Weekend Gardener

The Repunzel Effect

2007-03-08T15:27:00.000-05:00

Some time ago in one of your garden tips I spoke about the beauty of window boxes. Today I'm going to introduce you to the "Repunzel Effect".Window boxes almost always look better if there is something draping over the edge, and for sheer drama, you can't beat drapery that hangs in long streamers well below the box.

Unfortunately, the longest trail you should look for is about 12 or 18 inches. Most plants can't support much more than that.Plants to use?

ivy ( Hedera helix)

ivy geraniums (Pelargonium peltatum)

nastrurtiums (Trapeolum majus)

vica ( Vinca spp.)

It's a short list, I know. That's because most lax-stemmed plants are vines, and most vines would rather hang on than hang down.

If they can't climb straight up, they'll climb any which way--on themselves, on the other plants in the box, on the brackets that hold the box up. The end result is a tangled mass instead of graceful tresses.

That said, if you have a situation where vines can't get a grip on anything, these are also worth a try:

canary bird vine ( Trapaelum peregrinum)

climbing snap-dragon (Asarina spp.)

grape ivy (Cissus incisa)

passionflower (Passiflora spp.)

P.S. Want to be a healthy gardener? Take a look at this! 500 Years Of Natural Health SecretsYou'll be amazed at how good you can feel. Click here:http://chetday.com/secrets.htm?hop=godot

Small Light Garden

2007-03-03T20:19:00.000-05:00

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy: They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.-- Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922)_________________________________________________________________

Did you know it is so easy to set up a small light garden in your home for house plants? All you need are two flourescent tubes and the reflector unit that holds them. Although special bulbs have been touted as the last word in light-garden technology, they are relatively costly.

Instead, many weekend gardeners have found that the light spectrum that most plants need can be produced inexpensively by using a cool light or daylight flourescent tube, together with a warm light tube, either 20 or 40 watts each.

Economical two-tube units and bulbs can be found at hardware stores, but be sure to measure your window space so you know what size to buy.Position the light unit so that the plants are no closer to the tube than about two inches, and no further away than about 10 inches. A typical "day" for plants growing under lights is 14 to 16 hours, and many weekenders use a timer to automate sunrise and sunset.

Why not give this a try this week, especially since it's winter and you'd like a project to fill your gardening 'down' time!

My Blueberry Hill

2007-02-19T12:54:00.000-05:00

You know by now how much I love blueberries as my fruit of choice for busy weekenders like us.

But did you know that many mail order nurseries ship plants that can be two or three years old?

Yet it takes some plants 4 to 6 years before the plants are mature enough to flower.That's why a neighbor of mine was dissapointed when he didn't get his blueberry bush to thrive right away even though it got a good 5 hours of sunlight a day.

Highbush blueberries need company to bear fruit too. Even after your bush starts blooming, it won't start fruiting in earnest until you plant a differentvariety, one that blooms at about the same time, within bee-flying distance.

Intersting huh?

These varieties bear flowers in more or less overlapping order, from earliest tolatest:

* "Bluetta"

* "Earliblue"

* "Northland"

* "Patriot"

* "Blueray"

* "Ivanhoe"

* "Bluecrop"

* "Berkeley"

* "Jersey"

* "Herbert"

* "Corville"

So check for how mature your plants are from mail-order nurseries before ordering and plant these varieties in groups of at least two which will assure growth!

"Being world-weary just means your heart is dying by degree. To awaken joy just pretend your 10 years old again." - Victor K. Pryles

I love words and I love to write. Here's an open invitation to join me at The Authors Den.It's where readers and authors meet-up. My site is http://www.authorsden.com/victorkpryles And please visit all of the very fine authors/readers that make this their home!

Your Kitchen Herb Garden

2007-02-15T08:45:00.000-05:00

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy: They are the charming gardenerswho make our souls blossom. -- Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922)

Have you ever considered having your own kitchen herb garden?

Of course, culinary herbs grown this way do need lots of sunshine but there are some that work well with just morning light, assuming the soil is well drained.I wish I could tell you basil and oregano (two of my personal favorites) were among them---however, parsley does fine.

You can also grow good chervil, fennel,tarragon, lemon balm, sweet cicely, sweet woodruff, and any of the mints.Now if you have a brightly lit kitchen (or other room) that gives good light most of the day you can grow my two favorites too!Try this wonderful way to have fresh home-grown herbs that you can use to spice up your cooking in an amazing way that is truly delightful to the palate.

Old Wives Tales

2007-02-13T08:04:00.000-05:00

Have a really neat tip today for your vegetable garden. Even though there hasn't been a lot of extensive research on which species can best be planted together to help each other prosper, gardeners observations have been around for centuries.

This folklore is pretty good stuff! Some gadeners swear by the following:

* Plant parsley near asparagus to improve vigor.
* Radishes grown near lettuce are more tender.
* Petunias help repel bean beatles.
* Beets interplanted with onions will stifle weeds.
* Dill or caraway will help repel cabbage moths.
* Tomatoes hate fennel; keep them apart.
* Beans don't do well near alliums (garlic, onions, chives).
* Nastrurtmiums attract aphids and deter cucumber and bean beatles.

Of course, lots depends on climactic conditions, the nature of the soil and the overall health of the plants in your garden. But these are more than 'old-wives tales' --they really are true. So, keep them in mind when designing your vegetable garden!

Three Trees To Bring Us Together

2007-02-09T10:53:00.000-05:00

Gardens and flowers have a way of bringing people together, drawing them from their homes. -Clare Ansberry, The Women of Troy Hill

Today I'll give you three trees that will flower after the big springtime show is past.

1. Autumn flowering (Higan) cherry (Prunus subhirtella 'Autumnalis) A double delight, this small tree (to 25 feet) flowers both in spring and fall. There are several varieties, and you can have any flower color you like!

2. Ben Franklin tree (Franklinia alamaha) A good choice for smaller yards, this medium-slow grower seldom gets more than 15 to 20 feet high. Carmelia-like whiteflowers bloom toward the end of summer even as the leaves turn a lovely red-orange for fall. Zones 5 to warmer parts of Zone 9.

3. Southern catalpa (Catalpa bignonioides) With these quick growing, widespreaders, you get a big tree (to 50 feet) in a big hurry. The grand looking leaves are usually deep green; there are also yellow-leaved forms. A bell-shapedwhite flower in mid-summer then later dark seapods. Zones 5-8

Hope you can look this trio of lovelies up in a catalogue today to learn more!

MIlkweed Over All

2007-02-06T08:11:00.000-05:00

One Weekend Gardener wrote to tell me that using milkweed to attract butterflies might have been a good idea, but now it has overwhelmed her vegetable plot.

Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), when well established runs deep, eagerly spreading roots and many seeds make it a takeover baron, and since it is so hardy even to 50 degrees below zero, don't count on them being killed off in a freeze.

About all you can do is mow the perimeter of the garden so the nearest milkweed is at least 10 feet away. In the garden itself, pull all shoots as soon as they appear. Wind-sown seedlings won't have a chance to put down strong roots, and although the roots that are already there will keep sending in new plants, depriving them of top growth will eventually starve out the network.

Photo: Milkweed Exploding

Helping Out Late Bloomers

2007-02-01T04:49:00.000-05:00

There are three ways to make sure you have annuals blooming all through the fall, right up until the hard frost.

1. Be faithful about deadheading and shearing back. In other words, stay on top of it, this potentially boring but effective tiying up will greatly extend the blooming time of most annual flowers.

2. Start a few hardy bloomers from seed in early June. They won't do much until the end of the season, but that's actually what you want to see. Coices include asters, calendula, and coreopsis.

3. Be sure you have lots of plants that don't mind a little frost. After the nasturtiums and dahlias have been reduced to little brown heaps, these flowers will still be out and about town: anagallis, alyssum and calendula.

Fighting Weedy Vines

2007-01-26T10:00:00.000-05:00

Do you have a yard that's overgrown with all kinds of vines? Once my vines started pulling down my lilacs, and there was some poison ivy. Fearfull that I would have to put a "scorched earth" policy in effect or start over from scratch. Instead, I put my Weekend Gardener hat on and decided to emulate General Sherman.

Starting over really would be the best idea, but there's no need to really scortch the earth. You can easily restore order without resorting to big applications of herbicide, too.

A lawnmower is better.

Begin by cutting unwanted barberries and the thicket vine stems at ground level---start with killing the lilacs. Cut by hand, if possible, to minimize flying debris that might have poison ivy in it. Wear gloves at all time and long sleeves, long pants tucked into your boots, too.

After clipping or sawing the thick items, pick up all the cut material and pile it in an out back area. Cover it with a dark tarp and let it decompose. Don't ever burn it, because the poison ivy smoke can cause reactions.

Then let the mowing begin. About 2 inches from the ground and after a year of consistent mowing (don't stop until your first hard frost) you will have destroyed the established vines, including the poison ivy. Just wear protective clothing when you mow.

During your year of mowing, instead of planting, think about what you really want in the landscape department. Next year you can put those plans to work.

Growing Garlic

2007-01-22T12:50:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Margorie Wilson in Appleton, WI, a reader of The Weekend Gardener for asking:

I'd love to try and grow garlic myself but don't know how. Is it difficult, or when should I plant?

It's very easy to grow garlic (Allium sativum) so it's surprising more gardeners don't grow their own. Garlic is a bulb, like the tulip, and needs the cold-winter treatment that Mother Nature provides. Like tulips, garlic can be planted almost anytime in autumn as long as the ground is workable.

The bulbs, in clustered segments, must be seperated before planting. The segments are then placed pointed side up about an inch below the ground in rich, well-drained soil. Full sun is best, but garlic can manage as long as it gets six hours of sun per day.

The toughest part seems to be finding a good garlic farmer from whom to buy cloves for planting. You can't use what you find in the supermarket because its been treated to keep it from sprouting. Organic garlic will sprout just fine, but its still worthwhile to buy locally if possible because these will adapt better to your area. Look in farmers' markets or specialty stores. You can also find them via mail order.

An Herb Garden That Survives Winter

2007-01-18T08:06:00.000-05:00

A reader of "The Weekend Gardener" recently asked: " I would like to plan an herb garden, but don't want to be putting in annuals every season. What herbs can I include that will survive winters in zone 6?"

Oh, boy! There are so many hardy herbs that fit your needs! It would be wise to refine your plan a little before making some choices. Is it a culinary herb garden? If so, try chives, garlic chives, fennel, sage, tarragon, thymes, winter savory, and--- as long as you keep its roots confined--- mint.

If you're interest is more in medicinals, you'll want arnica, catnip, echinacea, feverfew, valerian, and comfrey (which should be used only externally, no matter what you may hear).

Don't forget some annual herbs are such rampant self-sowers that you'll have to plant them only once. Borage, dill, chervil, and coriander will come back reliably year after year as long as you let some plants go to seed. They won't necessarily come right where you want them, but a little untidiness never hurt anyone, and they are easily weeded out if they are really in the way.

Preparing Vines For Winter

2007-01-14T07:54:00.000-05:00

Assuming you've chosen the hardier varieties, you'll find them surviving well under winter conditions. To help them, don't add any fertilizer after mid-summer. You want new growth to slow down and any wood that's around to toughen up before serious cold arrives.

Keep watering your vines, though. They are still using their roots to store energy for the winter.

After the ground freezes to a depth of 2-3 inches, apply a thick but lightweight mulch of straw or small evergreen boughs to help prevent the repeated thawing and refreezing that can heave up roots.

Finally, the next time you plant, choose protected sites where the vines will not be subject to drying winds or direct southern sun in winter. Avoiding the sun sounds strange, but hot bark splits when cold nights arrive.

Your Friend: The Earthworm

2007-01-02T08:48:00.000-05:00

Many Weekend Gardener's think they must get rid of earthworms! Actually, earthworms are a blessing and a gardener's best friend. The good they do fully outweighs their occassional messy habits. You should take pride in their presence and encourage their work. It's not for nothing they are called nature's plows; they have the ability to burrow to depths of several feet. Their churning loosens the soil and improves the structure so that air and water can get into the roots of your plants. The organic matter they feed on passes through their bodies and is excreted as castings, a rich source of nutrients readily available to plants.

Home Grown Herb Tea

2006-12-27T08:48:00.000-05:00

Nothing fancy or difficult and good advice for anyone living in zone 6 with plenty of sunshine around.

A good herb for tea that should grow well in your Weekend Garden include chamomile (leaves and flowers), fennel (leaves and seeds), hyssop (leaves and flowers). And for their leaves, you could grow bergamot, aka bee balm (Monarda didyma), betony (Stachys officinalis), lemon balm, applemint, peppermint, spearmint, and sage. All are hardy at least to zone 5.

