backyard landscaping ideas

Get Ideas From Gardening Magazines

2011-09-27T14:27:00.000-07:00

Even the most seasoned gardeners will have a questionabout their garden once in a while, and you can bet that beginners will be fullof questions. Gardening magazines can help with questions that arise involvingnearly every aspect of gardening. Not only will gardening magazines giveinstructions on gardening, they also provide readers with the latest news inthe gardening world.

Gardening magazine subscribers are privy to all of thelatest information regarding things such as new gardening tools, fertilizers,and pesticides that are introduced to the market. For example, there are alwaysnew programs and clubs for gardeners to join, or perhaps a local gardeningclass that is available. When new tools are produced, such as a new kind ofblower or vacuum, or new kinds of lawn mowers or tillers that are available, agardening magazine is the best place to get all of the information. Not onlywill these magazines tell you about these products, they will also give youoptions on where to find them and for the lowest costs.

Gardening magazines offer hints and tips on how to ridyour garden of those ever pesky insects. They will also discuss the many waysto recognize and fight diseases that may overtake your plants. The informationyou get from these magazines could be what ends up saving your garden.

Gardening magazines usually come with a gardeningmaintenance section that will instruct readers on things like how to prune,when to divide, which fertilizers would be better for your plants, and how muchto water. They provide simple, easy to understand instructions on everythingfrom how to deal with weeds to planting tulips.

Gardening magazines give ideas about landscaping and, ifenforced, could change the entire outlook of your yard or flower garden. Gardendesigns can be difficult at best, and magazines can supply gardeners withinspiration and ideas on what will look good and suit their area.

Garden magazines also give subscribers the chance towrite questions to be published so that they can get a specific answer from agardening professional. They also provide gardeners with the chance to sharetheir knowledge and expertise with the public by submitting articles of theirchoice for publication. One of the highest honors in gardening is to have yourlawn or garden displayed in a magazine for everyone to see. It is definitelythe pinnacle of gardening.

Gardening magazines provide gardeners with inspiration,ideas, instruction, and even entertainment. Many times gardening magazines willalso provide readers with coupons that they can use to purchase items that willeither improve, enlarge, or enhance their gardens. Gardening magazines are aprimary source for both beginner and experienced gardeners everywhere to getall the latest news and age old gardening traditions at the same time.

Gardening Advice

2011-09-21T14:37:00.000-07:00

Garden advice is not that hard to come by. In fact, you can get gardening advice fromanother gardener, in a gardening catalogue, gardening books, gardeningmagazines, and even on the Internet. Although you will have variations with every plant, there is somegardening advice that is universal and that goes for any plant.

For example, the gardening advice given for planting ispretty much uniform. You must placeplants where they will have room to grow so they don’t overcrowd each other. Good air flow is a plus, and plants must bein a position where they will receive adequate amounts of sunlight. Advice will always tell you to add some typeof nutrients to the soil to lead to better plant growth, such as mulch orcompost.

Gardening advice on watering plants is a little morevaried, because every type of plant needs different amounts of water. For example, you wouldn’t want to water acactus near as much as you water a tomato plant. How much you water will obviously also dependon where you live, the climate, and how much rain your area receives.

Gardening advice from nearly every source will tell youthat your plants not only need fertilize when you first plant them, they willalso needed to be fertilized throughout their growing season. What type of fertilize used will depend onthe soil content and pH balance, but fertilize will definitely be needed onmost all plants. Compost can be used insteadand it is easy to find advice on how to make a compost pile as well as whenfertilize and compost needs to be used.

Gardening advice on weeds, insects, disease, and how toget rid of them is probably the most sought after advice in all ofgardening. These pests invade allgardens and if you don’t get rid of them, they will take over and ruin yourgarden. There are many differentchemicals and pesticides that can be used, and gardening advice will usuallyclue gardeners in on which chemicals are better, which are harmful, and which onesare easier to administer.

