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Elevated planters make growing almost any plant easier. You can create your own in just a few simple steps. A raised bed can solve various garden problems, especially if your yard has hard-packed, poor soil. Rather than trying to dig a new garden bed in the ground, a raised bed lets you rise above it all. Besides having fewer weeds to deal with, growing in elevated beds can eliminate some bending and kneeling that can make gardening in regular planting beds feel like a major workout. Another bonus of raised garden beds: The soil in it warms faster in spring so that you can get planting a little sooner, and it also drains more quickly in wet weather. While you can buy plenty of raised bed kits, making your own out of a few wooden boards is not too difficult. What You Need Rake Level (4) 1-foot-long 4x4s (8) 4-foot-long 2x6s (4) 2-foot-long 2x2s Drill Screws…

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Give yourself a jumpstart on spring with these fall plantings. After a steamy summer, autumn’s cooler air temperatures are easier on both plants and gardeners, but the soil is still warm enough to allow roots to grow until the ground freezes. Fall showers are generally plentiful, but it’s easy to deeply water plants if it doesn’t rain at least an inch per week. Pests and disease problems also fade away in the fall. Plus, the late season is often bargain time at garden centers that are trying to sell the last of their inventory before winter. Look for deals on spring-blooming bulbs, perennials, trees, and shrubs, which can all be planted in the fall, up until your area gets hit with a hard frost. And don’t forget your lawn; cool-season turfgrass can be seeded this time of year, too. Get these plants in the ground in fall, and they’ll reward you with gorgeous…

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One of the best ways to fill your garden with color is to plant annual flowers, which grow quickly and bloom all season long. Several of these varieties are very easy to start from seeds which are less expensive and give you more exciting choices than buying plants at a garden center. Here are some of the easiest annual flowers to grow from seed, as well as tips for when and how to sow them. 01.Marigold It’s hard not to love a marigold‘s bright yellow, orange, and red flowers. Happily, this is one of the easiest seeds to grow. You can sow marigold seeds directly into the garden after the last frost date. If you start seeds indoors, sow seeds one-eighth inch deep. Look for sprouts in less than a week. Name: Tagetes selections Growing Conditions: Full sun in evenly moist, well-drained soil Size: Up to 1 foot tall 02.Bachelor’s Button A charming annual that blooms…

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Seed balls are an easy and sustainable way to grow clusters of plants anywhere you please—and they are as simple to make as mudpies! Clay soil is the bane of many gardeners, but there’s at least one good thing you can do with the sticky stuff: make seed balls. The process is simple and fun as patting mud into delectable fantasies or rolling modeling clay into snakes. Making seed balls entails mixing a few easy-to-grow seeds with soft clay and shaping little balls. Seed balls make it easier to plant seeds, especially if you’re sowing small seeds that are difficult to see and handle. Coating seeds with clay also protects them from being washed away by rain or eaten by birds. Use one finished seed ball per small container, or use the balls to plant clusters of annuals in a garden. What You’ll Need Equipment / Tools 1 Mixing bowl 1 Measuring…

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Here’s how to ensure your blooms look their best each season. A beautiful, blooming perennial garden can be the showpiece of your landscape and provide pretty cut flowers for bouquets. Unlike annual flowers (which can be blended into your flower garden but need to be planted every year), perennials can be planted just once and enjoyed for many years as they regrow from the same roots in spring. Some perennials grow and bloom well for just a few years, and others may live for decades. Most bloom for a period of just a few weeks over the spring and summer, but a few will bloom twice in a season. Many perennials are easy to care for, but they all require some degree of attention to look their best. 1. Choose the Best Garden Site Most blooming perennial flowers require full sun. That means 6-8 total hours of direct sun each day of the…

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Are you wanting to start digging and growing, but don’t know where to begin? Then, check out this list of helpful hints for making sure all your plants thrive. When you’re just starting out with gardening, it can seem like there’s so much to know, and you’ve got a thousand questions. How should you plant your veggies, and what kind of soil is best? When should you prune your hydrangeas and divide your hostas? Is everything getting enough sunlight and water? The good news is that nature is a terrific teacher. The more you garden, the more you’ll learn about what works and what doesn’t. But for now, use this list of basic gardening tips to find the answers to some of the most common questions beginners have. And don’t forget to have fun while growing your own food and beautiful flowers in your yard! 1. Know your USDA Hardiness Zone. Use it as a guide…

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Go big on color, but light on labor with this classic, informal garden style. While formal gardens are all about order and well-defined spaces, cottage gardens bubble in cheerful tangles of flowers that form a kaleidoscope of hue and texture. According to Darrell Trout, an avid gardener, writer, and lecturer with a passion for the easy-growing beauty of cottage gardens, their style is “relaxed, colorful, and fun.” Because nature is allowed to take its course more in these spaces, as opposed to the careful manicuring other styles may require, they tend to need less work. “A cottage garden has perhaps less regard for rules than for doing what you really love,” Trout says. You can make cultivating your own corner of delightful floral abundance even easier with the following advice and ideas. How to Create an Easy Cottage Garden Cottage gardens are intentionally casual. These tips will help ensure your space is easy to maintain and looks gorgeous every…

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An icy forecast can be bad news for your plants. Here’s how to help them weather sudden cold snaps. Frosty weather in spring or fall that sends you to the closet for a jacket can be hard on certain plants in your garden, too. Temperatures in the low 30s Fahrenheit can kill vegetable crops such as tomatoes and peppers and colorful flowering annuals like petunias and begonias. While you can’t grab a jacket for your cucumber vines or pots of marigolds, you can help your frost-tender plants come through cold snaps unscathed. Here’s what you need to know about which types of plants need frost protection and when to take action. What Is a Frost? When weather forecasters issue a frost advisory in late spring and early fall, that’s your heads-up to protect annuals and other vulnerable plants. You might think temperatures have to get to the freezing point (32˚F), but a frost can occur between 36˚F and 32˚F. Also,…

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Dig into your new gardening adventure with this step-by-step guide to help you make the most of your landscape. Starting a garden is one of the most rewarding things you can do. Plant fragrant florals or start a vegetable garden (or both!), and everyone can benefit from getting their hands a little dirty. But if you’re new to gardening, it can be difficult to know where to start. Still, it doesn’t have to be complicated; when you break your project down into manageable steps, you can ease into gardening at your own pace. And soon you’ll see the rewards of your efforts with beautiful views, delicious flavors, and colorful blooms. These steps will help you get started from scratch, but if you have something particular in mind, you could also use a garden plan to guide your design. 1. Consider What to Plant Do you want to plant a vegetable garden? An herb garden? A flower garden?…

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Get a jump on spring by sprouting your own flowers and veggies indoors. Then you’ll be ready to plant as soon as the weather warms up. When spring rolls around after a long winter, you don’t want to waste a minute of that glorious warmer weather to get growing! Starting seeds indoors is a time-honored way to get a jump on the season. It’s also a fun and rewarding project that you can often do with whatever you already have on hand; no need to buy any special supplies. And with a few dollars-worth of seeds, you can grow lots of plants very inexpensively. Starting your own seeds also allows you to try out unusual and interesting varieties that you can’t find at a local garden center. Here’s what you need to know to successfully start seeds indoors for planting in your garden once temperatures stay above freezing. Easy Seeds to Start Indoors If…

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