Grow Giant Oriental Lilies

Grow Giant Oriental Lilies

If you are new to the gardening scene, it may be a bit daunting to try and select a particular kind of flowering plant or theme of perennial to begin landscaping your property. There are many factors to evaluate but I like to keep things simple and easy. Choose varieties that are perennial and require little maintenance, but be careful of some fast growing perennials because once they get established and growing they are sometimes impossible to stop.

Periwinkle and ivy are two very invasive plants that I will never plant myself and will always recommend against adding it to your garden. It’s great for two years and quite lovely, but after that it’s everywhere and you are pulling it from your entire yard.

The giant Oriental lily has to be my favorite flower for so many reasons, and I recommend it to all new gardeners and those who want a low maintenance beautiful showy garden. The bulbs are available for purchase in most areas in spring and fall. They grow quickly and you will get quite a nice display in just the first year from a medium size bulb planted in spring. The true spectacle of the giant lily isn’t seen until the bulb has been left to establish itself for a few years. Each year that it returns it grows bigger, taller and has more and more huge flowers atop stalks a few inches around, that look like they should be a small tree.

Some varieties of giant oriental lily grow 9 feet tall! Most range from 7′ to 9′ and with good care and fertilizing you can easily grow them so large you need a ladder to cut the flowers for a magnificently fragrant display inside. But it’s best to leave them on the stalk to grow, and the flowers will last a month or more each. I recommend planting them along a wall or in front of a hedge where you can see them easily from high traffic windows and doors of your home. They are also a great space filler and it’s nice to plant them as a background layer behind lower shrubs in front. You’ll see them, be able to smell them and get to appreciate their beauty several times a day.

One important consideration is giving the stalk adequate support as it grows, it may need a little help in standing straight. It will become very heavy and they will likely be able to hold themselves up under normal conditions but a wind storm will create some serious problems for them and could likely ruin your garden by snapping the stalks right off. Give them the shelter of a wall or the wind break of a hedge and they will be fine. If you really have no options and they need to be out in the open, then stick a long, strong stake deep into the ground next to the stalk and then loosely tie them together.

The only other thing that threatens the emerging lily is slugs, depending on how much rain you get in your region. Slugs love the tasty young lily sprout and will eat it faster than it can grow. If the new parts of your sprout are not pointy then you have them and they are feasting every night as you sleep. If slugs are a problem in your area then purchase some bait from your local nursery and apply it every week throughout the rainy season of both spring and fall. There are also traps available but they must be cleaned out and emptied of the dead ones. If you use bait they usually just disappear.

By Stacydee 

Ways To Keep Cats Out Of Gardens

Ways To Keep Cats Out Of Gardens

One of the greatest pests we face as gardeners is an animal most of us love dearly. Cats. If you have even a small patch of soil barely big enough to call a garden, you can bet that a neighborhood cat (or even your own) has found it and started using it as a litter box. Once they start it’s really hard to get them to move on and stop doing that.

One point to make clear is that raw cat feces is not the same as a good quality manure type fertilizer. It is not good for the soil and definitely not good for the plants.

What choices does one have? There are several products on the market that can scare away the cat, and some recipes that help to repel the cat and deter them from using your hard work and beautiful garden as a toilet.

Motion detecting water sprinklers, a great device and works well when it’s sprinkling season and the system is set up. It works by activating a water jet when the cat walks near by. The cats will soon learn to find an easier place.

What about all the months when the soil is exposed in the winter or rainy season, but there is no need to have a watering system set up.

There are commercial products available that can be applied as a odor deterrent. These products do not smell strong enough for us to be put off, but often work for the sensitive noses of the cats. Many of these products are based on capsicum oil, from cayenne peppers. Many products are of natural source and often derived from plants. The cats won’t like the smell when they dig.

The most ingenious idea for deterring cats that I’ve heard recently is to use mouse traps. But not like you would for mice. The method is to set the traps but don’t put any bait or food on them, then set them upside down on top of your garden bed. Leave them there. What do you think is going to happen? When the cat comes to dig and disturbs the traps, the traps will SNAP and probably pop up in the air and scare the heck out of the cat. It won’t take long for the cat to move along and leave your garden alone. Remember to be careful the next time you go out to garden though, disarm the traps with a stick and reset them when you are done gardening for the day.

Sometimes if you are completely at a loss, then you may have to use a physical deterrent. This is sometimes not aesthetically the most appealing option but you may have to resort to it, if you’ve tried everything else. Purchase the strongest black plastic netting you can find and lay that out across your garden and do your planting through the holes. If you have a large plant or a tree, then cut out a segment and plant in a larger opening. This will make it very difficult for the cats to dig. If you can’t find black, you could use the orange plastic construction fencing and cover it with a bark mulch to disguise the bright orange.