Gardening is not an easy task; you have to fight againstmany outside forces, such as weather, insects, disease, and weeds. Even the most seasoned of gardeners will seekout gardening advice once in a while. Who wouldn’t when there are so many forces that could take a gardenout? There is a lot of general gardeningadvice on the market that goes for any plant, but if you look a little harderyou will find specific advice for that one plant that is the only one givingyou trouble. Gardening advice isrelatively easy to find, and while you may come across the occasional badapple, most of it is relatively sound and will help with any gardening question.

Backyard Landscaping Ideas: Grow Fresh Vegetables

2011-09-04T15:24:00.000-07:00

Fresh homegrown vegetables during the cold winter months might seem impossible, but it's not. Set up a small greenhouse next to your garage or house and you're halfway home to having crunchy cucumbers, tangy tomatoes and fresh lettuces for your salads.

Choose vegetables that don't up a lot of space, taste considerably better homegrown than store bought and you like. Squash isn't a good choice because they are space hogs. Tomatoes are a good choice because they can be tied to a support to keep them neat and tidy and store-bought tomatoes don't taste nearly as good as homegrown. Lettuce works well because it can be harvested when only 4 inches tall.

Fill the peat pots with new potting soil. Mix in slow release fertilizer as the package directs. Water thoroughly. Place the seeds on top of the soil, two per pot and cover with 1/4 inch of soil. Press down lightly and mist the top.

Place the pots under the grow lights in the greenhouse to get them started. When they have sprouted and are about 4-inches tall thin to the strongest seedlings.

Transplant to the 1-gallon pot when the seedlings are 6-inches tall. Replace under the grow lights. Move the grow lights up as the plant grows. Outside vegetables need eight hours of sunlight. If the day is cloudy and sun isn't reaching inside the greenhouse keep the grow lights on longer.

Check the plants for bugs. Mist them off or use a non toxic home and garden spray meant for vegetables.

Fertilize with half strength water soluble fertilizer every two weeks or every fourth watering.

Harvest lettuce or leafy greens like spinach when the leaves are 4-inches long by cutting individual leaves off with the scissors. Trim from the outside. The plant will consider to grow and produce.

Brush the flowers of vegetables like tomatoes and cucumbers with a soft brush so you move the pollen from one flower to another to fertilize them. Another alternative is to use a commercial blossom set product.

Keep ripe vegetables picked so the plant keeps producing.

Beans and peas take up a lot of space for the amount of produce they grow.

Backyard Landscaping Ideas: Build a Smoker Pit

2011-09-03T15:21:00.000-07:00

Pork ribs, crispy on the outside, succulent on the inside with a smoky flavor infused throughout doesn't have to only come from a restaurant. Smoking meat at home is possible even if you don't have the latest and greatest smoker. Use the techniques of lobster bakes at the beach combined with pit BBQ. Build a homemade smoker pit on Saturday and enjoy home-smoked meats on Sunday. Here's how to build your own smoker pit.

Building the Smoker Pit
Dig a hole in a secluded area of the yard that doesn't get much traffic. The hole should be 3x3 feet and 2-feet deep. Surround the hole with upright posts, fencing, or big rocks on three sides so people are aware it's there. The barrier doesn't have to be tall; 18 inches will be fine.

Put a 6-inch layer of sand in the bottom of the pit and level it.

Stack the cement blocks in the pit. Stack them two high -- total height will be 16 inches -- in a rectangle shape that measures on the exterior of the blocks 24x16 inches. Stack the blocks directly on top of each other.

You will need 20 blocks, six for each 24-inch long side and four for each of the 16-inch long sides. There should be a gap on all four sides of the cement blocks to the wall of the pit. The gap on the 24-inch long side of the blocks to the wall of the pit will be 6 inches. The gap on the 16-inch long side will be 10 inches. Think of it as a rectangle inside a square. Since the stack is only two blocks high or 16 inches, it doesn't matter whether you use solid cement blocks or the ones with holes.

Cut a piece of wire mesh that is 26x18 inches. Lay the mesh over the cement blocks. Place a brick on each corner of the mesh to hold it in place. This mesh will support the cooking grid.

