Backyard Gardening Tips

Image via Wikipedia Knowing how to care for your flower garden can make a big difference in the look and over-all health of your plants. Here are some simple hints to make your garden bloom with health

1. The essentials must always be given major consideration.

Your flower garden must have an adequate supply of water, sunlight, and fertile soil. Any lack of these basic necessities will greatly affect the health of plants. Water the flower garden more frequently during dry spells.

When planting bulbs, make sure they go at the correct depth. When planting out shrubs and perennials, make sure that you don’t heap soil or mulch up around the stem. If you do, water will drain off instead of sinking in, and the stem could develop rot through overheating.

2. Mix and match perennials with annuals.

Perennial flower bulbs need not to be replanted since they grow and bloom for several years while annuals grow and bloom for only one season. Mixing a few perennials with annuals ensures that you will always have blooms coming on.

3. Deadhead to encourage more blossoms.

Deadheading is simply snipping off the flower head after it wilts. This will make the plant produce more flowers. Just make sure that you don’t discard the deadhead on the garden or mildew and other plant disease will attack your plants.

4. Know the good from the bad bugs.

Most garden insects do more good than harm. Butterflies, beetles and bees are known pollinators. They fertilize plants through unintentional transfer of pollen from one plant to another. 80% of flowering plants rely on insects for survival.

Sowbugs and dung beetles together with fungi, bacteria and other microorganisms are necessary to help in the decomposition of dead plant material, thus enriching the soil and making more nutrients available to growing plants.

Other insects like lacewings and dragonflies are natural predators of those insects that do the real damage, like aphis.

An occasional application of liquid fertilizer when plants are flowering will keep them blooming for longer.

Always prune any dead or damaged branches. Fuchsias are particularly prone to snapping when you brush against them. The broken branch can be potted up to give you a new plant, so it won’t be wasted.

Image via Wikipedia When it comes to gardening, not everyone has the time to maintain them even if they’re interested in having them. But thanks to new options in planting and growing, having a small vegetable garden is possible without having to spend the many hours per week it usually takes to grow veggies.

A Couple of Options

Because a small vegetable garden doesn’t take up much room, you have a couple of different options when it comes to planting and raising the veggies.

You can get a small area ready on your property that can house your small vegetable garden which is a viable option, but can cause some problems when it comes to the climate your veggies experience throughout the year.

Another less intense and easier option is to use planting pots to grow your small vegetable garden. This allows you to move there location when needed due to weather, and to easily navigate the garden’s soil when needed to keep the veggies healthy.

When to Start Your Small Vegetable Garden

Spring is a good time to plant most vegetables if you are starting with seeds. Otherwise, you will want to wait about a month before purchasing and planting already started veggie plants.

Make sure you’re aware of which vegetables in your small garden need more sun than others, and which veggies tend to do better in shady areas. You can choose to plant and grow similar vegetables in a garden area in the ground, or you can choose to plant and grow them in pots so that you can grow multiple kinds of vegetables, knowing you can easily separate them when needed due to climate conditions at the time.

What You’ll Need

In order to create and maintain a small vegetable garden, you’ll need to make sure you have the necessary tools in hand. Don’t worry, there aren’t many but you don’t want to overlook anything.

You’ll need a shovel to help grind the soil, and a 3 forked pitch to help with the same thing. You will also want to purchase soil. You’ll need enough to fill your big gardening pots, or to cover 6 inches worth of ground in your designated in ground small vegetable garden.

You’ll also need to read about how to care for every veggie that you choose to grow, and purchase the needed items that coincide with each choice. Most veggies won’t need anything special, but some do so you’ll want to pay close attention to the information provided about gardening the particular vegetables you choose.

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Whether you live in Canada or the US, no matter if it’s Canada Day, Independence Day, or just another day in the summer, chances are someone in your area is barbequing. We have friends and neighbours that BBQ all year round, even when it’s bitter cold.

Barbequing has become a standard American tradition for families. The reason as clear as to why, not only does the food that comes from barbequing have a taste that is unmatched by other cooking methods, but barbequing presents a reason for families to gather together. Some on my most memorial experiences happened outdoors at one of my families many get-togethers.

Planning A Barbeque

First, no barbeque would be complete without guests and proper outdoors weather. Plan ahead of time, checking with your potential guests for scheduling conflicts and issues. Finding a date and time that is suitable for everyone should not be to hard as long as you everyone enough advanced notice. Alternatively, be sure to check the weather for that type of year. If you live in a climate that cannot be predicted, then you may want to have a backup plan just incase unusual weather comes. You cannot predict things like rain and thunderstorms ahead of time, but you can make sure that you hold you barbeque during the time of year that will be pleasant to your guests. A barbeque in cold weather may hold more negative memories of trying to keep warm rather then good memories of family and friends.

