Container Gardening

One of the most effective ways to save money in your landscape is to engage in the practice of container gardening. Container gardening is making use of different containers to hold your plants. These work for flowers, herbs, and even for vegetables. Container garden requires less maintenance than more conventional flowerbeds and gardens because there is less amendment to the soil and because there are fewer weed problems. Additionally, the costs associated with preparing an area for planting can be avoided when one uses carefully considered containers and planters for their landscaping.

One of the great things about container gardening is the wide variety of items that can be used as containers. Many of the items can be found around the house or even purchased from thrift stores. Old washtubs, and even filing cabinets laid on their sides and removed of their drawers (which can also be used as containers) make great containers. You can even cut the tops off of milk cartons and use the bottom sections as planters. These everyday items can be attractively decorated to look nice.

In addition to converting things like coffee cans and old shoes into fun and cute flower and herb holders, there are plenty of more traditional planters and containers that can be incorporated into an attractive landscape design. Clay pots and large urns make attractive holders, and the urns can even be used to hold vegetables. Additionally, container gardening is not limited to the ground. Hanging baskets bought at the store make excellent additions to any landscape. Plus, they can be hanged from the house, the porch, and even from tree branches and along fences. These baskets create little bursts of color no matter where they are. Window boxes are also attractive variations on container gardening and can add a great deal to the look of a home.

Containers make great accents as well as being practical and money saving. They can be just as beautiful to look at as the rest of the landscape design elements. Indeed, container gardening is a great way to enjoy the benefits of having a garden without as much backbreaking labor. Weeds cannot work their way into the containers, and if you have the right depth of container it is possible to have very healthy plants with strong roots, making them resistant to disease and pests. Additionally, flowers in containers are well protected from cutworms and from rodents who may burrow into the root system. Containers are excellent sources of protection for many plants.

In order to ensure that your container-based landscape is a success, it is important that you make sure that your plants do not need an extensive root system. Most flowers, even perennials, are fine in most containers. Even many vegetables are fine in coffee tins and washtubs. Corn can easily be planted in the filing cabinet lying down, and most drawers are plenty deep for tomatoes. Lettuce is a vegetable with a fairly shallow root system, and peppers have requirements that are very easy to meet with containers. Make sure, before planting, that your container is adequate for the needs of your plants. Herbs, of course, can thrive in just about any size of container, and many of them can even be grown inside the house (near a sunny window, of course).

Fill the containers with potting soil or garden soil. These soils are rich in nutrients and can provide your plants with the food they need. It is even possible to mix in a little organic compost for added nutrition. You will need to water your plants occasionally, but because your plants are enclosed in the container, there is no need to water them as often as plants in the ground. This is because the container will help retain moisture, and there is no drainage. Rather, you need to be careful not to over water your container garden.

Making use of a container garden is a great way to save time and money in your landscaping. It is also a creative way to display your plants and even to grow your food. And, if you have a small amount of space, container gardening can allow you to have a variety of plants that you might not otherwise have room for.

About The Author
Janeth Duque of Geeks On Steroids. Janeth is well-known in the world of web design and search engine optimization.
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Building a Raised Garden Bed

You can save money by building your own raised garden bed. These can be used for flowers and even for vegetables. They are gaining in popularity because they are easy and inexpensive to build, making them practical parts of the landscape. Additionally, they are fairy easy to plant and maintain. They are even relatively easy to weed. In addition to being convenient and practical in maintenance, they also drain sooner as well as warm up faster. This means that you can plant earlier in the season, resulting in the possibility of multiple harvests if you use your raised gardens for vegetables. You can make your garden a temporary bed or a permanent bed, and reap the benefits of a simple way to enjoy your landscape more and even dress it up a little bit.

The first thing you need to do is make sure that you have all of the necessary tools and materials. You can make your beds out of rocks, concrete blocks, bricks, naturally rot-resistant wood (cypress is very slow to decompose), or wood treated with a safe preservative. It is important to make sure that treated wood does not have anything harmful in it that could leach into the soil and thus be absorbed by the plants. This is especially important if you plan to eat whatever you are growing in your raised bed. Other things that you will need include optional wood preservative (like sealant) or sheet plastic, spading fork, shovel, iron rake, hammer and nails, measuring tape, compost, and topsoil. All of things are necessary for creating a successful raised garden bed.

When making a permanent garden bed, you should make sure to use more permanent materials. If you plan to use your bed for flowers as a prominent part of your landscape, bricks make very nice beds, as they are attractive and often complement most traditional landscape designs and plants. The bed can be as long as you would like it to be, but it should be at least one foot deep and no more than four feet wide. Wider beds can make it difficult to reach the middle of the bed to take care of things like weeding and fertilizing. If you have the bed against a house or fence, wide beds make it difficult to reach the backside of the bed as well.

Temporary beds, unlike permanent beds, allow you to change the design every year. If you like the idea of being able to make small changes to your landscape each growing season, then temporary beds can help you achieve this. Additionally, they are easier and less expensive to remove if you decide that you would like to take them out. Wood is best for these types of beds, as the wood can easily be taken apart. Choosing attractive woods can add to the look of your landscape design. You can also decorate the wood with non-toxic paint if you would like to have a little different look. As with permanent beds, make sure that you build them at least with a foot of depth and not very wide.

