Another good idea (Toon by Jane Gates)

A very handy tool for bloggers.

When I heard about  Beckie’s newly created free printable planner for bloggers I figured this could be something not only my garden friends, but all my blogger friends could use. Putting together all the reminder sections into a handy layout should make regular blogging more organized and easier. I checked out her site and she even has a little video on how she created her free printable planner especially for those of us who blog. She describes how the planner came about and how to use it. The site offers you templates to download for your own blog systematization. Check it out — and download her helpful free printable planner tool — at her site at Infarrantly Creative. (http://www.infarrantlycreative.net/2012/02/free-printable-blogplanner.html)

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Light up the evening for a dinner party

One of the best parts of all the work I do in my garden is sharing it with other people. Tonight I get to have a garden party. Time to use those flood lights to augment the low voltage and solar lights and make the place safe and easy to access. The winds should calm down and the garden will take on a whole new character. All the colorful flowers and foliage will become an art of texture and form while the solar lights will pick out the winding path up the hillside.

Tables will be set and guests will enjoy dinner ‘al fresco’. With the hot dry weather of the chaparral, this is one of the few times the summer climate actually becomes delightful. Temperatures will be comfortable after sundown and, unlike most other parts of the country, nighttime will be free of bothersome mosquitoes and other biting insects.

Yes, tonight will be a perfect time for my landscape to show off it’s design, clothed in the mystery of the dark. With the stars sparkling overhead and the garden a design of light and shadow, the ambiance should make a perfect setting for some flavorful cooking. I’m looking forward to my garden party at night. And I hope all my guests enjoy our nighttime dinner party here in my chaparral garden. It should be delightful.

Originally posted 2010-06-24 14:56:26. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Hand sketch of garden layout

One of the most common mistakes in landscaping is failing to put a plan on paper before building the garden. A plan doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive. In fact, you can design a DIY landscape plan by yourself. Here are some guidelines.

Start by making a list of the items you want in your landscape. Note lawn areas, planters and special features like a patio, barbecue area, swimming pool or hot tub, paths and more.

Sketch out your design on paper. You can even do it on a napkin, but you will get more accuracy if you use grid paper. Wander around your property and record your property lines and where all the major features are located. You can do this as a rough drawing or do measurements. The more accurate you measure, the more reliable and detailed your drawing can be.

2-page landscape plan drawn by hand

Then draw in the hardscape — permanent, non-living features — that will be built. Keep in mind practicalities: utility lines, accessibility, land stability, etc. as well as where these features will look best in the layout of the design.

Follow with the trees. Check with a compass to see how the shade will move so you locate trees where they will be most effective. Shading your house in the heat of summer can save you ten percent on your air conditioning bills.

Add the largest areas for planting like lawns or large gardens and work your way to the smaller details.

A measured garden layout on grid paper

If you want a more accurate drawing, you might want to transfer these notes to a landscape design software program. Or you can keep them on paper.

Once you have the basics laid out you can start playing with moving things around. It will be much cheaper to use an eraser or a delete key to test out different design ideas than risk making a mistake in the installation and have to rip everything out later.

If you want a second opinion on your DIY landscape plan, call in some professional help — a garden designer or architect — for a consultation. It may be worth the expense to get some ideas you might not have thought of or to catch a design idea that might turn out to be a problem later down the line.

Start with a well-thought- out DIY landscape plan and you have taken the biggest step to ensure you’ll have a successful landscape.

A computerized, professional plan

Originally posted 2011-06-11 05:15:03. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Drawing by Jane Gates

In many areas the sun can become intense in summer months. This does not mean you can’t still plant new plants in your garden. But if you want the highest rate of success, take a few extra steps when planting.

• Set out your plants — still in their pots –  for at least several days in the exact location where you will be planting them. Unless you know for sure that the plants you bought came from a local grower, there is no way to know how different the conditions were for your new plant before you brought it home. Plants are grown all around the world – many in highly regulated greenhouse environments and they can often use a little time to adjust to the light and humidity difference before their roots are stressed out by planting.
• Mix in amendments to the soil where you are planting if your soil is not compatible with the plant’s native growing medim.
• Water the hole well before planting, then water again after planting so the soil is inviting for roots to grow both outward and downward.
• Shade your new arrival for the first few days after planting. Hot sun will encourage the plant to transpire faster often making foliage droop. Let the plant work in gently to its new quarters by making the transition as minimally demanding as possible.

