Your Backyard Garden

The beautiful thing about a Perennial Garden and Perennial Gardening is that each year you can look forward to seeing your favorite plants return and bloom and come to life again. 

You can always add to and modify or change your perennial garden plants, which is advisable every 4-5 years.

A Perennial garden can be as eternal and ageless, boundless and continual and can virtually last an eternity with just a little thought and care.

Design Your Perennial Garden 

One of the first steps in creating your garden is to take some time and thought and plan and design how your garden will look.  

Take a pad of paper and a pencil and make a rough sketch of your garden.  Indicate where you are placing the particular seeds and or plants, the type of plants used.

Are you going to add any paving stones to make a walkway?  Are you placing a pond or bird bath in your garden area?  Lay it all out on paper first so you have an idea of what it is going to look like.  This is also a good way to estimate the costs and expenses of making your garden.

Location, Location and Location 

The nice thing about the Fall is that it is the season you can spend in the garden to prepare for Spring (by planting bulbs).

Fall is also the harvest time of the year. In the pumpkin patch, kids and adults alike go hunting for that perfect pumpkin to decorate for the Halloween parties.

Fall Means Garden Clean Up Time Has Arrived

The Fall season is one of renewal and renovation to plant new trees, and a variety of turf and grasses.

It is also the time to revise your garden by removing dead plants and shrubs, replace parts of the lawn that did not survive the summer weather. Be sure to inspect you shrubs and plants for disease. If the disease is serious you may have to remove the plant entirely.

Fall gardening chores also including raking those leaves that never seem to leave.

I guess you get the idea, the Fall is the time to do miscellaneous gardening chores to beautify your garden for the next spring. It is like a tune up on a car.

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When it comes to growing tomatoes almost every part-time home gardener who has attempted to grow tomatoes has his or her own tips or tricks of the trade.

I am no different.  I have been growing tomatoes for about 12 years now, and it seems that every season I lean something new.  Whether it is a new-technique or a new variety to try out.

So I have accumulated some basic ideas or tips that may help you grow your tomatoes more hassle free and more successfully.

Try The Ponderosa Tomato  First let me say that I like Large tomatoes (1 to 2 pounds in size) so I prefer the Ponderosa, which is pink in color and has a wholesome old fashion tomato taste.  It has very few seeds and is low in acid content.  They take a while to grow but in my humble opinion they are worth the wait.

Try The Supersonic Tomato  Another favorite of mine is the Supersonic tomato, which comes in several varieties.It has good size, great tasty flavor and the crops are abundant.  The fruit is red, and this tomato is easy to grow and a very reliable producer.

You can generally find the seeds or seedlings for these tomatoes at your local nursery or garden supply store or on any of the numerous internet seed provider sites.Like Cherry Tomatoes?  Try the Sweet 100 If you like the smaller cherry tomatoes for snacking or in your salads try the Sweet 100.

“Oh give me a home where the cacti roam” and I will show you a Desert Garden. 

Whether you live in an arid semi-dry desert area or whether you want to create that Southwestern Desert landscape look in a portion of your backyard, you should know a few basics about Desert Gardens.

Generally a Desert Garden is an area that receives less than 10 inches of rain each year.  The soil is generally rock or clay (caliche) and has very little nutrients.  The temperature and weather have a wide range of extremes and there are plenty of gusty winds.

The above described Desert condition applies generally to most of the desert areas in the American Southwest.

Desert gardeners reap benefits which gardeners in the north yearn for. Long growing seasons mean active gardening for nine to twelve months of the year. Semi-tropical plants survive in protected areas. An assortment of flowers, grasses, cacti, shrubs, vegetables and trees thrive in this environment, providing exciting design ideas for a desert garden.

Create a Micro-Climate for Your Desert Garden
A helpful step in creating a successful and thriving Desert Garden is to use and create a micro-climate to aid your plants.

You can create shaded and cool areas by building walls with a North face.

Look around your neighborhood at the areas between your house and the wall or fence; look at areas near sidewalks and pavements.  Be aware of which way the wind generally blows in your area.  The walls, and pavements can add more heat for your plants and they can also help channel water and wind.

You can create a small oasis by placing plants that love moisture in a group.  They will collect and can be used to absorb the rain water and other water runoff and thereby create a cool spot in your garden.  The color you use can greatly determine your micro-climate.