You may have to employ more than one method to beat the cat problem in your yard and garden, but follow these tips and you should have a much higher success level at repelling the cats from your garden.

By Stacydee 

The Mason Bee Needs Our Help

The Mason Bee Needs Our Help

Everyone know about honey bees and that they pollinate our flowers and gardens so the plants produce a harvest. They of course give the extra gift of honey and make that for themselves and us. Some people know about the honeybee mite that is decimating the population and killing millions of honey bees around the world. But very few people know and understand how serious the problem really is and that our food supply is gravely threatened if pollination doesn’t occur. It’s simple, just like in our home garden, if the field doesn’t get enough bees then fruit and vegetables don’t grow.

What happens if food doesn’t grow??

This is where the industrious Mason Bee steps in. The mason bee is 75% more efficient than a honey bee and are great pollinators. The only draw back is that they do not produce honey. But they will pollinate, and that will save our food supply.

The mason bee is easy to care for and you can easily create a habitat for them and help their population expand, while at the same time completely guarantee your garden gets fully pollinated. There are commercially made bee homes you can buy with disposable tubes to use in the holes. You can even buy the bees themselves (in cocoons) in the good quality nurseries.

You can start out with buying just a bee home and setting that out around mid to late February, and if you are lucky the bees that are already around looking for a nesting spot will find your home and begin using it without you doing anything. It’s important to place the bee house in a sheltered location about 4′ off the ground facing southeast where they can catch the morning sun. An added bonus would be if you can put it near a source of mud for the female to use in laying her eggs.

If you live in a wooded area or an area known to have woodpeckers in it, it’s very important to protect your bees. They love eating mason bees and the cocoons as well, they will peck them right out of the tubes like a little buffet. Protecting them is easy to do, just go to your local hardware store and buy some wire netting or small chicken wire with openings about 1cm square. Make a “bubble” of the wire around the bee home and secure it on all sides to the tree or wall that it’s attached to. The bees will be completely unobstructed but the woodpeckers will have no access to the bees.

These bees are very docile and gentle, the are very unlikely to sting. The males cannot sting at all and the females will only sting if they get trapped in your clothing or pressed in some way. We must avoid killing honey bees and mason bees at all cost, we depend on it. Pesticides meant to kill harmful pests also kill the bees, so limit the use of household pesticides in your yard and garden. This is a great year to start mason bee keeping!

By Stacydee 

Plant A Backyard Vegetable Garden

 Plant A Backyard Vegetable Garden

Having a small garden in your backyard can be very healthy and relaxing for the mind. The peace and tranquility that the plants provide is calming and can help you in dealing with the rest of life’s trials and pressures.

Planting a backyard vegetable garden is easier than you might think and can be quite inexpensive as well. Gather a few containers, the bigger the better. Usually you can find large black nursery pots that other people don’t want and take those, they are perfect for the backyard vegetable garden. Even one large round container can be divided and used for a mini “square foot gardening” type arrangement and produce and significant harvest. If you have the space planting two or three large containers will supplement the food budget for a small family quite nicely.

I use toy tubs that are sold for storage and kids toys. They are cheap and readily available at many stores. All you need to do is drill some holes in the bottom and in the sides low down near the ground for drainage. They work best when they are set up on blocks a few inches off the ground so the water can drain out and air can flow under the pot.

The do have their drawbacks when used for this purpose but if you are gentle with them you can use the tubs for up to 5 years before they really begin to show wear and tear. The tubs are not meant to hold that much weight so they become brittle and can split if they are banged in any way, so move them carefully. If you can adapt and handle that then they are the cheapest and largest planter pots you will ever find.

The toy tubs are big enough to be divided into 4 soil segments, this allows enough room to plant 4 different food plants at the same time. You can grow carrots, beans, peas and radishes all in one container or choose any combination you like. If you have two, then you can easily have 8 different types and harvest all the homegrown veggies you can handle.

I recommend planting pole beans, any variety or color is good. Buy an 8′ pole (or taller) bamboo stake from the store and stick that down to the bottom of the pot right on the edge. Drill two small holes and tie the pole to the side of the container, so it remains stable when the bean plant gets heavy. Plant the bean seeds near the base of the pole so when they grow they can attach themselves easily. They don’t take up very much space and produce best when continually harvested throughout the season.

Peas can be grown this way as well, they don’t grow as tall but appreciate the support of a shorter pole or mini trellis. The options are nearly endless with a little ingenuity and creativity. Your backyard vegetable garden is only an afternoon of planning and construction away.