Lemon verbena and scented-leaf geraniums should also thrive there in the summer, though they are not frost hardy.

And don't forget rose hips, rasberry and blackberry leaves, and the flowers of elderberries and linden tress (Tilia spp.) Though not usually grown in vefetable gardens, they too are valuable additions to the homegrown tea lover's pantry.

Shrubs For Color- Northern Climes

2006-12-22T08:50:00.000-05:00

Shrubs For Color- Northern Climes

Weekend gardeners in zones 6 and north can only look in envy at most winter-blooming shrubs--- witch hazel is about all they get. But winter color is surely possible in colder areas; you just have to find it in stems instead of flowers.

Two groups that offer a good range of colors are the shrubby dogwoods and the willows. Among the dogwoods, stem colors include charttreuese (Cornus stolonifera) orange (C. sanguinea), and bright red (C. stolonifera 'Cardinal') Willows offer an even wider variety of stem colors, including a warm orange-red (Salix alba 'Chermesina'), purplish (S. purpurea), and wine black (S. melanostachys).

The Garden Invaders

2006-12-11T08:34:00.000-05:00

In theory, nursuries and seed companies stay on top of what's invasive and will refuse to supply the means of garden ruin or ecological destruction; but in reality, that's not always true. The line between "trouble free" and "invasive" is often a slim one, and just as realtors often mean no plumbing when they describe an old house as "unspoiled", catalogs often mean "invasive" when they say "rapidly forms an excellent ground cover". Catalogues are hampered by commercial concerns while the best knowledge comes from local, always local sources.

You can also use the USDA watch list of plants that have been deemed invasive in at least one state. Click here to view their web site. It is updated regularly and provides valuable early warning for the Weekend Gardener who wants to save time from these pesky invaders.

Drying Hydrangeas

2006-12-08T08:30:00.000-05:00

If you love hydrangeas and would like to preserve their beautiful blossoms, here is a simple way to dry them for arrangement you may wish to create:

Dry them the same way you would dry most flowers harvested for this prupose, namely, wait until they are almost fully open, then cut them off the plant, keeping a good sized stem. Hang them upside down in a warm (not dry), airy place, out of strong sunlight.

While small-flowered plants such as baby's breath can be hung together in bunches of several stems, hydrangea flowers are densely packed, they are likely to rot if bunched. To ensure good air circulation, it's best to hang individual stems and keep them well apart. For maximum color retention, hang them in a place that does not get ANY direct light.

For a very informative artilce on this subject click here.

Your Personal Kitchen Herb Garden

2006-11-30T11:59:00.000-05:00

Have you ever considered having your own kitchen herb garden?

Of course, culinary herbs grown this way do need lots of sunshine but there are some that work well with just morning light, assuming the soil is well drained.I wish I could tell you basil and oregano (two of my personal favorites) were among them---however, parsley does fine.

You can also grow good chervil, fennel, tarragon, lemon balm, sweet cicely, sweet woodruff, and any of the mints.Now if you have a brightly lit kitchen (or other room) that gives good light most of the day you can grow my two favorites too!

Try this wonderful way to have fresh home-grown herbs that you can use to spice up your cooking in an amazing way that is truly delightful to the palate.

Till tommorow-Victor K. Pryles"The Weekend Gardener"http://www.authorsden.com/victorkpryles

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy: They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922)

Organic Secrets

2006-11-25T10:54:00.000-05:00

Gardeners, Discover The Easy Way To Save Money and Eat Healthy For Life With Organic Secrets.

Organic Secrets is an amazing fact filled book. Over two years to research and write and now for the first time available as a digital download. You will be able to start reading this "comprehensive manual to everything organic" in less than five minutes.

Order Organic Secrets and you'll have the plain, simple facts about growing your own healthy organic produce in your garden.

You'll get over 40 chapters that explain in plain and simple terms how to become 'Organic' - You will read about the basics including: creating the best soil, when and how to plant seeds through to great time and labour saving ideas on eradicating garden pests safely and choosing the perfect tools to make light of any task.

"This fantastic, easy to follow guide book is written for both the amateur gardener and the enthusiast alike."

http://www.paupertravel.com/OrganicSecrets/index.htm

Shady Babes

2006-11-21T10:50:00.000-05:00

I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.
Frank Lloyd Wright (1869 - 1959)_______________________________________________________________

If you like to use flowering perennials, but much of your garden is very shady here is a tip for you.

Even plants described as shade lovers need SOME light to grow, and plants that must produce flowers need more light than those that don't. If conditions are really gloomy, you'll be better off concentrating on things like ferns and mosses. But if the area does get at least some filtered light, and is reasonably moist, you can try:

toad lillies (Tricyrtis spp.)Kirengeshoma palmatafringed bleeding hearts (Dicentra eximia) Corydalis lutea. They all do well in these deeply shaded, yet somewhat lighted areas.

Til tommorow-Victor K. Pryles"The Weekend Gardener"http://www.creativepops.com/

Blueberries

2006-11-15T09:14:00.000-05:00

You know by now how much I love blueberries as my fruit of choice for busy weekenders like us.But did you know that many mail order nurseries ship plants that can be two or three years old?

Yet it takes some plants 4 to 6 years before the plants are mature enough to flower.That's why a neighbor of mine was dissapointed when he didn't get his blueberry bush to thrive right away even though it got a good 5 hours of sunlight a day. Highbush blueberries need company to bear fruit too. Even after your bush starts blooming, it won't start fruiting in earnest until you plant a different variety, one that blooms at about the same time, within bee-flying distance.

Intersting huh?

These varieties bear flowers in more or less overlapping order, from earliest to latest:* "Bluetta"* "Earliblue"* "Northland"* "Patriot"* "Blueray"* "Ivanhoe"* "Bluecrop"* "Berkeley"* "Jersey"* "Herbert"* "Corville"So check for how mature your plants are from mail-order nurseries before ordering and plant these varieties in groups of at least two which will assure growth!

Till tommorow-Victor K. Pryles"The Weekend Gardener"http://www.creativepops.com"

Being world-weary just means your heart is dying by degree. To awaken joy just pretend your 10 years old again." - Victor K. PrylesI love words and I love to write. Here's an open invitation to you to join me at The Authors Den. It's where readers and authors meet-up. My site is http://www.authorsden.com/victorkpryles And please visit all of the very fine authors/readers that make this their home!

Bulbing Around

2006-11-06T08:36:00.000-05:00

One cannot fix one's eyes on the commonest natural production without finding food for a rambling fancy.
Jane Austen (1775 - 1817), Mansfield Park
_______________________________________________________________

Let's talk the summer splendor of tender bulbs.

Summer bulbs are just like spring bulbs in that they use a wide assortment of true bulbs, corms, rhizomes, and tubers (remember those?) for energy storage. But unlike spring bulbs they are not frost hardy.

That means you plant them in spring and if you don't want to keep buying new ones each year, you must also dig them up each fall and store them over winter.

Is this a good bet for "weekend gardeners"?

I think not. Our time is so precious that it may be better to have other jobs conducted in the fall than to be pulling up bulbs for storage.

But, my, my - who can do without

cannas,
dahlias,
gladiolus,
and tuberous begonias

and so many others of bright hue and lovely line?

Your garden center can introduce you to many other fantastic varieties, too.

Here's what I do. I plant some summer bulbs I just can't live without and don't worry about saving the bulbs for next year. I know this is an expensive proposition, and may even seem wastful to some. But if my budget can handle it for a particular year I use these magnificent flowers to spark new interest in different sites in my garden.

Just a few do wonders. They are so easy to love and easy to plant and I can't resist. My accountant might rave at my lavish lifestyle---but what the heck, he deals with dry numbers all day---while I have the beauty of nature abounding out there in MY garden!

Victor K. Pryles
"The Weekend Gardener"
http://www.paupertravel.com

A Creative Piece Of Gardening

2006-11-01T10:53:00.000-05:00

Oh No! Is Victor going to give me another poem instead of a Garden Tip? Well, yes I am- as you may have guessed by now I believe a garden is a spritual experience and has more to do with our hearts than with our hands. I hope you enjoy this one:

Poem: "Sonnet: Daffodils," by Gavin Ewart, from Or Where a Young Penguin Lies Screaming (Gollancz).

Sonnet: Daffodils

Wordsworth really loved daffodils. He said they were flashers.
Certainly they must be the most exhibitionistic flowers
there are.
trumpeting their presence in yellow-by far the most
visible colour.
I grant that after a long hard winter
it's warming to see snow-drops and crocuses in that iron earth
and the very first daffodils (what a cliché) seem a
resurrection,
something it even seems appropriate to make a fuss about.
They look so perfect, though a bit self-conscious.

After a week or two, however, when Spring is established,
and everywhere you look there are oceans of daffodils
as arrogant as pop stars, they begin to seem ordinary.
You take them for granted. Like a love affair fading
they shrivel and go crinkly, papery and tired.
The Spring too (teenagers witness) has its own kind of
boredom.

Victor K. Pryles
"The Weekend Gardener"
http://www.autorsden.com/victorkpryles

Seeds

2006-10-28T10:03:00.000-04:00

A man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life.
James Allen

________________________________________________________________

Today, let's look at awakening a seed!

Seeds are amazing. These little packages contain everything needed to make a plant, and many also contain tiny sensors (phytochrome) to tell them if the time is ripe for germination.

Who cares?

You will, if you sow these seeds and cover them with soil. Seeds that need light, and often they are smaller seeds, will not germinate if they are buried too deeply. When a seed is struck by sunlight (or light from a regular incandescent bulb), the phytochrome changes. If the seed has warmth, moisture, and oxygen, the change in the phytochrome breaks the seed's dormancy and allows germination.

If the environment is not to the seed's liking, the phytochrome slowly changes back and the seed waits for another blast of light when the conditions are better.

Among seeds that need light to germinate are:

ageratum
California poppy
gaillardia
coleus
columbine
love-in-mist
snapdragon
Shasta daisy
strawflower
sweet alyssum
sweet rocket

You can't tell by looking, so follow seed package instructions--- that's always the best idea!

Victor K. Pryles
"The Weekend Gardener"

P.S. Mmay I ask a favor of you? Would you consider placing a "review" of my book at my authors website? In your own words, did you find it helpful and useful or not?

Please click here:

http://www.authorsden.com/victorkpryles

Then click on the review section for my book and leave your message. It will help other weekend gardeners looking for information like you once were. Thank you very, very much!

ANother e-Book Idea

2006-10-24T08:13:00.000-04:00

Another way to read my e-book: "The Weekend Gardener"- A Busy Persons' Guide To A Beautiful Backyard Garden

Ssome readers actually print the book out using thier computers' printer to make it easier to read. If you've done that then you now have a portable version you can take with you and pull out at odd times of the day to read; while waiting for a train, between classes, during your lunch hour.

Most importantly, review Chapter One and start to PLAN for your garden. Today's tip is a reminder that this planning is the real heart and soul of effective weekend gardening.

That chapter, if followed to the tee, will save you countless hours of time and frustration.

So, get a trusty notebook, take some photos and tour your yard. Then start dreaming of what it will look like in the future. Really visualize it as much as your imagination will allow.

Don't have your ocpy or want to see what it's all about? Click here

A Moist Ground in Woodlands

2006-10-20T23:29:00.000-04:00

The goal of life is living in agreement with nature.
Zeno (335 BC - 264 BC), from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers

_______________________________________________________________

It may be that you live in an area that has a woodland or very moist soils which you would like to landscape.

A moist ground at the edge of the woods is an ideal environment for many plants that don't flourish in the bright heat of a conventional flower garden.

Some I can recommend for this circumstance include:

LOW GROWERS like

sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum)
foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia)
Virginia bluebells (Martensia virginica)
marsh marigold (Caltha palustris)

TALLER GROWERS

blue lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica)
astilbe
turtlehead (Chelone glabra)
black snakerroot (Cimicifuga racemosa)

And my all time favorite for these moist, near woodland locales--- hostas. They are always happy in these conditions.

Victor K. Pryles
"The Weekend Gardener"
http://www.authorsden.com/victorkpryles

P.S. OH! - I want to introduce you to a really colorful character, Mike McGroarty. HE LOVES DIRT! No kidding! Actually he is very knowledgeable (and funny, too) and I thought you'd get a lot from a quick visit to his website:

http://www.freeplants.com/?hop=godot

Ground Cover Magic

2006-10-16T18:18:00.000-04:00

When you see the words about groundcover that is "Beautiful", "Easy", "Quick To Spread" in a garden catalogue it sounds very enticing!

