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Helpful gardening tips

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Here’s a a few handy gardening tips that you might find useful, particularly if you are new to gardening:

1. Do your homework. Visit public gardens, read magazines and books.

2. Amend the soil for success. Lighten clay loam soil with compost.

3. Design for surprise: place some curves in your design or interesting nooks that visitors to your garden have to enter to see what magically beautiful plant you have growing there.

4. If you inherit a garden: Wait a season to see what comes up. You may destroy something you want to save. We were lucky to have purchased our house in June. I was able to watch what grew that year and used the following winter to plan out my new garden.

5. Smart plant picks. Purchase plants that are drought tolerant or said to be easy to care for if you don’t want to spend too much time in the garden watering and pruning.

The Well-Designed Mixed Garden: Building Beds and Borders with Trees, Shrubs, Perennials, Annuals, and Bulbs

6. Mass appeal. Plant large areas with one flower in one color, such as purple phlox. You can always tell who’s a beginning gardener because they plant one of each plant. masses of three to five or more plants planted together in the garden bed make a much more satisfying display.

7. A wild prairie garden can be work until it gets established. If you want a natural looking garden find out what plants are native to your area and use them abundantly.

8. Japanese-style garden do’s. For dimension, build hills and cover them with moss.

9. Time-saving trick. Plant hosta around the base of trees and you won’t have to trim around them.

10. Get the kids to help. Most kids like helping in the garden. You may still end up doing more work than they do, but it’s a way to spend some quality time with them and also a way to get them outside.

11. Sure-fire critter repeller – build a fence with a gate if you want to keep out skunks, who don’t climb but can dig just fine) and other pets that might frequent your garden. Gates and fences don’t stop all critters but a fence might deter a few of them.

The Organic Gardener’s Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control: A Complete Problem-Solving Guide to Keeping Your Garden and Yard Healthy Without Chemicals






Coral Bells

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Heuchera micrantha commonly known as Palace Purple

This is a seed-grown strain, rather than clonal cuttings, so the plants vary wildly. Growing them in light shade seems to protect the foliage from burn, and on some of the superior forms, the flowers make a light, airy effect that is highly appealing.

Palace Purple does not seem as prone to develop woody stems that need to be divided as frequently as some of the other heuchera types, although this varies widely by plant.

This lovely, often purple foliaged plant grows to 12-18 in.. When planting space 24-36 in. Coral Bells are quite hardy, and should thrive in USDA zone 3a – 8b. Coral Bells prefer to be in a shady to partial sunny spot. The blooms that spring up on tall stalks are white or off white.

Coral Bells bloom from late spring to mid Fall, and blooms repeatedly. The folliage is deciduous and should not be covered with mulch in the winter or it may rot. Heuchera has average water needs and should not be over watered.

Propagation can be achived by collecting the seeds from the dried blooms. Sow the seeds indoors before the last frost and plant out in the early spring after the last frost has passed.

Aloe Vera – Origin and Profile

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There are 325 species of the genus aloe distributed throughout Africa, Arabia, and Madagascar. Originally it was listed in the Lily (Liliaceae) family, but now this family has been split into smaller groups. Aloe is now placed in the asphodel family (Asphodelaceae).

Aloe Vera, means true aloe, and it was spread throughout the Mediterranean by man, which makes it difficult to tell where it originated. Some think it might be the Canary Islands. The closest relatives of Aloe occur n Arabia which might be the most probable area of origin.

Aloe vera is a large, stemless rosette succulent. The fleshy, sword-shaped leaves are gray-green and grow to 80 cm long. Younger leaves have pale spots. The plant will slowly offset to form a clump. Only large plants flower. The unbranched flower spike carries yellow, tubular flowers. In cultivation in California, hummingbirds visit these.

Aloe vera, coming from lowland, subtropical areas, is not very frost-hardy. It grows well along the coast where frost is rare. It prefers good sun, with some shade at midday. Plant it in a well-drained soil amended with organic matter and sand or expanded shale. Watering can be infrequent once the plant is established.

Aloe vera is also happy in a pot on a windowsill. In this location it will be available to treat mild burns, scrapes, and cuts. Merely break off a small piece of leaf, and squeeze the gel onto the wound. In such cramped quarters the leaves will be two-ranked and covered in pale spots.

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