Tulip Care - A Must for Spring Gardens

If you love to see the beautiful tulip flowers in April and May, then tulip care during the growing season in your garden is a major priority for you. You spent good money and poured your time in planting new bulbs in the fall. As spring unfolds, you want to see those yellow, red, white, pink and other tulip flowers. They are saluting you as they wave in the breeze for taking care of them. Review this article to be sure that you take good care of your own tulips.

Tulip flowers are a hardy species, but if you don't know how to deal with the main challenges, your garden will suffer. Here are the top concerns and issues with tulips before flowering.

Fertilize your tulip plants twice a year. The best time to feed tulips is in the early spring (before they bloom again). The best way to feed them is to add a tablespoon of a granular fertilizer on the soil around each bulb. This should be done before flowering because feeding your tulips after flowering could cause a disease.

Tulips need lots of water. If your garden gets plenty of rainfall nature will take care of the watering. If you live in a very warm area all-year-round make sure to water your tulip garden at least once a week.

Watch out for animal pests, like rabbits and squirrels. Rabbits eat the green shoots and can destroy the tulip plant so that no flowers blossom. Prevent rabbits from eating breakfast in your garden by using a physical fence like chicken wire, a deterrent like cayenne pepper, or non-toxic commercial products like Liquid Fence.

Squirrels can harm the tulip plant by digging and eating tulip bulbs. Protect the bulbs by installing netting over the bulbs when planting them. This will keep squirrels from reaching the bulbs. Once you have planted tulip bulbs, sprinkle blood meal on top of the soil around the tulip shoots. You can also install chicken wire over the top of the garden to protect the small shoots when they emerge.

Voles are another problem. Voles are small rodents that burrow and dig tunnels underground. Voles see tulip bulbs as food and will eat the bulbs, destroying your tulip garden. Unfortunately, there are not very many effective ways to remove voles.

Grubs are insects that are the biggest killer of tulip. If the dirt in your garden has grubs, use some time released insect/or grub killer on the ground around them once or twice a year. Nurseries and home garden centers offer various grub insecticides in granular form that control these pesky insects.

Here is an additional tip:


If you buy potted tulips from a nursery or store, you can plant them outdoors. Remember to plant the tulips as they are in the pot in a sunny location. You will kill the tulips when you separate them from the potting soil.

Tulip care in the spring is not an option. Your garden will thank you and your tulips will salute you whenever the breeze blows.

Lighting Tips For Orchid Care

There are many would-be orchid growers around who would love to start growing orchids but are put off by their reputation as difficult to care for. Orchids are quite resilient plants but there are a few techniques on orchid care that you can use.

Orchid growers will tell you that one of the best ways to learn is through experience. This can be quite costly though as orchids are quite expensive to buy and you don't want a simple mistake to cause you to end up throwing your orchid away. Please bear in mind that each species has different requirements and that your environment will play a significant part in how your orchid grows.

Orchids can be kept both indoors and outdoors but you must remember that orchids generally thrive in warm temperatures. Having said that, there are orchids such as Cymbidium which prefer cooler conditions. They need a temperature of around 10 degrees Celsius (50 Fahrenheit) at night time and up to 24 degrees Celsius (75 degrees Fahrenheit) in the day. It is recommended that you don't keep your orchid in your conservatory in long summer days as the extreme temperatures will be too much for your orchid. If you must keep your orchid in the conservatory then make sure there is enough shade.

It is important that your orchids get the right amount of sunlight. A lack of sunlight will result in the failure of your orchid to bloom. However, too much light, especially too much sunlight may result in your leaves burning. You can use the color of the leaves indicate whether your orchid is receiving too much light. A yellowish color on your leaves is a clear sign that your orchid is receiving too much light.

Think about the positions in and around your house where you keep your orchids. Because of their beauty, orchids are often kept on display in the main living area. How much natural light do these areas receive? Windowsills are a good place. Consider the directions that your windows are facing. North facing windows will be better for orchids which don't require much sunlight. For orchids which require more sunlight then a south facing window will be better. Be careful of west facing window in the long summer evenings as sunburnt leaves are a real possibility.

If your geographical location means that you can't provide enough natural light for your orchids then consider using artificial light. Allow your orchid some time to rest, don't have the artificial lights on constantly.

Light is only one consideration when talking about orchid care but a very important one and shouldn't be neglected.

How to Irrigate Your Lawn

Lawns need water to grow just as much as they need sunlight and soil. If there were only an easy set of rules to follow, it would be an easy task. However, a watering schedule depends on many different factors that this article will discuss.

Many factors influence the watering requirements associated with your lawn. Some include: grass type, climate and soil type. You are in complete control of the success of your watering program. Get to know your lawn and you will have a good idea of what it needs to stay healthy.

You should water your lawn simply when it needs it. Try to space the time between waterings as long as you can. When the grass starts to turn grayish green or footprints stay in the grass, it is time to water. When you do water, water as deep as you can. You should be able to stick a screwdriver into the ground 6 to 8 inches easily after you water.

If you want to pass the screwdriver test, you probably need to water anywhere from 1 to 2 inches of water. Rain is your friend. Not only does it provide good nutrients to your lawn, but it also allows you to save money on your water bill.