But watch out for what you wish for because some species of ground cover are actually hell-bent on covering the entire earth!

Here are some that you must cultivate carefully before they run ruffshod over your property and refuse to halt at your property line:

Bishop's weed, or goutweed
Creeping bugleweed
Crown vetch
English Ivy
Houttuynia
Indian strwaberry
Mint (especially spearmint)
Spotted dead nettle
Vinca, or periwinkle
Wintercreeper

I realize some ot the spieces in the above list are ones I recommend in my book: "The Weekend Gardener". Well, I'm not being contradictory here in today's tip.

I just want you to know that these brands really spread and like to keep on spreading. If you keep that in mind you can be prepared to use them with discretion and care.

It's great to be exuberant---but, let's not get too carried away with groundcover that doesn't like to take too much penning in.

Victor K. Pryles
"The Weekend Gardener"
http://www.creativepops.com

Indoor Light Gardens

2006-10-13T08:53:00.000-04:00

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy: They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922)
_________________________________________________________________

Did you know it is so easy to set up a small light garden in your home for houseplants? All you need are two flourescent tubes and the reflector unit that holds them.

Although special bulbs have been touted as the last word in light-garden technology, they are relatively costly.

Instead, many weekend gardeners have found that the light spectrum that most plants need can be produced inexpensively by using a cool light or daylight flourescent tube, together with a warm light tube, either 20 or 40 watts each.

Economical two-tube units and bulbs can be found at hardware stores, but be sure to measure your window space so you know what size to buy.

Position the light unit so that the plants are no closer to the tube than about two inches, and no further away than about 10 inches. A typical "day" for plants growing under lights is 14 to 16 hours, and many weekenders use a timer to automate sunrise and sunset.

Why not give this a try this week, especially since colder weather is approaching and you'd like a project to fill your gardening 'down' time!

Victor K. Pryles
"The Weekend Gardener"
http://www.authorsden.com/victorkpryles

Help For Shady Gardens

2006-10-09T13:05:00.000-04:00

I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.
Frank Lloyd Wright (1869 - 1959)
_______________________________________________________________

If you like to use flowering perennials, but much of your garden is very shady here is a tip for you.

Even plants described as shade lovers need SOME light to grow, and plants that must produce flowers need more light than those that don't.

If conditions are really gloomy, you'll be better off concentrating on things like ferns and mosses.

But if the area does get at least some filtered light, and is reasonably moist, you can try:

toad lillies (Tricyrtis spp.)
Kirengeshoma palmata
fringed bleeding hearts (Dicentra eximia)
Corydalis lutea

They all do well in these deeply shaded, yet somewhat lighted areas.

Victor K. Pryles
"The Weekend Gardener"
http://www.creativepops.com

The Bog Garden

2006-10-06T08:52:00.000-04:00

A hundred objective measurements didn't sum the worth of a garden; only the delight of its users did that. Only the use made it mean something.
Lois McMaster Bujold, A Civil Campain, 1999
_________________________________________________________________

Today under "Special Circumstances" I'd like to look at what is called a Bog Garden.

As you know water means life in a garden, although too much of this good thing is a challenge. Many times it causes what is called a 'bog' condition, where you can place plants that thrive in continuelly moist soil.

Among the plants that thrive are trees like the red or swamp maple (Acer rubrum), thier small red flowers brighten in early spring and the silvery trunk is especially good looking in winter; the serviceberry (Amelanchier arborea) bears white flowers briefly in early summer; the river birch, a fast growing native whose lovely peeling bark is a reddish gold; and the native Eastern white cedar (Thuja occidentalis), an evergreen that develops a narrow, pyramid outline.

Shrubs that do well in moist, bog conditions include the sweet azalea (Rhododendrum arborescens), whose white spring flowers add perfume to the late afternoon, the swamp rose (Rosa palustris), with pink early summer flowers; and the spicebush (Lindera benzoin) with clusters of tiny chartreuse blooms lining its limbs in spring.

So, if you have an area of your landscape that is low lying and has persistent dampness you'll find the above will help you replace grass that just won't survive these conditions.

Victor K. Pryles
"The Weekend Gardner"

Window Boxes

2006-10-03T08:21:00.000-04:00

"One is nearer God's Heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth."

Dorothy Frances Gurney, 1858-1932 English Poet
_________________________________________________________________

Have you considered dressing up your house with window boxes which overflow with flowers?

Window boxes bring color and spirit to barren facades, as well as considerable pleasure to those who tend them.

There are many types of boxes you can use including:

wood
cast cement
molded terra cotta
plastic
and fiberglass.

Try and avoid metal boxes because they will likely rust in a few seasons, and if placed on sunny sills will transmit heat, which will burn the roots.

Securely attach each window box (there are many fixtures that your local hardware store can direct you to), no matter how wide your support is.

To prepare for planting, cover the bottom with a layer of landscape fabric or plastic screen. This will hold soil in place while allowing water to drain.

Fill the box about 3/4 full with any all-purpose potting mix, then stir in several trowels each of perlite and organic matter such as leaf mold, aged manure, or compost.

Experiment with different plants that offer contrasting leaf sizes and plant outlines. Try bushy plants for bulk, tall plants for a vertical accent and pendulous species for a graceful cascade over the sides of your window box.

Then take a drive around your house and pretend your a tourist so you can enjoy the all new window treatments you've created so wonderfully!

Victor K. Pryles

_________________________________________________________________

Imagine... your windows dressed with classy, crisp roman shades... soft, luxurious butterfly shades... or sheer, unlined shades... designed and created by you!

Imagine the surprised expressions on your friends' faces, when they complement you on your fabulous, professional window treatments... and you proudly say, "I made them!"

Imagine the hundreds... even thousands of dollars you'll save when you don't have to pay a professional to make the window treatments for you?

I've got them on my windows (though my talented aunt made them, not me) and we all love them so much!

http://www.sewing-roman-shades.com/?hop=godot

New (& Free) E-Course For Weekend Gardeners

2006-09-29T21:07:00.000-04:00

I've put together a nice e-mail course (known as an e-course) for readers of this blog and my book. For five days you get a lesson a day delivered directly to your inbox.

Based on a new ebook and audio book I'm promoting titled: "Vegetable Gardens"- A Labor Of Love.

If you've ever wanted fresh veggies grown directly in your own backyard this course and book is perfect for you. You are aware how unbelievably delicious homegrown vegetables taste, right? There's simply no comparison to store bought produce.

Anyway, if you'd like this no-cost e-course simply send a blank e-mail to veggies@prosender.com

Controlling Aphids

2006-09-26T08:56:00.001-04:00

If winter is slumber and spring is birth, and summer is life, then autumn rounds out to be reflection. It's a time of year when the leaves are down and the harvest is in and the perennials are gone. Mother Earth just closed up the drapes on another year and it's time to reflect on what's come before.
Mitchell Burgess, Northern Exposure, Thanksgiving, 1992

________________________________________________________________

In today's tip I'd like to talk a little bit about controlling aphids. Those little black bugs that love to make their home among our plants and eat away at them.

Aphids come in so many varieties it sometimes seems like there's a special one for every plant that grows. But all of them have the same basic habits, and the first line of defense is always the same: attend to the health of the plants. Aphids concentrate their attacks on the weak and sick.

Start by making sure the victim has plenty of water; drought stress is nototious for inviting hordes of aphids. Then try and spray immune-system-boosting liquid seaweed.

Avoid fertilizers that contain a lot of nitrogen; the soft, lush growth it promotes is another favorite aphid target.

First aid for the plants, along with a strong spray of water to wash off stragglers, will usually bring aphids populations down to tolerable levels within a week or two.

Victor K. Pryles
http://www.auhtorsden.com/victorkpryles

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His Unmerciful Heropass And The Art Of Gardening

2006-09-23T08:21:00.000-04:00

Time is that quality of nature which keeps events from happening all at once. Lately it doesn't seem to be working.
Anonymous

_______________________________________________________________

The whole idea and impetus of "The Weekend Gardener" is to make sure you have time (always) to garden. Today's tip is to remind you of a few things along these lines:

1. Even two or three hours spent on your garden each weekend can result in amazing things. Don't feel that you spend "too little time" in your garden. If you stay in it say, an hour and half both Saturday and Sunday, this is plenty of time to see results.

2. I love to garden before breakfast. Not only is the air especially clear and crisp in the very early morning, the birds chirp more brightly and the stillness is most immediate. Most importantly, I know that I will feel wonderful all day if, after breakfast, the rest of the world catches up to me and I must leave my gardening behind for the rest of the day.

3. Always remember, you've made your plan. You're working that plan. That blueprint, however, is not written in stone and what you can't finish today will always wait for tommorow, or next week or next season. Let not time pressure you OUT of the moment in your garden. Enjoy each precious minute. It is, after all--the only thing that really exists.

4. Above all, be easy on yourself. Let the gardening experience be a shelter, a hope, and a delight. Don't bring your problems to bear in the garden. Instead imagine you are tilling your troubles into the ground you work. Your cares and worries of the 'outer life' should melt away under the clear, dreamy colors and fragrances you encounter in your little plot of earth.

Victor K. Pryles
"The Weekend Gardener"
http://www.authorsden.com/victorkpryles

P.S. Nature is just enough; but men and women must comprehend and accept her suggestions.
Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825 - 1921)

My Water Gardens E-Course (It's Free!)

2006-09-20T18:36:00.000-04:00

If you've ever had a desire to place a water garden on your property I have some exciting news today! I've just done a ton of research and written it all down into a free e-course. If you don't know, an e-course is one that arrives, a lesson a day, in your e-mail inbox. It's convenient, easy to understand and covers a whole lot of options for the Weekend Gardener.

To get started on your free course just send a blank e-mail here.

Most folks think that constructing a water garden is a very complex and difficult undertaking. But if you know what you're doing, it's really not. I try and keep the expenses down, the work to a minimum, and the options as wide and varied as possible. This course is based on an excellent e-book about water gardens that I offer in my bookstore.

So let's get that bubbling, soothing sound of water into our garden experience! Shall we?

Kissing Trees

2006-09-18T07:58:00.000-04:00

What is it about genus arboretum that socks us in the figurative solar plexus? We see a logging truck go cruising down the road, stacked with a bunch of those fresh-cut giants, we feel like we lost a brother.

Next thing you know, we're in The Brick, we're flopping money down on the bar. Wood. We're under a roof.

Wood.

We're walking the floors. Wood. Grabbing a pool cue. That's wood.

Our friends in the forest carry a set of luggage from the mythical baggage carousel. Tree of life, tree of knowledge, family tree, Budda's Bodhi tree. Page one of life, in the beginning.

Genesis 3:22. Adam and Eve. They're kicking back in the garden of Eden and boom, they get an eviction notice. Why is that? "Lest they should also take of the tree of life, eat and live forever." A definitive Yahweh no-no. Be good to yourself, go out and plant a wet one on a tree.

Diane Frolov and Robin Green, Northern Exposure, Old Tree, 1993

Victor K. Pryles

P.S. I know this wasn't really a tip---but in a way the best of all! Loving nature is what gardeners do! And the best gardeners have a super sense of humor!

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If You Don't Like Chemical Hebicides

2006-09-15T18:18:00.000-04:00

Dear Fellow Gardener-

He enjoys true leisure who has time to improve his soul's estate.
Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862), Journal, February 11, 1840

_______________________________________________________________

Today if you have a lawn overgrown with crabgrass, broadleaf or wild violets and don't want to use chemical hebicides I can give you an organic solution that displaces hand-weeding.

Pretty cool, huh?

Remember, first, that even healthy turf isn't weed free.

Start by examining from the ground up. Is the soil compacted? Does it lack organic matter? Has it been saturated with fertilizer or, starved for it? All of this says: "c'mon WEEDS"!

For detailed guidence I must refer you to your local extension service. I'm glad to do that because even as we get close to ending these daily tips they will always be a great resource for you!

ALso, in the short term, concentrate on the plantains. They are most likely to establish themselves. Don't let them seed, pull as many plants as possible and treat the rest with a flame weeder.

Victor K. Pryles
"The Weekend Gardener"

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Victor K. Pryles

Need A Voice?

2006-09-13T08:28:00.000-04:00

This is a brazen plug for my voiceover work. I've just joined Voices.com and wanted my fellow Weekend Gardeners to know about it. Who knows, you may need some audio produced for a project you have?