Barbecue Ideas

Smoking in the Smoker Pit
Remove the mesh and place a roasting pan with 4 inches of water on the sand in the center of the cement rectangle. Replace the mesh. Build a fire in the pit on the outside of the cement blocks in the 10 inch gaps between the blocks and the dirt sides of the pit. Use charcoal briquettes, natural charcoal or wood.

There is no fire in the middle of the pit because that's where the pan of water is. Wait for the fire to burn down or the charcoal to be covered with gray ash. Put the meat on a grill cooking grid and then place the cooking grid on the mesh.

Add wood chunks on top of the burnt down wood or charcoal. If the chunks start to flame, spray with water until the flame goes out. Watch for a few minutes to make sure they don't flare up again. If they do, spray again. Soak the next batch of wood in water for 15 minutes first.
Place the large piece of mesh on top of the smoking pit and cover it with aluminum foil held down with rocks.

Backyard Landscaping Ideas: Potatoes in Stacked Tires

2011-09-02T15:20:00.000-07:00

Tire Planter
Place three tires horizontally on the ground. Fill with composting materials. One third green matter such as grass clippings, one third brown matter such as dead leaves and one third kitchen refuse like vegetable peelings, coffee grinds and tea bags. Water so the ingredients are lightly moistened.

Add two more tires on top of the first three when the first three have been filled with compost material. It may take several weeks to get enough composting material to do that. Fill the top two tires with the mixture of garden soil and compost.

Plant vegetables that demand rich soil and that vine or trail such as cucumbers, melons and tomatoes. The stack of tires gives the vines room to grow down instead of spreading out on the ground. The compost in the bottom adds lots of organic material.

Backyard Landscaping Ideas: Grow Potatoes in tire planters

2011-09-01T15:18:00.000-07:00

If you have old car tires hanging around in the garage put them to work growing vegetables. Remove the center hub and just use the rubber tire itself. The tires make handy plant containers when set in the garden. They are also useful stacked. The tires will last quite a few seasons and can be used year after year.

Grow Potatoes in Tires
Lay a tire horizontally on the top of the ground. It's not necessary to cultivate the ground. If grass is growing where you lay the tire, cover the grass with a one inch thick layer of newspaper.

Mix garden soil with equal amounts compost or organic material. Fill the centers of the car tire with the mixture. It's not necessary to pack the insides of the tire tubes with soil. Enough should spread out from the center of the tire to do the job.

Plant three seed potatoes in the soil about an inch under the soil in the center of the tire. Water until the soil is completely wet.

Add another tire on top of the first one when the potato has sprouted and is 8 inches tall. Fill that tire with additional soil mixture. Potatoes form on the stem area that is underground. Burying the stem by adding a tire and filling it with soil means more potatoes will be formed. Continue adding additional tires as the potato grows until the stack is four or five tires high.

Water if there is less than an inch of rainfall per week.

Harvest the potatoes when the plant has blossomed, the leaves turn yellow and starts to wither. That's when the potatoes are ready. Remove the tires one by one and search through the soil with a hand shovel.

Backyard Landscaping Ideas: Annuals: More Pansies

2011-08-31T15:16:00.000-07:00

Johnny Jump-Ups
The plants are the same size as sorbet pansies but the flowers are half the size. When in full bloom the plant is literally covered with flowers. Johnny jump-ups are a lovely way to edge a spring flower bed. Colors include orange with purple, yellow with purple, light purple with dark purple and light yellow with dark yellow.

Icicle Pansies and Violas
These flowers are bred to be very winter hardy. The green leaves covered with snow or ice give the appearance the plant has died but it hasn't. At the first breath of spring it will send up new leaves and begin flowering.

Swiss Mix Giant Pansies
The plants are from 8 to 12 inches and spread to 15 inches. The flowers are huge, for a pansy that is, reaching 2 to 2/12 inches across. They will survive a light frost but not a cold freeze. Plant them in the early fall if you live in a mild winter areas. Wait until spring if your winters are tough.

