EZ Gardening For Beginners

Would you love to start your own garden, but you don’t think you have enough space? With a bit of creativity, just about anyone can have a garden. Even the smallest, narrowest yard can sustain a healthy and beautifully vertical garden. Here are some ideas on creating space saving gardens, including the popular vertical garden.

Go Vertical – How this Idea Can Save You Space and Produce Results

Do you dream of a wide backyard that could accommodate a ‘real’ garden? Well, you don’t have to dream anymore. You can have your dream garden without having to budge an inch. What is a vertical garden, anyway? A vertical garden is one of the latest trends in space saving and innovative gardening. Vertical garden, as the name implies, refers to gardens that grow up and down, rather than side to side. How is this possible, you might be asking your self? Thanks to the ingenuity of some cutting edge garden designers, the vertical garden is becoming a reality in gardens around the world.

Standing Face to Face with Your Garden

Most traditional gardeners can expect to be on their knees for most of their gardening life. This is not so with a vertical garden. With a vertical garden, you will instead be standing face to face with your flowers and plants. Imagine standing face to face with your blood-red bougainvillea or climbing rose – no kneeling required for these plants. Vertical gardening is a fun and efficient way to grow many traditional plants.

What Type of Plants Can You Use in Your Vertical Garden?

There are many types of plants that will thrive in a vertical position. The aforementioned bougainvillea and climbing rose are prime examples of the beauty and possibility of vertical gardening. In general, you will want to focus on vines and climbing plants. There are several plants that grow as vines, and many of these can lend your garden with showy blooms as well as food. And since vines grow vertically, they are ideal plants for a garden that is lacking width. There are also many fine climbing plants that can provide you with seasonal blooms and evergreen beauty. Visit your local nursery for the best local selection of regional vines and climbing plants.

What You Can Expect from Your Vertical Garden

There are many noteworthy aspects attributed to vertical gardens. First, vertical gardening can provide you with the convenience that is not possible with traditional floor planting. Vertical gardening provides you with convenience by making it easy for you to reach your plants. You will have an easier time when it comes to pruning, inspecting your plants for pests and enjoying the aroma and beauty of your plants. If you are growing vegetables and fruits in your vertical garden, you can expect to find cleaner fruits and vegetables because they are not making direct contact with the ground and thus are less likely to experience rot and moisture. Vertical gardens are also less prone to disease, insect infestation, fungus and mildew, because they receive better air circulation and sunshine.

Special Considerations for the Vertical Garden

There are special considerations to keep in mind when you are constructing your own vertical garden. These include making sure that your plants are properly supported. This can be one of the greatest challenges of the vertical gardeners. Also, vertical gardening can become difficult when you cannot reach certain spots in your garden. Ideally, you will want to control the growth of your plants, and have some kind of system of elevation where you can inspect top growth periodically. Vertical gardens also produce shade, so make certain to protect underlying plants that may not be getting enough sunlight.

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.

Annual plants are known for their seasonal color and showy blooms. Indeed, the best way to make your garden sparkle with color and texture is by planting seasonal annuals. There are some annuals that require constant attention and are designed to bloom for only a short period. However, there are also many easy annual plants that have a long growing and blooming season. Here are some top choices for easy annual plants that come back year after year.

Alyssum – Sweet Honey Scent Returns Every Year

Alyssum is an annual plant that should be planted from October through April. It is readily available as seed or nursery stock. It is low growing, reaching a maximum height of six inches. It grows well alongside roses and bulbs, and helps to hid drying foliage on these plants. Alyssum reseeds white, pink and lavender flower and grows well along the edges of your garden. The hardy annual releases a rich honey scent and reseeds every year, several times throughout the season. Alyssum likes full sun and alkaline soil, except in the summertime, where it thrives in afternoon shade to prolong its bloom. The Alyssum is known to attract many beneficial insects and is known to attract butterflies. If you want some friendly visitors in your garden each summer, consider this easy annual plant.

Bachelor’s Buttons – Long Blooming Annual

If you are looking for an easy, long blooming annual, then bachelor’s buttons may be just what you’re looking for. This annual should be planted in full sun from September through November. It is available as seed or nursery stock. It is known to attract bees and other beneficial pollinators, and is known to benefit wheat crops and rye. This annual is traditionally blue, but it is now available in a variety of shades, mostly pinks and purples. It makes a good cut flower and is known to be very long blooming. Bachelor’s buttons are also known as cornflower, because they are known to grow along rows of cornfields.

Chrysanthemum – A Beautiful, Disease-Free Annual for Your Garden

Are you looking for a hardy annual that is not prone to disease? The Chrysanthemum is a flower that is known for its classic beauty and scent. It is an annual that should be planted between October through April, and it is available as seed and nursery stock. It is a low-growing plant that reaches eight to ten inches in height, with many small flowers. Most of these plants bloom white with yellow centers. This flower is known to attract many beneficial insects, including butterflies and other pollinators. The Chrysanthemum has long been recognized as a good companion to the lettuce. It is also known to be free of pests and disease. You can plant the Chrysanthemum with bulbs and as edgings throughout your garden.

Dianthus – An Annual with a Perennial Flair

If you want an annual that often acts like a perennial, dianthus, sometimes referred to as Pinks, will last from year to year with proper care. Plant Dianthus in full sun from mid-August to February making sure that the plants gets afternoon shade. They are available as seed or nursery seed. This plant needs good drainage, and grows well as a low-growing border plant in front of taller plants in your garden. They are known to attract many beneficial insects, and their bright colors are known as crowd-pleasers in the garden. If you compost, you will want to compost all the spent blooms and clippings, because they are known to release rich minerals. Dianthus is known as an old favorite, treasured for its spicy scent and long bloom period.