Maintenance-Free Gardens: Everything You Need to Know (Guest Post)

Maintenance-Free Gardens: Everything You Need to Know

A flower garden in full bloom is every gardener's masterpiece. And like most great masterpieces, each brush stroke is calculated, the color palette chosen in advance, and the overall composition exists in the artist's mind well before touching brush to canvas, or in this case, trowel to soil.

Although we all appreciate the beauty of a healthy garden, few actually take the time to create their own. Perhaps it is the unwillingness to devote hours each day tending to the garden that stops most people. But the best gardens are virtually maintenance free, and with proper planning you can create a masterpiece garden that requires minimal upkeep. Just follow the tips below:

• Tangling With Weeds

Weeds are every gardener's enemy, and many a gardener spends his days battling them on every front. However, with a little preemptive strategy, most of these battles can be avoided. Weeds sprout up in new gardens because their roots were hiding below the otherwise pristine looking surface. So make sure you eradicate these roots from the very beginning. Dig up all the soil in which you will place your garden. Dig deep enough to reach all the roots. Turning over the soil will dry up roots and prevent weeds from running rampant in your new garden.

• Paths Offer Potential

A common mistake many gardener's make when hastily planting a gardening, is to inadvertently block off sections of the garden. This will cause headaches in the future, especially if you're forced to climb through prickly bushes every time you need to prune your favorite shrub. There's no need to bushwhack through your own garden. Instead, integrate pathways through your garden. Stepping stones or even paved walkways will allow you to reach each section more easily. You might even consider hanging those pawleys islands hammocks in a secluded nook. Garden paths greatly expand your garden's potential.

• Place Needy Plants Nearby

Remember that favorite shrub hidden in the back of the garden? If you had placed it in front of those prickly bushes, pruning wouldn't have been such a hassle. Some plants need more attention than others. Why not plant them in the most convenient place possible? This will make your gardening experience much more enjoyable.

• Make a Lawn for Mowing

When it comes to mowing the lawn, all yards are not created equal. Some lawns seem to take forever to mow despite their small size, while other much larger lawns are a breeze to mow. Designing a lawn without sharp angles and multiple obstacles will make mowing easier. Stick to slowly curving edges and rounded corners. If you can mow the entire perimeter without stopping and turning, then you will love mowing your lawn.

• Moveable Plants Add Depth

Keeping some plants in containers is a great gardening strategy. Not only are decorative pots attractive additions to your yard, but they also allow you to rearrange your garden effortlessly to create a new look. Additionally, pots increase the types of plants you can keep in your garden. Even those plants that are a little fragile can appear in your garden, because you'll be able to move them to safety in the event of a heavy rain or sudden heat wave.

• Go Native and Save on Water

Native plants offer advantages over non-native species, because they are well adapted for the climate. This means they will not need daily flooding to stay healthy, and this will save you from a hefty water bill. Of course, you don't need to limit yourself to native species, but keep in mind the water needs of each plant you do choose. Keeping thirsty plants together will make watering much easier.

Integrating drip irrigation into your garden plan is a real time saver. Pair it with a lawn sprinkler system, and your watering needs will be virtually maintenance free. Of course, the expense of this might be prohibitive for some. Fortunately, soaker hoses are a great alternative. Regardless, of the watering method you decide on, consider it during the design phase to best implement it into your garden.

• Pruning Keeps Plants Healthy

Pruning is essential to keep many plants healthy, but you can limit the time required to prune by choosing low maintenance plants and by pruning for the right reason. Some people choose fancy, artificially shaped plants, only to discover it requires lots of effort to maintain their original shape. Instead of pruning for for aesthetic appeal, prune with the health of you plants in mind. Additionally, many plants require little pruning. Those that grow more slowly generally require less pruning.

Closing Thought: By visualizing your perfect garden and creating a composition well before playing in the soil, you'll be able to create a garden environment, which is time efficient, easy to maintain, and a pleasure to look at. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and design your own masterpiece garden!

Author Biography:

Jay Chua is an online publisher and passionate gardener. When he's not tending to his own garden, he's reading and writing about gardening or working on his website, PorchSwingSets.com, which provides useful information on many of the newest and greatest backyard seating options. His site offers reviews that can help readers decide on the right hammock chairs stand or choose between the best metal porch swing.

