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How To Plant A Flower Garden

Mulching is very important to the health of your flower garden. Mulch keep down weeds and holds in moisture. Mulch can be commercial bark mulch or just leaves you have raked from your hard. Even though the colored mulches are attractive, they are made from broken pallets, and may contain termites. The dye may also harm your plants as it leaches out during watering. Rubber mulches are harmful to your plants and the environment and should be avoided.

You may want to lay landscape cloth or use cardboard or newspaper as an underlayment. Landscape cloth and cardboard should be laid before the plants go in, and cut with X's to make a space for the plant to go into the ground. Newspaper can be laid before or worked in around the plants after they are planted.

If you have been able to cover all your plants with pots, it's very simple to add the mulch without worrying about covering the plants. After the mulch has been spread around the pots, simply remove them and work the mulch up around the bottom of them.

If the plants are uncovered, be careful not to get the mulch up into the plant itself, but spread the mulch about 6 inches out from around the plant, and work it in around in small handfuls.

updated 2010-07-17 09:37:41

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How To Plan A Rose Garden

Roses come in a wide variety of sizes, colors, and growing habits. Know the size dimensions of your rose garden plot before you start buying plants. Do not crowd in too many plants, roses prefer space between plants and adequate air movement. There about 35 different groups of roses, some of the more popular ones are listed below. http://home.ivillage.com/gardening/flowers/0,,82md,00.html

Alba-Alba roses are hybrids that are winter hardy and are shade and drought tolerate. Their beginnings date back to the Roman Empire. These spring bloomers are differentiated from other roses by their grey, scentless leaflets. http://www.rosegathering.com/albas.html

Rugosa-Rugosa roses come in many varieties and hybrids. Known as the rugged roses they do well in poor soil conditions and are extremely disease tolerant. Most gardeners have a least one Rugosa rose, probably chosen for its wonderful fragrance. This type of rose can be identified by its heavily textured, deep veined, bright green foliage. http://www.heirloomroses.com/cgi-bin/browse.cgi?page=cat&cat=Rugosa+Roses

Hybrid tea roses-Long stem, usually one flower per stem. http://www.rose-gardening-made-easy.com/different-types-of-roses.htmlA good choice for the formal rose garden. http://home.ivillage.com/gardening/flowers/0,,82md,00.html

Floribunda- A bushy full shrub rose. Flowers are in clusters and bloom continuously. http://www.rose-gardening-made-easy.com/different-types-of-roses.html

Miniature roses-6" to 2' tall shrub roses with much smaller flowers and smaller overall stem size.

roses- are spreading ...

updated 2010-07-17 09:37:05

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Henry Fields Seed Catalog

updated 2010-07-17 07:29:10

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How To Choose Plants For A Flower Garden

Taking care of your garden and the plants will take up some of your time but, you can decide how much time you want to spend in your garden removing weeds, trimming, watering, feeding and maintaining your plants. If you have a gardener, you can determine how many days you need to get them to perform maintenance duties. When planning the garden you can choose between picking plant that are care-free or you plants that need more care and give rewards of blooms and flowers throughout the season.

What type of plant are there to choose from?

Fast growing - These plants will need to be trimmed on a regular basis or their growth will take over the garden and make it look unkempt.

Hardy - If you sometimes have to ignore these plants, they will be able to withstand the neglect. A lot of shrubs and perennials are classified as hardy plants.

Evergreen - The addition of evergreen plants take a lot of work out of your time spent gardening. Most evergreens do not need much maintenance and they look good month after month with little care. Regular trimming is necessary to keep the plants looking neat.

Disease resistant - The name says it all - these plants will not succumb to the diseases that plague other plants. You can breathe a sigh of relief when you choose plants that resist common diseases, plants that can cause damage to your whole garden.http://www.gardeningtipsnideas.com/2009/03/10_tips_on_choosing_plants_for_your_garden.html

Organic - This way of ...

updated 2010-07-17 08:23:32

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Hostas

Several garden pests find hostas very appetizing and may nibble at them, including deer, rabbits, and mice. The best deterrent to stop the chewing is either using a repellent spray, or placing cages over prized hostas.

