Shade gardening tips From Yvonne Cunnington

There's no doubt that shade gardening can be a challenge. Growing flowers in full sun is easier, and you have more colorful plants to choose from.
Even so, those of us with gardens that sizzle in the sun often find ourselves longing for cooling shade.
A lush bed out of the heat and glare of the sun can be an attractive, inviting and calming oasis in the garden The idea that a garden without much sun is a problem probably stems from the first experience of a treed backyard with brick-hard soil and thin lawn struggling in the shadows.
If grass won't even grow there, how can anything else?
Rest assured that there are many attractive perennials that grow well in shade. Getting them to thrive is a matter of enriching the soil.
Do keep in mind that a flower garden directly under deciduous trees will be mostly spring blooming. In general, most plants that grow well in the shadows, including spring bulbs that naturalize, tend to bloom early in the season before the leaves come out on the trees.
This doesn't mean there won't be other flowers in bloom during the rest of the season, but you'll have a more limited palette of flowering plants to choose from. Impatiens is one of flowers that will give you color in the shade all season long - one of the big reasons it's such a popular annual.
When it comes to shade perennials, attractive leaf textures and colors are important because foliage will be your shade garden mainstay through the season.

The idea that a garden without much sun is a problem probably stems from the first experience of a treed backyard with brick-hard soil and thin lawn struggling in the shadows.
If grass won't even grow there, how can anything else?
Rest assured that there are many attractive perennials that grow well in shade. Getting them to thrive is a matter of enriching the soil.
Do keep in mind that a flower garden directly under deciduous trees will be mostly spring blooming. In general, most plants that grow well in the shadows, including spring bulbs that naturalize, tend to bloom early in the season before the leaves come out on the trees.
This doesn't mean there won't be other flowers in bloom during the rest of the season, but you'll have a more limited palette of flowering plants to choose from. Impatiens is one of flowers that will give you color in the shade all season long - one of the big reasons it's such a popular annual.
When it comes to shade perennials, attractive leaf textures and colors are important because foliage will be your shade garden mainstay through the season.
http://www.flower-gardening-made-easy.com/Shade-gardening.html

REMEMBER TO CHECK OUT YVONNE CUNNINGTON'S BOOK, FLOWER-GARDENING MADE EASY. http://www.flower-gardening-made-easy.com/Gardening-book.html

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Lawn Tips Old Farmer's Almanac.

The more you let nature do the work for you, the easier it will be to care for your lawn. These tips could help you improve your relationship with your lawn:
Don't overwater. Make the lawn seek its own source of water, building longer, sturdier roots. Cut back on water especially in midsummer to let the lawn go dormant, strengthening it for fall and winter.
Excess water leaches away nutrients and encourages insects. Deep waterings at irregular intervals are better for the lawn than frequent light waterings.
Let some weeds grow in that expanse of green. A slightly wild lawn lets volunteer grasses, wildflowers, herbs, and even wild strawberries grow, adding color and variety to your landscape.
The struggle against weeds is the single most expensive, time-consuming task in caring for a lawn. Clover grows low to the ground and smells lovely after it's been cut, and it often stays green after the rest of lawn has turned brown; dandelion greens taste great in a salad.
The higher grass grows, the slower it grows. Adjust your mower blades to cut grass at two to three inches instead of 1-1/2 inches to save time, money, and water. Turf clipped at heights greater than two inches develops the largest, most extensive root system.
Leave clippings on the lawn to filter down to the soil, decompose, and recycle nutrients back to the roots. Look into the new "mulching mowers" that recycle clippings back onto the lawn.
If you're seeding or reseeding, use a mix of seed that includes slow-growing or low-growing grasses, like fine-leaf fescues that also have low water and fertility requirements. Combine the fescues with a low-maintenance Kentucky bluegrass like 'Park', 'Kenblue', or 'South Dakota Common'.
Moss and sorrel in lawns usually means poor soil, poor aeration or drainage, or excessive acidity.
During a drought, let the grass grow longer between mowings, and reduce fertilizer.
Water your lawn early in the morning or in the evening.
The best time to apply fertilizer is just before it rains.
In areas of your lawn where tree roots compete with the grass, apply some extra fertilizer to benefit both.

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Rose Gardening

Can rose gardening be easy?

Well, yes, if you start by picking strong, disease-resistant rose bushes.
Roses come many colors and forms and in range of growth habits, sizes and shapes. Fortunately today, many newer roses are being bred for hardiness and good disease-resistance.
Like most other garden flowers, roses will thrive if you give them what they need:
Lots of sun – At least six hours of good strong sunlight daily - less sun and you get fewer flowers.
Good soil – Well drained, but able to hold moisture, and enriched with manure and/or compost. Roses are heavy feeders that thrive in rich soil.
Timely care – Plenty of water and fertilizer and proper pruning at the right time. Be sure to stay on the lookout so you can nip any rose problems in the bud before they get out of hand.

