Gardening is usually one of those things that people like in theory but don’t really have either the time or resources for in reality. If you are one of those people who would love to have some fresh flowers and plants around your home, but you either don’t have time to tend a real garden, or you don’t have the space to plant one, then window box gardening could be for you. Window box gardening has all of the benefits of traditional gardening, but window boxes are easier to maintain and can be used by anyone. Window boxes also have the added benefit of making the flowers and the plants easier to see from inside the house, which means you don’t have to sit outside to enjoy your handiwork.

If you think window boxes are for you, before you can get into the fun part of choosing plants for your box, you have to first consider where you are going to place the window box. Where you box is placed will dictate which kinds of flowers you can have in it. Ideally, you want your window box to either get full sun or part sun – if it is totally in the shade, you will be limited when it comes to picking flowering plants. Of course, window boxes are loved by apartment dwellers, and the surrounding buildings can impact the level of sun. Don’t forget to consider things like the color of the surrounding buildings. Even if buildings shade your window box, if those buildings are white, they can reflect enough sun to allow you to plant full sun plants. If the surrounding buildings are dark, even if your plants seem to get full sun, you might have better luck with part sun plants because the dark buildings will absorb some of the sun.

Crucially, you must also consider the wind. This issue becomes especially important if you live several floors up. Wind speed increases are you go higher in the air, and heavy winds can be detrimental to sensitive plants. Even more important to remember, however, is that a falling window box can be deadly to people walking below. Choose a sturdy box with a good system of attachment to your window so your box doesn’t become a deadly projectile to people walking below in heavy winds, and preferably, place your box in some place that is shaded from the wind.

Once you have found the perfect place for your window box, you can get around to choosing your box yourself. Window boxes are generally made of four materials – clay, plastic, metal, or wood. The choice really comes down to which look you like the best. However, plastic is generally the cheapest, sturdiest and easiest to work with. Clay is often extremely heavy, because it needs to be glazed and it needs to be thick to handle the soil.

Now for the fun part: choosing the plants. Your gardening center will be able to give you advice on the best kinds of plants for the temperatures in your area and which kinds of soils you will need for the plants you pick. Be sure the plants are compatible with the level of sun your window box will get. Also be careful about overcrowding your window box, which will cause weeds to grow.

Flowers in window boxes tend to grow away from the window, but if you want the flowers to be equally visible inside and out, flip your window box around every few days. This will cause the flowers to grow vertically instead of out, so you will be able to enjoy your window box from all angles.

The sight of a butterfly adds an irresistible beauty and charm to any garden. If you would like to add more butterflies to your garden, here are some tips to get you started. For the best results, focus on creating a healthy, diverse and colorful garden that will attract butterflies to your home on a year-round basis.

What Kind of Plants Should You Plant to Attract Butterflies?

There are many plants that are known to attract butterflies. Choose a variety of nectar producing plants that will be in bloom throughout the season. For the best results, plant your nectar producing plants in staggered intervals so that something will always be blooming in your garden, and those that you have butterflies in your garden on a year-round basis. For the best results, you will want to have flowers in bloom from mid to late summer. This is the period in which butterflies are most active. Look for flowers that have multiple florets, as these are known to produce more nectar.

Working With Annuals for Optimal Results

Annual plants are known to attract butterflies because they usually have the brightest, most showy blooms. It is no wonder that butterflies are attracted to these plants! Many annuals will bloom continuously through the season. Choose long and continuously blooming annuals so that you have a steady supply of nectar to offer your butterfly population. Visit your local nursery to get the best selection of seasonal annuals, or plant seeds after the last frost. Opt for colorful and fragrant plants that provide long blooms, but avoid double blooms.

Perennials Can Provide Your Butterflies with a Constant Nectar Supply

There are also many fine perennial plants that can provide a constant supply of nectar throughout the blooming season. Perennial plants that are known to attract butterflies include coneflowers, asters, butterfly weed and lilacs. In general, plant members of the mint family, which are known for their rich nectar stores. A good guideline is to avoid double flowers because these are often short on nectar.

Create a Butterfly Jar to Supplement your Garden

There are many easy ways to supplement your garden’s nectar supply. You can create your own homemade butterfly feeder that will attract more butterflies to your garden. Use an inverted baby food jar and drill a hole in the center of the lid. Plug the hole with cotton and fill the baby food jar with a solution of one part sugar and nine parts water. Finally, attach a brightly colored fabric petal to the lid. This will make your feeder much more appealing to butterflies. Hang the butterfly feeder in your garden so that you will attract a larger butterfly population.