Competition is fierce and getting noticed in a crowded marketplace is difficult. We cannot afford to let any opportunity to communicate effectively with prospects get by. You are not the only one with a website, blog, or product that meets your prospects needs, You must do more than just state your offering or even provide some me-too promotion, you must be persuasive, provocative, compelling, and concise.

It only takes 136 words to write sixty seconds of audio. With the right 136 well-written words, delivered by a carefully chosen, professional voice-over artist, you can deliver more than just a pitch: you can deliver your entire marketing message, corporate personality, and brand image.

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Gardening Folklore

2006-09-11T07:50:00.000-04:00

I have a really neat tip today for your vegetable garden. Even though there hasn't been a lot of extensive research on which species can best be planted together to help each other prosper, gardeners observations have been around for centuries.

This folklore is pretty good stuff!

Some gadeners swear by the following:

* Plant parsley near asparagus to improve vigor.
* Radishes grown near lettuce are more tender.
* Petunias help repel bean beatles.
* Beets interplanted with onions will stifle weeds.
* Dill or caraway will help repel cabbage moths.
* Tomatoes hate fennel; keep them apart.
* Beans don't do well near alliums (garlic, onions, chives).
* Nastrurtmiums attract aphids and deter cucumber and bean beatles.

Of course, lots depends on climactic conditions, the nature of the soil and the overall health of the plants in your garden. But these are more than 'old-wives tales' --they really are true. So, keep them in mind when designing your vegetable garden!

Victor K. Pryles
"The Weekend Gardener"

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A Trio Of Lovelies

2006-09-07T12:03:00.000-04:00

My fervent desire is to see you become the most knowleagble gardener in your town!

As Clare Ansberry once said:

"Gardens and flowers have a way of bringing people together, drawing them from their homes".
Clare Ansberry, The Women of Troy Hill

Today I'll give you three trees that will flower after the big springtime show is past.

1. Autumn flowering (Higan) cherry (Prunus subhirtella 'Autumnalis) A double delight, this small tree (to 25 feet) flowers both in spring and fall. There are several varieties, and you can have any flower color you like!

2. Ben Franklin tree (Franklinia alamaha) A good choice for smaller yards, this medium-slow grower seldom gets more than 15 to 20 feet high. Carmelia-like white flowers bloom toward the end of summer even as the leaves turn a lovely red-orange for fall. Zones 5 to warmer parts of Zone 9.

3. Southern catalpa (Catalpa bignonioides) With these quick growing, wide spreaders, you get a big tree (to 50 feet) in a big hurry. The grand looking leaves are usually deep green; there are also yellow-leaved forms. A bell-shaped white flower in mid-summer then later dark seapods. Zones 5-8

Hope you can look this trio of lovelies up in a catalogue today to learn more!

Victor K. Pryles
http://www.authorsden.com/victorkpryles

I Found The World's Best Compost

2006-09-06T10:24:00.000-04:00

"You know I absolutely love compost! You can use it with great safety in any part of the garden. But when it comes to biodynamic compost. Well...... I reckon you can put it on your bloomin muesli in the morning and you can hear it doing you good!"

Peter Cundall - Host of ABC TV's Gardening Australia

The Worlds Best Compost and tons of excellent gardening bonus reports are here.

The Repunzel Effect

2006-09-04T08:37:00.000-04:00

I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance that I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.
Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862)

________________________________________________________________

Some time ago in one of your garden tips I spoke about the beauty of window boxes. Today I'm going to introduce you to the "Repunzel Effect".

Window boxes almost always look better if there is something draping over the edge, and for sheer drama, you can't beat drapery that hangs in long streamers well below the box.

Unfortunately, the longest trail you should look for is about 12 or 18 inches, Most plants can't support much more than that.

Plants to use?

ivy ( Hedera helix)
ivy geraniums (Pelargonium peltatum)
nastrurtiums (Trapeolum majus)
vica ( Vinca spp.)

It's a short list, I know. That's because most lax-stemmed plants are vines, and most vines would rather hang on than hang down. If they can't climb straight up, they'll climb any which way--on themselves, on the other plants in the box, on the brackets that hold the box up. The end result is a tangled mass instead of graceful tresses.

That said, if you have a situation where vines can't get a grip on anything, these are also worth a try:

canary bird vine ( Trapaelum peregrinum)
climbing snap-dragon (Asarina spp.)
grape ivy (Cissus incisa)
passionflower (Passiflora spp.)

Window boxes are a lovely addition to your home, so plan on erecting a few this season!

Victor K. Pryles
"The Weekend Gardener"

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Unify A Space

2006-09-01T17:22:00.000-04:00

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
Joyce Kilmer (1886 - 1918), "Trees" (poem), 1914
____________________________________________________________

If you'd like to find a ground cover to unify a space beneath some shrubs, I have a few to reccommend in today's tip. They are great in partial shade:

European wild ginger (Asarum europaeum) which has rounded, glossy evergreen leaves and grows to about 6 inches high and
barrenwort, or bishops hat ( Epimedium spp.), which has semi-evergreen leaves that seem to flutter over its wiry stems.

Either of these can help fill in an otherwise empty space among your shrubs and provide a lovely ground cover

Victor K. Pryles

Where Do I Get My Perennials?

2006-08-30T08:20:00.000-04:00

He enjoys true leisure who has time to improve his soul's estate.
Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862), Journal, February 11, 1840
_______________________________________________________________

Take a look at the perennials (especially the Sweet William) now at special low prices at one of my favorite sites for purchasing mailorder flowers and garden supplies---Burke's!

Click here:

http://tinyurl.com/2lwyq

I'm always looking for a way to save some money with my weekend gardening and Burke's constantly presents new specials that have saved me a ton of money over the years. I highly reccommend them for your needs too!

Enjoy the tour!

http://tinyurl.com/2lwyq

Victor K. Pryles
"The Weekend Gardener"

Two Items You Must Have

2006-08-26T22:55:00.000-04:00

In a moment I'm going to tell you about a new purchase I made that has been thrilling!

But, I nearly forgot to clue you in on one of my most important tricks of the trade.

Ready?

Two items. A notebook and a camera.

Every day I work in my garden I end with a few minutes spent writing notes in my notebook. This little treasure is a great way to capture my thoughts about what I accomplished, what I envision, and what I hope for in my garden. I note problem areas I need to work on, special circumstances I just noticed and any thoughts about the world of gardening that occured to me that day.

What a lifesaver these notes can be!

Next, at the beginning of every season I buy one of those very inexpensive "disposable" cameras. At least once a week I journey out to my garden and snap a picture or two of an area I'm interested in. Then, at the end of the day I place the camera and notebook away. Most of these little cameras have 24 photos in them, that usually will last me through the growing season. When winter comes along, I get prints made and then place them directly into my notebook for future reference.

Believe me, it's true. A picture really is worth a thousand words! Give this a try, and start making a few notes and taking a few pictures as you go about your garden work.

Both will become personal treasures for you as the years pass (all too quickly).

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Sexy Flowers

2006-08-23T18:12:00.000-04:00

He plants trees to benefit another generation.
Caecilius Statius (220 BC - 168 BC), Synephebi
_________________________________________________________________

Mind if I get risque with today's tip? How about that shocking little word---SEX?

Although most flowers are hermaphrodites, which means they contain both male and female parts, that is not true for every plant species. Some plants have seperate male and female flowers, referred to as staminate and pistillate, respectively.

Sometimes the seperate flowers are borne on the same plant, as is the case with vegetables such as cucumbers and corn. Sometimes the seperate flowers are born on different plants, as is the case with buckthorn, willows, hollies, and many others.

So, when you come across the word pistillate, you'll know what it stands for dear Blog visitor..

Feeling a little frisky, yet?

Victor K. Pryles
"The Weekend Gardener"

http://www.paupertravel.com

Early Fall Warning- Leave The Leaves

2006-08-20T12:23:00.000-04:00

A family is a place where minds come in contact with one another. If these minds love one another the home will be as beautiful as a flower garden. But if these minds get out of harmony with one another it is like a storm that plays havoc with the garden.
Buddha (563 BC - 483 BC)

________________________________________________________________

Every year you and I have to figure out what to do with all those leaves in the fall.

Well, for weekenders like us these fallen leaves are a Godsend for mulching. It's all free! They help contain moisture, stabilize soil temperature and reduce the fluctuations of freeze and thaw that tear plant roots and heave them from the ground.

So, a good 2 or 3 inch mulch of autumn leaves will at least partially decay over the winter, releasing vital nutrients and improving soil structure, but be sure to rake away any left-overs in very early spring, before the perennials and bulbs start peeking up.

Large piles of whole leaves will provide great insulation, but they often fail to decompose completely, leaving you with soggy mats that can smother emerging plants.

Let's not be foolish weekenders and over do the raking every fall. Leaves are our friends and will make for a healthier garden come spring.

Victor K. Pryles
"The Weekend Gardener"

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Caring For Bonsai Plants

2006-08-16T09:53:00.000-04:00

Aren't they wonderful? Bonsai Plants take training, though. While the words are Chinese (the characters bon and sai mean a "container" and "to plant"), it is the Japanese who have become most famous for creating these minature landscapes of windblown, ancient looking trees in small pots.

Bonsai enthusiasts have their own preferances, but they all agree that to succeed you first have to know what you have. Luckily, the plants are mostly small enough to carry from garden center to bookstore to library until you find a book or person to help you identify it.
(I'll give you my insider best source for Bonsia information at the end of this post)

Caring for bonsai has two aspects: first, keeping it alive and healthy, and second, continuing its training. Learning these two things means getting involved. But what a pay-off! These small marvels always cause a stir when I have visitors. They are hypnotized by them.

If you ever visit Washington go to the National Arboretum which has one of the largest collections outside of Japan. Take a virtual tour of their National Bonsai Foundation website right now by clicking here.

There are some beautiful photo examples at that web site.

You can also join Bonsai Clubs International here.

And if you're totally new to Bonsai, I heartily suggest my friend and fellow gardener
Eric Olsen (see his photo above). He's created a virtual encyclopedia of Bonsai Gardening know-how at your fingertips...and it's all written in easy-to-understand language so you can actually use it! I'm so thrilled with what he's done here.

Give Bonsai a try. Weekend Gardeners love it because its a passionate hobby you can enjoy all year round, when you're cooped up in the winter and are dying to garden but the weather won't cooperate. These plants will keep your attention and give you real joy.

I know you'll be thrilled with Eric's "Bonsai Gardening Secrets"... (that's why I'm recommending it to you) and you'll be overjoyed by how much fun it is to create your own amazing Bonsai Garden!

Take Your Garden Into The Kitchen

2006-08-13T12:06:00.000-04:00

In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC),

______________________________________________________________

I'd like to take the garden into the kitchen today!

The fruits of the rose (better known as rose hips) have a slightly floral taste and are rich in vitamin C. They can be eaten raw, but since they are quite sour, they're usually made into jam or jelly.

For an easy jam, heat 2 cups of rose hips and 2 cups of water. Simmer, stirring, until the fruit is soft, then put it through a food mill. Measure the pulp and add 1 cup of sugar to each cup of fruit. Simmer until a jam consistency is reached, and store in sealed sterilized jars.

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I love this jam, because even though developing roses is a time-consuming effort in my garden plan (weekenders hate those two words "time consuming")---eating this lovely fruit in the morning makes me smile! Give it a try and see if you agree.

Victor K. Pryles
"The Weekend Gardener"

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Woodland Landscaping

2006-08-09T17:55:00.000-04:00

The goal of life is living in agreement with nature.
Zeno (335 BC - 264 BC), from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers

_______________________________________________________________

It may be that you live in an area that has a woodland or very moist soils which you would like to landscape.

A moist ground at the edge of the woods is an ideal environment for many plants that don't flourish in the bright heat of a conventional flower garden.

Some I can recommend for this circumstance include:

LOW GROWERS like

sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum)
foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia)
Virginia bluebells (Martensia virginica)
marsh marigold (Caltha palustris)

TALLER GROWERS

blue lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica)
astilbe
turtlehead (Chelone glabra)
black snakerroot (Cimicifuga racemosa)

And my all time favorite for these moist, near woodland locales--- hostas. They are always happy in these conditions.

Till tommorow-

Victor K. Pryles
"The Weekend Gardener"

P.S. OH! - I want to introduce you to a really colorful character, Mike McGroarty. HE LOVES DIRT! No kidding! Actually he is very knowledgeable (and funny, too) and I thought you'd get a lot from a quick visit to his website:

Click Here For Mike's Website

What's With Those Numbers On Fertilizer Packs?

