There are a dozen different ways to start a vegetable garden, but not all of them are fast, efficient, or cost effective. For new food gardeners, anxious to learn how to start a new vegetable garden quickly, it’s important to find a method that stays within a limited budget, requires minimal skills, and gets you growing fast. Food gardening is on the rise. People want to know where their food is coming from, but if you don’t start your garden right, it will be a short-lived exercise, plagued with weeds, too much work, and disappointing results. Today, I’m going to share step-by-step instructions for how to start a vegetable garden. This method doesn’t require a huge financial investment or major building skills, but it does require some elbow grease and a small budget. All good things in life require a bit of work, and a vegetable garden is no different. Continue Reading
Read More »How to start a vegetable garden fast (and on a budget!)
Landscape borders: Eye-catching edging ideas to separate your garden areas
Landscape borders are a great way to outline one or more areas of the yard. No matter what your garden’s style is, they may be used to visually tie in different areas of a space, separate grass from garden, or work with paths to move people around the garden. You can use a number of different materials to create a garden border, and arrange them in a multitude of ways.Read More »A weed free garden: 9 strategies for reducing weeds
Does a weed free garden sound like a dream? It IS possible to reduce weeds in flower and vegetable beds with a few simple strategies. I’ve been putting these techniques to work in my large vegetable garden for many years and while I wouldn’t call my garden completely weed free, I’ve cut my weeding time dramatically. Read on to learn my nine strategies for reducing garden weeds.
Read More »The tachinid fly: Get to know this beneficial insect
If you spy a fly buzzing around your garden and sipping nectar from your plants, you should probably give him or her a tiny high five. You owe a surprisingly big thank you to that little guy. If it’s lapping nectar from a flower, there’s a very good chance that fly is a tachinid fly, which is the world’s largest and most important group of parasitoidal flies. Yes, that means that tiny fly is a big-time helper to you and your garden. Let me introduce the two of you – I’m sure you’ll be best buds before you know it. Continue Reading
Read More »Build a pollinator palace for your garden
You’ve likely heard of insect hotels, but what about a pollinator palace? At the 2017 RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, England, in the Great Pavilion, I encountered this very unique structure for pollinators, artistically assembled, though a little wilder looking. Conceived by garden designer John Cullen of John Cullen Gardens, gabions filled with layers of live plant material and items found in nature were placed among a regular garden with trees, flowers, and groundcover.
Read More »The daylily: A perfect perennial for the summer garden
A daylily is perhaps the perfect perennial. It thrives in full sun to partial shade, grows happily in a range of soil conditions, is resistant to most pests and diseases, and blooms for weeks each summer. Plus, there are thousands of varieties to choose from in a dazzling assortment of flower sizes, shapes, and colors.
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