Image by bill barber (very sporadic) via Flickr

From early spring, well once the snow and ice is gone, through late fall or until there is ice and snow again I walk around our neighbourhood for my health. I like to take different routes for a couple of reasons. 1) So I don’t get bored out of my mind on the same 40 minute walk day after day, 2) I get to see more homes and that means more gardens and yard designs.

It’s kinda funny. I have been living in New Brunswick, a great place to live, for 30 years but never paid attention to the beauty around me until we bought our own home and started flower gardening. Although in the fall when the trees turn from green to multiple shades of orange, red and yellow everyone takes notice.

For a long time I was only looking at flowers and vegetable gardens and didn’t pay too much attention to the trees other than to admire them. I guess that’s mostly because I don’t know the names of many trees. I know a few of their names, like Birch, Willow and Maple, but that’s the extent of my tree knowledge.

Time To Learn More About Trees And Shrubs

Jenny arrived home from work last week bearing gifts from her Secret Pal. It was obvious her SP knew she was into gardening as the gifts she received were all garden related. Jenny was so happy to show me what she got but I am sure I was more excited once I saw what she got.

I was going to buy a new pair of gardening gloves but hadn’t got around to it. Now I don’t need to as the gloves that were part of the gift bag fit like a glove.

I was going to eventually buy a book on shrubs and trees but now I don’t have to because we received a copy of Lois Hole’s Favorite Trees & Shrubs . So cool.

I always take my camera with me on my walks to get shots of other people’s yards to help us with our own. So many things I don’t know the names of, but it’s getting better each year. Now I will be also taking pictures of trees and shrubs then matching them in my, sorry my wife’s new book that she will let me read, so I can learn which trees will do best in our yard.

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Okay, my thumb is still a very light shade of green but getting brighter every year. But I have also been experience my brain turning green as well. No it’s not from a lack of sun or vitamins, it’s from learning more about our environment and doing something that will make it better.

My wife Jenny and I have been recycling since long before it became a requirement here in Moncton, New Brunswick. I would have to say that it was Jenny that opened my eyes to going green years ago. Back then I was into to saving the planet by not littering and by even picking up other people’s litter.

We both recycle religiously, but now we are focusing on sending as little garbage to the landfills as possible. I even bug the heck out of my friends when I see them NOT recycling and don’t get me started if I see them litter. Almost lost a job over that one when my boss threw a gum wrapper on the ground, right outside his vehicle. Grrrrr

We now have a composter that we will start using in a few days, just as soon as we can dig it out of the snow. No more bags of lawn and yard waste hitting curb for pickup.

Environmentally friendly is the way to go.

We have been living at our present location for just over 3 years now and have never sprayed anything on anything and if we decide to it will have to non harmful to life or environment.

Our flowers, lawn and vegetable garden may not produce as well as we would like but we are not using any chemicals. The more we grow learning about going green the better our yard will grow.

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Welcome, thanks for visiting Backyard Gardening Tips. This blog post is brought to you by John Saunders who has recently taken up gardening as a hobby, just like my wife and I have here in New Brunswick Canada. John was smart and managed to buy cheap gardening equipment and also items such as blubs, lights etc., at great prices from places like eBay.

Sunflowers, what are they and why am I writing about them?

When I take my daily walk through our city I don’t see a lot of sunflowers growing but the ones I do see make me stop and stare. Why, well to put it frankly, sunflowers really do liven up any garden and they are so easy to cultivate. Literally, all you need to do is plant a sunflower seed and then just add water and BAM a beautiful flower on a big stick.

The advantages of growning flowers like sunflowers is they also attract bees. Due to there size, they also add a focal point to the garden. We are planning to have them as the center piece in one of our garden areas. I think four will look great with a number of popular flowers around their base.

I have only ever seen a full field of sun flowers growing and it was amazing. They flowers follow the sun so the heads all seem to be facing the same direction which just makes them look like happy little soldiers protecting the farm. they were all about 5 or 6 feet high, maybe a little higher but they just stayed in my mind for days they were so beautiful.

We are planting a few sunflowers around our backyard garden this year and will put up some photos from planting to harvest so you can see how they grow. I also highly recommend growing sunflowers for yourself, they are easy to grow and don’t need a lot of space. Just a bit of sunlight and they definately bring sunshine to your garden.

How To Start Your Sunflower Seeds

Remember back to when you were a kid and your teach had you grow beans sprouts in a jar using a damp paper towel and a jar. It was fun and amazing to see them sprout after just a few day. Well starting your sunflowers this way makes it so easy.