By Stacydee 

How To Make Raised Beds

How To Make Raised Beds

When you are building your backyard garden, one of the easiest ways to avoid a lot of hassles with soil and pests is to use the very practical and easy to build system of raised beds. Gardening in raised beds has many advantages including:

• There’s no need to dig into your lawn or yard when you choose to build raised beds.
• The raised bed will eliminate many pests and soil borne issues.
• You have greater control over the nutrients and feeding of the plants.
• There’s good drainage with them as well, the excess water simply runs out the corners and sides.
• You will be able to fill them with high quality soil. No need to repair the soil you have.
• They are raised up from ground level so you don’t have to crawl around on hands and knees.
• You can do it for nearly no cost using recycled building materials.

If you have a hammer, a vehicle and the ability to go around town and collect a few discarded pallets, then you have all that’s necessary to get the materials needed to build your own raised beds without opening your wallet at all. It’s important to choose pallets that are made from plain, unpainted white wood though, do not use treated green or blue wood for your gardening.

Make sure you are collecting the pallets from people and places that are actually throwing them out or not going to use them. Quite often if you just ask, people are thankful for the removal and allow you to take them no problem. Don’t steal pallets. Once you have 5 or 6 of them on hand, bang them apart with a hammer and remove the nails as well. It takes some effort and time but it’ll be worth it.

You’ll likely need a saw to cut the pieces once you determine the desired dimensions of your bed. Use the thinner 1 by 4 boards vertically, stacking them on their sides horizontally to make the sides and ends. Stand the 2 by 4′s vertically for the corners by making an “L” shape and screw it all together. There’s no need to put any wood on the bottom, the bed will just sit as is where you’ve built it. You can also add a top edge to it by laying one of the thin boards flat on the top, cut the corners to fit and nail it down. Doing this gives a finishing touch and completed look to the bed.

Line the inside and bottom of the bed with landscape fabric, this will help keep out pests, retain a little moisture and prevent the soil from leaking out over time. I don’t recommend stain or any chemical treatment as this could leach into the soil. Your raised bed will last you several years before you face any wood rotting issues.

You can build any style of raised you bed you like. Anything from just a plain rectangle 12″ deep to a tiered masterpiece with different levels of garden bed. There are many designs and pictures in books and online to give you ideas. Learn more about small space gardening and start growing some food today.

By Stacydee 

Make Your Own Pallet Garden

Make Your Own Pallet Garden

You have many options when it comes to building your backyard garden. Some are easy and take a day or two to set up, such as filling and setting up a few containers and throwing some nursery plants in them. Some set ups are really involved, using costly materials and construction can be quite time consuming.

Each has their own list of pro’s and con’s and you must evaluate what is right for you. From in-ground garden beds to 2′ tall raised beds to rows of containers and hanging baskets and don’t forget the hanging containers for tomatoes and other veggies. The options are plentiful and limited only by your creativity. Do what you have the capacity and space for. Do what suits your needs and available materials.

My garden is made up of largely reused and recycled materials including broken paving stones with gravel in between, unused but in good condition discarded pallets and reclaimed black nursery pots. Unbelievably this adds up to an elaborate container garden that resembles a nursery with walkways and distinct plant sections, that didn’t cost very much money to build.

To copy my method, locate some no longer wanted pallets that are in good shape and a roll of landscape fabric. If your yard is not level then you’ll need smaller flat stones as well to level out the platform with. It’s important to set your containers properly and level, if you don’t then watering becomes quite difficult and your plant doesn’t get the water it needs, it just runs over the edge washing away before it can soak in.

Remove the grass underneath if you don’t want to deal with any mowing or trimming and having it grow through the slats of the pallets. I removed the grass in between my rows as well because I didn’t want to deal with it growing anywhere in my garden, I removed it and replaced it with broken reclaimed paving stones and gravel on top of landscape fabric. No grass, no weeds, no problem, ever.

Decide where you want your aisles to be then lay down your fabric and secure it with some stones or handfuls of gravel. Ask for help from a friend and lift the pallets onto the fabric and place them down carefully so the fabric remains flat. Use the flat stones, or even chunks of wood to level out the pallets. Make sure the pieces are big enough to create a stable platform, small ones will leave it wobbly and unsafe.

The pallet system works great for air flow in and around the containers, and if they rot or break they are very easy to replace. You can even rearrange your garden with a complete new layout with only a little effort and one or two afternoons outside.

If you are a renter and cannot do any digging then this could be your answer to having a garden. The most you might have to do is reseed the grass when you move out. That’s a small price to pay when you consider the benefits gained by having a garden like this right outside your door. Good luck and happy planting.

By Stacydee 

How To Grow A Money Tree

How To Grow A Money Tree

I wish I knew how to grow a real money tree that produces cash, but for now I’m limited to this lovely and very tolerant house plant. The Chinese used this plant because it was believed that the shape of the leaves symbolized the harmony between the environment and humans. The money tree has a rich and deep history dating back centuries.