2006-08-06T07:53:00.000-04:00

Our bodies are our gardens to which our wills are gardeners.
William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)

Have you ever noticed the three numbers on fertilizer labels?

For example, 5-10-5 or 14-14-14 indicate the percentage of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potash that the product contains. Often these nutrients are represented by their chemical symbols: N for nitrogen, P for Phosphorus, and K for potassium (also known as potash).

These primary nurtients are listed in that order on fertilizer labels and is required by law.

Here's what these ingredients do:

NITROGEN stumulates foliage formation and gives leaves their healthy green glow. Symptoms of insufficient nitrogen include stunted growth and pale leaves.

PHOSPHERUS encourages strong root formation and maturity, which means good lfowering and fruit sets. You'll notice leaves with a reddish or purple hue, and reduced lbossoms when therte is not enough phosporus.

POTASSIUM promotes hardiness and disease resistance. Reduced vigor, leat-yip socrch, and small, thin skinnned fruit occurs with too little potassium.

Those are the BIG THREE but more than 20 nutrients are also needed for healthy plants. They are usually flagged on the label as "plus minors". Although they are needed in smaller qauntities, they are, nonetheless, essential and include iron, calcium, magnesium, zinc, and others.

I think of fertilizer with all the nurtrients are like a multi-vitamin for my garden plants. Why not?

Victor K. Pryles
"The Weekend Gardener"

P.S. I just have to brag! I just got a wonderful review for one of my books: "Anyone Can Consult!" that is a real rave!

Take a looksee below:

Anyone Can Consult
By: Victor K. Pryles

Reviewed by: Dallas Hodder Franklin

Title: Anyone Can Consult - With Complete Research Course and Index
Author: Victor K. Pryles
Copyright: 2002-2003
Published by: http://creativepops.com/consult.index/
Pages: 118
Price: $17.00
Format: ebook - pdf file

The first part of the ebook, Anyone Can Consult by Victor K. Pryles is devoted to explaining why you can be a consultant and actually guides you through the process. Pryles certainly has me convinced. He offers point-blank questions so you can determine your own abilities and attributes. This is a likely career option for writers given the definition of 'consultant' and it's application in a writer's life. A consultant uses all his/her abilities and talents. This automatically instigates a constant creative process on a daily basis. Pryles takes you from being a complete novice to showing you every step along the way to making 'consultant' part of your own livelihood. He offers suggestions on getting clients and they aren't just thrown in with fluff. Pryles goes into great detail in showing how each is obtained. He obviously knows about what he speaks of and has made a career doing consultant work for over 25 years now. His experience and knowledge comes through the pages of this ebook. You'll learn about setting a fee structure based upon your experience. You'll find different strategies when communicating with clients to determine solutions available. Every question you've ever asked about this rising career is answered completely and clearly. The second part of the ebook is a course on learning how to research. It's sure to be educational even if you think you already know all the various ways one can research. There are web sites out there on the Internet at your fingertips and Pryles shows you exactly where to find them. The course is an excellent section for fine-tuning your research skills. It provides many tricks of the trade in locating information you probably would never have thought of before. Anyone Can Consult finishes off with more tips on organizing and another good dose of self confidence to boost that self esteem. It's designed not only to teach but to teach with positive input and output. I highly recommend this ebook and give it a top rating of 10!
2004 Dallas Hodder Franklin

Rating: 10 (being overall 'the best')

Unusual Annuals For Summer Cover

2006-08-03T08:17:00.000-04:00

Are you a Weekend Gardener that would like color in your garden all through the summer season?

But you'd like something more than just the great standby's marigolds and petunias?

Well, the good news is that there is no dearth of flowers that bloom all summer. The Mexican tulip poppy, or golden cup (Hunnemannia fumariifolia), has finely cut blue-green leaves on nearly 2-foot stems, and yellow poppylike flowers. Love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena) grows 18-24 inches tall and has fluffy blue, white, or bicolored blooms nestled in finely cut leaves.

Finally, Painted tongue (Salpiglossis sinuata), a bit over 2 feet tall, has trumpet-like purple, blue, yellow or red summer flowers streaked with veins. Heat can blast it out of bloom, but its ideal for regions where the summers are relatively cool.

Camauflage Your Privacy Fence

2006-07-26T18:50:00.000-04:00

Gardening is such a voluptious enterpise. There is real magic in the ground and preparing for the lovely landscape you have studied throughout my book "The Weekend Gardener"- The Busy Persons Guide To A Beautiful Backyard Garden.

Todays tips:

Some homeowners have a tall privacy fence in a shaded area that they would like to camouflage in some way.

Then try this:

BOSTON IVY(Parthenocissus tricuspidata) and VIRGINIA CREEPER (P. quinquefolia) are two excellent climbing vines that have suction type discs and aerial roolets along their stems that make them excellent climbers.

The Virginia creeper is really excellent for a wood fence because it is not moisture retentive and your wood beneath the vine will be much less likely to rot from moisture.

These all year round choices look magnificent climbing over a barrier which you may wish to disguise.

Give it a try!

P.S. Here's a lovely thought to take into your garden this week:

"I am only one. But still I AM one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do."

- Helen Keller, 1880-1968 American Writer and Lecturer

Houseplants

2006-07-21T10:52:00.000-04:00

Let's look at houseplants today.

Does it seem all of yours lean toward the window bending toward the light?

When sun-loving species are grown with full overhead light, the stems are thick, short and upright, with leaves closely spaced. That's because the cells are growing equally on all sides of the plant.

But when the light comes from only one side, as in the case of houseplants on a windowsill, the stems on the shady side of the plant grow longer and faster.

Something called AUXIN accumulates in the cells on the shaded side. Since the cells on that side then grow faster than those on the sunny side, the plants bend in the way most of us commonly observe.

Solution?

Rotate your plants a quarter of a turn every week! I pick Mondays as my "turn day" so I don't forget. I happily scurry about the house and turn all my plants a quarter turn.

Tester could do the same and in this way minimize the power of AUXIN.

Victor K. Pryles
http://www.authorsden.com/victorkpryles

Achieving Privacy With Your Garden

2006-07-17T12:19:00.000-04:00

To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level.
Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970), Conquest of Happiness (1930) ch. 14

________________________________________________________________

One thing many homeowners want from their garden experience is privacy!

Today, I'm going to speak about some covers that can give you that privacy and more.

Vines have been called nature's drapery, and privacy is certainly one of their attributes.

For trellis growing, there are two types of plants to choose from:

1. Those that climb by twining around their support
2. Those that climb by attaching small tendrils or leaf stalks.

Hardy perennial twiners to consider are the silver vine (Actinida polygama), a relative of the kiwi with silvery leaves and white spring flowers, and Dutchman's pipe (Aritolochia durior), which has large heart-shaped leaves.

Ducthman's pipe can take a couple of years to get established, and it does not leaf out until fairly late in spring. But once it gets going, it makes a beautiful wall of green.

Vines that climb with tendrils include grape (Vitis spp.), which you can also grow for its fruit, and clematis, of which there are hundreds of species and cultivars that offer a mind-boggling assortment of flower colors and shapes.

Try one or more of these on a trellised porch!

Victor K. Pryles
"The Weekend Gardener"

Shedding Some Light On Onions

2006-07-13T10:32:00.000-04:00

Onion plants switch from making green tops to making fat bulbs in response to the length of daylight, so for best success it is important to choose varieties appropriate to your location: lond-day types for Northern gardens, short-day onions for Southern gardens.

* Short Day Onions- Most of the sweet onions like Vidalia, Texas Sweet, and Maui fall into this class. They not only form bulbs in the shorter days of the South, they also prefer the low-sulfer soils more typical there than elsewhere. Short-day onions do not keep as well as long-day types; and although they seem sweeter, they aren't. What they are is mild. Long-day onions have more sugar, but it is masked by thier greater pungency.

* Long-Day Onions- Most storage onions like Yellow Spanish and Stuttgarter belong here. They have denser flesh and a higher sulfer content than short-day onions, both qaulities that help them keep longer. Walla Walla, the sweet onion from Washington State, is an exception that proves the rule. It is a long-day onion that grows large and remains mild, but it does not keep any better than Southern onions do. Long-day onions mellow over time, so they are usually sweetest right before they come to the end of thier storage life.

* Don't Care Onions- There is only one so far, a hybrid called 'Super Star'. It is day nuetral (not sensitive to day length) and can be grown wherever it can be planted in spring, which is to say anywhere except the Deep South. 'Super Star' is a mild white onion, similar to the old standby 'White Sweet Spanish' but larger, milder, and earlier to mature.

Carrots Under Attack

2006-07-07T17:19:00.000-04:00

A readers' organically grown carrots were beautiful when she started harvesting them, but then they were full of blackish, horizontal lines and some have worms in them. Should she just abandon the crop? And how can a Weekend Gardener keep this from happening?

Welocme to the owrld of the carrot rust fly, a very common pest. Adults lay eggs on the soil around the crowns of carrots, parsnips, and related plants.

The newly hatched maggots tunnel into the roots, eat for a month or so, then return to the soil to populate; a few weeks later they turn into the next generation of flies.

The only way to stop further damage is to harvest the carrots, trim off the nasty parts, and eat or preserve the rest. But whether you eat the carrots or not, don't just abandon the crop. And don't put any of it on the compost pile. If the infected carrots are not removed and destroyed, maggots and pupae can overwinter in them or the soil near them and make things worse next year.

Prevention is tricky. Start by planting next years' crop as far from this one as possible. Try planting late: flies lay thier first eggs in May or June, so if you plant in mid-June you can sometimes sneak by them (it takes carrot seeds a couple of weeks to germinate). Be sure to harvest early as well, since the second generation of flies lays eggs in mid-August.

Alternatively, you can use floating row covers to prevent egg laying. Be sure to bury the edges in the soil so no flies can get underneath, and leave them on from planting to harvest.

Unify A Space

2006-07-05T17:11:00.000-04:00

Dear Fellow Weekend Gardener, -

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
Joyce Kilmer (1886 - 1918), "Trees" (poem), 1914
____________________________________________________________

If you'd like to find a ground cover to unify a space beneath some shrubs, I have a few to reccommend in today's tip. They are great in partial shade:

European wild ginger (Asarum europaeum) which has rounded, glossy evergreen leaves and grows to about 6 inches high and
barrenwort, or bishops hat ( Epimedium spp.), which has semi-evergreen leaves that seem to flutter over its wiry stems.

Either of these can help fill in an otherwise empty space among your shrubs and provide a lovely ground cover.

Victor K. Pryles
http://www.creativepops.com

Reading Yellow Leaves

2006-07-01T21:30:00.000-04:00

Chlorosis, a shortage of chlorophyll that reults in yellowing leaves, can happen to a whole range of plants. The yellow leaves are the plant telling you, "I don't feel well," and could be caused by just about anything., including a whole group of diseases.

But if it is happening slowly and there are no other symptoms like curling, spots, brown edges or wholesale leaves dropping, it's likely your plants are either waterlogged or hungry. They might also be suffering from an iron deficiency, though this is less common than was once thought.

Since you are watering everyday, assume that is the problem. If your soil is heavy clay, frequent watering could be drowning the roots. If it's sandy, chances are that constant watering is leaching nutrients from the soil. Either way, the solution is simply to cut back on the water a bit; it's alright for the surface soil to dry out, and the root zone should be moist, not wet.

Should You Break Out The Tiller?

2006-06-28T06:18:00.000-04:00

The soil in my garden is rich and loose, not at all densley packed. Is there any reason to cultivate it?
That depends on what you mean by "cultivate". No amount of rich looseness will prevent weeds, so at least until the plants are large enough to be surrounded by mulch, you'll still haveto hoe (cultivate) to keep the competition from taking over--- unless the garden is small enough for you to hand weed.

But if you are talking about major soil disturbance like rotorilling, reson is on the sie of abstaining. The top 6 to 8 inches of healthy soil are filled with pores that allow the passage of water and oxygen, essential to the health of plants, and they also contain a great complicated web of life-forms that are eqaully important.

Tilling won't utterly flatten the pores or destroy the web, and it is just about essentail when you are incorporating green manure or breaking ground. But once the soil is loose, open, and fluffy, the less you do to ditrub it, the better.

Mulching- A Primer

2006-06-22T13:16:00.000-04:00

Mulching For The Garden

Mulching enriches and
protects soil, helping provide a
better growing environment.

In your garden

Mulching is one of the simplest and most beneficial practices you can
use in the garden. Mulch is simply a protective layer of a material that
is spread on top of the soil. Mulches can either be organic--such as
grass clippings, straw, bark chips, and similar materials--or inorganic--
such as stones, brick chips, and plastic. Both organic and inorganic
mulches have numerous benefits.

