Spring! Get Ready.

Spring Discount: We've lowered the price of our award winning design software, Landscape Vision. Order now. Spring has Sprung, Order today! http://www.landscapeyourvisions.com/ Was $59.95 is $39.95

Early spring garden guide: Around the yard By Yvonne Cunnington

Early spring garden guide: Around the yard

Crocuses blooming in snowPhoto: Netherlands Flower Bulb Information Center
Start winter cleanup of the lawn when the grass is no longer sopping wet and planting beds stop being a sea of mud. Rake your lawn to get rid of dead growth, stray leaves, twigs and winter debris and let light and air to the soil level, encouraging the grass to grow.
Re-seed bare or damaged patches of lawn. Scratch up the soil with a rake first. Mix a shovel of soil with a couple of scoops of grass seed and spread in the patch you're fixing. Rake level and keep well-watered until seeds germinate and the new grass establishes.
Remove tree guards or burlap winter protection from any young trees or shrubs. Try not to leave tree guards in place over the summer. They keep rabbits and mice from nibbling on tender bark over the winter, but trees don't need them in summer. They don't allow enough air movement around the base of the trunk and that can promote rot of the bark.

Transplant any existing shrubs you want to move before they begin to leaf out.
Apply dormant oil spray to fruit trees, magnolias, crabapples and shrubs such as euonymus to control scale insects and other overwintering pests. Use this organic pest control method when the buds are swelling but the leaves haven't opened yet. Apply when temperatures are between 40 and 70 degrees F (4-21 degrees C).
Get your lawn mower checked and blades sharpened if you didn't get the job done in late winter. Sharp blades cut better and leave your lawn grass healthier.
http://www.flower-gardening-made-easy.com

Steps to planting perennials step-by-step

The best time to plant annuals and perennials isn't a hot, sunny day but a cooler, cloudier one — such conditions are less stressful for the plants, and the gardener.
Give the planting area a good watering, preferably the day before so you don't work in muck, or plant after rain has moistened soil.
If perennials are dry in their pots, water them first to get them moist.
How to plant:
Dig a hole that's wider but not deeper than the container. Never shoehorn a plant into a hole that's too small.
When planting perennials, work with one plant at a time, so that tender root hairs aren't exposed to drying air longer than necessary. Tap sides of container or squeeze pot to loosen plant, and turn upside down so plant slides out into your hand. Handle plants by their root mass, not stems; stems can easily be damaged.
Inspect roots; if circling, gently tease apart or they will continue to make circling growth. If roots are difficult to loosen by hand, make four shallow cuts into root mass near the bottom with a sharp knife. This promotes growth into surrounding soil.
If you see lots of potting mixture but few roots, work off some potting soil with your fingers to ensure plant roots will make physical contact with garden soil. Potting mix dries quicker than surrounding soil, making new plants susceptible to drying out.
Set plant into hole; place exactly as deep as it was in container. Cover roots with loose soil, water lightly; add remaining soil and pack gently but firmly; never stomp on delicate roots. Water well.
Do not apply water-soluble fertilizer when planting perennials, but wait about a week or so to allow roots to grow a bit. Organic fertilizers are the best choice because they support both root development and the soil-borne organisms that are beneficial to healthy root growth.
Keep new perennials moist for a couple of months, but don't kill with kindness: let top 2 or 3 inches (5 to 7 cm) of soil get a bit dry-looking between waterings. By Yvonne Cunnington

Landscaping: How Low Can You Go?