When planting your beds, whether permanent or temporary, you should begin by preparing the bed. Remove rocks, sticks, and debris from the beds and make sure that they are prepared for plantings. Be sure to allow for drainage. You can build your bed on a patio or on soil, but either way you should ensure that there are adequate pathways for excess moisture to escape. When using brick or concrete blocks, they can be stacked in a staggered fashion to allow water out of the bed. When building on top of soil, loosen the bottom soil with a shovel or spading fork. The bed should be filled from bottom to top with a compost and topsoil mixture. After this is done, rake the top of the bed so that it is smooth.

Once the bed is prepared, you can plant flowers, herbs, or vegetables inside the bed. Tall plants should be put in against a fence or wall, or on the bed's northern side. Make sure that you take proper care of your plants in your bed, and remember that raised beds can dry out faster. They may need a little more water. Avoid stepping on the bed as much as possible to prevent soil compaction, and follow up your planting with a proper application of mulch.

About The Author
Janeth Duque of Geeks On Steroids. Janeth is well-known in the world of web design and search engine optimization.
Web Site: Geeks on Steroids
View their website at: http://www.geeksonsteroids.com
janeth@geeksonsteroids.com

Let's Plant Potatoes in the Garden

Potatoes, taters, spuds...call them what you will, potatoes are a staple in the diet of many people all over the planet. Potatoes are a nutritious, versatile vegetable, and they're incredibly easy to grow. But before you run out to the garden with your shovel and hoe, there are a few things you should know about planting potatoes.

You may have heard old timers say that potatoes should always be planted on Good Friday. This old wives' tale is absolutely absurd. Good Friday does not fall on the same calendar date each year and can fall anywhere from early March to mid April. If folks in New England or the upper Midwest tried to plant potatoes on Good Friday, many years they'd be digging through rock-hard soil that was still frozen solid.

Do not plant potatoes too early, while the ground is still icy. If the ground is too cold and wet, the seed potatoes will delay sprouting until the growing conditions are more favorable. This is usually in early March to late April, depending on the climate. Potatoes do tolerate cool soil and a light frost, but not much growth will take place until the soil warms up a bit.

You won't find potato seedlings or packets of potato seeds for sale at your local garden center. Instead, potatoes are grown from seed potatoes. A seed potato is nothing more than an ordinary potato, with at least one "eye".

Back in the days before supermarkets, when gardens supplied most of the food put on the table, the last of the potatoes in the storage bin come spring were used for seed potatoes.

Wise gardeners set aside their blemish-free, healthiest potatoes for seed. Seed potatoes can be planted whole, or they may be cut into pieces with at least one eye per piece. Seed potatoes with more eyes will grow to produce a larger quantity of potatoes but the potatoes will generally be smaller. Seed potatoes with fewer eyes will produce fewer potatoes, but those potatoes will tend to be larger.

If you choose to cut your seed potatoes into smaller pieces, divide them a day prior to planting. This allows the cuts to heal over slightly, which helps to prevent soil-borne diseases from infecting your potato crop. Always choose seed potatoes that are free from blemishes.

Plant your whole or cut seed potatoes two to three inches deep in good, rich soil. Rows of potatoes should be about three feet apart and the potatoes within the row should be planted twelve inches apart. If your potato crop has suffered from scab in the past, toss a small handful of dry pine needles in the holes beneath your seed potatoes. Along with moving your potatoes to a different section of the garden each year, this will help prevent further scab infection. Potato scab appears as rough patches on the skin of the potatoes.

Depending on the warmth of the soil, potato plants will begin to emerge from the soil anywhere from one to three weeks after planting. When the plants are about a foot tall, use your hoe to mound six to eight inches of soil continuously along the entire row of plants. This is called hilling. Hilling ensures that the potatoes will grow deeply under the soil, away from sunlight which would cause them to become green. Potatoes that suffer from greening will be bitter and the inedible green parts must be discarded.

Keep the potato plants evenly watered while they are growing. A dry period followed by a rainy spell will cause some potato varieties to develop a hollow core. Yukon Gold potatoes seem to be especially prone to this problem.

Another potential problem with potatoes is the Colorado potato beetle. The larvae and adult beetles will feed on the potato foliage, and a heavy infestation can damage the foliage enough to reduce your harvest considerably. Watch for the beetle's yellow eggs on the undersides of leaves and crush the clusters whenever you see them. Larvae are a deep orange color with a row of black spots on both sides, while the adults are a paler orange with black stripes on the body and black spots on the head. The larvae and adults can be picked off the leaves and crushed if there are only a few. An infestation can also be controlled with Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt. Bt is an organic control that is very safe to use. Look for Bt that is specifically for potato beetles. It is sold in many garden catalogs and garden centers.

Once your potato plants have bloomed, you can begin to harvest small "new" potatoes. Depending on the variety of potatoes you're growing, this is about eight weeks after planting. In the fall, after the foliage has begun to dry and die back, the entire crop can be dug. Before storing them in a cool, dry and dark place, make sure the surface of your freshly dug spuds has dried a bit. Spread them out in a dry spot out of direct sun, such as a garage or shed, for a day or two before putting them in storage.

Freshly dug, crisp potatoes taste better than any you'll buy at a grocery store. Grow some yourself and discover how easy and fun it is to produce a staple crop of delicious potatoes for your family.

About The Author
Kathy Anderson has been an avid gardener for many years and has grown tomatoes by the acre, along with many other vegetables, flowers and landscape plants. Kathy recommends http://www.freeplants.com as a great place to learn more about gardening. Article provided by http://gardening-articles.com. If you use this article the above links must be active.
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