For example if you have rocks that are dark in color or a wall that is dark these items will retain the heat which the white colored rocks and walls will reflect the heat.  Isn’t that cool and neat?

Got Cactus?
The Cactus plant, which includes hundreds of varieties, thrive in soil that is alkaline in nature.  Cacti are generally very hearty plants that grow and adapt to practically any environment.  If you have the right set of conditions your cacti will not need any care.  Now that’s my kind of plant!

Making a Cactus Bed
The basic way to plant your Cacti bed is to start digging about 3 feet in depth and then remove the soil. Be sure to mix sand and gravel in order to create a filter like medium. You can even add rocks of all sixes and pieces of broken pots to increase your drainage.

You want to avoid having the soil accumulate too much water because if your cacti bed is too wet they will spoil and rot. If your soil has a lot of sand then you need to add organic materials like peat moss and potting soils.

Get Creative
You can get quite creative in your Desert Garden landscape design by adding various types of surface rocks or boulders including the beautiful black lava rocks. The use of rocks in your Desert Garden will help create a warmer area for smaller and more fragile plants.

Test Your Soil’s Drainage
A great way to test the soil for drainage is to dig a small bucket sized hole and fill the hole up with water and then start your clock and time how long it takes for the hole to empty out of water.

Between 2-4 hours is ideal drainage time.  If it exceeds that then you should add more sand or gravel to your site.

Get some Yucca in Your Garden
The Yucca and Joshua tree are great additions to any Desert Garden and are essential.  You can plant them anywhere in the hottest or most cold or the least productive place in your yard or garden.  They grow just about anywhere you set them down.  They can grow between 10 to 15 feet, and will add that real Southwestern Desert look to your garden.

We hope these ideas are helpful in the planning and designing of your Desert Gardening.  Have fun!

If you live in an Apartment or Condominium or Townhouse where the back yard is a balcony or small patio/cement slab area then you can qualify to become a Patio Gardener.

Patio Gardening is basically making a transition from an indoor and outdoor environment by placing your plants in outdoor living areas.

You can do this simply by using some window boxes on your balcony or they can become much more elaborate by installing trellised vines to enclose a porch or wooden patio fenced areas.  You can also use hanging baskets and other containers filled to a wide variety of perennial and annual flowers to bring your garden atmosphere to your smaller patio spaces.

Less  Space?  Use More Color & Variety

Regardless of the amount of space on your balcony or patio those small areas can be arranged to become a wonderfully lush environment that will give you peace, pleasure and a sense of relaxation.  All it takes is for you to carefully choose the plants ( including your favorite vegetables, herbs and even fruit trees) that you like and pot them in containers of all shapes and sizes. Perhaps you’ve longed to have a garden, but your city apartment offers minimal possibilities. Even the smallest balcony can become a peaceful oasis with the addition of carefully chosen and well-placed plants. Also, many vegetables, fruits, and herbs thrive in containers.

Patio Plants Provide Privacy

A great idea is to pot some of your favorite plants in your front yard or plants that you enjoy generally and put them where you can see them on a daily basis such as your patio and balcony and window areas.

By arranging your plants around your home you create a sense of intimacy and privacy.  The plants help psychologically to reduce your stress levels, and help insulate you from the noisy environment in the streets of our busy cities.

The use of vines and trellises around your balconies and patio fencing will help insure that your garden world will protect you from the outside world and give you that added sense of security and joy that comes only from seeing your favorite plants thrive in and about your home.

What Are Water Gardens?
So you want to be a water Gardener?  Well what the heck is a Water Garden, anyway?

You guessed it.  A water garden is a garden area that uses water as part of its landscape design.  Such water environments like a pond or stream. The water gardens use plants that float or stay submerged under the water or plants that grow along the edges of the water boundary (mosses or some lilies).

The nice thing about establishing a water garden in your yard is that soon you will be able to grow a potential wide variety of elegant water (aquatic) plants.

Water Gardening Is Popular

If you take the time to walk around your neighborhood you will probably see that your neighbors are water gardeners and don’t even realize it. 

If you see small ponds with waterfalls, koi ponds, etc. then there are water gardens in them thar houses.