These tips should reduce stress when planting in a hot climate in the summer. A less stressed plant will settle in faster and grow stronger than one that has to deal with more stress.

Originally posted 2010-07-05 09:27:23. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Gardens are never perfect

Too many people expect to have a picture-perfect landscape.  They’re fooled by garden photos and publicity into thinking such gardens really do exist.  You know those ads on television with the awesome, colorful gardens?  And the calendars and book pictures of gorgeous landscapes in full bloom?  Well, if you are expecting your garden to match, you are setting yourself up for disappointment.  Oh, you certainly can have a lovely garden.  But it won’t be perfect.  Not even if you use the most expensive products on the shelf. And your garden won’t have everything in bloom at the same time and remain in bloom all year long.  Often those awesome photographs are taken at botanical or private gardens that employ a bevy of full-time gardeners who spend every day poring over every inch manicuring each leaf and flower.   Even so, there are areas in these gardens that look better than others at different times of the year, so photographs are limited only to the best sections of the best-looking gardens.  In most other cases the sets and photographs are stuffed with blooming plants – most still in their pots – freshly imported from carefully controlled greenhouses.  Sometimes the pots are hidden behind the foliage of some of the true resident plants.  Sometimes the plants are set into the ground.  Often the potted plants are just grouped and the pots are hidden behind other objects. Look carefully and you can sometimes spot a plastic pot in the picture-perfect landscape.

There was a very popular calendar issued a year or so ago that had twelve months of gardens decorated to perfection.  Yet something was suspicious.  Looking closer you could see spring and autumn blooming plants blooming side by side in the same picture.  And on close scrutiny, a shot of a gorgeous pond revealed plastic pond lilies growing in non-existing colors!  This was a popular calendar being distributed by large nurseries and plant wholesalers!  Is this fair to create such a bogus set of expectations?  If artificial photos are distributed to professionals in the green industry, why shouldn’t gardeners everywhere feel duped into thinking perfect gardens really do look like this?!

You can have a lot of success making gardens and individual plants look great by simply spending a lot of time doing manual labor.  Hand pulling weeds avoids chemical burn to other plants.  Judicious pruning creates a lovely, natural looking shrub rather than buzz-sawing the thing into a crooked cube or bulging globe.  Hosing off pests, hand-picking larger pests or using insecticidal soaps seem to keep pest populations down to manageable numbers.  Deadheading (cutting off spent blooms), pulling out dead foliage, raking and cutting back dormant plants, will keep your garden colorful, neat and clean.  This is, admittedly, a very labor-intensive way to garden.  But it works. And with a good garden design, you can build your landscape with attractive low maintenance areas to make your beautiful garden fit into the time you have available to keep it looking great.

Also be aware that photographers will shoot the best parts of a garden from the most flattering angle. Just because a garden looks marvelous in one shot doesn’t mean the rest of the garden is equally good-looking. In most cases, the photo you are looking at is the absolutely BEST part of the entire landscape. There may be some very dreary areas you are not being shown. No gardens look perfect all over. Not all the time, anyway. So be fair to yourself and your garden. Just like the shots of the glamorous celebrities you see in magazines, photos of many glamorous gardens are ‘made up’ to be stunning. I’ll bet if you searched your landscape at almost any time of year you could find at least one plant – even a weed – that would make a good photograph.

Remember that a beautiful garden is one that fits your lifestyle and taste.  It doesn’t have to look perfect.  Perfect gardens are perfectly phony.  Nature’s greatest beauty is in her variety, variation and imperfections.  A garden is a living thing and living things are in a constant state of change. Expect that the showiest plants will need to go through a rest period. Bulb foliage will have to die back after the flowers bloom. Even ornamental grasses can look a little scruffy in the winter and often show better after being cut back. Like all living things, plants need their rest period, too. If you let them follow a full and natural growth and rest cycles, your plants will look their best when they’re ready to put on their flowering displays.

