As you can see by the pictures, I have a beautiful crop of rhododendrons in one of my gardens. I look forward to the spring every year when these plants bloom. The flowers the rhododendrons produce are absolutely stunning and gorgeous. It took me a few years to nurture the plants to produce such a plentiful and breathtaking flower. Once I got it mastered, everything fell into place and my rhododendrons flourished ever since.

Rhododendrons plant at home

Rhododendrons in the garden

Rhododendrons at home

Rhododendrons can be small shrubs or very large shrubs depending on how you prune them and the amount of space they have to grow. If they are crowded by other trees or shrubs, the rhododendrons will not expand to their full potential. I have seen them get to 15 feet tall. The plant can have different color flowers depending on the variety you get. I have purple and pink flowered rhododendrons in my garden.

The location of this garden is in my back yard where the rhododendron plants do not get full sun. They only get maybe a half day of sun.
One of the best secrets to making my plants look great is not only frequent watering but frequent fertilizing. Particularly I use Miracle Grow plant food. The recommended amount is about once every 14 days. I use the plant food anywhere between 7 and 25 days.

I have provided a link for you to order some Miracle Grow plant food for yourself.

Thank you and enjoy

Toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls, the cardboard tubes that are left over when the toilet paper or paper towels are used up, are a rigid tube that can be used as starter containers for your seeds and small plants. 

To use them, start out by getting a flat tray container with an edge that extends up about a half an inch.  I use a window box drip tray.  This tray will be used to hold the tubes as your plants grow.  Now take a toilet paper tube and cut it into three equal height tubes and arrange the cut tubes on the bottom of the tray.  If you use a paper towel tube, cut it into six equal size tubes.  Fill each of the toilet paper tubes about half way with clean quality garden soil from a garden center or hardware store.  Do not use ordinary dirt from the ground since it has all kinds of vegetation already living in it (weeds, grass, etc.) and you will not know what is your seeds and what is weeds.  Place your seeds on the top of the soil and then cover the seeds to the top of the tube.

The beauty of the cardboard tubes is that they will absorb and hold water for a longer period of time keeping the seeds or small plants wetter for a longer period of time.  In order to water the plants, pour the water into the bottom of the tray and not on top of the tubes.  Pouring the water on top of the tubes will bore holes in the dirt and may displace the seeds.  By pouring the water into the tray, the water will fill the bottom of the tray and the tubes and dirt will suck the water up through capilary action keeping the seeds or plants moist.

Starting your seeds in this manner will allow you to bring them inside if cold weather or frost is suspected extending your growing season by starting earlier.  Once your seeds have sprouted and grown a couple of inches, you can take the whole cardboard tube and plant it in the garden or other final destination.  Any roots that the plant grows will extend below the bottom of the tube and into the ground without problems.  The tube can also easily be removed if desired before transplanting.

Pea Seed In Toilet Paper Roll

The picture shows the toilet paper rolls in the window box drip tray with a pea plant growing from seed.

This year I purchased a hand held gas leaf blower that is very light weight and compact. I thought I would try to make my gutter cleaning chores easier than they had been in the past. I placed my ladder in one spot against the house at the start of the gutters, started my leaf blower and climbed up on the roof. I started to blow out the gutters with the leaf blower and low and behold was done with all the gutters in 20 minutes! Something that would take me a painful and agonizing hour and a half was just reduced to 20 min! I was very excited how I just discovered to simplify this awful chore. As always, be careful climbing ladders and walking on the roof.

Preparing your home for painting can be broken down into two areas: tools and surface preparation.

Tool preparation is necessary to get all of your tools in one place, a central work area, for your project. Gather all of your tools you will need for the job and put them in one place. Some of the more common tools that are necessary for an exterior painting project are:

• Paint Brushes
• Paint Rollers & Roller Naps
• Sand Paper & Sanding Blocks
• Paint Stirring Sticks
• Ladders
• Scrapers
• Masking tape
• Sponge or mop
• Paintable Caulk
• Wood Filler or Putty

For the surface preparation, you must create a sturdy, clean surface for the paint to adhere to. In order for the paint to adhere, it must be clean and dry. If there is mold on the surface it must be removed before painting or the paint will not stick. Any rotten wood must be repaired with wood putty or replaced prior to painting.
Remove anything that you can from the exterior of the house including house numbers, shutters, signs, wreaths, and any other accessories that can be removed easily. Anything that can not be removed will have to be painted around and will make painting more difficult.

