Garden How-To

Gardening is a great way to flex your creative muscle because it gives you endless opportunity to play with color, shape and space. So it's no surprise that topiary is considered a true art form. Although you might feel that you don't have the skills or the time required to train more complex topiary shapes such as this ball-headed spiral form, the good news is that you can buy pieces that are ready-grown. Plant them in large pots to decorate the terrace or set them into a border creating an eye-catching focal point. But how to keep such works of art looking as good as the day you purchased them? Provided you don't allow the topiary to get too shaggy and overgrown, giving it a "hair cut" is a relatively quick and easy job. Trim box plants between late spring and the end of the summer to avoid frost damage. Save money by learning how to create a spiral topiary and provide your garden with a focal point that you can be proud of.

To give your tree the best start in life, it is worth making sure it is planted correctly. It is not a difficult or time-consuming job, and will pay dividends in the long term. The key considerations are providing the right conditions, making sure the roots have plenty of room to establish themselves, and protecting the tree from adverse weather or animal damage that may hinder its growth. Here are 5 simple steps of planting a tree and some timely advice to help you on the go.
Container-grown trees are best planted between mid-spring and autumn, but the more economical bare-root trees can be planted in winter. This must be done on arrival, and they should be planted in the same way as container-grown trees. All trees need deep, well-drained soil with ground around it that is plant-free, to reduce competition. Trees will provide a long-term feature in gardens, but in order to keep them healthy they do need after-care. Young trees, like any new plants, must be regularly watered until established, but they also require protection against adverse weather conditions. Stakes prevent trees being blown over or the stems snapping in high winds, while some frost-tender species may need covering with horticultural fleece when frost is forecast. Country gardeners may also need to protect young stems against bark-stripping pests such as deer or rabbits.

Butterfly gardens are a great way to bring life and color into your yard. Butterfly gardens are full-sun gardens that are filled with plants that attract butterflies. These plants are generally nectar-producing flowers. Nectar-producing flowers are usually beautiful, so you have the double benefit of attracting butterflies and adding beauty to your yard. Whether you have a lot of available space or just room for a few planters, planting a butterfly garden is a rewarding experience. Many butterflies are becoming endangered, but you can do your bit to encourage these beautiful creatures into your garden when deciding on your planting scheme. Choose their favorites and create a butterfly paradise. Here are a few simple ideas that you can use to get started.

You’re probably familiar with the amazing, healing properties of Epsom salts. But did you know these minerals are a powerful superfood for your garden too? Learn how magnesium-sulfate, being a fast-acting affordable fertilizer, can boost plant health, deter pests, and bring a host of other benefits to your lawn, flowers, veggies, and more. Magnesium-sulfate (which looks like ordinary table salt) can help increase nutrient absorption in plants. Epsom Salt is named for the town where it was discovered: Epsom, England. This product has been used to treat ailments and fertilize plants for more than a hundred years. Applying this mineral to your garden is an inexpensive fertilizer hack that has a big impact on your plants.

Starting your own seeds at home is easier when you hack a starter mix that helps the seeds grow to their full potential. Healthy seedlings need a loose, well-drained medium made of fine particles of organic material. Potting soil can be used, but it usually doesn’t drain as well as a finer seed starting mix. The best DIY seed starting mix needs only three ingredients, and you can find them all in your local garden center. Save money and get my no-fail recipes for organic seed starting mix and potting mix that you can easily make at home (all without complicated soil amendments and fertilizers). Keep them dry and you can store them to use next season too. Today I’d like to share with you a marvelous recipe for making a homemade seed starting mix. It works very well as a light, airy, and sound starting mix for your seedlings.

While spring-blooming daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, and other fall-planted bulbs are great additions to any garden, summer-blooming bulbs also deserve a featured spot in the landscape. Planted in the spring, these summer beauties require very little maintenance and can be tucked right into existing garden beds. Planting spring bulbs means a lush garden, filled with fragrance and color all summer long. This post will walk you through the steps of how to soak bulbs and how to plant bulbs in spring for a great summer garden.

Common coffee grounds have many beneficial effects in the garden. Whether you make your cup of coffee daily or you have noticed your local coffee house has started to put out bags of used coffee, you may be wondering about composting with coffee grounds. Are coffee grounds as fertilizer a good idea? And how do coffee grounds used for gardens help or hurt? Today I’d like to tell you more about coffee grounds and gardening.

Gardeners know that the health of plants is related to several factors: light availability, temperature, soil pH, and fertility. All are important to the health of plants, but most important is the amount of water available to the plant, which is referred to as percolation in soil. Why is soil percolation important? Running a percolation test is the best way for you to discover how well your soil absorbs water, which in turn enables you to determine what soil amendments you need for your garden. There are many expensive procedures to help discover the percolation rates for your septic drain field, for example, or for any other larger draining systems. For the average homeowner, however, it is easy to successfully hack your own homemade percolation test. Discover what soil percolation is and how to test soil percolation.