Backyard Landscaping Ideas: Pansies

2011-08-30T15:14:00.000-07:00

Pansies, a short lived perennial, are members of the viola family. Pansies have the characteristic cat face markings on the flower's five petals. Violas are the same flower without those markings. Pansies bloom from very early spring until the weather heats up in summer. The plant stops blooming but remains green. When the weather cools off again in the fall they resume blooming. Pansies are frost tolerant and will weather a late or early frost. Pansies require rich soil and a sunny location.

Sorbet Pansies
The plants reach a foot across and 8 inches high. The flowers are the size of a teaspoon. According to Megan McConnell Hughes, in her article "Sweet Treats" Early Spring 2008 issue of "Country Gardens," sorbet pansies don't need to be deadheaded to continue blooming profusely. The spent blossoms drop off the plants. Colors include lemon chiffon with light yellow petals and brown markings, coconut swirl with white petals edged with purple. Orange duet mixes three orange petals backed by two purple petals. Blue heaven mixes three light purple petals edged with medium purple backed by two dark purple petals. Sorbet pansies are also available in dark burgundy mixed with yellow.

Backyard Landscaping Ideas: Moon Garden

2011-08-29T15:13:00.000-07:00

Moon Garden
White flowers glow in the moonlight. Plant a bed with bulbs that start blooming in spring and continue through the end of summer. Tulips, hyacinths, cyclamen and freesia bloom in spring and come in white. Summer bulbs include gladiolus, Asian lilies, oriental lilies, day lilies and Bella Donna lilies. Plant medium height white flowers to mask the yellowing leaves of bulbs that have finished blooming. Good choices would include gerbera daisies, Shasta daisies, petunias, chrysanthemums and pansies.

Backyard Landscaping Ideas: More Ideas on Growing Fresh Vegetables

2011-08-28T15:25:00.000-07:00

Growing your own food has a number of advantages. The produce is fresh and doesn't waste time being hauled from the field to the packaging plant and finally to the grocery stores. You have control over what, if any, pesticides and fertilizers are being used. The variety of vegetables is more extensive than that found at the store. There are hundreds of varieties of tomatoes for example. Planning a food plot entails some preparation but the rewards are well worth it. Here's how to grow your own food.

Select a location that gets full sun all day. Hobby gardeners can afford to plant in areas that won't get the full production out of the garden. Gardeners who plant to provide food for their family can't. Vegetables and fruits need at least eight hours of sun a day.

Determine how much of your food you want to grow. That determines the size of the food plot. What you plant will also have an impact on size. Corn is a space hog. It requires three square feet of ground to produce two ears of corn.

Check with your local university agricultural extension to see what varieties of vegetables and fruits are recommended for your geographic location.

Choose vegetables you like. If you're not a fan of spinach, don't waste the space planting it because you won't eat it. Instead plant chard, kale or another leafy green you do like.

Double dig the food plot. Start at one end of the garden and dig a 12-inch deep trench. When you reach the end fill the trench with 3-inches of compost. Start digging a second trench right next to the first. Use the dirt from the second trench to fill in the first. When you reach the end of the second trench, add 3-inches of compost to it and start the third trench. Continue until the food plot has been completely dug up.

Add slow release fertilizer per package directions and dig the garden again by lifting a shovelful of soil and turning it over. Rake the plot smooth. Check for low and high areas and level them out so water doesn't pool.

Plant cool season vegetables such as peas, lettuces, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbages in early spring when the last average date of frost is past. If you want to get a jump start on spring start the seeds inside a four to six weeks earlier.

Water the vegetables if rainfall doesn't equal 1 1/2 inches a week. How much and for how long depends on the weather conditions. Soil should be wet to a depth of six inches. Check with your finger or use a screwdriver.

Plant warm season vegetables like tomatoes, beans, corn, squash and eggplant when the days are reaching into the 70s and above and the nights aren't cooler than 65 degrees F.

Make sure the plants have adequate water and fertilize once a month.