Many cultures embrace water as a necessary ingredient in their environment like the many Asian cultures such as Japanese, Chinese, Philippine and Southeast Asian peoples.Water, whether standing in a pond or moving as in a waterfall or stream, has a peaceful and serene effect on most people.  It is relaxing to sit and watch and hear water in motion.

Water Gardens Are Easy to Install
The nice thing about a water garden is that it can be built in 2-3 days and if you do it correctly they will give you many years of joy and pleasure.  You can spend very little money or you can go crazy and spent a fortune.  The choice is up to you.Most people when they establish their first water garden start small.  Remember you can install a shallow water garden for small birds and salamanders and frogs or you can create a large and deep water garden for a more varied selection of plants, fish and other wildlife.

Location, Location, Location
Remember that your water garden requires a minimum of three to six hours of sun a day for best results. Be sure to locate your water garden away from trees and shrubs.

Basic Ingredients For Your Water Garden
Be sure your water garden is accessible to an electrical outlet for any pumps, filters and lights that you want to install in and around the garden itself. Your water garden foundation is critical. The preformed, plastic liner design is the easiest for first time water gardeners.  The plastic liners allow you to shape the size of your water garden so you can get a more natural look.

Step 1. Clean up the lawn and the area under trees, shrubs, and evergreens. Remove this lawn and garden material to the un-spaded garden areas for spading in as soon as weather permits.

Step 2. Lower your mower blade to a height just above new grass growth. Mow and collect the clippings, which go on the soil as a mulch for perennials, shrubs, and evergreens.

Step 3. If thatch buildup is extremely heavy, either rent a de-thatching machine or have your local landscaper do the job. There are several roto-rake blade attachments available that cut, de-thatch, and bag all at the same time. They’re good; I have one and love it. But they don’t fit all mowers. (more…)

Don’t buy for the future. When applying a chemical control, use it only at the strength described. You see? We don’t treat the plant world any differently from the way we would treat ourselves—and we’d be foolish to self-prescribe-an overdose.

After I’ve identified an insect infestation on a lawn, I follow these steps:

1. I remove the thatch in the infected area and for the same distance beyond.

2. I aerate the area with golf shoes and a pointed stick or other sharp object.

3. I water lightly.

4. I shampoo the area.

5. I apply the chemical control prescribed exactly as recommended.

6. I cover the treated area with a weighted down thin mesh cloth, like cheesecloth, to discourage pets and birds from entering the area.

7. I keep adults and children from the area. . I follow these steps to protect the plant area—it’s weak and ill and needs just like any other patient—and to protect any visitors that wander by.

Because I haven’t come out against hard pesticides, I’ll probably get many letters and cards from would-be conservationists and self-styled do-gooders who don’t practice what they preach but live by the adage, “Do as I say, not as I do.”

I have received so many preprinted cards berating the hard pesticides, some signed and some not, that I could probably give next year’s supply free to all the sending organizations by returning what I’ve got. We use—and abuse—medicines on ourselves and our loved ones, day in and day out, in the form of both patented and prescribed medicine.

We ballyhoo their benefits through advertisements in the press, on TV and over the radio. Take “Aspirin A,” or drink “Solution. B,” or take “Zap” and sleep better. Any one of these, I am sure, can be misused and dangerous. Why isolate DDT for attack when it’s increased the yield per acre over the years so that we now feed millions more than we did formerly? The so-called hard pesticides have provided us with many benefits over time. Banning them outright is like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. But I’ll leave this subject to you to decide.

When you have an insect problem and must use a chemical control, you’ll be dealing with one of two types. The first is a contact killer, which paralyzes the insect on contact. The second is a stomach poison, and this the insect must eat. Both are sold under the category of soil insect controls; some will be recommended for lawns, some for food gardens, and some for nonfood gardens.

They are available in dry form or liquid. When it becomes necessary to use a soil insect control, make sure you first treat your lawn with the bar laundry soap solution with tobacco juice added. If these fail, move on to the flea and tick shampoo. Always add any chemical spray to one of the soap solutions when you do use it.

Using predator insects, parasites, and other natural organisms instead of chemical controls has come to be an everyday practice, recommended even by its former critics. Bacillus thuringiensis is the best and safest caterpillar killer. Bacillus popilliae, known as milky spore, controls grubs for up to five years. If biological controls like Grub Attack are available, try them first. Only if they can’t cure the disease should you go to chemical controls.