter. Essential autumn chores on your to-do list should include giving permanent plantings such as trees, shrubs, and perennials a little TLC, cleaning up your veggie garden, and winterizing your lawn. A little work now means you’ll have more time in spring for planting vegetables and colorful blooms rather than being bogged down with clean-up tasks and tracking down garden tools. Use our fall gardening tips and checklist to tackle a couple of tasks a day, and you’ll be ready for winter in short order; then you can spend your time browsing seed catalogs while you dream up next year’s garden plans. Get Your Lawn…
How to Deadhead Spent Flowers From Your Plants For Longer Bloom Times
Your annuals and perennials will bloom more if you snip away spent flowers. Plus, it’s an easy way to help your garden look tidy. Let’s face it: Even the name of this task sounds scary. But deadheading your plants isn’t as morbid as it sounds; it just means trimming off spent flowers. Not only does this help keep your garden looking tidy, but it also encourages your plants to continue making new flowers instead of spending energy on producing seeds. Some gardeners get a little nervous about snipping parts off their plants, but unless you start whacking away, it’s tough to damage or kill a plant just by clipping spent flowers. So when your flowering plants have fading blooms, brown, curled up, or otherwise looking unattractive, that’s your cue to pull out your garden shears and start deadheading. Which Plants to Deadhead? You can often get a clue about which plants to deadhead…
How to Winterize Perennials in 5 Simple Steps
With a little work now, you’ll be rewarded with a healthier and more colorful garden next spring. In the fall, most perennials start winding down and going dormant for the colder months. We show you how to winterize perennials so they’ll come back in good shape next spring. A little work during the pleasant autumn days will set you up for a lush, healthy perennial garden once the weather warms up again. However, don’t be tempted to start winter preparation too early. Wait until temperatures consistently stay on the cool side and plants have mostly stopped growing. Then, use these tips to tuck your perennials in for a long winter’s nap. 1. Take Stock The end of the growing season is the perfect time to assess the perennial garden. All the successes and challenges will be fresher in your mind than next spring, when your memories of the previous season may have faded. Look with…
5 Simple Steps for Preparing Gardens for Winter Weather
Use these tips to help your perennials, trees, shrubs, and more survive the colder months. Your plants will come back stronger in the spring. As temperatures drop in autumn, it’s time to start preparing gardens for winter. It may seem like not much is happening in your yard as the weather cools. However, a lot is going on in the soil until it freezes. This is especially true for newly planted trees and shrubs, divisions of perennials, and hardy spring bulbs, all busily growing roots to anchor themselves in the ground. And earthworms and soil microbes are also still at work, processing organic material into nutrients plants need. While nature has its ways of coping with the colder months, you can do a few things to help prepare your plants for winter. 1. Mulch Your Perennials Perennials return yearly, as long as they are hardy where you live. Hardy plants won’t require much effort…
10 Reasons Why Fall Is the Perfect Time for Planting Your Garden
Move over spring! Autumn is the best season for getting new perennials, trees, and more in the ground. Fall garden chores often involve getting your garden ready for winter and raking up fallen leaves. But you’ll miss a perfect planting opportunity if you’re only focused on leaf-removal. Cool temperatures, along with several other benefits, make autumn an ideal time to add new plants to your landscape, divide overgrown perennials, and in some regions, plant a veggie garden for fall and winter harvest. Plus, all those fallen leaves make excellent mulch for all your newly planted trees, shrubs, perennials, and bulbs. Look at the season in a fresh way with these top 10 reasons to plant in fall, then exchange that rake for a shovel and start digging. 1. Moderate Weather Warm, not hot, days coupled with cool nights are the perfect forecast for establishing new plants. Spring can suddenly turn hot and dry, which…