Garden Q and A: Ripening Green Tomatoes, Peppers, and Avoiding Over-Tilling

This weekend a reader emailed me a few questions she had about my post 5 Fall Things To Do to Prepare the Vegetable Garden for Spring.  I thought that other gardeners may be interested in hearing the answers to those questions as well so for today we'll begin an intermittent series of garden questions and answers!  Feel free to chime in your recommendations or observations in the comments.

Question: Should I harvest all my tomatoes while they are green so they will not be ruined by the frost?

Answer:  You can harvest them before and after a light frost.  Frost can damage the tomatoes themselves so avoid any that may be damaged.  Ideally you should pick them before a frost but you can still use any undamaged tomatoes you find after a frost has hit your garden.  Small and very immature tomatoes may not ripen up at all when brought indoors but you can always make other delicious things with them like fried green tomatoes or green tomato salsa!

Question: Can you ripen tomatoes with a  brown paper bag?

Answer: Yes you can!  Paper bags can be used to ripen tomatoes. Cardboard boxes left open also work well.  Ripening is triggered by a gas called ethylene. Sticking another ripened fruit nearby the tomatoes like an apple will also help to trigger ripening.

Question: I have a number of pepper plants that were supposed to be red, orange, yellow but only one plant has the peppers changing color. Should I leave them on the plant or remove them and store them somewhere to change color?

Answer:  With frosts coming (and cooler temperatures) it is unlikely that leaving the peppers on the plant will encourage them to ripen up to their colors.  Try the tomato ripening techniques above to get those peppers to ripen.


Question: This was my second year of gardening and both years I used a rototiller prior to planting. Your latest post seemed to suggest that maybe I should skip that step next spring, is that correct?

Answer: Sometimes your garden soil does not need tilling.  Tilling is a great technique to use when incorporating organic matter like a cover crop into the soil but over tilling can actually damage the soil structure.  You want a soil structure that holds water and drains well and provides a healthy environment for soil organisms.  Over tilling will break the soil into fine particles which then hold together and make a soil structure closer to brick than soil!  That being said, a once a year annual tilling at the beginning of the season probably will be fine - just make sure you are adding something beneficial into the soil to improve its structure.  Compost, leaf mold, grass clippings, soil conditioner and other organic additives will help the soil become exactly what you want it to be - a living community of beneficial organisms!

Question: Is there any benefit or negative outcome of just leaving all the plants in the garden where they are to decompose on their own?

Answer:  Yes and no.  If your plants are diseased then leaving them in the soil will allow soil based pathogens to gain a greater hold on that location in your garden.  I highly recommend removing all diseased plants from the garden.  For other plants that were otherwise healthy there really isn't an issue with allowing them to decompose in the soil.  One potential benefit to leaving your plants alone at the end of the season is the gradual decomposition of the root systems.  Dying plants with decaying roots will gradually create openings for water and air to enter the soil which is good for that aforementioned community of beneficial organisms.  This is one reason why cover crops are used to great effect.

What do you think?  Do you have any tried and true techniques to ripen your green tomatoes or peppers?

'Tis the Season for Mums!

Every fall it happens, mums (Chrysanthemums) galore appear in the box stores and nurseries. It's a tradition that rings in autumn like college football, corn mazes, and garden blogger fall color projects (OK maybe not the last one, at least not yet!). But what do you look for when you buy your mums in the store? A full bushy plant loaded with flowers or the newly budded beauty about to burst with blooms? And what do you do after autumn with your mums? Roadside trash can?

There are two schools of thought on the purchase of mums. The first school says to buy the mums while they are still in buds to maximize the bloom time in your garden. The second school is for those looking for an immediate impact in pots and other places. Those students who attend the second school look for bushy plants with blooms already open. I prefer the first school to the second but if you need to brighten up a church picnic then go for the mums already in bloom.