Rose gardening : When to plant roses: New roses establish more quickly in the cool moist conditions of spring or fall, so plant soon as soil becomes workable in spring, or in fall.
Always water regularly until established (for about the first two months after planting). Roses are available bare-root or container grown.
Planting bare root roses: Keep roots moist before planting. It's a good idea to soak them in a pail of barely lukewarm water for an hour or so before planting.
Dig hole large enough for roots to spread. Place so that bud union (a swollen area between the root and canes) is at least 2 inches below soil line in warmer zones, 4 to 6 inches deep in Zones 2 to 4. Back-fill planting hole with soil into which you've mixed some peat moss and manure to three quarters full. Firm soil around roots, water well and let drain.
Finish filling the planting hole, adding soil to form a mound over canes (in fall, this provides winter protection, in early spring, protection from sunscald). Remove mounds when roses begin to leaf out.
By Yvonne Cunnington Acknowledgement: Reprinted with Permission. ©Yvonne Cunnington http://www.flower-gardening-made-easy.com/.


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Here's a little history on Mother's Day.

Main article: Mother's Day (United States)
The United States celebrates Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May. In the United States, Mother's Day was loosely inspired by the British day and was imported by social activist Julia Ward Howe after the American Civil War. However, it was intended as a call to unite women against war. In 1870, she wrote the Mother's Day Proclamation as a call for peace and disarmament. Howe failed in her attempt to get formal recognition of a Mother's Day for Peace. Her idea was influenced by Ann Jarvis, a young Appalachian homemaker who, starting in 1858, had attempted to improve sanitation through what she called Mothers' Work Days. She organized women throughout the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides, and in 1868 she began work to reconcile Union and Confederate neighbors.
When Jarvis died in 1907, her daughter, named Anna Jarvis, started the crusade to found a memorial day for women. The first such Mother's Day was celebrated in Grafton, West Virginia, on 10 May 1908, in the church where the elder Ann Jarvis had taught Sunday School. Originally the Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church, this building is now the International Mother's Day Shrine (a National Historic Landmark). From there, the custom caught on — spreading eventually to 45 states. The holiday was declared officially by some states beginning in 1912. In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother's Day, as a day for American citizens to show the flag in honor of those mothers whose sons had died in war.
Nine years after the first official Mother's Day, commercialization of the U.S. holiday became so rampant that Anna Jarvis herself became a major opponent of what the holiday had become. Mother's Day continues to this day to be one of the most commercially successful U.S. occasions. According to the National Restaurant Association, Mother's Day is now the most popular day of the year to dine out at a restaurant in the United States.

Lawn Care Tips from The Old Farmer's Almanac

The more you let nature do the work for you, the easier it will be to care for your lawn. These tips could help you improve your relationship with your lawn:
Don't overwater. Make the lawn seek its own source of water, building longer, sturdier roots. Cut back on water especially in midsummer to let the lawn go dormant, strengthening it for fall and winter.
Excess water leaches away nutrients and encourages insects. Deep waterings at irregular intervals are better for the lawn than frequent light waterings.
Let some weeds grow in that expanse of green. A slightly wild lawn lets volunteer grasses, wildflowers, herbs, and even wild strawberries grow, adding color and variety to your landscape.
The struggle against weeds is the single most expensive, time-consuming task in caring for a lawn. Clover grows low to the ground and smells lovely after it's been cut, and it often stays green after the rest of lawn has turned brown; dandelion greens taste great in a salad.
The higher grass grows, the slower it grows. Adjust your mower blades to cut grass at two to three inches instead of 1-1/2 inches to save time, money, and water. Turf clipped at heights greater than two inches develops the largest, most extensive root system.
Leave clippings on the lawn to filter down to the soil, decompose, and recycle nutrients back to the roots. Look into the new "mulching mowers" that recycle clippings back onto the lawn.
If you're seeding or reseeding, use a mix of seed that includes slow-growing or low-growing grasses, like fine-leaf fescues that also have low water and fertility requirements. Combine the fescues with a low-maintenance Kentucky bluegrass like 'Park', 'Kenblue', or 'South Dakota Common'.
Moss and sorrel in lawns usually means poor soil, poor aeration or drainage, or excessive acidity.
During a drought, let the grass grow longer between mowings, and reduce fertilizer.
Water your lawn early in the morning or in the evening.
The best time to apply fertilizer is just before it rains.
In areas of your lawn where tree roots compete with the grass, apply some extra fertilizer to benefit both.
http://www.almanac.com/garden/index.php

Climbing roses. Old Farmers Almanac

Should climbing roses be trimmed back the same as other roses?
Yes, but avoid pruning them too much. Novice rose growers often make that mistake. Climbing varieties usually fare better with light pruning. Generally, you should trim them after they bloom, to make room for new blooms. Different varieties behave differently, though, so you should consult your local nursery to find out what is best for your variety. No rose will bloom well if its blossoms don't get enough sunshine and air because they are too crowded.

From Old Farmer's Almanac