Gardening Tips

I'm not home very much, but my wife always manages to keep the yard looking good. Here are a few ideas she has that seem to work and don't take too much effort.

Gardening Tip One

Keep your lawn separate from your gardens. There's nothing more irritating than accidentally mowing part of your flower bed along with the lawn. Rocks or wood make good borders and define the different parts of your yard.

Gardening Tip Two

Use only plants that grow well in your area. For example, planting a desert variety of flower in a high altitude, colder climate isn't going to work. We got a few marigolds from a friend a couple of years ago and planted them in a small bed in front of the house. The plants were no more than six inches in height when we planted them. By the end of the summer, they almost filled the bed. The following year, we pulled the dead plants, broke the seed pods open and scattered them in the bed. That spring the whole bed was filled and overflowing! Marigolds don't take a lot of work, either. Watering every day or two is all you need to do (except for a little weeding while they're young, of course.)

Gardening Tip Three

Roses are always a great addition to your yard. Make sure there is space around them before the lawn creeps in. Again, rocks make a good border. Hardware stores or Wal-Mart will have the right fertilizers for you. We generally buy "floribundas" because they produce lots of roses. My mother-in-law had Circus Roses (floribundas) and her yard was a riot of pink and yellow variegated blooms all summer long. Aphids can be a problem no matter where you live. We use both a rose food that deters aphids and "Sevin Dust" when the little devils get too prolific. Bouquets for your home and gifts to friends are a great way to cull. The wife picked all the remaining roses one year the day before a bad frost and donated them to the local hospital. The patients and staff were thrilled.

Gardening Tip Four

Lilacs are the wife's favorite flower. They don't last as long as roses or marigolds, but they are very pretty and smell great. We bought a house once with a small lilac in the front yard. It looked like a dead twig at first! After clearing the little space around it and doing some pruning, it started to improve. With fertilizer, water and attention, it turned into a beautiful bush.

Gardening Tip Five

If you have lilacs, roses or shrubs (as well as some trees), pruning is a must. Be careful not to prune too much or too little, though. It can either kill the plant or make it ugly. Ask at your local nursery about how to prune each individual plant. Some of them also require nutrients during the winter months to make them healthier in the spring.

Gardening Tip Six

No matter what sort of flower garden you have, take the time to really enjoy it. We always keep our lawn chairs available and spend evenings admiring the flowers while we talk. It's very restful and not as much work as it seems, if you plant the right things...