Vegetable & Flower Gardens

There is no better satisfaction than growing and eating your own juicy, healthy vegetables. Plump red tomatoes, crunchy carrots, fresh potatoes and long cucumbers, all lovingly harvested and arranged on your kitchen table.

Or how about the rich variety of shrubs, roses, annual, perennials and other plants thriving in your garden? Imagine waking up in the morning and looking out your kitchen window to see butterflies and hummingbirds weaving between your colorful array of flowers, then walking outside to take in the rich textures of smells, sights and sounds in your yard?

Caring For Your Vegetable and Flower Garden the Organic Way

Bountiful vegetable and flower gardens are an act of love and care, and keeping them healthy and well-tended for years to come mainly comes down to healthy organic soil, mulch and compost, not the latest chemical fertilizer fad promising huge blooms. Synthetic fertilizers are a short-term solution, sapping the soil of precious nutrients, potentially burning roots and creating short bursts of vibrant display which is just that – display. Organic gardening is being aware of and allowing mother nature to interact with your garden. The use of beneficial fungus, wood chips, natural compost from your kitchen scrappings, lawn mulch and protein feeds are used in place of chemicals. (Find these tips and how to use them in my Organic Gardening book.) Not only do you grow your vegetables and plants with natural materials readily available, you save youself a lot of money by cutting out the costs of buying pesticides, herbicides and commercial fertilizers.

Tips For Bountiful Vegetable Gardens

• To save space, plant crops that mature at different times. For instance, radish seeds will germinate before carrots and beets, and will be ready to harvest and eat when the other vegetables begin to sprout
• Plant lettuce between other, taller plants, as they will benefit from the shade during the hot summer days
• Try staggered planting to provide a steady bounty of vegetables in the late summer and through the fall. For instance, plant tomatoes every two weeks or so. That way, they will all rippen at different times, so when you’re finished eating the first planting, the second will be ready for you to harvest.

Tips For Beautiful Flower Gardens

• Stagger your plantings by season:
  Spring – The first plants to show in the spring are spring bulbs and Forget-me-nots, followed by
  Wallflowers. Pansies can withstand some late frosts. Peonies and iris are perennials that will appear early.
  Summer – Base your summer border on strong, upright, spiky shapes of traditional favorites such as lupins, delphinums,
  as well as Campanula, Astilbe and Achillea.
  Thru the fall – Add some Daylilies and Hollyhocks, Monarda, Sweet William and Gaillardia and you will have a succesion of plants that will take you through the fall.
• If you have a herbaceous border you will want to plant the tallest plants at the back, with the medium ones in front and the short ones as edging. If you have an island bed, then you should plant the taller plants in the middle. This type of bed is easier to maintain as you can get at it from all sides.
• Annuals should be added to your flower beds as they will keep your garden in color all summer long. Popular suggestions include Petunias, Geraniums, Poppies, Marigolds and Salvia.
• Try vines as great border plants! You can use Sweet Peas or Clematis to run along the ground and wind it’s way through the border.
• To keep your borders or beds in good shape, dead-head plants where the flowers have faded (pinch them off with your fingertips for soft plants like annuals, use pruning sheers for woodier plants.) This makes way for new blooms.
• If you have hanging baskets, you can water them by placing ice cubes on the tops of the baskets. This allows the baskets to get watered slowly, which is better than blasting the plants with the hose.
• Keep track of the sun and see where it hits your garden throughout the day. Plant accordingly. For instance, Impatiens and Hosta grow best in the shade, but will grow in sun if well watered. Foxgloves do best in the shade, and Petunias thrive in full sun.