Perhaps the most notorious hosta pest of all is the slug. One of the most important steps to preventing slug damage is to remove wilted or spend hosta leaves right away, giving the slugs few places to hide out. Diatomaceous earth can be sprinkled around hosta plants to kill the slugs, or beer traps (made of shallow dishes of beer) can be set out in the hosta garden area to trap and drown the pests.http://garden.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Fall_Care_for_Hosta_Plants

updated 2010-07-25 16:14:20

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How to Propagate Plants

Layering Plants

Some plants can be easily propagated using this method as they naturally reproduce in a similar manner. Simply bend a stalk of the plant into the ground, wait for it to grow roots and detach it from the parent plant.

Other plants can be forced to layer propagate, this is called air layering. To use this method split the stem of the plant about 2/3 of the way through. Wedge moss into the wound and wrap with more moss covered by a dark plastic bag. Keep the moss moist until new roots begin to grow. Once roots are well established detach the portion the rest of the way and plant.http://www.mastergardenproducts.com/gardenerscorner/new_page_4.htm

Grafting Plants:

Grafting is the most difficult method of propagating a plant. This method doesn’t necessarily form a new plant either, rather combines more than one plant. Using grafting you can have one tree grow five different types of fruit.

Grafting can be done in a number of ways. You can read about all the ways in the source to this section as only the easiest method will be covered here. That method is called whip and tongue grafting. When grafting the plant you are attaching the new plant to is called the rootstock and the plant you are attaching is called the scion. Make a 2 1/2 inch long diagonal cut at the top of the rootstock. Then make a matching cut on the bottom of the ...

updated 2010-07-17 09:44:18

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Perennial Vegetables

Perennial vegetables are edible vegetables that generate a crop for at least 3 years. http://perennialvegetables.org/ Because the plants produce vegetables for many years following a single planting, perennial vegetables are considered low maintenance. http://perennialvegetables.org/ These vegetables exist throughout the world in many types and varieties. http://perennialvegetables.org/perennial-vegetables-for-each-climate-type/arid-and-hot/ Some of the most comon perennial vegetables include asparagus, garlic, horseradish and rhubarb. http://www.thedailygreen.com/living-green/blogs/save-money/perennial-vegetables-460410

While perennial flowers have long been known, perennial vegetables have had little attention. http://www.garden.org/articles/articles.php?q=show&id=2907 Eric Toensmeier, author of Perennial Vegetables, is a leading expert on these plants, and his book is the only single reference on the topic. http://perennialvegetables.org/about-the-book/ Like all other vegetables, evaluating the climate for planting is important.

updated 2010-10-27 20:15:03

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How To Grow Cosmos

Cosmos don't really require a lot of care or maintenance. Below is a list of things that can be done to help them grow, but they can grow just fine by themselves without much attention from you at all!

• Cosmos don't like a lot of water and over watering can actually stunt flower production. Water when the soil is dry and during dry spells.http://www.theflowerexpert.com/content/aboutflowers/tropicalflowers/cosmos-pink

• To get shorter plants, pinch the tops out of them before they finish growing.http://www.garden-helper.com/learn/plant_pages/Cosmos.asp This should stunt the plants growth and keep them from getting any bigger.

• As stated before, Cosmos are not prone to disease or insect infestations. The biggest problem would be Aphidshttp://www.garden-helper.com/learn/plant_pages/Cosmos.asp and they can be taken care of with a general pesticide or home made soap spray.

• Most Cosmos are annuals due to the cold winters. You can keep the plant a live by digging it up and bringing it in before the first frost if the season.

• Cosmos reseed themselves freely. To keep them from growing back next year, be sure to remove the seeds from the plant before they have a chance to fall to the ground.

• Deadhead any spent flowers to keep up appearance and encourage new flowers to bloom.

updated 2010-07-17 08:55:45

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Roselle

The content in this page is not a substitute for professional medical advice. If you are planning to use Roselle for medical purposes, please consult your doctor first.

updated 2010-07-17 20:36:20

comments: 0