The Pachira plant, or its’ more commonly known name the Chinese money tree is a great choice for the home or office that has less than ideal light conditions. It prefers the dimmer conditions of a corner that other plants simply would not be able to grow in.

These plants are easily available from the stores and nurseries in many sizes and styles. Make sure you pick a high quality store that sells healthy plants. If you buy a plant that already has issues then your chances of success are greatly reduced. Some of them are very beautiful and expensive with braided trunks, buy the one you like and the choose the right size one that fits the place or corner you want to fill.

Once you choose the location for the plant try not to move it around after that, most house plants prefer to be left alone after they have been given a home. This plant likes to be only the dry side, but not like a cactus.

The biggest thing that causes people to have difficulty growing house plants is our need to have them on a schedule. Plants don’t operate that way, they need to be watered when they need it-not every week or a certain amount every few days. I know that sounds impossible to figure out but water when the plant it is dry but not too dry. Other considerations include time of year, outside humidity and size of pot.

If your money tree is in distress the first thing you will notice is, no new growth. This is true for most house plants. If you don’t see new baby leaves and branches growing then you need to take action to help your plant. Assessing the symptoms is often the hardest part. Look for bugs, scales, teeny tiny webs, anything that looks like it shouldn’t be there and buy the appropriate product from the store to kill the pest. If your plant has been over watered or if the trunk is mushy in any way, you will likely not be able to save it. Rot is usually irreversible.

The next thing that this plant loves is clean leaves. Take a clean, soft damp cloth and wipe down the leaves every two weeks or so. The plant “breathes” through its’ leaves and the dust clogs that function. Then mist the leaves with a fine water spray. This will help many aspects of the plants’ health and you will really notice the difference. I like to think the money tree is good luck and will bring prosperity.

If you follow these simple tips and maybe even talk to them a little bit, I’m sure you will have tremendous success with your house plants even if you never have before. I hope you learned a little about money trees today.

By Stacydee 

The Miracle of Manure

The-Miracle-of-Manure

December 19th, 2011 

Beyond the copious amount of nutrients in manure is one of the most underrated and misunderstood ingredient–the final link between the dead and the living world.  Without this ingredient, life on the plant would not exist.  This miracle is called bacteria. 

These micro-organisms break down all living matter and even rock to its basic elements which can then be consumed by plants. Rhizobium has an extremely rare ability to take nitrogen from the air and convert it to the only form usable by the plant.  Rhizobium survives through a symbiotic relationship with plants such as legumes.  The legumes supply them with sugars and organic acids and they in turn repay the favour with nitrogenous compounds.

Manure introduces these bacterium and helps to maintain the culture. So when you smell your garden dirt that is the actinomyces.

Why Use Manure

Why Use Manure
January 3rd, 2012

Manures provide added trace elements, enzymes, vitamins and other plant growth factors. They improve soil structure and build soil humus. It greatly increases the population of beneficial and disease suppressing micro-organisms. Manures release the nutrients slowly and provide plant food over a period of months and years.

Manures provide a whole array of nutrients essential for plant and human nutrition such as vanadium, iodine, selenium, chromium and a host of vitamins and other phytochemicals. Chemical fertilizers have no beneficial micro-organisms as they destroy them and does not contain the minerals and vitamins which are essential elements.

These nutrients are only available in manure. They create more robust and healthier flowers and far more nutritious and better tasting vegetables.

Our manures provide added trace elements, enzymes, vitamins, and other plant growth factors missing in chemical fertilizers. Unlike chemical fertilizers, manures improve soil structure and increase soil workability. Manures provide slow release nutrients. Vegetables grown with manures contain fewer nitrates than chemically grown vegetables. High nitrate consumption has been proven to increase the risk of cancer. Growing with manure improves the taste, aroma (duh!), nutritional value and quality of produce. Vegetables grown with manures have been shown to have up to 12 times as many nutrients as vegetables grown with conventional soils. Further studies have shown organic vegetables contain 6X the levels of salicylic acid as found in conventionally grown vegetables. Salicylic acid (Aspirin) has been linked in other studies to provide effective protection against cancer, heart attacks and strokes. Our rich, fertile manures transform poor worn out dirt into rich and highly productive loam – no doctor visits required.

The foundation of containers and baskets

The foundation of containers and baskets

February 8th, 2012 

Spring is just around the corner and soon people want to put together their container gardens and baskets.  The foremost concern with a container or basket is the soil that is used. 

The two main problems with container soils are that it can be too heavy of a soil, which tends to break the hanger, or it just constantly dries out.  The best soil is a light, porous soil that has extremely high water retention and is high in organic matter and nutrients.

Using the proper soil will help generate beautiful and healthy baskets and containers.