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Gardening

Are You Aware Its Time To Get The Garden Ready For Winter

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Don’t you think its time to get the garden ready? If you want a successful garden, prepare it well. This may make a difference, when it is time to plant.

Summer is near

Get all of the old leaves raked up. Check the soil carefully. Are there any perennials to prune back? This will help them get ready for the summer weather ahead. You will need to refresh the soil. Buy plenty of bags of topsoil. Buy some bags of manure also.

It is also a good time to check the soil PH. If you have the equipment, then it is no problem. You can buy soil PH kits. They are inexpensive. Some even come as meters with probes. They may not be as accurate as the kits, but they can give you a general idea of your soil PH. A soil PH level of 7 is neutral. Lower numbers are alkaline. Higher numbers are acidic.

It is important to know which PH level your crops require. Some may need a slightly alkaline soil. Some may need acidic. In addition, other may require a neutral PH. The best way to find out, is to check seed packages. You will find a great deal of information on the web. If your soil is too acidic, put lime or ashes into the ground.

You may require an acidic soil. Sphagnum peat moss will work well. Decaying material will also be acidic. You can use compost or decaying leaves.

Now is a good time to add magnesium to your soil. You can add Epsom salts to the ground. This will work well.

Try not to plant the same crops in identical areas. Crop rotation is very important for soil content. Certain crops will deplete the soil of nutrients. Other crops may not use the same amount of nutrients.

After adding nutrients, consider mixing them up. Do you have a garden tiller? This will work well. It will also aerate your soil. You will get rid of unwanted plants like weeds, in the process.

After the last frost, you can plant marigolds. They should be on the out edges of your garden area. Marigolds are good for repelling insects and pests. You can give the marigolds a head start also. Plant them inside, before your last frost. Then you can set them out as the warm weather comes.

Preparing for winter

Summertime is nearly over. You can use the warm days of Indian summer to get your garden ready for the cold. You can rake leaves. On the other hand, you can mow them. Make sure your grass catcher is on. Then you can simply dump them onto the compost. Alternatively, you can put them into yard bags.

Pick everything from the garden. Green tomatoes are great for many recipes. You can ripen some things in a paper bag. Throw everything else into the compost pile. Start one, if you do not have one. Make sure that you do not place any sick or diseased plant material in your compost.

Conclusion

Use spring to get ready for summer. Take advantage of autumn to prepare for winter. Your garden will look better. When its time to get the garden ready, you will know what to do.

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Landscaping

Many Types Of Buds

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Observing tree buds in Winter can he adventure. Each is a miracle of nature. Each has been packed with care – next Spring’s flowers and leaves in miniature meticulously folded and sealed. Each contains just enough oxygen and moisture to keep alive until the miracle of Spring unfolds them.

A mature elm may hold as many as six million buds, yet only a percentage will open. If squirrels eat some, if others freeze or arc damaged, nature has supplied enough to give a tree full foliage. Winter buds are a tree’s diadem. Some are as colorful as precious jewels. They come in many forms and unusual shapes. The architectural pattern of nature is in spirals and ovals.

Look closely and Winter buds become works of art. Some contain only flowers; some hold leaves, still others contain both flowers and leaves.

The flowering dogwood by your door has fat silver-gray shoe-button-like buds at the ends of twigs. These are next Spring’s flowers. Now observe the gray, slender and sharp buds along the twigs, arranged in spiral form. These hold next Spring’s leaves.

Their colors are kaleidoscopic. Buds of a shadbush are rich brown red, fringed with silver hairs. Sweet gum buds are highly polished mahogany red, broad at the base and tapering sharply. Buds of red maples are crimson tridents, and note how all maple buds arc grouped in threes at the end of each twig, with the tallest one in the center.

A willow bud is half an inch long, tapering gradually to a rounded tip. Pussy willow buds are blue-black mottled with red at the top; swamp willows have an orange hue, black willow buds are glossy, wine red.

White oak buds end in blunt ovals and are clustered at the tip of a twig. The horse chestnut boasts a big end bud, too. Cut one open and inside will be arranged overlapping groups of leaves, folded like a pleated dress, curved and pressed together.

All buds are arranged according to the spiral pattern of a tree and sealed with water-proof wax, or covered with fur-like hair. Apple buds seem woolly. Aspen and horse chestnut buds are coated with sticky resin. Those of a Balm of Gilead seem to have just come dripping from a glue pot.

Next Spring this wax will melt and each little leaf and flower petal will come marching out of the bud in geometric design, like a West Point cadet on parade. It’s adventure to get acquainted with these miracles in-the-making in Winter time.