Mulch:

• protects the soil from erosion
• reduces compaction from the impact of heavy rains
• conserves moisture, reducing the need for frequent waterings
• maintains a more even soil temperature
• prevents weed growth
• keeps fruits and vegetables clean
• keeps feet clean, allowing access to garden even when damp
• provides a "finished" look to the garden

Organic mulches also improve the condition of the soil. As these
mulches slowly decompose, they provide organic matter which helps
keep the soil loose. This improves root growth, increases the infiltration
of water, and also improves the water-holding capacity of the soil.
Organic matter is a source of plant nutrients and provides an ideal
environment for earthworms and other beneficial soil organisms.
While inorganic mulches have their place in certain landscapes, they
lack the soil improving properties of organic mulches. Inorganic mulches,
because of their permanence, may be difficult to remove if you decide
to change your garden plans at a later date. Therefore, this tip sheet is
limited to the use of organic mulches.

Mulch materials

You can find mulch materials in your own yard! Lawn clippings make
excellent mulch. While not particularly attractive for a flower bed, they
work wonderfully in the vegetable garden.The fine texture allows them
to be spread easily even around small plants. However, grass clippings
are becoming scarce because of the increased popularity of mulching lawnmowers that provide many of the same benefits of mulching to lawns. Newspaper, as a mulch,works especially well to control weeds.

Leaves are another readily available material to use as mulch. Leaf mold, or the decomposed remains of leaves, gives the forest floor its absorbent spongy structure. Compost makes a wonderful mulch if you have a large supply. Compost not only improves the soil structure but provides an excellent source of plant nutrients. Bark chips and composted bark mulch are available at garden centers.

These make a neat finish to the garden bed and will eventually improve the condition of the soil. These may last for one to three years or more depending on the size of the chips or how well composed the bark mulch is. Smaller chips tend to be easier to spread, especially
around small plants. Depending on where you live, numerous other
materials make excellent mulches. Hay and straw work well in the vegetable
garden, although they may harbor weed seeds. Seaweed mulch, ground
corn cobs, and pine needles can also be used. Pine needles tend to increase
the acidity of the soil so they work best around acid-loving plants such as
blueberries.

When to apply mulch

Time of application depends on what you hope to achieve by mulching.
Mulches, by providing an insulating barrier between the soil and the air, moderate the soil temperature.

This means that a mulched soil in the
summer will be cooler than an adjacent unmulched soil; while in the winter,
the mulched soil may not freeze as deeply. However, since mulch acts as
an insulating layer, mulched soils tend to warm up more slowly in the spring
and cool down more slowly in the fall than unmulched soils. If you are using mulches in your vegetable garden , it is best to apply them after the soil has
warmed up in the spring. Cool,wet soils tend to slow seed germination
and increase the decay of seeds and seedlings. If adding additional layers
of mulch to existing perennial beds,wait until the soil has warmed completely.
Mulches used to help moderate winter temperatures can be applied late
in the fall after the ground has frozen but before the coldest temperatures
arrive. Applying mulches before the ground has frozen may attract rodents looking for a warm over-wintering site.

Delayed applications of mulch should prevent this problem as, hopefully, the creatures would already have found some other place to nest! Mulches used to protect plants over winter should
be loose material such as straw, hay, or pine boughs that will help insulate
the plants without compacting under the weight of snow and ice. One of the benefits from winter applications of mulch is the reduction in the freezing and thawing of the soil in the late winter and early spring.

These repeated cycles of freezing at night and then thawing in the warmth of the sun
cause many small or shallow rooted plants to be heaved out of the soil.
This leaves their root systems exposed and results in injury or death.
Mulching helps prevent rapid fluctuations in soil temperature and reduces
the chances of heaving.

Applying mulch

1. Begin by asking yourself the following questions.

What do I hope to achieve by mulching?
Weed control?
Moisture retention?
Soil improvement?
Beautification?
How large is the area to be mulched?
How much mulch will I need to cover the area?

Mulch is measured in cubic feet. As an example, if you have an area
10 feet by 10 feet and you wish to apply 3 inches of mulch, you would
need 25 cubic feet. (10' x 10' x .25' = 25 cu. ft.)

2. Determine what mulch material to use and purchase or accumulate
what you need.

Mulch can often be purchased bagged or bulk from garden centers.
Bulk may be cheaper if you need large volumes and have a way to haul it. Bagged mulch is often easier to handle, especially for smaller projects.

Most bagged mulch comes in 3-cubic feet bags.
Compost--
Leaves--
Collect leaves in the fall.

Chop with a lawnmower or shredder. Whole leaves tend to compact if
wet or blow away if dry. Chopping will reduce the volume and facilitate composting.
Compost leaves over winter. Some studies have indicated that freshly
chopped leaves may inhibit the growth of certain crops. Therefore, it may
be advisable to compost the leaves over winter before spreading them.

Grass clippings–
Spread them immediately to avoid heating and rotting.
Newspaper–
Save your own newspapers.

Notes

Smaller chips are easier to spread, especially around small plants.
When spreading mulch around trees, keep the mulch an inch or two
away from the trunk. A couple inches of mulch is adequate. There is
no need to apply the mulch 6 or 8 inches high, as often is seen. Similar
to bark mulch. If using fresh wood chips that are mixed with a lot of
leaves, composting may be beneficial. Best to chop and compost before spreading. If using dry leaves, apply about six inches deep. Thicker layers
tend to compact and rot, becoming quite slimy and smelly. Add additional
layers as clippings decompose. Do not use clippings from lawns treated
with herbicides. Apply sheets of newspaper and cover lightly with grass
clippings or other mulch material to anchor. If other mulch materials are
not available cover edges of paper with soil.

Applying on a windy day can be a problem. Use only newspaper text
pages (black ink); color dyes may be harmful to soil microflora and fauna
if composted and used.

Use 3 or 4 sheets together, anchored with grass clippings or other mulch material to prevent blowing away.

The amount of mulch to apply will be determined by the mulch material
you are using.

General Guidelines:

Do not apply mulch directly in contact with plants. Leave an inch or so of
space next to plants to help prevent diseases flourishing from excessive humidity.
Remove weeds before spreading mulch. Bark mulch and wood chips
are sometimes used with landscape fabric or plastic. The fabric or plastic
is laid on top of the soil and then covered with a layer of bark chips. A
caution to this practice: while the plastic or fabric may initially provide
additional protection against weeds, as the mulch breaks down,weeds
will start to grow in the mulch itself. The barrier between the soil and the
mulch also prevents any improvement in the soil condition and makes
planting additional plants more difficult.

Flowers With Good Looking Foliage

2006-06-19T10:17:00.000-04:00

Have you ever wanted to grow some annuals from seed for cutting, but weren't sure the foliage would look as good as the flowers themselves?

Well, most annual flowers grown for cutting are no great stuff in the pretty leaf department, but many weekend gardeners think highly of Cosmos bipinnatus, the common cosmos. Its foliage is a bright light green and the plants make lots of it so their attractive even when not in flower.

Handling UNruly Ground Covers

2006-06-14T13:05:00.000-04:00

If you properly situate your ground cover in the soil with the light conditions it prefers, it will always spread out pretty nicely. However even the best, like sweet woodruff, often have to be controlled. The worst (see my last blog post) like Hall's honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica 'Hallianna') are almost as easy to stop as a racing locomotive, becoming an out and out pest. Others can be controlled if you just remain diligent.

One of the best 'helps' in controlling any ground cover spread is with an 'edger'. The edge can be landscape timbers, or vinyl borders that are sunk into the ground, keeping your ground from trying to make thier little trip into stellar space where it doesn't belong.

Vining type ground covers can't be stopped so easily by using an edge. They'll gladly step right over it. An occassional clipping works with these, others may need more attention. I just keep my English Ivy and Periwinkle in order by simply clipping their tips with my lawn mower when doing the lawn--- see how easy that is?

Some Ground Covers To Avoid At All Costs

2006-06-10T11:59:00.000-04:00

The list below highlights difficult to keep ground covers that can turn into hard to get rid of weeds and are a sure-fire way to extend your weekend's precious gardening time. Avoid them at all costs:

Goutweed, or Bishops Weed

dwarf bamboo

crown vetch

dichondra

mock strawberry, Indian strawberry

ground ivy

Hall's Japanese honey suckle

moneywort, creeping Jennie

Virginia creeper

ribbon grass

Japanese knotweed, Mexican bamboo

creeping buttercup

wooly speedwell

violets

Next blog post concerns ways to handle unruly ground cover in case you inherited some of that "i love to spread" stuff.

Oh! The Tangled Web Of Decietful Ground Cover

2006-06-05T10:09:00.000-04:00

It's a real shock to find that so many ground covers are plants that are listed as such AND as weeds in popular gardening publications. Ironically, the very qaulities that make ground covers so desirable can make them a menace to Weekend Gardener's like us.

Ground covers are meant to spread--- but some of the best spreaders are just too 'slap happy' about it. They literally swamp areas of lawn. Be very careful when buying ground cover that you know little about; you may be paying a high price for a real pest.

It's fine to look through catalogs for other forms of ground cover, in fact, my 'Big Three' (see last post) barely scratches the surface as to what's available on the market, but do your research and watch your pocketbook. These other forms may well be suited to your needs, but my purpose in writing my book is to simplify your chores, while making your lawn beautiful.

In my next blog post I'll zero in and tell you exactly which ground covers to avoid at all costs!

My Big 3 Suggestions

2006-05-31T12:04:00.000-04:00

In an effort to simplify and add more delight to your weekend gardening, I've decided to go out on a limb and flat-out tell you the three best, all-around ground covers that you can employ for excellent 'care-free' results.

All three are probably the most common and taken together, they are probably planted more often than all other ground covers combined. Some garden writers and magazine publishers don't give them enough credit saying that they are boring. But I disagree. I think they are rabidly popular because they work--- and they work for you, not against you!

Three plants--- pachysandra (Pachysandra terminlis), Enlgish Ivy (Hedra helix), and periwinkle (Vinca minor and Vinca major).

One of the benefits these choices offer is expense. They are relatively cheap compared to most other choices, they fill in quickly and provide a tantalizing carpet of dark green foliage throughout the year. The larger your yard area the more you will appreciate the (relatively) inexpensive three mentioned above. Other ground covers might tempt you but these three will save you money and provide all you need for fine coverage.

Of the three, periwinkle, with its tidy leaves and small blue flowers, is by far my personal choice, and if it weren't so common I'm sure most gardeners would agree. I've used it over sweeps of land and to trail over walls, sprinkling more attention grabbing plants throughout.

Pachysandra provides you with whirls of green foliage and short peaks of creamy white flowers.

The English Ivy, with its dark green three pointed leaves will give you a strudy and lively look.

Just rememebr, the pachysandra grows much taller than periwinkle, up to 8 to 10 inches, and English Ivy can be a bit testy, even a pest sometimes if not regularly trimmed back--- both establish themselves faster than the periwinkle.

Advantages Of Using Ground Covers in PLace Of Lawns

2006-05-27T08:40:00.000-04:00

Once filled in, the ground cover crowds out most weeks.

Fallen tree leaves usually require little or no removal since they sift to the ground through the cover and act like a natural mulch.

Once established, the gorund cover requires only occasional maintenence, if any.

Mowing a lawn where trees and shrubs are planted in an island formation is easier than mowing around trees and shrubs in an open landscape, becasue bumpy roots and overhanging branches don't become obstacles to your mowing.

You also won't risk injuring those trunks with the mower.

Most ground covers make a very attractive landscap plants in their own right; they can add beautiful foliage, and texture to your backyard vista.

Ground Cover As A Happy Compromise

You must reach a happy compromise when choosing a ground cover for your low-maintenence landscape by reminding yourself that nothing's perfect. The best ground covers spread rapidly and shade out weeds, or they wouldn't be desirable for your goal of an easier gardening experience. These ground covers need discipline to stay put. Beat them back from time to time and show them who's boss!

Regardless of how strict you need to be here it's surely better than dealing with more lawn.

Mass Planting Ground Covers

2006-05-17T15:18:00.000-04:00

You're getting the idea by aren't you ? Weekend gardeners are finding delightful ways to lessen the work load that a lawn presents us with. By choosing some of these alternatives you greatly enhance your esthetic view and considerably reduce the painstaking care that wrings hours out of your weekend.

Another weay to accomplish this is to 'go for ground covers.'