After your blooms have faded what now? Save the mums! Here in Tennessee our mild winters enable the mums to come back each year. The red mums in the picture above began blooming about a week ago but were originally planted in 2007. Keeping the mums is very simple. Don't cut the foliage back until new growth begins in the spring. Once new growth appears you can either let it go for a leggy and less traditional mum looking appearance or you can prune it back once in spring and once the first week of July for it to bloom in September. If you had your mums potted in pretty planters then you can transplant them somewhere into the garden to preserve them for next year. Mums left in pots probably won't make it since the outside air temperature will be much colder than the ground temperature during the winter.

Do me one favor, don't ever throw your mums in the trash can! After the blooms have faded mums seem to join all other forms of waste by the roadside for the garbage man to pick up. There is no reason for mums to end up in the landfill. If you don't want to save them for next year compost them or give them to friends who might want them. Adding unnecessary material to the landfills is a huge waste of space better served for other materials.  Everyone should own a compost bin even if they don't garden!

"Save the mums" doesn't sound quite like "save the whales" but to me saving money definitely sounds good! I haven't bought a mum this year or last since mine have returned faithfully each year.

And guess what? I did this whole post without the typical cliche mum phrases like "Mums the word!" Oops, I think I just messed that one up!

The Do's and Don'ts of August Gardening

As I'm writing this post I'm hearing the buzz of riding lawnmowers from various neighbors in our community and I thought why in the world are they mowing? It hasn't rained and dust clouds are flying up everywhere which leads me to a second question why are they mowing the dirt? Things like this drive me nuts so I thought I'd put together a post with the do's an dont's of gardening in August!

DO: Get up early in the morning to water plants and do garden chores like weeding and pruning.
DON'T: Water in the afternoon where the heat of the sun mixed with the moisture will encourage fungal diseases!

DO: Water plants deeply.
DON'T: Water plants just a little everyday. That encourages a shallow root system. Unless you have plants in pots, then you may need to water every day.


DO: Wait until after a rain to mow your yard. If it's been dry for two weeks and the grass isn't growing there's no need to mow.
DON'T: Don't mow the dirt! Really what's the point? The dirt doesn't grow, cut around it.

DO: Mow high because it encourages a deeper root system. (I say this a lot!)
DON'T: Don't water brown grass - if it's a cool season grass it is most likely dormant - not dead!


DO: Start thinking about fall gardening!
DON'T: Transplant plants during the heat of August.

DO: Check out the plant stores for bargains.
DON'T: Not check out the plant stores for bargains!

DO: Keep picking produce!
DON'T: Let those tomatoes get away from you, keep them pruned as best you can.

DO: Deadhead any perennials you want to rebloom before they go to seed.
DON'T: Forget to let some plants to go seed to feed the birds.

That's it for the DO's and DON'Ts today. Stay cool, Wednesday is supposed to be 100 F. Fun, fun, fun... right? Nope, I didn't think so...

Coreopsis 'Limerock Dream'

I think you will see why I bought Coreopsis 'Limerock Dream'.  I have a fondness for perennial coreopsis since they are so easy to grow here in Tennessee. The colors on this variety drew my eyes instantly. It's not plain yellow like my 'Moonbeam' Coreopsis or 'Jethro Tull'.  The yellow colors seem to begin in the center of the flower then gradually change to a reddish-maroon tint along the edges. The flowers remind me of autumn colors and would blend well with the Big Sky series of coneflowers.  It's also a thread leaf variety which are named for their narrow, needle shaped leaves.

I didn't buy this plant with a location or combination in mind, I bought because I thought it was neat! Often I find myself in the impulse buy mode at the garden center but this year I have been much better. I've bought a few discount plants but so far I've shied away from actual full price plants.

I found my coreopsis 'Limerock Dream' among the perennials nestled in between some salvia, delphiniums, and echinacea but most likely this plant should have been where the less hardy perennials or annuals are located. As I have learned since buying (I incorrectly read the plant tag!) it may not be hardy in our area. Whenever I purchase a new plant I like to check it out online to learn a little more about it and I found a variety of information regarding its cold hardiness. Some sites say zone 6, (I hope so) others say zone 8 or zone 10, who really knows? The patent for this plant (yes plants have patents!) indicates that it was published in August of 2006, three years. Is three years long enough to determine with accuracy its cold hardiness? According to the patent it was tested down to -5 degrees C (23 degrees Fahrenheit) and up to 50 degrees Celsius (or 122 degrees F, if our local temperature ever gets this high I will be worrying about other things than my perennials!).  It's the low extreme that has me a little concerned over the longevity of this plant in my garden.