The real trick to having a great-looking garden is to diversify. Plant your plants so groups of them come into flower at one time making a colorful focal point. Then when the show is over, these plants can rest up while another area of the garden colors up.  Use colored foliage for those periods when blooms are sparse. And hide fading foliage behind later flourishing plants so the resting plants won’t be noticed. If you have limited space for growing things, consider adding another attention-getter like an ornamental fountain, sculpture or some decorative furniture to attract the eye when the garden is not at its best. Planning your garden out this way will give you an attractive landscape year round.

Don’t be fooled by garden photos or unrealistic, enhanced gardens.  Not even the experts have perfect gardens. Just focus on enjoying the best parts of your garden when they are on display. And care for the rest so it will reward you later with picture-perfect areas – when the time is right.

Originally posted 2010-04-14 11:20:45. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Container gardening with cacti and succulents

Container Gardening

Container gardens are arguably the most versatile way to garden. They can be tiny and set on a table top, fill in a balcony, patio, or small garden space, define the edges of permanent features in the garden, or be integrated into the overall garden design. They are ideal for specimen plants, creating spots of color or sculpting living flower arrangements. You can even grow your own vegetable garden completely in containers. Container gardens are double the fun because you can plant them any time of the year and if you need to protect them in winter, most of them are transportable. If you really want to indulge in container gardening, you can even create an entire landscape in a miniature garden.

Where soils are not fertile, like where I live in the canyon area of the chaparral, containers can be an excellent solution to poor soil. By filling the space we want to plant with a packaged soil, we can get around all that work of digging and amending. Planting in large containers can also be a way to control some  wild critter problems, especially the borrowing types like gophers. Even our pets can sometimes be a threat to carefully planted or delicate areas. The control afforded by planting in a pot, a built up, contained area or any other type of enclosed planting space can reduce some of the work and maintenance of growing plants. Of course, there are other concerns that will have to be addressed like watering smaller spaces that will dry out more easily. But a well-thought-out drip or bubbler watering system should take care of the challenge. You can even set your system on a timer so you don’t have to baby sit your watering on a daily basis.

Make your design fit your garden. Think about what kind of receptacles will fit best with the design and style of your house and landscape. Wander through the isles filled with pots, tubs, troughs and bowls at at your favorite garden center and check out all the different sizes, colors, materials and shapes.

Get creative. Recycle an old sink, wash tub, bath tub, a broken fountain or even plant a worn-out boot or hang a planted kitchen colander, or chipped tea pot. Container gardens can created with a collection of the same type of receptacles, one big container, a mixture of different soil holders all in the same material or color, or an assortment of all the above that are designed to build an attractive, overall effect.

Build your own container. Anything that could hold water can be adapted. Make sure you have holes for drainage in the bottom of your container so water doesn’t build up and rot roots. And add  a pan or tray below to catch drips if your container garden will sit above a surface that can be damaged. Add a layer of drainage material like broken pot shards or gravel to keep soil from sifting out through the holes. Some people like to use newspaper to line the bottom, but this can eventually rot away and leak. Then fill the pot with potting soil, set in and water your chosen plants. (Some people prefer to use no drainage material at the bottom of the pot. It isn’t necessary, but it does keep the soil from leaking out of the holes at the bottom.)

Choose plants that will grow well in the location where they will be planted. For sunny spots choose the many fascinating shapes of cacti and succulents (using a cactus soil mix), and for a lush winter look, plant evergreen plants. For a good design, plant at least one tall, narrow plant and one trailer that will spill down the side of the container. If you want to cheer up your container garden with a burst of color, add annual bedding flowers. They’re easy to change from season to season and can add brilliance when the longer-living perennials are not flowering. Other fun plants for container gardens are herbs or even vegetables. You can add bulbs to a mixed container garden to introduce showy flowers while some of the slower blooming plants are still developing buds.

Container gardens can be accents for the landscape. Add a container garden to decorate an outdoor table. Set containers on retaining walls or crown the tops of pilasters. Cascading plants can enliven a blank wall, cover an ugly tree stump or clothe a space with a sheer drop. Set large containers with tall plants to fill an empty floor space.