Lawns can be totally replaced or reduced in size in many landscapes by mass-planting ground covers. When planted in qauntity, in great swirls beneath shrubs and trees, a groundcover adds texture and interest without overpowering the more dominant plants and serves as a backdrop for the changing flowers and foliage in your garden paradise.

The term ground cover applies to many kinds of plants. Most are nonwoody plants. Some, like periwinkle are evergreen, while others, such as leadwort are deciduous and lose their foliage in winter. Some ground covers such as sweet woodruff, die back to the ground, disappearing after the growing season. You can use rock cotoneaster which are leafless in winter but provide an interesting branch structure all year. Other choices include creeping juniper, that are evergreen. Some are less than an inch in height such as wooly thyme and others grow to several feet like gardeners garters.

One thing all ground covers are capable of doing is spreading horizontally to blanket the ground. They are often vining or creeping plants or spread rapidly by underground roots or stems. Though turf grasses meet the definition of a ground cover, usually the term is used to mean alternatives to turf grass.

Let's Line Up Our Lawn

2006-05-15T10:56:00.000-04:00

Let's mark the contours of our lawn to clearly move toward a reduced lawn shape. Use a clothesline, string or a garden hose to outline it and study the size and shape to see how it balances with the rest of the garden area before you make any final decisions.

The usual choice is to bring in the edges of the lawn, planting the perimeter, but this may create a more closed in feeling, especially with shrubs planted around the edges. An alternative is to create islands within the lawn and plant those with whatever you wish. If there are trees there already, it makes sense to arrange the island around them.

For an open feeling, plant the bed with low flowers and/or evergreen groundcovers. A more wooded look would include flowering shrubs within the island and blanket the ground with mulch or ground covers.

By creating several of these island beds, the remaining grass acts as an alluring path or corridor meandering through the beds. With wide paths and an open planting, the feeling will be "open", spacious and more formal; with narrower paths and taller plantings, te feeling will be that of a woodland.

Another alternative is to turn part of the lawn into a field of colorful flowers. A meadow garden of this type is less work than a lawn, but it isn't as easy and carefree as is often thought, or written about in those magazine articles. The meadow can't be started by simply scattering wild-flower seeds on the lawn. Like any garden it takes some tending.

Remember, as Weekend Gardeners we are attempting to cut down on the lawn expanse to say time and effort!

Next: Mass Planting Ground Covers

What About Lawns In Shade?

2006-05-11T22:16:00.000-04:00

Why try to grow a lawn where it simply doesn't want to grow?

In shady areas, especially the north side of buildings or under trees, grass often struggles to fill in and look beautiful for you. But the same sites that are bad for your lawn can be excellent for shade loving ground cover or a garden of shrubs, perennials, or wild flowers. These grow very well in shade. Try planting these plants:

Dwarf rhododendrons
Ferns
Hostas
Creeping flox
Dwarf Chinese astilbes

These recommendations grow all year long, look pretty and require very little care. Good choices, indeed, for any Weekend Gardener.

If you want the open feeling of the lawn replace parts of it with groundcover that grows no more than about 6-8 inches tall. Or get creative and replace areas with more exciting choices like perennial flower border, a shrub bed, a meadow or if you live in a 'sturdy' area try a wildflower garden.

In arid areas stones and pebbles can make an attractive hardscape- or a non plant area. In townhouses, and condominium garden areas can really dominate smaller landscapes very effectively.

Should You Remove Your Grass Entirely?

2006-05-10T13:24:00.000-04:00

It's best to remove grassy lawn entirely in the following situations:

Where surface roots intefere with mowing
Where low hanging trees or shrub branches intefere with the mower or require 'stooping'
Where the ground slopes so much that moving the mower is difficult
Where many specimen trees and shrubs grow in the lawn, making for extra work and time to trim around trunks
Under or bordering a fence
where access is difficult

As we continue with The Weekend Gardener's main chores, namely the lawn, we will next look at lawns in shade.

Sloping Lawns

2006-05-05T11:43:00.000-04:00

Sloping Lawns...

with their steep dips can make maintenance difficult. The mowing can be treacherous, physically challenging and very time-consuming.

One solution is to remove the lawn on a steep slope and plant the area with shrubs, ground covers, or both; plants that bind the soil with creeping roots are best where the grade is particularly steep. Plants that trail, weep, or arch look stunning as they gently caress the slope. English ivy is an excellent choice, usually.

Low spreading shrubs like cotoneasters or junipers also look attractive and provide a low-maintenance solution to slopes.

It's important to prevent erosion on slopes until ground cover establishes itself. Rather than stripping away the sod, which could be tricky on a steep slope, you might want to kill it instead, leaving the dead plants in place. Herbicides are made for this chore but more eco-conscious gardeners can place a black plastic weighted down with rocks, or use a thick layer of wood chips to accomplish the same thing.

Next: Should I remove my grass entirely?

Easy Lawns

2006-05-03T15:14:00.000-04:00

The typical suburban lawn provides little satisfaction. Any expansive lawn and its maintenence can easily turn into just another monotonous chore. I could often see my neighbor trying to keep his lawn an emerald green, the hedges and shrubs neatly pruned, and the fallen leaves all raked and bagged for collection and thought: "that must get pretty old- pretty fast!"

Let's make your lawn an easier, more enjoyable lawn by employing low-maintenence ground covers, shrubs and trees. The funny thing about what you will discover in this blog is that, surprisingly, this easy lawn will most likely far outshine your old one in appearance, too!

A New Vision Of Lawn Care

Lawn maintenence consumes more gardening time than just about any other garden chore.
They must be mowed, weeded, watered, fertilized, limed, dehatched, re-seeded, edged, and raked of debris including leaves. Add the fact that these chores must be performed at critical times in the lawns seasonal cycle and you get a pretty rough picture of just how daunting this lawn business can be.

One of the best ideas I can give you is to actually reduce the amount of space taken up by lawn. Flower and herb gardens, shrubbery borders, and expanses of decorative lawn covers can replace much of this large, task intensive lawn area,--- especially those difficult to mow areas.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying lawn areas are bad! Heaven forbid! A well-kept expanse of lawn delights the eye and sets off your other landscaping. It is restful and it integrates. Bolder textures of foliage are offset by a fine lawn and can save you from having a garden area that is too 'busy' or overpowering.

Furthermore, no plant can replace the fine-textured lawn. No other gorundcover is as good as simple lawn grass.

The shape of the lawn area also plays a large roll in the garden's design. Does it curve? Sqaure oiented? Elgonated? Round? Whichever yours is, realize it plays a crucial role in directing the eye and can add special design qualities to the ifnal appearance you intend. Nice to know, as well, that lawns have never been known to block any views!

Heres' something to consider as you prepare your weekends around this vital landscaping area: Don't just assume that the lawn is the automatic answer to filling up leftover yard space. Do just the reverse- plan the lawn shape and then plant around it!

The nice thing about lawns (and there are so many) is that it is a relatively low-cost form to other alternatives like mass plantings of groundcover plants or installing extensive decking or a brick or stone patio.

Next time: Sloping Lawns

It's Such A Beautiful Day!

2006-04-28T15:26:00.000-04:00

I'm stopping just long enough to drop off a quick tip for you because it's such a beautiful day here in New England that I'm busy working in my garden. Hedges, I'm working on, hedges , the subject:

Problem:
Formal heges require time-consuming shearing several times a year or they look very unattractive.

Quick Fix: Transform formal hedges into informally pruned hedges, which have a natural shape and require much less attention. Be patient, the compete make-over may take several years of corrective pruning.

Doing The Obvious

2006-04-26T10:29:00.000-04:00

Next, please do the obvious. The real key to easy-care landscaping is to begin with plants that are suited to your climate and to the particular exposure, soil, moisture, and other conditions in which you are planning to grow them. These are what I like to call "happy" plants. They grow better because they find their environment ideally suited to them.

You'll be happier too, because you have fewer problems with them.

Plants, in addition to needing the proper temperature quotient, also remain healthy when they receive the proper rainfall in their natural temperate zone. Going 'native' in the garden is a good idea. Creating a garden ecosystem together with plants that are in their natrual environment makes total sense. Yet, it has been told that Native Easteners will move to the Southwest where the average rainfall can be as little as two inches or under in the desert regions and fill their gardens with water-loving plants that they should have left at the old homestead.

Plants grow naturally i many different habitats--- deserts, swamps, bogs, woods, meadows, and rocky screes. Perennial borders, foundation plantings, and open lawns hardly duplicate such natural settings and many times offer plants far from their own ideal. Therefore, natural settings should be considered as well as native plants when constructing your ideal Weekend Garden.

It is important to scale down your wish list to keep high-maintenance areas small scale. Instead of planting an orchard, plant a row of low-maintenance blueberries. Rather than planting a large formal garden of herbs, which would require a lot of preperation and tending, why not compromise? Confine particular herbs you really want in clay planters.

Another way to scale down the scope of your gardening is to reduce the amount of your property that you will actively cultivate. Keeping your garden on a smaller scale conserves water and reduces tending and maintenance. Remember an open area can often give fine relief to a more ornate fully landscaped section of your yeard. Don't feel like every inch of property must be developed.

You've accomplished a great deal by following the step-by-step outline introduced in this blog over the last few days. You can now say you have truly taken 'new eyes' to your property and given some serious thought to how you wish to proceed. When I did the same project I used a whole weekend just making notes, re-visiting the property a second and third time, refining that list, dreaming and imagining what I'd love to see out there and making my notes.

Looking For Easy Solutions

2006-04-24T03:35:00.001-04:00

Great weekend gardeners don't necessarily grow fewer shrubs, flowers and vegetables than other gardeners; nor are their properties necessarily smaller. However, they do have a knack for growing plants that can take care for themselves. This is key to becoming a successful gardener, wekends or otherwise. Choosing these easier pants for the right place is eqaully important. Organizing your garden so that high maintenence areas are concentrated together reduce your garden chores considerably, as well.

Like most things in life, once someone shows us the "hot-to", we learn there is truly 'a better way'. I'd like to give you some sound advice that does just that before we get to the nitty gritty of building your beautiful backyard garden.

Slow But Sure Does It!

First, let's realize that taking on the enterprise of gardening should be done slowly.

That's truly the most valuable, cautionary word I can proffer to you. Being ambitious is fine, but being overly ambitious will cause you to require too much of yourself in any one given season. Trying to renovate your entire property all at once can cause you to not complete anything.

If you attempt too much at once, you actually may be creating worse problems, the exact opposite of what a successful weekend gardener needs! I know one such example of this overblown enthusiasm getting in the way of concrete, well paced plans. In a desire to attack his yard with a vengence my cousin (yes, the inveterate weed puller) hired a professional tree care company to yank out most of his offending trees and overgrown brush. They also cut down dying, deceased, and unwanted trees, such as mimosa, and turned them into wood chips, which he used for mulch. He went full-steam ahead on the weeding too.

In the end he had a property that screamed for landscaping. Clear ground that, by the time he had gotten rid of most of the offending plants, found that it was too late in the season to do much planting. He also didn't have the energy or budget to replant the cleared areas. Weeds started reappearing in places where he didn't spread mulch and he ended up realizing he had really made matters worse by his ill-placed and over-blown enthusiasm.

Next time, I'll talk about a critical step---doing the obvious.

Weekend Gardening Goals

2006-04-22T10:50:00.000-04:00

Now that you've taken note of the current condition of your landscape, made the notes mentioned in our earlier blog post and found areas you dislike, could improve, and wouldn't want to change, you are ready to set some specific goals.

Think about you landscaping and gardening goals- how you'd like to use the gardens on your property.

* Do you want to use your garden primarily to provide pesticide free food for your family?
* Are you interested in cultivating flowers?
* Perhaps you wish to do both; flower gardens and vegetable gardens?
* Are you intending to garden for the value it adds to your real-estate?
* Or do you just like to collect plants?
* Do you want an entertainment area as part of your backyard; perhaps a larger patio area?
* Is it a swimming pool that you want to add and then landscape around?

If you're like most gadeners you'll have many different, individual goals in mind. Make another general list of these goals and the landscape problems you wish to correct. Some of these goals will be for personal gardening satisfaction, or perhaps just to fix eyesores you discover, or to improve your property's appearance.

Ask yourself what kind of features you'd like to have, like a formal herb garden, a wildflower region, a strawberry patch. This kind of list doesn't requires a 'yard tour', either.