Here's what I'll do to ensure it's survival in my garden:

• Collect Seed. The seed may not come true to the original but it's worth a shot. Who knows something new and interesting may appear.
• Divide in the fall. I'll make a couple divisions in the fall and overwinter them in my garage greenhouse. I've done this with a non hardy verbena successfully over the last two years. 
• Take cuttings. I'll take a few cuttings and overwinter them in the garage with the divisions. 
• Cover with mulch! I'll put a heavy layer of mulch/compost/shredded leaves over the coreopsis to help insulate it from the cold. I planted it in a garden near the house so there may be some residual heat from the house hat will help keep the soil warm. 
• Cross my fingers. All this stuff may not be necessary and it might do very well in its new home. My 'Moonbeam' coreopsis lasted through the winter last year and is thriving while others have had trouble keeping it going. Sometimes gardening is like gambling: you take chances and they are both addictive!

Do you have any other overwintering tips for tender perennials?

Since our night time winter temperatures here in Tennessee can be quite low, sometimes reaching -10 F, gardeners need to be careful about the hardiness of certain plants. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to get this new coreopsis to grow through to next year, but then again, I may just be dreaming!

A Few Notes on Summer Heat and Watering

The weather has turn hot and humid, of course this is normal for summers in Tennessee.  We are blessed with a very long growing season but our summers can be extremely warm.  Last year on a record setting June day we reached over 110 degrees.  Which also happened to be the day our air conditioner decided to quit!  We spent that day making snowcones with all the curtains shut just to stay cool.  Our plants don't have the ability to make snowcones though.  They don't need air conditioning either.  What they do need is good watering.  Not too much and not too little.  Too much water can drown the roots and introduce fungal diseases among the branches.  Too little water and they won't be able to survive.
 

So far this year I haven't set up my garden's irrigation.  I haven't really needed additional water very much.  We've had good rainfall and the soil deep beneath my pepper plants has been very moist due to the sheet composting layer of grass clippings covered with newspaper.  The soil and mulch on the top layer keeps the water around the roots just where it needs to be.  Mulch is critical to keeping a garden healthy in our hot summers.  You can't depend on the rain to water your garden and the mulch regulates the soil temperature and evaporation rate. Soon I'll be adding my garden irrigation system to make watering my plants simpler and easier than walking around with a watering can.  I have something different in mind this year that I'll share with you soon.

Always remember to water your plants in the morning or in the evening.

Wet plants + Extreme Heat and Humidity = Fungal Diseases

Keep the water low to the ground and put it where the roots are.  The foliage doesn't need watered.  Soaker hoses or drip irrigation lines are great for putting the water where it needs to be.

Try to garden in the morning before the heat of the day has really set in to avoid heat related illnesses.  Always drink plenty of water to keep yourself hydrated too!

The summer heat is a good thing for our warm season plants until it gets in the mid 90's.  Many plants will shut down their production while the heat is too high.  When it gets cooler they will produce again.

For now the heat will encourage our tomato and pepper plants to produce fruit which we're all looking forward to!  I can't wait for that first tomato from the garden, how about you?

Homemade Plant Tags for Hybridizing Plants

Last year I began to experiment with hybridizing.  I'm hoping that the plants I cross together result in something really nice but it takes a few years to get something from the crosses.  So far I've experimented with daylilies, echinacea, and irises.  Hostas are on my list but the deer keep getting to the flowers before they've had a chance to produce seed.  One of the issues I've run across is labeling.  It's very easy to get mixed up on your crosses.  I came up with an idea recently to make my own plant tags/labels that I can put on each crossed flower.  Here's what I did:

The plant label is made from a plastic plant tag I cut into a 2 inch rectangle.  I punched a hole in it with a standard hole puncher and added a bit of garden twine to hang it on the plant.  If you don't have a plant tag to cut like I did you could use any sort of plastic from yogurt cups, to milk jugs, to mini-blinds.  Just cut them to an appropriate size that leaves you plenty of room to write the pod parent and the pollen parent for record keeping.  After the seeds form you'll be able to tell which cross was which!