Scrape the surface using a paint scraper to remove any loose old paint. Next sand the area where flakes have been removed to make the ridge between the old paint and the underlying surface less pronounced. The idea is not to necessarily sand off any paint that did not come off with scraping, but only to make the edge less pronounced once the new paint is applied.

Trim any shrubs or bushes so that they are at least a few inches away from the house. You will need to paint behind them and trimming them now is better than when there is wet paint near the wall with shrub trimmings flying into the fresh paint.

Once all the scraping and sanding is complete, wipe down the surfaces with a mild solution of bleach and water. This will remove loose flakes of old paint, spider webs, bugs, and any standing mold and mildew that may be on the surface. This can be applied with a sponge, a mop, or a brush and rinsed by spraying down with a garden hose.

Caulk any cracks between windows and doors and the siding. Hammer in any protruding nails and fill in any holes in the siding and trim with wood putty or paintable caulk.

Give everything about a day to dry and you are ready to paint! Proper surface preparation will make the painting go more smoothly since you will not have to stop and remove paint, bugs, nests, etc. but will be able to continuously keep a wet edge of paint while coating the surface.

What about in your backyard? Invisible Fence® Brand of Upstate NY, located right here in Rochester, took home three national awards for outstanding business growth in 2008, including National Dealer of the Year for the 3rd year in a row! This is an achievement honoring a team who strives for excellence in customer service, guaranteeing results, and who is determined to make stronger relationships with people and their pets.

Did you know?

Every year, 10 million dogs are lost due to behavior problems!
Every year, 5 million dogs are euthanized due to behavior problems!
Every year, 1 million dogs are killed on the road ways!
The Invisible Fence® Brand’s sole premise is to be the most trusted brand in the pet ownership experience by keeping pets safe, happy and well-behaved at home all the time. And it’s not just about containment— we also offer solutions to help manage other unwanted behaviors like barking, jumping, digging, and chewing. We offer lifestyle solutions such as heated beds for arthritic dogs and automatic feeders for people who have busy schedules. We offer love and compassion for people who truly need help managing their relationships with their pets.

Trip to Lollypop

A few weeks ago, Princess and I were at Lollypop Farm. She always looks forward to the trip! I can tell because she starts whining as we pull in the parking lot, cold nosed pressed against the window, her breath starting to become more rapid. She’s like a kid in a candy shop! She darts out of the car and pulls me to the door. Her tail is wagging with excitement. As we peruse down the hall, I know she wants to run, play and sniff the other dogs. Her innocence is so sweet. She has no idea what’s going on. I always experience a rollercoaster of emotions ranging from loving every puppy in the place, to sadness at their droopy “take me home” faces, and anger when I read why they are there.

I once saw a 10-year-old Schipperke who was given to the shelter because of “barking”. Seriously? After ten years you are just getting fed up with it? I wonder why they didn’t call Invisible Fence® Brand—we can take care of that in just a few days. I see a Siberian Husky who’s claimed to be “an escape artist”. Are you for real? Why didn’t you call Invisible Fence® Brand? There’s a Rottweiler that keeps tearing up the couches. I wonder if they would have given him a second chance if they let us create an invisible barrier that kept him away from all the couches. I think back to the day I adopted Princess and realized she had severe separation anxiety, breaking out of three metal crates and hurting herself in the process. I wonder if I would have known to call Invisible Fence® Brand to train her to use an invisible crate if I didn’t work for the company.

Help reduce the number of shelter admissions, euthanasia and lost dogs on the roadways—call Invisible Fence® Brand today and let us talk to you about how we can help improve your relationship with your best friend … before it’s too late.

Kate Siwik is the Director of Sales & Marketing of Invisible Fence® Brand of Upstate NY—National Dealer of the Year in 2006, 2007 and 2008. Her dog, Princess, was adopted from Lollypop Farm in 2007. Contact Kate at 271-1700 or email her UpstateNY@invisiblefence.com.

ere’s a quick and easy recipe for Pico de Gallo that we were able to put together entirely from our garden harvest.