EVEN THOSE WHO love to garden often find that maintaining a landscape can be overwhelming. Mowing, weeding, watering, and pruning often seem like endless chores, especially in spring and early summer when trees, shrubs, grass, and weeds are all actively growing. If you are designing a new landscape or reworking an old one, using low-maintenance techniques can reduce much of your yard work.
Choosing the right plants is key to cutting maintenance. A shrub that grows to six feet tall will require regular pruning if planted under a window that is three feet above the ground. There are many dwarf varieties of trees and shrubs that are ideal for small areas and may never need pruning. Native plants are always a good choice for the landscape because they adapt to surroundings more easily than exotic species. Grouping plants that have the same cultural needs will save time when watering and fertilizing. Keep the planting beds narrow for easy access to interior plants; design them with long, sweeping curves so that the mower can reach the edge, eliminating hand trimming.
The importance of mulch in a low-maintenance landscape can not be overemphasized. A thick layer of organic mulch around plants will help to control weeds, conserve soil moisture, and add nutrients to the soil. Popular organic mulches are tree bark, shredded leaves, pine needles, and plant wastes such as cocoa shells. If weeds are a serious problem, lay down several layers of newspaper before mulching.
Traditional lawns are labor intensive—keep them as small as possible. Some lawn alternatives are large areas of ground covers or wildflowers, mulched beds, and decks and patios. Proper and timely lawn care will save you work because a healthy lawn is less likely to be bothered by weeds, insects, and diseases. Keep the grass tall; let it grow to three or four inches and then mow off one-third. High grass shades out weeds and won't dry out as quickly as closely cropped turf. Water infrequently but deeply to encourage deep rooting.
We hope that these ideas will help make it easier for you to maintain your landscape—as well as your sanity.
– –George and Becky Lohmiller

Landscape Vision Design Software offers great award winning plant bios to help you find low maintenance plants. Purchase our software today, use the coupon code above for a Spring Discount.

Spring Pruning Guide Old Farmers Almanac

WHAT WHEN HOW
Apple : Early spring Prune moderately. Keep tree open with main branches well spaced. Avoid sharp V-shaped crotches.
Cherry:Early spring Prune the most vigorous shoots moderately.
Clematis: Spring Cut weak growth. Save as much old wood as possible.
Flowering dogwood: After flowering Remove dead wood only.
Forsythia:After flowering Remove old branches at ground. Trim new growth.
Lilac:After flowering Remove diseased, scaly growth, flower heads, and suckers.
Peach: Early spring Remove half of last year's growth. Keep tree headed low.
Plum: Early spring Cut dead, diseased branches; trim rank growth moderately.
Rhododendron: After flowering Prune judiciously. Snip branches from weak, leggy plants to induce growth from roots.
Rose (except climbers): Spring, after frosts Cut dead and weak growth; cut branches or canes to four or five eyes.
Rose (climbers): After flowering Cut half of old growth; retain new shoots for next year.
Rose of Sharon: When buds Cut all winter-killed wood to swell begin growth back to live wood.
Trumpet vine: Early spring Prune side branches severely to main stem.
Virginia creeper: Spring Clip young plants freely. Thin old plants and remove dead growth.
Wisteria: Spring, summer Cut new growth to spurs at axils of leaves.

Check out this link to see a USA Frost Chart: http://www.almanac.com/garden/frostus.php

To see all these types of tress and many other types of plants on your lawns and in your gardens, purchase Landscape Vision Design Software today, learn more on our home page.

Want less garden maintenance?

One of best things you can do for your garden soil is to layer mulchover the bare spots between plants in your planting beds. You might already have noticed that Mother Nature doesn't like bare soil. Bare patches soon have something growing on them, usually weeds.
That's nature's quick and dirty way of ensuring that soil doesn't wash away or blow away. But if you're a gardener, you aren't exactly in love with weeds, but you should try mulching.

The benefits of mulch

Wood chip mulch is ideal around trees and shrubs
Mulching is a job that makes other garden chores easier because, as well as making your beds look neat, it does a lot of other neat things. It's hard to think of another job that gives so much garden payback.
It keeps weeds down, mainly by blocking out light they need to germinate - and if a weed manages to poke through, it's easier to pull it out when rooted in a layer of mulch than in the soil.
Preserves soil moisture by reducing evaporation, and helps prevent erosion caused by rain and wind. Bare soil often gets a crust on it that prevents rain from penetrating easily.
Moderates soil temperatures. Keeps soil cooler in summer and helps to reduce the risk of damage to plant roots in winter.
Keeps soil from splashing onto leaves, which keeps plants looking neater and helps prevent soil-borne fungal diseases.
Organic mulch adds all-important humus to the soil as it decomposes, and keeps the top layer of soil loose and airy.

