Pruning shrubs, bushes and vines is easiest after the fall winds have blown all the leaves off. Use your hand prunersto cut out some of those overcrowded or overgrown branches. But wait, don’t just toss those pieces of shrubs and vines in the garbage or on the compost pile - recycle and reuse your trimmings.

continue reading "Recyle Shrub & Vine Trimmings"

Well, I was busily attending to those essential fall yard & garden maintenance items, but I hit a few kinks in the proverbial hose. While attempting to clean the gutters and downspouts I discovered blockages. Blockages! A lovely build-up of leaves and roof gunk in the elbows of the downspouts. The search for a wire coat hanger to use for unplugging the downspouts proved fruitless. No wire coat hangers in my house! Does anyone else think of Joan Crawford when they hear ‘wire hangers‘ or is it just me? Sorry, a little off topic there. Long story short, my neighbor was kind enough to loan me a snake which I immediately put to work. Blockages gone!

continue reading "Fall Yard & Garden Chores - A Few Kinks in the Hose"

The weather this past weekend has been perfect for working on outside chores. Nine large leaf bags later and the yard is free of leaves (at least until more blow in). Any leaves that come into the yard from this point on will be raked onto the garden beds to act as mulch, compost and insulation for the long, cold winter to come.

Now that the leaves are raked its time to turn my attention to the remaining fall yard and garden maintenance. The list doesn’t look terribly long, but each item on the list is a process unto itself.

continue reading "Essential Fall Yard & Garden Maintenance"

A door wreath is a perfect outdoor decoration. Decorative wreaths can be purchased ready-made or with very little effort, you can make a grape vine wreath of your own. After the leaves have blown off the grape vines it is the perfect time to gather long pieces to make a grape vine wreath. If you have grapes of your own it’s easy to snip off a few pieces of vine, or you can take a trip to the woods.

continue reading "Make a Decorative Wreath for All Seasons"

I thought I’d sneak in a little post about planting fall bulbs since I have so many wonderful new fall bulbs to get in the ground. We’ll just call this post part two and a half of my three part series on fall bulbs for spring blooms. In part one, Choosing Fall Bulbs for Spring Blooms, I gave myself a budget of $100 to purchase fall bulbs, and presented a wish list of the bulbs I wanted. In part two, I discussed the financial benefits of buying fall bulbs in person vs. buying bulbs online, and listed all the bulbs I actually bought along with their total cost before tax. Now let’s get planting!

continue reading "Planting Fall Bulbs for Spring Blooms"

Here’s a quick tip that will allow you to always have a fresh bouquet for your table. When you are discarding the annuals from your summer planters snip off the ends of your English or German ivy trailers. Wash them off with insecticidal soap so you won’t be bringing any little critters into the house with you. Put them into a vase (an old pitcher makes a good one) in your kitchen. Already you have an attractive arrangement for a gardener who will soon be yearning for something green. Now, the fun part!

continue reading "Perpetual Bouquet"

In the fall garden, when the summer annuals are being pulled out and the perennials are being cut back, it’s the perfect time to take note of how well each plant in your garden grew this year.

Some questions to ask yourself about each plant:

continue reading "Update Your Garden Journal"

October 2007 has proven to be a month of contradictions in the yard and garden. The Canadian Thanksgiving weekend was balmy and unseasonably warm. Many of us northerners took full advantage by enjoying it in shorts and T-shirts instead of jeans and sweaters. Weeks later we’ve had another last shot of summer. This past Sunday, I was once again in shorts soaking up some sun and attending to a few end of season garden chores. Some hostas had outgrown their positions and required dividing. With the beautiful weather, it felt more like spring gardening than fall clean up. If all goes well, there will be nine new hosta clumps poking up when next spring does arrive. The string of contradictions continued with the stringing of new LED Christmas lights in the trees/shrubs at the front porch. Stringing the lights is something I like to get looked after early - before it’s too cold and blustery, but I’ve never done it while wearing shorts before!

This is part two of a three part series on Fall Bulbs.

In part one of this series, Choosing Fall Bulbs for Spring Blooms, I gave myself a challenge - create a spring garden on a budget of $100. I started with a wish list of all the items I would like. After doing a little research, I chipped away at my wish list and narrowed it down based on color, height and price. The main color scheme of my spring blooms will be purple/violet/blue, white and yellow. The plant heights will vary from about 6″ to 24″. To get the biggest bang for my buck and to make the most impact, I tried to choose items with large quantities of bulbs at the most reasonable prices. Here is a list of the items I decided to go with:

continue reading "Fall Bulbs for Spring Blooms - Buying Online vs. In Person"

It’s fall bulb buying time. (Say that five times fast!) When I moved into my current home just over a year ago, I had no idea what spring flowering bulbs might be hiding in the earth. Now, having witnessed one full growth cycle, I know what is here and I just have to figure out what to add.

This is what popped up this past Spring:

continue reading "Choosing Fall Bulbs for Spring Blooms"