Create a Watering Hole for Your Butterfly Population

Like all living things, butterflies need water to live. They are known to frequent puddles, so if you really want to draw butterflies to your garden, make sure that there is a small water source for them to stop at. Butterflies tend to frequent small puddles. Many males of various butterfly species are known to gather around small rain pools. It is easy to create your own permanent puddle that can act as a butterfly meeting spot. You can do this by burying a bucket up to the rim in your garden, fill it partly with sand or gravel and then pour liquid into the bucket. You can apply natural sweeteners, such as water, sweet drinks, overripe fruit and let them sit there for a few days. This is an incredibly attractive place for butterflies, so there is a good chance that your garden may become a favorite congregating point for your local butterfly population.

Almost nothing is as rewarding as spending an afternoon outside, working on the family garden. Gardening as a family is a wonderful way to bond and to teach your children about their environment. Even if you don’t think that you have time to garden with your family, there are many things that you can in fact do to make certain that your garden is always in bloom. Here are some low maintenance gardening ideas for the busy family.

Create a Raised Garden Bed

Need an easy way to teach your kids about gardening? A raised garden bed is an easy way to establish a no-fuss, no-muss garden. Choose a space in your garden, patio, deck, yard or whatever space you have available, and restrict your family garden to this one raised garden bed. Make sure to plant hardy perennials that will not require constant care and attention. Keep a watering can by your raised garden so that you or your children can water the bed at a moment’s notice.

Plant Your Own Windowsill Herb Garden

Want an easy way to teach your kids some gardening basics? A windowsill herb garden is a fun and simple way to learn about the basic growth pattern of plants, and to reap the rewards of your work. Moreover, a windowsill herb garden does not take up a lot of space, nor do you need a lot of time and money to establish a healthy, thriving herb garden. Moreover, you can even enjoy the results together by using your herb gardens in a family mean.

Start Your Own Family Cactus Garden

Here is a fun and creative way to garden together as a family without having to spend a whole lot of time or money. Start a family cactus garden that adds color and texture to your garden, without taking a lot of your time. Start by picking out pots that you and your kids can paint. Let your children express their creativity by using different paint colors and craft supplies to decorate their own pot. Then it’s off to the nursery to pick out cacti. Each member of your family should choose cacti that fit into your pot. Use a soil specially prepared for cacti and help your children pick out cacti. Cacti come in a variety of shape, sizes and colors. When it comes to planting cacti, make certain that you wear thick gloves and handle the plants with care so that you do not get pricked. Cacti do not need daily maintenance, and can create an earthy and fun environment for your children and family to enjoy. Try to choose blooming cacti so you and your family can plan to enjoy seasonal blooms.

Plant a Family Tree

Want a project that the whole family can do together? Why not plant a family tree? You don’t have to wait until Arbor Day to plant a tree. Take a trip to the nursery together and pick out a tree that is suited for your area. Consult with a nursery attendant if you are not sure what kind of tree you should be planting. Let your kid’s help you choose the perfect location and dig the hole. Planting a tree together is a wonderful experience that the whole family will remember for years to come. Set up a periodical watering schedule that works for the whole family. Although it takes a bit of pre-planning, once the tree is planted, this garden project will not take up a lot of your family’s time. With luck, this low maintenance garden project will be enjoyed by future generations of garden-lovers.

Bamboo is one of those plants that strikes fear in the hearts of gardeners. It looks great, and many people would love to make this exotic plant a part of their garden, but everyone has heard at least one scare story about taking over entire gardens, running to neighbors’ yards and beyond, destroying everything in its path. So, what exactly is the truth about bamboo? Is it a plant eater, destined to make your garden its own, or can bamboo plants reside peacefully beside all of your other plants?

The answer is a little bit of both. There are some kinds of bamboo plants that have a mind of their own and will take over your entire yard (and then some) at will. There are other kinds of bamboo plants, however, that can look great in your gardening scheme, and better yet, can grow there safely. These two different kinds of bamboo fall into two main categories – runners and clumpers.

