Rock Gardens

Often there are those areas of your garden that just aren’t suitable for lawn or have exposed ledge and rocks making it impossible to plant shrubs.  These areas can easily be transformed into beautiful rock gardens by rearranging of some of the stones and bringing in a bit of new soil.  If you don’t have enough […]

Gardening With Annuals

Annuals provide gardeners with an inexpensive way to add diversity and an array of long lasting colorful flowers to the landscape. Although they will flower all season long, annuals sprout from seed, produce flowers, set their seed and die within one growing season.  Annuals need to be replanted each year, at least here in New […]

USDA Plant Hardiness Zones

Plant Hardiness Map ** Click on your State abbreviation below to go to that region ** AK  AL  AR  AZ  CA  CO  CT  DC  DE  FL  GA  HI  IA  ID  IL  IN  KS  KY LA  MA  MD  ME  MI  MN  MO  MS  MT  NC  ND  NE  NH  NJ  NM  NV  NY OH  OK  OR  PA  […]

Shade Gardens

If you are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to garden in the shade beneath the canopy of mature shade trees you will find many advantages not found in the full sun garden.  Shade trees moderate temperatures during the hot summer months and provide the garden with structure, privacy and year-round interest.  Shade is essential […]

The Late Summer Border

Late Season Gardens After the brilliant display of flowers through the summer, a third wave, late in the season, of color brightens up the perennial garden. Mixed among these autumn blooming flowers are the annuals which, with conscientious deadheading, continue to bloom until the first frost. Though there is the occasional pink flower, the colors […]

Pruning Guide

Pruning is the removal of stems, branches, or roots of a tree or shrub.  The extent of pruning required varies from plant to plant and according to their intended uses (hedges as opposed to orchards for example).  The reasons to prune are as follows; to remove diseased, broken or dangerous limbs, to rejuvenate older neglected […]

Garden Design – Composition

Composition in garden design is the placement of landscape elements, the spaces they create and the transitions between them. Garden composition or order should strive for unity which is achieved when all parts of the design have a harmonious relationship to each other. Garden designs which rely on few elements in terms of plant species, […]

The Mid-Summer Border

Mid-Season Gardens In mid-summer, the perennial border is at most colorful with a wide variety of sun-loving flowers in bloom. There are even some leftovers from the early border and, towards late summer, some signs of the later blooming flowers as well. With the mid-summer flowers, it is important to choose wisely. Choose flowers which […]

Organic Gardening

Organic gardening is more than simply a method of gardening which doesn’t use synthetic fertilizers or pesticides on their plants. Organic gardening takes into consideration all of nature and landscape elements including plants, soil, water supply, people and wildlife. It requires working in harmony with nature minimizes the resources the garden consumes. Organic gardening is […]

Compost

Compost, an essential part of organic gardening, is formed when garden debris is allowed to decay. Compost is nutrient rich so its quite beneficial to plants when added cultivated into garden soil. The nutrient value of cost depends on the fertilizers and other nutrient-rich materials which are added to it as it goes through the […]