Monday, June 20, 2016
Sunday, June 19, 2016
Sago Palm Outdoor Care
The photo is from my paradise before a few harsh winters wiped out the landscape. My beloved sago palm is at the bottom left of the photo. It was killed by an infestation that hit Florida hard. Love sago palms!
Click here for a excellent article on the sago palm that grows in zones 8 through 10.
Saturday, June 18, 2016
Upcycled Container Gardens, Planters and Vases
Thursday, June 16, 2016
Quick Gardening Tips
Tomato Plants: 10 Gardener Mistakes
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
Natural Ways to Combat Aphids
Finding an infestation of aphids on one of your favorite plants is not something you want to see in the garden.
One of the tricks I learned to combat aphids is to keep the leaves clean, even if it is just a routine spray of water. Once you experience aphids, you don't want to go there again.
Frugal Family Home has an excellent post on aphids that is very informative on all aspects of these pests. Click here to go to the article.
Sunday, June 12, 2016
Prune tomato plants for a healthy productive crop
Friday, June 10, 2016
DIY Concrete Countertop For Your Outdoor Kitchen
Concrete is a durable and inexpensive solution to your outdoor kitchen countertops.
I've worked with concrete on many outdoor projects for decades and many of them are still intact and functional. In addition, concrete was fun to work with and once I started, it was so addicting that I kept thinking of new projects to work on. Try it!
Click here for an excellent article on creating a concrete countertop for your outdoor kitchen.
Thursday, June 9, 2016
Beginners Guide to Succulents
Succulents seem to be all the rage . . . I'm seeing them everywhere! I've always loved hens and chicks, but I have not had luck growing them.
They are perfect plants for container gardening and so cute.
Click here for a beginners guide to growing these little beauties. I'll be updating this post as I find more links.
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
Blue Plumbago: How to grow
Before an unusually brutal winter wiped out most of my paradise, my blue plumbago stood out like a shining gem. It was started from a cutting from my mother-in-law's garden, like most of my other plants. The cutting grew into a beautiful bush that always had butterflies hovering around it.
When we get our paradise beautiful and thriving again, the blue plumbago for sure will be prominent in the garden again.
I highly recommend this beautiful bush for your landscape.
Click here for an excellent article from Plant Care Today on growing these beauties.
Saturday, April 16, 2016
Homemade Mosaic Planter
Thursday, February 25, 2016
Grow a Lemon Tree in a Container
Want to know the secrets of one gardener who grows lemon trees in containers? Click here.
Friday, December 11, 2015
Start lettuce from seed
Every year I say I'd like to grow my own lettuce from seed, but never get around to it. I was reminded again by an article on the Birds and Blooms website.
Growing from seed really takes little effort. You just need the right place to get them going
Click here for the article from Birds and Blooms . . . the photo source is from that article.
Sunday, November 29, 2015
Creative Ways to Grow Herbs
I love growing herbs close to the kitchen. In fact, they are beautiful grown indoors.
Container gardening is my preferred method of gardening since the plants are portable and can be moved from outdoors to indoors.
Click here to go to an article from The Empress of Dirt on being creative growing those herbs.
Photo source is also The Empress of Dirt.
Monday, November 9, 2015
Christmas Cactus Care
It has been years since I have tried to successfully grow a Christmas Cactus. Back in my first days of growing houseplants when I first moved out on my own, I didn't bother to do my research. I'd just buy a Christmas Cactus and eventually kill it. I treated it the same as all of my other houseplants.
When I found the following articles, they peaked my interest in trying to grow Christmas Cactus again. If you are also an amateur at growing these beautiful plants, check out the following articles.
Click here for the article from WikiHow, How to Care for a Christmas Cactus.
Click here for Secrets to Getting Your Christmas Cactus to Bloom.
Saturday, October 24, 2015
Common Gardening Mistakes
Mistakes . . . we all make them! We are not aware of some mistakes.
I ran across an excellent article on common gardening mistakes that all gardeners should read. Some I was not aware of and through the years, I have done a ton of gardening research. You never stop learning!
Click here to go to the very informative article 15 Common Gardening Mistakes Everyone Makes.
Some things to keep in mind . . .
Through my years of gardening in moderate zone 9 climate, the "rules" for winter depend on the weather. It is not a bad idea to push the limits and experiment in certain climates. For example, my best success in propagating hibiscus was during the winter when the temperatures were consistently in the 70s. For one thing, I broke the cardinal rule of not hard pruning during the winter months.
The experiment was a monumental success and I had a record number of hibiscus ready to plant in the spring and had enough to give away to other gardeners who were happy to share cuttings and surpluses of their own. You never know unless you push the limits.
The photo is a version of my garden back in 2000.
Monday, October 12, 2015
Discover Hypertufa Plant Containers
Hypertufa plant containers are so cute!
I've made lots of concrete plant containers and have heard of hypertufa, but have not yet made any. The great feature of hypertufa is less weight than concrete. I love my concrete containers, but huge containers are almost impossible to move around.
Fine Gardening (photo source) has an excellent article on hypertufa, including Peg's secrets, whose containers are shown in the photo.