Winter container gardens can make gardening easy in cooler, wetter weather. They can accent any space or make a whole garden of their own. And they are a great way to make vegetable gardening with cool season crops like peas, cabbage, fava beans or Swiss chard easy, pest-resistant, convenient and downright ornamental. You can also add some of those annual flowers to perk up a bowl of less decorative edibles. But don’t forget that even edibles can be decorative: use the bronze fennel, red lettuce, yellow-flowering okra or the cascading asparagus pea with its bright red little flowers. Most of these are best planted from seed. Strawberries create their own decoration whether they are planted in strawberry pots or regular pots. Some even grow with decorative pink flowers before setting their delicious red fruits.

Outdoor pots also give you a chance to grow some of the plants you’d love but are too frost shy for you winter climate. You can move the pots under shelter– or even indoors — when cold threatens. Consider some of the dwarf citrus trees or the showy hibiscus for more delicate potted choices.

Whether you are a seasoned gardener or just starting out, planting in containers has a lot to offer both decoratively and practically.

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Garden Snail

Okay, this time I’m REALLY taking artistic license. Snails are not remotely related to insects. These guys are actually mollusks and are cousins to clams and shrimp. In fact, it was a major culinary mistake that introduced the brown garden snails to California many years ago when they were imported and introduced to grape vines in the hopes of providing tasty escargot dishes. Unfortunately, these snails turned out to have a greater affinity for our land than we did for their flavor. (They didn’t pass the taste test.) Instead, they spread into the waterways and reproduced at a prodigious rate becoming one of California’s biggest pests. They tend to love iceplant and oleander where they shade themselves from our hot desert sun. There aren’t many plants the brown garden snail won’t chomp into and these pests can decimate an entire planting of seedlings overnight.

Try collecting them under boards at night, or allowing them to drown themselves in shallow saucers of stale beer. (This latter technique may not work if you have a pet dog like I do who adores beer and slurps it up before the snails and slugs can find it.) There are also several products on the market now such as “Sluggo” which is safe to use around children, pets and wildlife. Decollate snails have been approved in this area as a natural predator. These snails have narrow spiraling shells and feed on the eggs and tiny young of the common garden snail. Look for them in garden shops in the spring and place them around your garden. It may take years before they will have a sizeable impact on a large population of snails, but you won’t have to use any other means of combat. (Do not use slug and snail bait with Decollate snails!)]

Natural enemies abound. Birds, especially Road Runners in the desert areas love to eat brown garden snails. Even coyotes have been known to include snails in their diets. Though they may be pests themselves, raccoons and opossums also will occasionally dine on snails as well. Even if you don’t have children or pets, using poisonous bait for the brown garden snail can hurt wildlife either by direct ingestion, or indirectly, by eating a poisoned bird. So I personally advise using any solution other than poison if at all possible.

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Originally posted 2010-02-28 11:10:26. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Consider golf in your back yard

Just think of how much fun you, your family and friends can have if you build your own putting green in your backyard. You don’t really need a lot of space but there are some things you might want to keep in mind if you want to build your own putting green. Here are some tips.

Locate your putting green where the surface can be reasonably level and you can build in excellent drainage. Full sun is advisable if you want to grow healthy grass.

Focus on constructing a well-built base so your putting green will stay smooth, retain its shape and avoid drainage problems.

The most frequent difficulties that can develop with putting greens is shifting of the surface planes, poor grass growth or built up dirt and odor in synthetic grass – all due to drainage problems.

Make sure you choose the right kind of grass if you want to grow a living lawn on your putting green. The grass you use should be a fine, low-growing variety that grows well in your local area. Do not try using regular lawn grass.

Using an artificial or synthetic lawn can work well for a putting green and will reduce maintenance. Although synthetic lawns can be a bit pricey this is one use that may be ideal since the size needed is limited and the ease of maintenance should more than justify the expense.

And depending on how much space you have on your property, you might consider adding a sand trap or a chipping practice area to hone your golf at home.  These can all be designed to add beauty to your garden as well as to provide a fun backyard sport for friends and family. You might even want to create a whole golf or sport theme for your landscape.

Originally posted 2010-05-10 12:46:21. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Showy pomegranate flowers

I was just thinking about the pomegranate. It’s such a versatile plant. After planting a row of dwarf pomegranates (Punica  granatum nana) as a natural low hedge in a design, I had the opportunity to design the larger variety into a space where it worked as a colorful screen. The bright orange-red flowers are as decorative as any ornamental blooming shrub and the fruit hangs off the tree like jolly red Christmas ornaments — unless you pick them to eat or extract the juice instead.

