Container Plantings Winding Down

It’s the end of September in eastern Nebraska, which signals the very near end of patio plantings and container plants in the out of doors. There are several reasons for this:

Patio Planter Care in Mid-Summer

In mid-summer, especially when a hot, dry week is predicted, (like this upcoming week), patio planters and houseplants need a little TLC. Four actions are involved:

Foliage on Spring Flowering Bulbs

Tulips, daffodils, hyacinth and crocus are great for spring color. Nothing says spring like these bulbs. In order to keep them coming back strong year after year, one or maybe two steps are required after bloom. What are they?

Rules 8-10 of Garden Catalog Shopping

With site assessment, spacing, sun/shade and other considerations covered in Rules 1-7, it’s time to think about the actual plants in the catalogs. Rules 8-10 highlight the need for color, accents, textures, massing, repetition, all season color and experimentation in the landscape.

Rules 5-7 of Garden Catalog Shopping

Getting the most out of your online or hardcopy garden catalog experience is best done by following rules. Well, they’re not so much rules as “guidelines”; Bill Murray knows what this is all about. For the Midwestern gardener, rules 5-7 focus mostly on the size of the plants and where they are planted in the landscape.

Rules 3 and 4 of Garden Catalog Shopping

The first two rules of shopping for landscape plants with garden catalogs are centered around needs, much like shopping for groceries. The next two focus on the landscape itself in terms of cold tolerance and disease susceptibility of certain plants.

One-Two Punch Rules for Garden Catalogs

The first two rules of shopping for landscape plants with garden catalogs are centered around needs, much like shopping for groceries. A “shopping list” will serve the gardener well, just like the family grocery shopper.

Thinking Ahead: Annual and Perennial Flowers

Growing a vegetable garden versus growing a flower garden can be hotly debated. Vegetable gardeners ask, “What good is it if you can’t eat it?” Flower growers think if it is not pretty, what’s the point? For me, growing both vegetables and flowers are necessary—vegetables nourish my body while flowers feed my soul. As the…

The 10 Garden Catalog Rules

Most of us hate rules, myself included…so why does the title of this article contain the word “rules”? Actually, they’re not so much “rules” per se, but guidelines to help make the most of the garden catalog perusing experience and application for better outdoor living in the landscape.

Deadheading

No, this is not an article on the trials, exhilarations and tribulations of The Grateful Dead.  It’s about dead flowers.  Dead flowers should be removed from annuals, perennials, bulbs and shrubs as soon as possible to prevent seeds from forming.  As far as the plant is concerned aka if the plant had a mind with…