Dice up equal amounts of:

• Tomatos
• Green Peppers
• Red Peppers
• Onions
• Cucmbers

Chop up and add a Cayan Pepper, some fresh diced celantro, and a tablespoon of lime juice. Add some tortilla chips and you got yourself a quick and easy party favor!

e planted three cucumber plants this year. Last year we planted three as well, but lost two to frost very early on in the season. This year we lost one so we were net gain of an entire plant.

As young plants when they only had two leaves on the whole plant, their small leaves turn white and start to curl up underneath themselves at the ends when the frost hit them. Soon the two leaves were no longer visible and the stalk would wither away. At the end of this season, when it got cold at night, the larger adult leaves would turn brown from the outside in tward the stalk even though the plant still had fruit left to grow and/or harvest.

The amount of cucumbers that we got were about one full grown cucumber a week out of the garden. For the two of us, that was just enough to make whatever we were eating for the week: salads, lunches, salsa, whatever.

For next year we are planning on planting three again. If we get all three of them to grow we will give some of the cucumbers away.

W

ith the vegetable garden season beginning to wind down in the midwest. It is never to early to begin to think about starting your vegetable garden for next year. If you have never grown a vegetable garden before, you should really consider starting one. There are several benefits and reasons as to why you would want to start your own vegetable garden.

9 Reasons to start your own vegetable garden.

1. This can be a great activity to do with kids. Kids will love to plant the seeds and then watch as they grow. It can be the children’s responsibility to water the garden each day, and then you will see the smiles on there faces when they see the first vegetables that are ready to pick

2. The trips to the grocery store should be less expensive. With food prices rising at a fast pace, you will have your own vegetables instead of having to buy the pricey ones found in your local grocery store.

3. With the possibilities of pesticides having serious health effects on us when they are used on vegetables, it is great to have your own garden because you know exactly what is going in there. If you are going to use fertilizers or pesticides you can choose what you want to use. You will hopefully go for an organic, natural type.

4. Gardening is fun. It is a great hobby to have and can be very relaxing and enjoyable!

5. Gardening gets you outside to enjoy nature. With the time spent caring for your garden from watering, to weeding, to caring for your plants it will put you outside to enjoy the warm [hopefully], nice summer weather.

6. Vegetables always taste better when they are fresh! In theory you could be pulling something out of the vegetable garden, washing it and then eating it all within 5 minutes.

7. You can add tools to your collection that will help you with everyday gardening tools. You can select hand tools, cultivators, tillers or many more!

8. Commercially grown crops are frequently chosen for their high yields, uniform appearance and long shelf lives rather than for superiority and flavor. When you grow your own, you can focus on the excellence rather than the economics.

9. There are thousands of diverse varieties of fruit and vegetables, but supermarkets tend to give attention to only the most lucrative and easy to sell. This means that our choice is often limited to a few select varieties of apple, for example, rather than the hundreds of traditional kinds that exist. Growing your own lets you pick the varieties you like the most, and research to find new ones you’ll hardly ever see on sale.

These are just a few ideas as to why someone would want to start there own vegetable garden. Everyone does it for there own reasons, but most of all we have fun doing it!

About the Author:

For more information on vegetable gardens visit us at Home Vegetable Garden

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Reasons to start a home vegetable garden

I

n Today’s throwaway society, there is absolutely no need to go out and purchase mulch material for your garden, unless it is for the particular aesthetic appearance, “The Look”, sake of the mulch material.

Were you aware that there are a number of mulching materials that you can obtain from around your own community that are free, and some of which can even be even delivered to you for nothing as well?

Impossible you might say. Well I mulch my gardens fairly heavily, and I never pay a cent for the mulch material. As a matter of fact, most of the mulch is willingly delivered to my home for nothing. As the former owners are only too glad to see the back of it, as it would cost them money, time and effort to find other ways of getting rid of it.

I also combine these outside sources of mulch with my own compost, weeds and other organic matter mixed through to achieve a great result in my garden, and so all that it costs me is time and effort.