As you might guess from the name, runners, also known as running bamboo, is the kind of bamboo that takes off running as soon as you plant it. What happens with this kind of bamboo is that is spreads rhizomes underground if there is a crack in the branch when it is plants (and there will almost always be a crack a in the plant, no matter how careful you are). These rhizomes can travel remarkable distances through the soil, well beyond your yard, and the bamboo will begin to grow wherever the rhizomes travel. Because the rhizomes create one big plant, despite the fact that the above ground growth may be spotty, it is nearly impossible to stop once the spread has begun.

If you live in a temperate area and want bamboo, however, runners are you only choice. The good news is that with the right planting techniques, you can manage runners. When you plant your bamboo, surround the plant with a plastic edge of at least 2 feet under ground – this will keep the rhizomes contained.

The other kinds of bamboo plants – clumping bamboos, or clumpers – do not have the runaway root structure of runners. This kind of bamboo plant spreads a little bit each year, but it overgrows only by a few inches, which is comparable to other perennial plants. The downside of clumpers is that they primarily thrive in tropical zones. There are some hybrid versions that can live in colder weather, but these can be extremely expensive.

If you want to give bamboo a try in your garden, make sure you know what you are getting. Many gardening centers, either through ignorance or design, attempt to sell running bamboo as clumping bamboo. A good rule of thumb to know is that unless you are purchasing bamboo in a tropical area, the bamboo on sale at your local gardening center will always be running bamboo. If you are unsure, plant your bamboo with a plastic underground enclosure anyway, which will not harm clumping bamboo and will stop running bamboo before it starts.

The best way to purchase bamboo may not be in a gardening center at all. Unless your local shop specializes in this relatively exotic plant, your best bet may be to purchase online. That way, you can buy your plants from a reputable dealer who is qualified to tell you exactly what you are getting. For the sake of the rest of the plants in your garden, dealing with a professional can be the best way to make sure you are handling your bamboo properly.

If your bamboo begins to run in your garden, call out a professional gardener immediately. The roots will spread into your neighbor’s yard and can cause costly damage, and you will not be able to stop it on your own. A professional gardener can help save the day.

Are you new to gardening and want to create a beautiful garden design without shelling out a lot of cash to get it done? Do you need advice on how and where to plant things, but you don’t have the money to pay a professional gardener or landscape architect to help you pull things together. You are not alone. Gardening can be a fulfilling hobby that lasts a lifetime, but if you are not careful, it can also become an extremely expensive one. The good news is that there are tons and tons of bits of free information out there for the taking that can help you get your gardening and planting endeavors off the ground. With all of this information at hand, you can save for money for the things you really want to spend it on in your garden – getting new, unique plants and flowers.

When you are looking for gardening ideas, the first thing you have to do is narrow down your search. There is so much information out there that you will be overwhelmed unless you specifically search for one thing or another. For instance, are you a window box gardener? Then look for resources online that offer tips and tools for gardening in window boxes, like how to make your flowers grow towards your house instead of away by flipping your window boxes every few days and how to use full sun flowers in areas that only get part sun by using the reflective power of light colored buildings around your window.

If you want to re-do your back yard with a great new design, look online for themed garden projects. You can find advice for creating a traditional English garden, a Zen Japanese garden, a garden with a water feature, a garden that is perfect for kids and many more ideas. You can also find tips on pruning and shaping shrubbery or using geometrically shaped raised garden beds to create the look you are after.

Perhaps you want to get your garden growing, but you live in a cold climate and aren’t sure what plants will work. The internet is filled with free information about which plants to use, such as ivy, heather, poppies and witch hazel, as well as how to care for them in the cold weather. Find out how to plant tender flowers in hardy climates by placing them in the shade and how to leave a little snow on your plants to protect them from the elements.

If you are an old hand at gardening, but you are looking for some way to introduce your children into you favorite pastime, use the free gardening advice online to find out what plants easiest for children to care for, and which plants are safe for them to be around. For instance, find out how to plant a sunflower garden your child can easily tend without your help.

Of course, if you are an old gardening pro, or even if you are novice with a natural green thumb, the best free gardening advice may come from you. Hobbyist gardeners often enjoy visiting online chat rooms to swap garden war stories and trade tips and techniques to getting the best bloom in their gardens. Get online and share you know how – you might be surprised how much you really do know!

If you can’t find the free gardening and planting advice you need online, a trip to your local garden center should take care of the rest. These centers are filled with professional gardeners who can be a great resource for getting gardening advice tailored specifically for your area.