Have you hybridized any of your plants before?

An Inexpensive Homemade Tomato Cage

Here is an inexpensive little project I'm working on that hopefully will work to hold a tomato plant. This homemade tomato cage is made from the pliable branches of a sycamore tree my neighbor limbed up. I offered to take the branches to dump in a pit in the backyard and mentioned I might use a few of the branches for cages. The cage itself isn't complete since I still have two more branches to add that will cross from corner to corner.  Once I put those on I'll tie them at the center point and at each corner. I may add one more branch vertically along the stem of the tomato plant as a stake then attach it to the others. Afterward I'll just add a few more branches along the outsides as needed to hold in that feisty tomato plant!

Total cost of this project was $0 and it only took a few minutes to put it together.  If it works it's well worth the effort!


As you can see the tomato plant is growing strong and healthy among the garlic. Garlic is a good companion crop for tomatoes. It seems that when choosing companion planting combinations what you can eat together on a plate (basil, garlic and tomatoes) usually does well together in the garden!

TARP for Gardening

No I'm not referring to the stimulus package here. I'm talking about what possibly could be the most handy tool you ever use for spring gardening - the tarp. As my gardens have grown over the last several years I've added many more plants. As all gardeners know with more plants comes more responsibility and more work when spring cleanup comes. All dead growth needs cleaned up, pruned out, and disposed of in a good location - ideally the compost bin. Sadly my wheelbarrow just isn't up to the task. It would work in a pinch but would require multiple trips back and forth to the compost bin.  The tarp is the simple and easy solution that saves the day!

That one 6'x8' piece of plastic came in very handy to haul all the garden debris to the back yard for composting, and in one trip. In this case I didn't actually use an official tarp I used 6mm plastic sheeting that can also be used for row covers. It was easy to slide the plastic tarp with a pile of clippings, prunings, and dead leaves 4' wide, 3' high, and 6 feet long across the grass to the very back of the backyard.



TARP definitely saved my gardening today!

New post at Complete Organizing Solutions: 6 Things To Do For Your Spring Garden!

Gardening Q and A: When to?

This time of year people are looking for answers to their gardening questions.  Perhaps the most common gardening questions start with the word when.  As gardeners we realize that time is a very important factor when planting plants because it can greatly effect how a plant grows in the garden.

Here are a few gardening whens that people have been looking for answers to lately!

When To Propagate Crape Myrtle?

Crape myrtles can be propagated through hardwood cuttings, greenwood, or semi-ripe cuttings.  Hardwood cuttings are best taken from late fall through winter during the plant's dormant cycle.  Greenwood cuttings can be taken in late spring and early summer.  Crape myrtles propagate very easily can can be grown from cuttings until late summer.  Crape myrtles sucker a lot so the suckers can be removed and used for cuttings without effecting the canopy of the tree.

When to Cut Back Miscanthus?

Miscanthus can be cut back anytime from fall to late winter but I don't cut down ours until a few weeks before spring so that we can enjoy the winter interest.  Look inside the plant to see if there is green growth.  If there is go ahead and cut it back!

When to Plant Lettuce?

Lettuce seeds can be direct sowed about 4 weeks before the frost date outdoors.  Germination is dependent on the weather but they like to germinate in cooler temperatures. You can start them a couple weeks earlier indoors and transplant to the garden.

When to plant tulips?

Tulips are best planted in the fall from bulbs.  You get the biggest bang for your buck through bulbs but you can plant them from potted plants in the spring time.  They will cost you more than planting bulbs but you get the advantage of seeing instant color in the garden!

When to plant Bradford pear trees?

Um...never.  Bradford pear trees and other ornamental pear trees are tree's I don't recommend.  Instead look for an edible or native alternative.  Service berries are often recommended as an edible and a native option for Bradford pear trees.  If you just want ornamental there are some beautiful cherry trees you can plant that aren't invasive like the Bradford pear trees.  In general trees are best planted in the fall but spring isn't so bad either.  Balled and burlap trees get more time to develop roots when planted in the fall.  Most spring sold trees are potted and will do just fine when planted in the spring.