So what am I talking about? While some of the below list is delivered free, other items I pick up myself, depending on time, circumstances, importance etc.

Grass Clippings from other people in the area or from lawn-mowing contractors.

Wood shavings from local wood turners and carvers, ( Do not use shavings from treated timber).

Small amounts of solid fill from friends who are excavating. This is to assist in raising garden beds, in my heavy clay soil.

Light prunings from shrubs which is shredded by me or put whole into garden

Heavier sticks and logs, which are turned into trellis, garden stakes, garden edges, seats, frames, log planters etc. while they slowly decay.

Newspaper, cardboard, non-rubber carpet underlay, and even carpet and carpet squares. Which is put under other mulch to prevent grass and weed regrowth

Animal manures sometimes mixed with straw from places like Racetracks and Showgrounds, Pony Clubs, Stables etc. I contact them well beforehand to see if any is available.

To this I also add my own weeds, throwing away some which can still be a potential problem, or burying them below the bottom most layer of mulch material to stop them regrowing.

Another item I add is any old potting mix from deceased plants or when repotting plants.

Being a fairly lazy gardener, I throw the material around a bit at a time, as they are available, and let nature mix them for me. On a couple of occasions I have received a bit too much wood shavings so these became path material between some of the garden beds, with a heavy underlay of newspapers. People even tell me that it looks and feels good underfoot.

Never put a large amount of fresh animal manure on any garden, as it will burn any plant around it. Be extremely sparing or let it age first for a few months before applying it to the garden.

I have been living in my new house for about fifteen months, and the mulch layer in all my gardens (there were no gardens originally), is about 10 cm or 4 inches deep. None of which I have paid for and little that I have had to even pick up for myself.

People are even starting to comment on how fast the plants in my gardens are growing in the local heavy black clay soils, and they are surprised when I tell them that I have never bothered to fertilise the plants. The reason for this is that the earliest laid mulch material, is now broken down into plant nutrients and is now feeding my plants as a plant nutrient soup aided by the soil life which has suddenly started appearing in my gardens.

Another benefit that has started to appear in the last few months is the arrival of insect eating wildlife into my garden. Predatory insects and birds are now visiting my gardens on a regular basis, where I saw none this time last year. Bees and butterflies are also starting to visit many of the plants, which have come into flower for the first time this year.

So what can you do to start locating your own supplies of free mulch material, well here are a number of suggestions.

Put a little sign near your gate, something along the lines of ‘Organic mulch required’, or ‘Lawn clipping wanted’. There are sure to be a number of local people who are currently throwing theirs away in your community or even local area. Never mulch solely with grass clippings as they form an impenetrable layer that air and water cannot get through. Always mix it with other things to stop it ‘thatching’, just like a roof over the soil.

See if you can get into contact with local people who are into woodturning and carving, or even local sawmills. And come to some arrangement about unpreserved wood shavings.

Check the local phonebook for local showgrounds/racetracks/stables etc, to find out if any have stable or manure waste to give away, for people willing to pick them up

In other words, start talking around the place that you are after mulch materials and they will soon start coming to you.

The only caution with using other peoples waste material is the chance that you might also import other peoples pests and weeds. I have rarely found it a problem because of heavy mulch on mulch routines. But it is possible.

One point being that when you first start applying mulch to your garden you may see some nitrogen deficiencies occur in some plants. This is because the organisms that are breaking down the mulch material are using up all the available resources of it during the initial breakdown. Once you have gotten past this time the old composted material provide more than enough nitrogen for future processes.

Another thing to be careful of is not to bury or mulch up against the stems of wanted plants, as it may cause further problems for your plants in rot problems around the collar of the stems.

So get out there and talk around the community, find the contacts, believe it or not they will be as grateful as you to solve their particular problems of waste reduction. As well as that, you may start making some new friendships out of the deal; I know I have.

About the Author:

The Bare Bones Gardener is a qualified Horticulturist and a qualified Disability Services Worker. He hates spending money on stuff which doesn’t live up to the promises given. So he looks for cheaper, easier, simpler or free ways of doing the same thing and then he passes these ideas on to others.

Garden Blog – http://barebonesgardening.blogspot.com/

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Mulch and Feed your Gardens for Free