The pomegranate is a venerable fruit that dates back to biblical times when it was honored in ancient artwork and included in many tales and parables. Popularity today has been boosted by recent research that recommends it as a natural preventative of the free radical cells that can be a precursor to cancer.  Some believe it is a helpful aid for weight control. It is also an excellent source of vitamin C, niacin and fiber. Other curious facts about the pomegranate is that it is recorded as having 365 seeds — just like the number of days in a year. Another myth is that they have 614 seeds like one ancient calendar. I haven’t had the patience to count them to find out.

Pomegranates are easy to grow, like full sun and are more drought-tolerant than many other fruit trees. They thrive in rich and poor soil. The flowers are so showy that there are decorative cultivars bred to show off pink, coral or white flowers with flouncy layers like petticoats. These ornamental varieties don’t even bother much with fruiting. You can let the full-sized Punica granatum ramble or sprawl.  Or you can clip it into a neat, small tree. The Pomegranate will even tolerate pruning it into a simple, formal topiary.

So, if you are thinking about an interesting fruit to grow, consider the Pomegranate. Small varieties will do fine in limited garden space or even in containers on a patio or balcony. Big Pomegranates will produce lots of fruit and serve as trees, living walls or fill in awkward spaces. Oh, and just for a bonus, the Pomegranate will turn a brilliant yellow at the end of the season before going into winter dormancy, just to add some seasonal color to your garden. What more could you ask of a fruit tree?

Originally posted 2010-06-15 12:01:17. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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A few of the many garden catalogs available

Even in the milder climates the late autumn and winter months can still offer weather that makes staying indoors preferable to working outside in the garden. Rains can leave garden soil moist for several days after a downpour and it is wisest to avoid compressing the soil by walking on it when it is wet and muddy. In other areas frosts and snow can freeze soil hard or simply make outdoor work unpleasant. Whether it’s the weather, the short daylight hours or it’s any other reason you choose to stay indoors, you can still have fun gardening. This is the time of year when all sorts of gardening catalogs arrive in the mail. If you are not receiving all the catalogs you’d like, take a visit to online growing sites to pass the time or to order a printed version delivered to your house. It may be old-fashioned, but there aren’t many things more relaxing to an enthusiastic gardener than curling up in front of a toasty fireplace with a pile of the latest catalogs stacked up next to a hot cup of coffee, cocoa or tea as the weather rains, sleets, snows or blows outside.

There are a lot of reasons to check out gardening catalogs. First of all, you can find all the things you won’t find elsewhere. Seed vendors specialize in so many different products from edibles to decoratives, herbs to trees, orchids and rarities to bulk seeds or local native plants. Catalogs offer hours of delight and opportunities to try out varieties that tickle the imagination without having to spend a lot of money. Bulbs also tend to be offered in limited supplies by retailers. Yet even the common daffodil and tulip come in remarkable shapes and colors you might enjoy exploring inside the bulb specialist catalogs. And, of course, there’s always another variety of bulb, corm or rhizome that needs to be tried.

Although some plants can be pricey when ordering through certain catalogs, you can find types and cultivars you’d be unable to find elsewhere. You can find just about any kind of plant you can imagine listed in catalogs. Look for rarities if you want a challenge, or check for catalogs that offer bulk prices if you have a large area you want to plant for the best price. You might even want to experiment with some indoor plants.

There are non-living garden supplies you can shop for in catalogs, too. Look for anything from outdoor furniture to lighting, gloves and tools to foods and pesticides, cloches to full-sized greenhouse kits, waterfalls to imaginative décor. You can plan on starting seeds indoors with your own seed set-up to get a jump on the season or raise plants that might be devoured by pests if you seed them directly into your garden. Or you can spend time making plans to redesign a part of the garden or give a face-lift to your pool or an outdoor room with new items that entice you from the catalog pages.

There are many ways to enjoy putting your catalogs to work. You can even find great bargains between the pages of catalogs. Keep an eye out for specials and close-outs. Some are available only in print catalogs whereas others may only be found online.

Originally posted 2010-11-11 11:58:18. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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