When should you water your lawn? The best time is early in the morning. This will reduce evaporation and discourage disease problems that might occur if you water during the night. Early in the morning also generally has higher water pressure than any other time.

Landscape Rock Made with Artificial Rock

Landscape rock is the landscaper's tool of choice when it comes to accenting a beautifully landscaped lawn. With the latest technologies landscape rock doesn't have to be omitted from any residential scaled down landscape project. You can use artificial rock to replace heavy, cumbersome landscape rock.

Artificial rock is truly a new age crowd pleaser. By using artificial rock in your landscaping project you can save your back, as well as your pocketbook. Landscaping today has lent itself to new ways to accomplishing dreaded tasks with the greatest of ease and added more flexibility to landscape design.

Landscape Design can now be adopted, by residential homeowners and your do-it-yourself weekend warriors. For far less money, you can do the landscaping yourself and afford yourself more for other projects as well.

For years the commercial landscape market has had the advantage of using special tools and equipment to re-create artificial landscaping and the regular joe homeowner was left to only admire the landscaping constructed from high-end tools of the trade.

Landscape rock is the icing on the cake, if you will, for separating good landscaping projects from great landscaping design. When you want it to fit your limited area, you can now choose the option of creating your own artificial landscape rock and be assured it will accent the areas you want with no problems. Finding a special size or shaped rock is no longer an issue.

Fake rock has become the faux pearl of the landscaping world. It's not that we are leaving mother nature out of the lawn art, we're just helping her show the full potential of our limited spaces and reduced expense. Fake rock, artificial rock, whatever you want to call it, call it a back saver, a life saver, and a wallet pal for sure.

CaveRock Design has mastered the residential landscape rock business, when you want to create larger more unique rock. Boulder size rock can really add a deeper dimension to any landscape and from a cost standpoint, CaveRock Design is your best friend on cost. Once you see for yourself the difference artificial landscape rock can make, the only decision you'll have to make is what method of artificial rock making is the most cost efficient.

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Learn How To Landscape - Take Courses Online

If you own your own house, you want your home to be like a jewel in a beautiful setting - that beautiful setting being your front and back lawns. The front lawn will be visible by everyone driving past and you'll want it to look nice for the casual viewer as well as for yourself, whereas your back yard is yours and yours alone and you can do anything with it.

Many people enjoy puttering in their gardens, and they know the names of all the plants and flowers, not to mention the birds and the bees, that they may encounter. Others don't care that much about their gardens - they just want what looks nice. It is for these people that professional landscapers and lawn care businesses exist.

There's nothing to be ashamed of if you can't tell a robin from a sparrow, a forsythia from a chrysanthemum, a poplar from a beech tree. But when it comes to maintaining a healthy lawn, let alone a pretty one, these are things that whoever works on your lawn has to know about.

The professional landscaper. Exactly how does one become a professional landscaper?

Your local botanical garden will offer courses in landscaping, but these are just designed for the average homeowner.

You can take classes on landscaping online. PennFoster is one of the largest online schools...PCDI is another such school.

PennFoster
"Penn Foster offers classes in plant health, soil, and fertilizers. They give instruction on servicing garden tractors and other tools used in landscaping. They teach you how to create landscaping designs using shrubs and ground covers. They also cover specialty landscaping, and starting and operating your own landscaping business."

But go into these online courses carefully. Will taking these courses enable you to pass the Landscape Architect Registration Examination (L.A.R.E.), which is sponsored by the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards. (And if you're looking to hire a landscaper, make sure they have such a license!)

As of 2004, 59 colleges and universities offered 77 undergraduate and graduate programs in landscape architecture. The courses are quite comprehensive, covering such subjects as surveying, landscape design and construction, site design, ecology, and urban and regional planning. The history of landscape architecture is not neglected, and then of course there's such thing as plant and soil science and geology. Not to mention learning how to actually run a landscaping business.

Your home is your most important investment, and your lawn is the first thing anyone will notice about your home. So make sure that if you hire a professional landscaper, they know how to do the job.

Organic Lawn Care – Environmental Alternatives

Lawns, like gardens, require regular upkeep to maintain health and vigour. High nitrogen based synthetic fertilizers are commonly used to maintain strong growth and eliminate flatweed growth. Organic alternatives to these synthetic fertilizers include aged chicken manure and some commercially produced products such as Dynamic Lifter (Pelletised chicken manure).

Organic Fertilizers should be added in Early Autumn

When adding high nitrogen based organic fertilizers it is recommended to wait until after a heavy rain, spread while ground is wet and water in heavily to avoid burning the grass.

Coring and dethatching is also recommended prior to adding any organic fertilizer. This will allow nutrients to enter the soil more readily and allows air to circulate.

Lawns require ample water supply of water during summer months. This maintains the growth & health of the lawn and also prevents soil compaction and cracking.

Water restrictions have limited the amount of water we can apply to our lawns in many parts of the world. One option is to use a low phosphate detergent when washing your clothes and redirect this waste "grey water" over the lawn.

Grey water can be stored in a tank or directed strait onto the lawn.

When using organic lawn care practices:

Raise the height of your mowers blades.

Be prepared to have a few flat weeds or remove them by hand if required

Occasionally leave your clippings on the lawn (Don't use a catcher) I don't recommend using this method ALL the time as it can cause heavy matting and slow water filtration through the soil.

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