This is your wish list, the dreams you have that you've always wanted to see realized. Perhaps it might look something like this:

MY LIST

Redo overgrown foundation planting
Clean up the weedy back hill
Get the deep dip in the backyard section near the water well
Take out the bushes around the wall in front of the house
Remove overgrown junipers along the driveway
Get rid of the thin lawn areas beneath certain trees
Beautify with plant containers near the front door
Create more privacy
Camouflage the tool shed using vines or shrubbery

Making Your Choices

Once you have your lists of goals and wishes you can begin to really plan. You may have to make some hard choices. Be Realistic. You might wish to have a flowing water garden with embedded tubes that push colored streams rolling over sparkling river stones through the immaculate Japanese flower beds you envision; but is that really possible?

Just don't let the 'rational' thinker in you destroy your hidden dreams, either. Make some happy compromises and let your imagination run free, too. If you dream particularly large, that's fine. You may want to leave these on a long term list of future considerations. Building that Victorian cottage garden like famous British garden designer Gertrude Jekyll, may be possible a year or two down the road--- who knows?

Take your dreams, your goals list, all the notes you've made up until now and put them in order.

The order of your goals becomes important in helping you determine the size and effort in any particular gardening area. Remember, you only have a limited amount of time to develop your dreams, you are a Weekend Gardener, remmeber? You want to invest the most effort in maintaining those areas that hold the most interest to you---first.

In my next post I'll give you actual examples of this prioritizing. But you have plenty of dreaming to do, so go outside, sit in a hamock or lounge chair, bring your trusty garden journal and start your dream session this weekend!

Organic Vs. Chemical Fertilizers

2006-04-20T08:04:00.000-04:00

A popular topic among the agriculture specialists and home gardeners these days is the furor on organic fertilizer vs. chemical fertilizer.

Now each fertilizer certainly has its pros and their cons, but before we delve in deeper into that, let us first make a few definitions.

What is organic fertilizer?

Organic fertilizers are substances containing nutrients derived from the remains or by-product of an organism. Examples of organic fertilizers are cottonseed meal, blood meal, fish emulsion, and manure and sewage sludge.

Organic fertilizers are naturally rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, the three major nutrients needed in plant growth. Organic fertilizers depend on microorganisms found in soil to break them down and release the nutrients.

What is chemical fertilizer?

Chemical fertilizers are synthetically produced plant nutrients from inorganic materials. Because they are artificially made, many chemical fertilizers contain acids that can be harmful to the soil’s population of microorganisms. In this aspect, chemical fertilizers have the potential to stunt plant growth.

Chemical fertilizer vs. organic fertilizer

Fertilizers are created to target soil nutrient deficiency, which is a prevalent problem among home garden owners. One distinct advantage chemical fertilizers have over organic fertilizers is the fact that they contain all three of the major nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium). Organic fertilizers can only either have high content levels of one of these three or have all three nutrients in low levels.

For its part, organic fertilizers are a much cheaper and cost-effective alternative to chemical fertilizers. Any weekend gardener can create his own brand of organic fertilizer by composting or mixing cow, sheep, or poultry manure with other organic matters. Chemical fertilizers on the other hand will have to be bought from a gardening store or horticulturists.

A noted aspect of organic fertilizer is its slow-release capability. This slow release of nutrients in organic fertilizers can be both beneficial and potentially harmful to plants. Slow release of nutrients means that there is less risk of over-fertilization. However, this could also mean that if the need for immediate supply of nutrients arises, organic fertilizers would not be able to provide the needed supply. In contrast, chemical fertilizers can prove plants with an immediate supply of nutrients when the situation calls for it.

Several chemical fertilizers have high acid content. Acids in chemical fertilizers, like sulfuric acid and hydrochloric acid, lead to high soil acidity which would in turn result in the destruction of nitrogen-fixing bacteria, the microorganism that plays a key role in supplying a growing plant’s nitrogen needs.

Plants certainly do not recognize the difference between organic fertilizers and chemical fertilizers. Their tiny root hairs will absorb those microscopic nutrients, regardless of where they come from or how they were manufactured. But even so, with today’s growing environmental concerns, some people debate over the wisdom of using chemical fertilizers as a nutrient source.

My preference? If you've read my book: "The Weekend Gardener" you know I'm always going to choose the organic and natural over the synthetic and man-made. As Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday: "Just call it idiosyncratic."

Just What Is A Weekend Garden?

2006-04-18T18:45:00.000-04:00

To answer today's question seems important to me. How, after all, does this concept differ from other gardens, anyway?

Simply stated, it's about time. Time that you spend tending your garden. Even though the demands of your contemporary lifestyle may make great demands on you, this doesn't mean you can't also have this delightful pastime of gardening.

You want your garden to bring pleasure and satisfaction, --- not provoke anxiety because there just isn't enough time to plant the petunias, tie up the tomatoes or prune the privet before sundown.

If you're trying to 'beat the clock' you will find yourself stressed and incapable of enjoying the wonderful world of gardening. It's all about healthful relaxation and when the time you have to devote to your garden slams against your everyday demands---that spells trouble.

Believe me, you can have a garden and enjoy it too. You need not be a slave to even a large garden. When carefully designed and filled with trouble free plants, you will discover the time to b-r-e-a-t-h-e in the beauty; you can let this kind of garden practically take care of itself.

Don't get me wrong, gardening can be a lot of work; there's no question about that! But most gardeners I know find the physical activity to be much better than the kind found in a closeted gymnasium or achieved during a workout with an in-home treadmill. As a gardener, not only are you becoming fit, you're doing it with nature, in the fresh air and there are real manifestations of your achievements, too.

In other words, you get to see the results of your toil in the soil.

The key is making sure the tasks aren't overly strenuous or time consuming. Good weekend gardening can be the perfect antidote to the stress all around us in this new mellinium. When you plan a low-maintenance garden you'll discover that you actually have time to enjoy some old-fashioned relaxation in your weekend. Once you've created the remarkable vista we have planned for you in my book, it's important to remember, in the end, you'll be able to admire your handiwork. Whether it's sitting in a comfortable lawn chair, lying peacefully in the palm of a hammock, or spreading a checkered table cloth out in the backyard for a picnic- your garden is your little corner of sanctuary in the world.

Pests & Solutions

2006-04-17T12:54:00.000-04:00

I went to a pest conference sponsored by The University of Massachussetts and my local Extension Service for some pesticide training. Listen to this exciting title:

Potential Pests, Possible Solutions

The insects we zeroed in on were the winter moth, the gypsy moth, the hemlock wooly adegid and the forest tent caterpillar. The speakers told us about bio-controls being developed and new chemical and organic compounds to adress the problem. I'll pass on information to you as soon as I start to collate it and make sense of all the sci-jargon.

In the meantime, let me reccommend "Great Flowering Landscape Shrubs" by Vincent A. Simone with photographs by Bruce Curtis. This is a great book to add to your gardening library (along with mine, of course!) I think it is a 'mini-treasure' on flowering shrubs. You can get more information by simply running a Google search for the author /and or title.

2006-04-15T22:25:00.000-04:00

Spring has finally arrived here in new England. My Lenten roses have jumped out with multiple pink flowers. I planted, last year, in early February and the flowers were all nearly white. I stored the plant in an unheated room with plans to place it in the Spring. I fugured, even a hardy plant like this would not do well if it went directly from the greenhouse to a New England winter all at once.I planted it out in the spring and it did thrive.

I had to place a basket over it before each snow storm (and we got three of them, some more severe than others) But now the flowers are pink. No complaints. I like the color but if you buy Helebore that has been forced into bloom the color may be different when it finally blooms.

Just remember, when buying perennials for your garden the latest trend is to sell them in full bloom. This means forcing the later flowering plants into bloom so that (unkowing) cutomers will see the plants at their best when they are looking for plants early in the season.

What's the old saying? Oh, yeah...'buyer beware.'

These plants won't necessarily bloom at the same time next year. My 'Weekend Gardeners' need to be aware so they aren't dissapointed.

Bloom Me Longer, Please!

2006-04-12T20:44:00.000-04:00

Hello again, --

A good home must be made, not bought.
Joyce Maynard, "Domestic Affairs"
______________________________________________________________

In todays tip I thought you might like to find a few ideas about the perennials. I know there are some great suggestions in the book "The Weekend Gardener"- The Busy Persons' Guide To A Beautiful Backyard Garden but---

you may have asked youself: "Are there perennials that bloom for longer than just three or four weeks a year"?

One trick is to plant a sequence of different plants that bloom at different intervals. This gives you a constantly moving flow of different specialities that bloom like a symphony of change and variety.

But there are some perennials that are especially good at longer blooming:

bee balms ( Monarda didyma)
yarrows (Achillea millefolium)
coreopsis (C. grandiflora)
hollyhock mallow (Malva alcea)
and many lilies too including 'Stella D' Ora', 'Happy Returns', and 'Pardon Me'.

The most time saving thing to do is to choose these not only because they bloom longer but because they add to your other perennial choices. Take notes and throw away any choice that doesn't quite measure up to your expectations.

This is a fun study, when you approach your gardening with a small notebook to keep track of the changes you discover!

And take lots of photographs, too!

Each year you become less tied down and free up your weekends for more pleasure as you experiment. The notes are important---just like these special tips and tricks you're getting!

Until tommorow-

Victor K. Pryles
Author Of "The Weekend Gardener"

The Little Ones!

2006-04-10T09:35:00.000-04:00

One thing I like to do is to look at a very wide variety of gardening subjects.

My sincere hope is that each finds a place in your gardening life.One such desire of mine is to see children exposed to the exiting possibilties of gardening. I know it was my experience at the age of 9 that made me a lifetime gardener, too. So why not make sure you bring your children into the garden you are creating as often as possible?

We know from our observations that gardens encourage creative thinking and multidisciplinary learning in children of all ages.Reference materials which support this idea include back issues of National Gardening Association's Growing Ideas newsletter, especially the Spring 1991, January 1992, and April 1992 issues. And the Growing Ideas catalog contains various books, curricula, and supplemental materials for gardening classrooms. These are available by calling 1-800-538-7476. (Back issues of Growing Ideas cost $2.50 each.) You might also try calling the LifeLab Science Program. They may have some further resources for you. Their number is 408/459-2001.

That's the tip today.

All in the hope that your 'little ones' can discover the real pleasure and sense of belonging to earth, sky, sun and plant life you and I enjoy so very much.Victor K. Pryles

P.S. You may have kids--or you may be an aunt or uncle--at the very least, the children in your neighborhood might get curious as you do your magical work in the garden. Invite them into it and pass on your knowledge to the next generation at every opportunity Tester. The world will thank you! http://www.creativepops.com/garden.index

Self-Sowing Annuals

2006-04-09T17:23:00.000-04:00

Hello Fellow Gardener, -Here we go! "The Weekend Gardener"- The Busy Persons' Guide To A Beautiful Backyard Garden!

If you think about it, gardeners are a very old breed indeed.

In fact, I'd venture to say that Adam himself had to enter the Garden Of Eden and tend to things---especially that apple orchard he was given. So welcome to the ageless adventure of gardening.

In this first session together I want you to realize that these tips are really just a way to start a special conversation between you and----your garden. Each day I'll present a typical gardeners concern and then a solution both of which will best be used as a sort of 'conversation' starter for you and your little plot of land called a garden.

Let the dialogue begin:

You read in my book about self-sowing annuals (if not you certainly will) but you may wonder which are truly best at this enterprise.

Great self-sowers include:
Alyssum calendula
cosmos
larkspur
nicotian
anigella
poppies

They work great because you only have to plant them once and as long as you have some FERTILE GROUND beneath them they will do their job for you.

A great help to any weekender!

When I say fertile ground what do I mean?

Well, that's pretty simple: Reasonably loose soil that has room at the top for something to take hold (like the seed).

Just a bare place will usually work.Nothing more than that!

SO have fun with some of these great self-sowing annuals that will save you tremendous amounts of time---and we always like that, right?

Till tommorow--Victor K. Pryles http://creativepops.com/garden.index

P.S. If you haven't already created a special folder to place this tip into---why not do it now? It's something you'll be glad to have as we GROW together!

Welcome Weekend Gardeners!

2006-04-09T00:20:00.001-04:00

The Weekend Gardener, that's you and me! You are not learning about gardening from some third party! Though thousands of booksellers feature my work... (already ranked #18 on Google)...it's from THIS page, from ME... that you'll have direct contact with the person who actually wrote the book...rest assured, NO WHERE ELSE...will you find MY exclusive FREE bonuses and my personal attention to YOU & YOUR backyard garden. That means you're getting more than a book, you're getting knowledge and follow-up! You've arrived at JUST THE RIGHT PLACE! My website is: http://www.creativepops.com/garden.index

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2006-04-08T23:37:00.000-04:00

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