Barbequing has been around since early cavemen figured out that food tasted great after being cooked on an open fire. Perhaps one of the main memories attached to a family barbeque is what was on the menu that day. Barbequing opens a whole array of types of foods available. The type of foods you serve should largely depend on your crowd and the event in which you are celebrating. With the wide range of possibilities, you are sure to find at least a few items that will please your crowd.

Make sure that you prepare ahead for your barbeque. 12 to 24 hours before you plan on beginning the party, make sure to thaw, prepare, and marinate the meat you will be cooking. Once you have the meat stored away, soaking up the marinate, then you must start thinking about what types of side dishes you will be having. If you want a completely tradition barbeque, you may want to stick with traditional sizes. Traditional barbeque sides include potatoes and potato salad, baked beans, and coleslaw. Your traditional condiment bar should include pickles, relish, and onions. These foods are typically severed at barbeques because they are easy to prepare and store until the event happens. You may want to cook other items, but any barbeque is complete with just the items listed above.

A themed barbeque may present more opportunities to hold a festive event. With a themed event, you can splurge on the atmosphere and decorations. Matching tablecloths, napkins, and plates can be found at any local store. You can also match your décor to the party. For example, a luau could simply be creative colored utensils, leis, and Tiki torches, all of which are extremely cheap. You can even reuse the Tiki torches later!

Your party area should be set up before guest arrive. It only takes a few minutes to get everything ready, but the reaction you get from your arriving guests may make you feel like you were preparing and decorating all day. Depending on the situation, you may or may not want to have the food already cooking on the grill. The smell will surely be inviting if you start cooking ahead!

Image via WikipediaPerhaps one of the reasons you bought your property is that it had a pond.  Investing in property with water is always a wise investment, as water is more precious than oil or gold in survival.  Backyard ponds can be fun for the whole family, if you take the time to maintain your pond.

First Off

The water in backyard ponds can’t be kept still.  This will kill off any valuable nutrients in the water and encourage the growth of algae slime and biting insects.  By keeping the water moving, even for half the day, you can keep the water from becoming a nursery for insects and green slime.  Stagnant water also tends to have an offensive stench to it which moving water does not.

Naturally, the water in backyard ponds are kept moving because they are connected to an underground or above ground creek, stream or river.  But because of overdevelopment and human overpopulation, the odds are that many backyard ponds have been cut off from their lifeline.  You need to revive your pond again by installing a filter and pump to keep the water moving.  There are even solar powered pond filters available!

You also need to be sure that the water in your backyard ponds are not getting too much sunlight or nutrients which can unbalance the chemistry of the water and make it nasty.  If there are many trees or plants dropping leaves into the water, consider trimming back the plants.  If too much sun is the problem, you can get a tarp to cover the pond from the worst of the sun and take it off at night.

Let The Games Begin

Now that the water is healthy, here are some game games you can play with backyard ponds:

The Duck Pond Game:  Get a whole bunch of rubber ducks or floating bathtub toys and mark the bottom so you can tell them apart.  Everyone chooses a duck/toy.  Gather them up at one end of the pond and let them go!  The first duck to get to the other side wins.

Duck Bingo:  This is with real ducks.  You can’t touch the ducks.  You section the land around the pond of into a bingo grid.  If the real duck poops in your pre-picked square, you’ve won.

As The Pond Water Turns:  You go sit and watch the activity around backyard ponds.  You pretend it’s a soap opera and make up impossible situations suggested by any plant, ripple or wildlife activity on the pond.  Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it!

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Image via WikipediaWhat is butterfly gardening?

Simply put butterfly gardening is the art of growing flowers and plants that will attract these colorful and dainty creatures to your garden. Delight your family and visitors with beautiful butterflies, but be sure to create a safe habitat for them. If you own cats rethink your plans, because it would be a shame to attract these lovely insects to their death.

The design your butterfly garden is a matter of personal preference. Typical points to consider are the size of your garden and the types of flowers and plants you want to grow. Pick a style of garden that appeals to you, but ensure it also contains the plants and flowers that appeal to the butterflies you wish to attract.

It is important to find out which plants and flowers will attract the species of butterflies. that live in your area. This information can be found at the local library
To create the kind of environment that they find attractive, you will also need water of some kind. A birdbath will look attractive and keep the butterflies up off the ground, away from stray cats or mischievous puppies. A shallow dish on a post or hung in a tree will do just as well.

When planting your butterfly garden be careful how you coordinate the colors you choose for your flowerbeds. Although butterflies do not care about your choice of color, you don’t want your garden to be a hodgepodge of unrelated colors and textures. Butterflies are attracted to those flowers that have nectar rather than pollen, like honeysuckle, milkweed, summer lilac, Valerian, daisies, Purple Coneflower, Yellow Sage, day lilies and lavender.

Some people find it helpful to draw and color a layout of their butterfly gardening plan to see what the finished product would look like. Keep in mind that warm colors like red and orange are flashy and showy. These colors have a greater impact against a strong green background. Cool colors such as blue and purple are soothing and toned down and would work better with a white contrast to create the look of freshness and brightness.