Winter Garden Tips

Did you know there are some gardeners who go crazy when they can’t grow anything during the winter? Well… crazy is probably an exaggeration, but a gardener can stand just so much of the indoors before feeling a bit stir crazy. Uh-oh, there’s that word again!  Anyway, if you can identify with this ‘C’ word feeling, I found some great information about gardening during the winter months that could help you. Check these out…

The White House Winter Garden – The Caucus Blog – NYTimes.com

Produce at the White House will be harvested, even during the coldest months.

Weeds & Seeds Swap » Winter Begins, But Gardening Plans Underway

This is Christmas week, and after Christmas come New Years and January, when many begin to see gardening catalogs show up in their mail boxes as they think ahead to Spring gardening…as for me, I like to do my shopping online, … Read more

Maintaining Healthy Young Fruit Trees

Making sure that your fruit tree stays healthy is very important, but not as hard as you might think. There are, however, some vital things you need to do:

Plant your  young fruit tree correctly… Ask a local nursery for planting instructions, or do an internet search… just be sure the instructions are specific to your fruit tree. But, here are some “rule of thumb” instructions:

• All trees should be planted perfectly vertical so they develop a strong structure.
• Also, the roots should be spread out to ensure stabily and maximum water intake.
• Another part of making sure that your fruit tree stays healthy is planting it in fertile soil.
• You also have to be sure that the soil suits your tree variety (dry or damp soil, sandy or clay soil, etc) Read more

Butterfly Garden Tips

What is butterfly gardening?

Simply put, butterfly gardening is all about growing flowers and plants that will attract these amazing creatures to your garden.

Thrill your family and visitors with a garden filled with beautiful, colorful, and intriguing butterflies. Kids (and adults) are captivated when these delicate bits of beauty land on their arms… or noses!

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How to Grow Larger Sized Fruit

New fruit tree growers are always shocked at how small their fruit is compared to what they’re used to seeing at the grocery store. While smaller fruits might be what nature originally intended, it is possible to attain larger fruits without any genetic altering or added chemicals.

On almost any tree, the success of each individual fruit depends on spacing. Usually in the early stages of fruit production, veteran growers do something called “fruit thinning”. they remove nearly a third of the emerging crop. Generally, there should not be any fruits within six to eight inches of each other. During the fruit thinning process, this is the distance you should generally aim for to optimize the amount of nutrition that each fruit gets. Hundreds of little fruits on one tree competing for the available materials necessary for growth just results in stunted fruits. The resulting crop is fewer in number, but larger in size and better in quality. Read more

Gardening With Kids Is Good For The Environment

Sad to say, there are STILL people who do not pay much attention to environmental issues.  What can you and I do about it? 

For starters, we can encourage our children’s natural instincts to do what is right, and nudge them into environmentally friendly activities. Toddler age is not too young to start, as long as it’s fun and safe for them.

Gardening should be at the top of your list… it’s fun for kids and for us adults. It’s a terrific teaching tool for “green” concepts, as well as a healthy and educational family activitiy.

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