You don’t even need a jar, a plastic bag and a damp paper towel will work just fine. You will need to check them daily and be sure to add a bit of water if your paper towels is drying out a bit.

Once your sunflower seeds have sprouted you are ready to plant them into your yard or even into pots. Bury them so that the seed is below the soil but the sprout is still sticking out.

At this point you want to continue to keep them moist but don’t drown them and don’t let them dry out or the sprout will not survive.

Go on give it a try

John ‘the hobby gardener‘ Sanders

Affordable Gardening From eBay

John Sanders

Image by sassycrafter via Flickr

Since my wife and I have started gardening both flowers and vegetables we just have to know where the local nurseries and garden centres are.

We also travel and if I know we are fairly close to a nursery I like to stop and see what they have our local nursery doesn’t have.

Our backyard is still pretty sparse but we are making it our own and that’s going to take a few more years.

I am listing the nursery and garden centres in our area but if we missed any, and I am sure we have, please leave us a comment and point us to the one we missed, thanks.

Our List of Garden Centers And Nurseries in the Moncton Area.

Cornhill Nursery
2700 Rte 890
Cornhill, New Brunswick E0A 2H0
Phone: (506) 756-8511

Farmer Brown’s Greenhouse
371 Osborne Corner Road
Dawson Settlement, New Brunswick E4H 2A6
Phone: (506) 734-1908

John’s Garden Center
890 Hillsborough Road
Riverview, New Brunswick E1B 3W5
Phone: (506) 386-1234

La Rocaille Garden Centre (1989) Inc.
58 Purdy Avenue
Moncton, New Brunswick E1C 7V8
Phone: (506) 859-9699

Les Serres LeBlanc Greenhouses Ltd
2439 Acadie Rd.
Moncton, New Brunswick E4N 3B3
Phone: (506) 577-4622

MacArthur’s Nurseries Inc.
232 McLaughlin Drive
Moncton, New Brunswick E1A 4P7
Phone: (506) 859-2727

Maritime Nursery
47438 Homestead Road
Steeves Mountain, New Brunswick E1G 4P5
Phone: (506) 858-8980

Serre Barachois Greenhouse
1146 Barachois
Moncton, New Brunswick E0C 2N0
Phone: (506) 532-2788

View Larger Map

Once spring finally arrives I plan to get to each of the garden centers and nurseries listed above. What a great way to spend a day or two.

If I get it figured out I will also link each nursery to a Google Map page to make it easier to find them. Nothing worse than wasting time driving around because I don’t like to ask for directions. My wife added that comment.

Image by Product of Newfoundland via Flickr

If you have been follow our gardening blog you know we are learning how to be gardeners and that last year we planted about a month later than we should have. We still had fun and learned. We also, even though we started late, had some great produce and were very encouraged.

Last year was really our first year at gardening. The previous two years at this home we spent doing things that needed fixing up and only planted a few flowers and some tomatoes. We didn’t plan any garden in those two years but we had it in our minds.

I guess having it in your mind isn’t good enough we should have planned, at least for last year when we tried a few more things.

That’s called a learning experience so we have already started planning for our 2009 garden.

I thought that other newbie gardeners would like to have a plan so we are going to add a post for each step we do in our preparation planning and will link them here like a little table of contents.

Our Backyard Garden Plan For 2009

Square Foot Gardening

We have decided to do square foot gardening with raised beds and all fresh soil. We decided to go with this method for a couple of reasons. Even though we are metric in New Brunswick, Canada I still think feet.

First, our soil is like clay that has been compacted and second, with raised beds I won’t have as much difficulty with my back. Poor ole me.

Testing Your Soil Before Planting or Seeding

It’s important to have the right PH balance for the plants you wish to grow in your flower garden or vegetable garden. If you’re not using raised beds using good soil you may want to test your soil so that you know what to add to it if it’s not the best soil.

I will link to a few places that will give you a better idea about testing your soil.

How many of us started gardening without the slightest idea about soil PH? Well I am in that group and really didn’t pay any attention to our soil’s PH balance until we found that some things grew well while others just seemed to struggle to stay alive.

I started looking online to find answers and here is what I found. Get a soil testing kit and test the soil where you are planting and compare that with the PH requirements for each plant as some like it acidic while others prefer more alkaline soil.

Soil Acidity, learn more about your PH balance between acidic soil and alkaline soil.

How to test your soil.

More to come as I write up more of our backyard garden plan for 2009 so bookmark this pages and return often.

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