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Avoid the "How Much?" Hassle When Buying Firewood
How much firewood should I buy, and when should I buy it? These are questions that may lead busy homeowners to postpone ordering their firewood. Here are some answers from fireplace experts. How much: There’s no surefire way to figure out how...
Container Gardening Indoors and Outdoors
Container Gardening Indoors and Outdoors
By Mary Hanna
Copyright 2005
For years people have been gardening in containers, mostly because they lacked space. For some it was because they lived in climates that wouldn't allow them to grow year...
Courtyard Gardens – Planning Tips
With an increasing tendency for empty nesters, young couples and singles towards higher density inner city living, and the desire to spend minimal time on maintaining gardens or other outdoor spaces, most new apartments, townhouses and condominiums...
Environmentally Safe Ways to Remove Weeds
There is a lot of concern about herbicides and what they are doing to our environment. Large amounts of chemicals leech into our groundwater polluting our water supply. Cancers and strange diseases with no apparent cause are being linked to...
How to Attract Butterfly Activity...
The flittering of the butterfly through your garden is no accident if you planned your garden carefully. The adult butterfly flitters from flower to flower - sipping nectar from many flowers in your gardens, while other adult butterflies search for...
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Building A Garden From Nothing At All
Gardening doesn’t have to be an expensive hobby. Some of the most beautiful gardens I’ve ever grown cost me nothing but sweat and sore muscles – and paid off with the kind of satisfaction you’ll never get from a paid-for landscape. Throughout the spring and summer, I have the pleasure of tending the miniature rose bush I got for Mother’s Day six years ago, the Virginia bluebells that grew in my mother’s garden, the border of hostas that my son dug up from behind a neighboring store (with the store owner’s permission, of course!) It is a found garden – a friendship garden – a special garden that was never planned, and is all the more beautiful because of it.
Building a Found Garden takes a bit of foresight – but just a bit. To start, you’ll need three things:
A Sunny Spot In Your Yard
Location is everything. Find a spot in your yard that gets plenty of sun during the day – at least 6-8 hours of full sun is ideal. If you don’t have a spot like that, though, you can work around it by being careful in your selection of plants. If the spot you want to fill with flowers is shady, look in other shady gardens for plants that do well in the shade.
Simple Garden Tools
A spade and a rake are all the tools you’ll need to get your garden going. If you’re really skimping it, and only can afford one tool – get a 4-tine pitchfork. It’s one of the most versatile gardening tools ever created. You can loosen and turn soil with it, shake out the biggest of the rocks, and even use it to mound earth for trenches.
Friends, Neighbors and Vacant Lots
The beauty of a found garden is how it grows and what it comes to mean. If a neighbor has a beautiful garden, chances are good that they’d be happy to share a few cuttings for your garden. The woods behind your house or the vacant lot across the street can yield a bumper crop of stones to build walls and borders. Keep your eyes open for plants along the side of the road.
Building a Border From Found Materials
Borders and
walls are an easy way to set off a flower bed or garden patch from the rest of your yard. You can use broken paving stones, bricks, and construction blocks – any material that is weatherproof. Simply dig a trench around your garden perimeter that is 2-3 inches wider than the base of the stones or bricks, stand them on end, and pack dirt around them.
Acquiring Plants for a Found Garden
If you have gardeners among your acquaintances, you won’t have to look far at all for flowers, border plants, bushes and more. If you do your building during “gardening season”, you can take advantage of the cultivation efforts of friends and neighbors. If you notice a neighbor out in his garden transplanting or moving plants, don’t be shy. Ask for root divisions or cuttings for your own garden. True gardeners believe in sharing the wealth.
DO NOT dig up plants from public gardens, wildlife sanctuaries, along highways or in public parks. It’s illegal in nearly every state, and many states have protected species of flowers and plants. Stick to friends, neighbors and properties whose owners are known to you.
Among the best plants to propagate from root divisions are:
Hosta – Shade-tolerant perennials that make beautiful borders or ground cover, hostas are easily among the most popular border plants in the United States. They spread so easily that gardeners often thin them by root division.
Iris and day lilies – Like hostas, irises and day lilies spread quickly. Gardeners often thin them in the autumn to prepare for a spring growing season, and are nearly always willing to part with a few root divisions. Plant in the fall and let them winter over – they’ll bloom in the spring.
Virginia bluebells – Wildly beautiful, the delicate violet flowers of the Virginia bluebell open in the sun, and close in the shade. They also grow like wildfire wherever you plant them.
About the Author
This article courtesy of http://www.bestflowers4u.com
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