Click here to go to the article.
Click here for an excellent guide to concrete and hypertufa recipes . . . great information!
Sunday, October 11, 2015
Those pesky weeds!
October is a perfect time to take care of those pests since we are out there doing seasonal maintenance. Actually, anytime is a good time to avoid the over-population of the pesky weeds.
The secret is to not let the weeds set seed. Pull them out or kill them before they have a chance to seed.
Anytime I am walking around the garden, I make sure to go out with a plastic grocery bag and pull weeds here and there as I encounter them. It is so much easier to keep them under control if you routinely pull them out as you are just wandering around.
Want to identify the weeds that grow on your property? What Weed Is It is an excellent article for starters. It includes links to other articles and publications.
Weed Management Guide for Florida Lawns is another resource for Florida gardeners as well as gardeners in all zones since it includes some great information about weeds in general.
Wednesday, August 5, 2015
Fabulous Stepping Stone Inspiration
Stepping stones are a quick way to add color and sometimes functionality to an area of your garden.
My favorites are the colorful mosaics like the ones in the photo.
Making your own stepping stones can be a fun experience the whole family can participate in.
Click here for an article that features 23 stepping stone projects!
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
DIY Lace-Like Stepping Stones
Here's another creative DIY project to add some pizazz to your garden design.
Karen from Mindful Matters came up with a most unusual way to use lace doilies to paint these stunning stepping stones. What really makes them special . . . they glow in the dark. How cool is that?
Her painting technique will work for a number of projects. Anywhere there is a surface to paint on! How about a boring concrete carport floor or that back room floor that needs to be painted . . . garden containers, walls . . . you get the idea, you are limited by your imagination.
I will be incorporating Karen's painting technique for a future project for sure!
Click here for Karen's article on how to make these gorgeous stepping stones.
DIY Fake Rocks and Boulders
There is no limit to what you can create with this type of project.
You may simply want to add some large fake boulders in your garden design, make the facade for the waterfall and pond you have been dreaming of or a raised bed that doubles as a place to sit.
Once you know the basics of creating a rock, the method is the same no matter what the size of the project.
I've worked with concrete for garden projects for more than 10 years and I must say that for me it has been a very satisfying and addicting endeavor. One project leads to another!
Click here to go to the article, "How to Make Fake Rocks and Boulders" from eHow. You will also find links to other methods of making rocks, boulders, etc.
Monday, July 27, 2015
Spectacular container garden arrangements
Container Garden News is one of my new favorite gardening websites. Not that I needed too much convincing, but I am really loving planting container gardens rather than planting in the ground.
I'm totally in love with the container in the photo. Since red is my favorite color, the shades of red and purple in the container are so strikingly beautiful and immediately caught my eye. Usually, I will incorporate red into my container plantings by painting the containers red, but the beauty of this container has convinced me to try a combination of red leafed plants and red flowering plants. The Captain surprised me with gorgeous caladiums with red centers that will work perfectly!
The photo comes from the website Power Flowers. Click here to check out the website.
Click here to go to the article from Container Garden News, featuring eight different container plantings from various websites.
Future posts will definitely feature more container gardening inspiration and I hope to include my new creations soon!
Friday, July 17, 2015
Companion Planting Top 10 Plants
One of my organic gardening habits is to plant marigolds with my peppers and tomatoes since they assist in keeping the pests away. Making small changes in your gardening routine can make a big difference.
The blog Imperfectly Happy has posted an article on Companion Planting that is very helpful and informative if you are interested in adopting some of these practices in your garden! Click here to go to the article.
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
How To Grow Plants From Seeds and Cuttings
Although I love to go shopping for beautiful blooming plants, there is something about the challenge and wonder of nature that growing from seeds and cuttings brings. My love for propagating plants goes back to my childhood days!
Click here for a very informative article on seeds and cuttings, excellent for a beginning gardener, but also informative for the seasoned gardener. The article is from one of my new discoveries, Empress of Dirt.
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Small Garden Inspiration
Even though The Captain and I have a large property with way too many future projects, we decided to start in the Carport Jungle. Now that our tomatoes, peppers and herbs are on their way, it is time for us to concentrate on landscape design.
Even if you have a large area that needs landscaping, start small or you may overwhelm yourself. I speak from experience! Better to concentrate on a small area at a time rather than nothing because of overwhelm. It is something I have a problem with in every area of my life . . . overwhelm!
One of my favorite things to do is browse the internet for some garden inspiration. Love the small garden in the photo, which is from the Fine Gardening website, sent in by one of their readers Lily Jacobi. Love the layering on different levels and the use of container gardening along with the visual pleasing rocks.
I've always loved container gardening versus hard landscaping. The problem is that when my first husband passed away and I neglected the massive gardens on the property, the container plants grew out of control and took root into the ground. Anyway, tackling that problem is a future project! This year, The Captain and I have been transplanting our grown seedlings into containers since we could not decide on exactly where to put what.
Click here to go to the article at Fine Gardening. Other readers have sent in their photos for more inspiration.
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