Garden mulching how-to:

Depth: All you do is just layer the stuff two inches to four inches deep over bare soil around your plants.
Just don't put it right on top of perennials, and keep it from direct contact with the bark of trees and shrubs, as excess moisture right up against the bark can cause disease and rot.
When to apply: Do your mulching in spring before hot weather comes and while annual and perennial plants are still small enough to work around easily.
How to protect plants: If you happen to have a few spare one- or two-gallon nursery containers, put them over top of your plants and then you can shovel the material right onto the bed without worrying about covering your perennials. As for what to use, see your choices below.
Winter mulch: This doesn't actually keep plants warm, but maintains a more even soil temperature - a good thing in areas where winter brings alternate periods of freezing and thawing and where there isn't enough snow cover to give plants a thick insulating blanket.
Boughs cut from your Christmas tree also make good winter covering, and have the added bonus of trapping insulating snow that might otherwise blow away.

Organic mulch - best bets

Perhaps the strangest mulch I ever saw was a wine corks spread all over a flowerbed. It worked just fine - cork is a natural biodegradable material eventually. But I'm sure the gardeners' neighbors speculated about their drinking habits.
Tried and true mulching materials:
Bark or shredded wood chips: Available shredded or in small or large chips, it's excellent under trees and shrubs. Finely shredded cedar mulch is also nice on flower beds.
Cocoa bean hulls: Good for flower gardening. Will make garden smell like chocolate at first, but the scent fades quickly. It can get moldy if you lay it on too thick - don't add more than two inches. It's very light and can blow away. I find that watering after spreading helps keep it in place. Avoid using if you have a dog who might chew and eat it, as chocolate can make dogs quite sick.
Compost: Plants love compost, but unless you can purchase it or have a huge compost pile, it's hard to have enough on hand. When I use compost this way, I use about an inch or so, and top it with another material such as leaves or straw because compost can be a fertile launching pad for weed seeds.
Grass clippings: When fresh, they have high moisture and nitrogen content and can get smelly. The solution: apply a thin layer. Don't use when grass is going to seed, otherwise it can germinate in your beds to create a grassy weed problem.
Fall leaves: Nature's favorite - great masses of them are free in fall. They're best used chopped - otherwise they can mat and stop air and water movement into the soil. To chop, use a leaf shredder, drive your lawn mower over them or put them in a sturdy plastic garbage container and chop with your weed eater. Use them over winter or save in bags or in a pile to use in spring.
Straw: Keep any bales you buy for autumn decoration because straw makes great mulch for vegetable gardens and also excellent winter protection. With straw I used to find my biggest weed problem was grain growing from the stray kernels in the bales. But now I store the bales uncovered outdoors over winter: the bales get wet, causing the grain to germinate in autumn's warmth, then winter cold kills them off. Presto: come spring, I've got problem-free mulch. The slight spoiling isn't a problem. (Hay is full of weed seeds, so don't mulch with it.)
Pine needles: Long lasting, light and easy to come by if you have pines - each fall they drop a pile of needles. Leave in place in top of soil under your trees or rake up to use elsewhere in the garden. Cones from pines and other evergreens can also be used. This material is ideal for woodland gardens. Some gardeners find that prickly needles help to discourage slugs. Apparently, the soft-bellied pests hate crawling over pine needles.

By Yvonne Cunnington, check out Yvonne's book Clueless in the Garden

Landscape Vision offers you the opportunity to draw garden beds and fill with various mulches.

Check out our new version on our home page.

Paul Tukey's Organic Lawn Care Manual

Paul Tukey's long-awaited first book, The Organic Lawn Care Manual, is now available. With more than 150 photographs and nearly 300 pages, it is the most extensive guide to natural lawn care ever published. Reviewers are already heaping praise. "Lawns should be as safe and friendly to earth's environment as they are to the kids and pets that roughhouse on them," said Robert Smaus, garden editor for the Los Angeles Times. "Paul Tukey has written a hard-working guide for those who want to keep their lawns as natural as a mountain meadow." Publishers Weekly, the nation's most respected trade journal in the book industry, also gave the book high marks: "His lively and passionate instruction . . . will delight lawn fanatics and provide sound advice for those who simply want to maintain their yard."
Signed copies of the book, which retails for $19.95 in softcover and $29.95 in hardcover is now available directly from the author. Click here to order a signed copy.
Check out an excerpt of the book in the January edition of PPP magazine, now in your local favorite garden center and newsstands.

