Garden Design Articles
Gifts for the Organic Gardener
It is getting to the point where, if you don’t have a gift for your special someone, it is almost too late. However, you can still get some good deals out there, and, with express shipping, you can still make it happen: that MasterCard commercial with the trampoline, Kleenex and paper bag, oh and the door opening to show two brand new cars. If you can’t get two brand new …
Vines For Your Garden
Vines are climbing or trailing plants that must have support to grow vertically. They may be annual or perennial, evergreen or deciduous, herbaceous or woody. Vines can fit into the tiniest spaces , provided their roots are firmly planted in the soil, and grow vertically and/or horizontally with great flexibility.
Clinging Vines
Clinging vines can attach themselves almost anywhere by one of several means. Boston ivy has …
Native Plants in Your Organic Garden
What are native plants? Why is everybody so hung up on planting them in their gardens? Are native plants necessary inclusions in an organic garden? Are the words “organic” and “native” interchangeable?
What are “Native Plants?”
The definition of “native plant” is different for every gardener. The definition can be as broad as “a plant that grows on the same continent” of the …
What Is The Best Garden Shed For You?
Have you ever heard that life today is a rat-race? I’m sure that we have all felt that at some point in our lives.
Perhaps that’s why so many people find solace in gardening. No stress. No pressure. There’s just you and nature working together peacefully. And when you are done you can enjoy the calming effect that a garden can bring.
But what do you do with all of your gardening tools, …
Raised Garden Beds-An Indispensible Method in the Organic Garden
While it would be wonderful to have garden soil with the perfect balance of clay and sand resulting in a wonderful loam that all plants enjoy, there are not very many people who can boast that this is the condition of their soil, even after years of building and conditioning. Raised garden beds are a great way to make up for this deficit in the organic garden.
Building raised beds may seem a daunting task at …
Lasagna Gardening: The Easy, No-Till Way to Great Garden Beds
There are many tools in the organic gardeners bag, but no matter how dedicated, organic gardening is often more difficult and time consuming than conventional gardening. Lasagna gardening is a great way to make organic gardening less taxing. It is especially recommended for those with physical limitations, or the elderly. It is basically a method of sheet composting that if constructed in the fall will provide beautiful garden soil in the spring.
So, why not rototill …
Vertical Gardening. Great Spaces in Small Places.
Not every gardener has the luxury of expanses of land to till for their gardens. In fact, some great gardeners have produced beautiful gardens on a patio or balcony. They were able to do this as a result of smart use of vertical gardening.
There are many uses and applications of upward space in any size garden. Most plants can be adapted to this method, even if it is not their natural tendency. This method can …
Edible Gardens: Eat What You Sow
There seems to be a simple truth in gardening, there are flower garden people, edible garden people, and a few who are a little of both. Flower garden people do not want to be bothered with ugly vegetable plants in rose and perennial gardens, and vegetable garden people plant flowers often only as a companion to a vegetable in their garden.
Michelle Obama is doing it, more and more neighbors and communities are doing it, and …
Butterfly Gardening – Welcome Your Winged Friends
Even if it’s mid-summer, you can still plant a butterfly garden and welcome winged friends to your yard. Many butterflies go through several generations during a single summer, and now is the time to lure adult butterflies from a first or second generation this summer to the garden to lay eggs on host plants. Once the eggs hatch, you’ll have your own little butterfly farm right outside your window.
Get some Host Plants
Host plants are what …
Go With me on my Gardening Journey
Yesterday, I talked to Chris. It is always interesting, because he lives in the freezing cold wasteland of Canada (just kidding, Chris. Love ya!) and I live in the (generally) warm and toasty North Carolina. He gardens in the temperate plain region, and I garden in the coastal, humid south. He …
