Protect Your Garden Before Winter and Have a Glorious Burst of Flowers in Spring

Author: Pam Stinson

Source: ezinearticles.com



Guard the garden for the coming winter

For some people, the coming of winter means putting your gardening paraphernalia away until spring. As leaves start falling down and the air grows colder, people find it better to hide out in their warm homes and just leave the garden until the spring time comes. But, what everyone has to know is that proper gardening should be done before winter comes. If you want to see a great crop for the coming season you must do something to maintain the health and beauty of the garden. Then,, garages, If you think that it is too hard and too cold to do that, think, garages, again. All you need is less than a day to prepare all that you can do for your garden. And that half a day will, garages, already contribute a lot to what you will see in spring.

Fall, garages, is a great time to prep, garages, the garden for the coming winter. At around late November or October, frost might be forecast in, garages, some areas and the temperature might drop to about forty five degrees for around more than four days in a row. When this happens, it is already time to start prepping your garden for the coming cold. Start, garages, checking your garden design and pinpoint which of your plants grew pretty well in the last season and which ones had a hard time. Fall is the best time to think of which of your plants will stay in your garden for the coming season and which ones have to go.

During this evaluation time, you can also start deciding on what new plants you will add to your garden. You can add more health and color to your garden during by planting more hardy plants since they can survive the rigors of winter. You can try plants like Anemone Japonica, Aster Novi-belgii, panicle hyandea, escarole,, garages, endive, and including Brussels sprouts. Then, you can access, garages, more information on all of these plants in gardening magazines and the local nursery in your area.

After tending to your plants, you can then start cleaning up the area. Rake up all the fallen, garages, leaves and pull out the weeds. Your garden needs to be clean to keep, garages, its health. Rotten leaves and weeds can carry diseases and insects that will harm your plants. Also, get rid of the annual, garages, plants which are already spent and harvest any of your vegetables,, garages, garages,, garages, or other plants that you know will not survive the coming, garages, winter, garages, season. You can even check for rotten tree branches after the leaves of the trees have all fallen down. This is not technically part of your garden but, by taking care of the rotten branches then you can be assured that you garden, garages, will be safe from being squished and will give the sun more room to shine on. Trim them and don't back down.

If there are younger trees in your garden then, you should try and wrap them up and add support with stakes to aid, garages, them in surviving the winter cold and wind. Mulch, garages, can also be placed on top of your garden to protect your plants from sudden temperature change and, garages, heavy snowfall. You can make use of shredded bark of, garages, about five inches, a variety, garages, of materials and pine needles, garages, . Make sure that you are not mulching too early since some insects might still be living and decide to make a shelter in it until the winter.

After doing so, you can now clean and hang your tools in the shed or garage where they will be ready until the next season comes. Before winter, prepare the slug repellent for they are one of the most despised bugs in a garden.

And lastly, this, garages,, garages, might, garages, not be directly related, garages, to your garden but, it is certainly worth mentioning. If you also have a pond or pool at your garden, garages, with fish inside, take them out and transfer them inside There is nothing more pitiful and sad than a fish frozen in it's, garages, own home. Remember, the overall beauty of your garden can also be affected by this so be sure to plant, maintain and harvest only the best.

Pam has been writing for blogs and article directories for years now and specializes in diet, health and fitness, home decorating, gardening, frugal living, cooking and pet care. Visit her latest site Ideas For A Baby Shower with frugal ideas for Favors for Baby Showers.

Why Container Gardening?

Author: Nancy Merkle

Source: ezinearticles.com



Container gardening is convenient for the elderly or the disabled, garages, who need easier access to up keep their gardens. Container gardening can be done on backyard, garages, tabletops, ledges, over the edge of a balcony and even on steps. This process, garages, can be very decorative as well.

Container gardening can be done in store bought, garages, containers or homemade containers. I like to go to garage sales and find some unusual items to grow plants in. My front yard has very poor, garages, soil for planting, garages, delicate flowers. So I leave that soil to my hardier plants like bushes and broad leaf plants. I discovered an old washtub at a garage sale one day and incorporated this into my garden for my flowers.

I simply drilled several holes into the bottom of the tub, then put in about an inch of stones to semi cover the holes so as not to lose too much of the soil. Then came the soil. This will depend on what you are, garages, going to plant.

All Purpose Mixture

2 parts good garden loam

1 part sand

1 part peat moss or other humus

1-teaspoon, garages, bone meal for, garages, each 5-inch pot of mixture

I plant most of my garden varieties using this mixture. If I plant, garages, in an area where there is a busy activity of bugs I will place a piece of window screening under the container as this seems to slow down their attack and it gives me a chance to combat their activities. By placing the screening under the container it holds the screening tightly to the container, as the, garages, weight of the dirt inside pushes, garages, down, garages, . This way it is harder for critters like grubs and slugs to get around the screening, a very handy tool.

Other ideas to name a few are, old watering cans, (these too can be found in garage sales), and coffee cans decorated by your children, which is a fun project for a rainy day, garages, . For this I give it a spray with any kind, garages, of craft sealant good for outdoors, or simply use these inside. Container gardening can be fun and quite rewarding.

Hi! My name is Nancy Merkle. My husband Joe and I are amateur gardeners. We live in the suburbs of Chicago. Needless to say our growing season is just six months at best. In the spring a little competition begins in the neighborhood with the neighbors. We make harmless bets as to who will have the first the tomato, the largest, and the best harvest. Tomatoes are a big thing with us suburbanites. We've even taken it as far as to see who can grow them longer in the fall. Of course our landscaping has become quite an important task to us also. While the men obsess over their lawns, the women have more important things on our minds, like flowers.
Through the years we have accumulated and shared our gardening secrets. It is a race do to our short growing season. But so many aspects of growing veggies are the same no matter your location. Here we are passing on to you are successes and secrets of gardening. We hope you will enjoy this as much as we have creating it. We are in the process of creating a blog. We will post how the neighborhood is progressing, so watch and grow with us. We would love to have you in our cyber garden space. Please visit us at http://www.gardengroupies.com