Foundation Planting...Old Farmers Almac

Don't let peripheral plantings compete with the house for emphasis -- the eye is to be drawn to the house. Borders are incidental to the central focal point of the landscape, which is the house.
Frame and mass at the edges, to leave the center of the place open. Keep the largest plantings off to the side.
Avoid scatter -- no flower beds in the middle of lawns, no brilliantly colored plants without a background of green foliage to set them off.
Make flowers incidental, to supply color and finish. The lawn and the mass plantings are the main pieces of the plan. Flower sparingly.
Consider position carefully. Far more important than the right choice of plant is its correct position with reference to other plants and to structures.

Garden Jobs for March...Old Farmers Almanac

Re-pot houseplants so they will grow well during spring and summer.
Water gloxinias and African violets from the bottom, avoiding getting any water on the leaves. Dust the leaves with a small, soft brush.
Consider ordering a few blueberry plants. Not only will they provide delicious fruit for jams, muffins, and pies, but they are also an excellent choice for landscaping plants, offering scarlet fall foliage and creamy white spring flowers. Blueberries serve neatly in a hedge or as specimen plants.
When choosing fruit trees, remember that apple, apricot, and pear trees need two varieties present to ensure pollination. If space is limited, try peach, nectarine, or sour cherry, which will bear fruit on a single tree.
Garden work should begin when a lump of soil squeezed in the hand is dry enough to fall apart slowly.
Uncover bulb beds and hardy borders near the middle of the month.
Plant deciduous trees and shrubs this month.
Trim out the old canes from the rows of berry bushes. The bramble fruits are borne on new wood of last year's growth.
Prune fruit trees until spring buds swell. Maple and birch should not be pruned until they leaf out.
Sprinkle wood ashes around berries and fruit trees. The potash will enhance the sweetness of the fruit.
Remove mulches from snowdrops and crocuses so the shoots can come through.
Uncover mulched perennial and strawberry beds gradually, pressing into place any plants that have been heaved up.
Dig up over-wintered parsnips as soon as the soil is loose enough. They will not benefit from any additional time in the ground.
Set out pansies as soon as the ground is ready. They'll happily withstand cold weather and will bloom steadily if the spent blossoms are kept picked.
Remove the mulch from your perennial beds gradually. Take it off as the season progresses and add it to your compost pile.
If your compost pile has been frozen all winter, add some manure now and turn it frequently.
Check trellises, latticework, and fences for winter damage. Repair before spring growth begins.
Dormant spraying for fruit trees should be done before spring growth begins.
Resist the temptation to uncover spring-flowering plants such as daffodils and tulips. Mulch may be loosened, but the shoots will still benefit from protection against cold, drying winds.
Manure can be spread over the garden now, especially on the asparagus and rhubarb beds.
Be sure that flats and pots used for starting seed are perfectly clean. Likewise, the soil should be clean and sterile.
Mark and label your sown seeds, indoors and out.
Water newly started seedlings carefully. A pitcher may let the water out too forcefully. A mist sprayer is gentle but can take a long time. Try using a meat basting syringe, which will dispense the water effectively without causing too much soil disruption.
Give peas a chance. The earlier they mature, the sweeter they'll be. Sow them right under the snow, if necessary, but save some for a later planting as well.
Spread dark plastic intended for mulch out over the garden site to hasten the warming of the soil. This will provide for earlier and better germination.
Keep plastic milk jugs or other coverings on hand to protect the flowers of pansies, crocuses, and other early bloomers against the return of severe weather.
Start seedlings of annuals in flats -- aster, larkspur, alyssum, and balsam should be started now (or 6 to 8 weeks before the last frost date in your area). If summer season is short, zinnias should be started now. They will need to be potted up in individual pots after 4 to 5 weeks.
Start some vegetables in flats now: Brussel sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, and lettuce are good choices.
Seed alpine strawberries now to make attractive and bountiful hanging baskets for summer.