Harvest crops that ripen all at once like potatoes, corn, pole beans and determine tomatoes when they're ripe. Harvest crops that produce all season when the individual vegetables are ready. Leaving the vegetables on the plant slows down production.

Be ready to can, dry, store or freeze your food crops after harvesting. Some like potatoes may be stored in a cool place for several weeks. Others like corn need to be frozen immediately. Still others like beans can be dried for use later.

Backyard Landscaping Ideas: Hidden Hideaway

2011-08-27T15:09:00.000-07:00

Most landscapes are wide open with all areas of the yard viewable from every other area of the yard. Why not create a little nook for your hidden hideaway? A corner of the yard works well especially. Hide unsightly fencing such as chain link with a screen of bamboo fencing. It provides privacy, is inexpensive and easy to attach. Arrange seating such as a chaise lounge, bench or patio chairs. Set a small table by the chairs for resting drinks or a book. Place the seating in the corner of the hideaway. Plant shrubs that grow to six feet high on one side of the area to screen the hideaway from the rest of the yard. Leave one side open. While the shrubs are growing use annual flowers growing up trellises to provide the needed privacy. As a final touch add a small fountain and an umbrella to provide shade.

Backyard Landscaping Ideas: Spring Bulb Ideas

2011-08-26T09:11:00.000-07:00

Bulbs are almost a guaranteed flowering success. Each bulb holds the embryonic plant and flower buds within it. Plant the bulb in full sun, water consistently and you'll be rewarded with lots of blooms. After the blossoms have died, continue to water and feed the plant so it has the energy to produce the next season's flowers.

Easter Basket
Cut bamboo fencing 8 inches high. Dig an oval trench 2 inches deep. The oval should measure 3 feet across and 2 feet deep. Dig the oval down to a depth of 12 inches. Add 3 inches of compost and fertilizer per package directions. Mix well. Plant spring bulbs that all bloom at the same time inside the bamboo "basket.". Good choices would be purple hyacinths at the back of the oval. Plant Pink tulips in front of the hyacinths, and yellow daffodils in front of the tulips. Finish with dwarf white tulips at the very front. This can all be done in fall before the ground freezes. In the spring, before the bulbs have sprouted, sprinkle white sweet alyssum seeds over the planting area. Cover with 1/4 inch of soil. Place a ceramic rabbit in one corner of the oval "Easter" basket. Twist grapevines or twigs into a handle. Bury each end of the handle inside the basket arching over it.

Patriotic Bed
Japanese iris comes in a purple that is nearly blue and white, as well as yellow and light purple. Plant two rows of white irises in the back of the bed. In front of the white irises plant two rows of the nearly blue irises. Continue with the alternating rows of white and blue irises. Finish the bed with a border of red geraniums. Irises and geraniums both bloom in late May so this bed would be perfect for Memorial Day. Over seed the Irises with white zinnias and blue salvia and the bed will refresh itself and be ready with new flowers for Fourth of July.

Backyard Landscaping Ideas: Easy Fast Patio

2011-08-22T07:07:00.000-07:00

Select the area where the patio should be located. Outline the shape with a garden hose. Dig the area out two inches deep. Use the soil elsewhere in the yard. Rake and level the area. Add stepping stones, pavers, or broken up flagstone spaced about two inches apart onto level soil. Fill in the gaps with pea gravel. Place a 24 inch pot on each corner of the patio to define the boundaries. Plant each pot with an upright bush such as a cypress evergreen and mounding flowers such as petunias.

Backyard Landscaping Ideas: Annuals

2011-08-17T15:06:00.000-07:00

Annuals to the Rescue

Annuals are plants that live for one season and then die. While they live they grow and flower profusely. Even if your landscaping plans have not been finalized make use of annuals. Soil preparation is important for permanent plantings. Most annuals will perform adequately in less than ideal conditions. Plant annuals as temporary borders and beds for color. Use seeds instead of flower packs if the budget is tight. After the beds have bloomed or when the plans are finished dig up the annuals, or turn them over to provide 'green manure.' Don't be surprised if the annuals reseed themselves as an added bonus.