Fall is the best time to plant Leyland Cypress and other evergreen trees and shrubs
Protect your new plants from heat and drought
Plant trees and shrubs in the fall to take advantage of good root-growing weather. Newly planted trees like cool weather. As long as the ground is not actually frozen, trees and shrubs are setting on new roots.
Here in South Carolina, (Zone 7) we experience a lot of open weather in the fall and winter. The ground seldom freezes for more than a few days and then, only down a few inches. This is ideal for new plantings to settle in and put out good root systems.
Leyland Cypress especially enjoy the benefits of fall or winter planting. The long months of cool weather gives them time to become established before hot weather hits. Add a good layer of mulch around your plants and give them even better survival chances next summer.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Affordable landscapes
Do you need to landscape your yard, but are on a tight budget? Here is a way to do it for less. Buy smaller plants. No, I don’t mean that you should look for types of plants that grow small. I mean, look for plants in smaller containers.
Who says your landscape has to look fully grown when you plant it? Remember, that little starter plant is going to grow, too, and will fill your yard with beauty. Yes, it may take an extra year, but your pocket book will love you.
Explore plant stores and nurseries and find starter plants in small containers. Ask about ‘liners.’ A liner is a young plant that has been grown in a small container and is ready to ‘line’ out in rows. Large nurseries start thousands of plants in cell-flats and when these starts are well-rooted, line them out into the ground to grow larger before selling the bigger plants to you.
Naturally, the larger plant is going to cost the nursery more money and they pass that cost on to you. Short-cut the extra expense and buy liners for your landscape. They frequently survive better than larger plants and give you the same landscape satisfaction as larger plants if you are willing to wait that extra year. They make exactly the same growth in your yard as they would in the nursery field and you don’t have to pay the difference.
Who says your landscape has to look fully grown when you plant it? Remember, that little starter plant is going to grow, too, and will fill your yard with beauty. Yes, it may take an extra year, but your pocket book will love you.
Explore plant stores and nurseries and find starter plants in small containers. Ask about ‘liners.’ A liner is a young plant that has been grown in a small container and is ready to ‘line’ out in rows. Large nurseries start thousands of plants in cell-flats and when these starts are well-rooted, line them out into the ground to grow larger before selling the bigger plants to you.
Naturally, the larger plant is going to cost the nursery more money and they pass that cost on to you. Short-cut the extra expense and buy liners for your landscape. They frequently survive better than larger plants and give you the same landscape satisfaction as larger plants if you are willing to wait that extra year. They make exactly the same growth in your yard as they would in the nursery field and you don’t have to pay the difference.
More Compost Pointers
More compost pointers
Remember, you do have junk mail! Newspapers. Cardboard.
Use it!
Works wonders for long-term soil recovery. Keeps down weeds. Holds moisture.
Gets rid of land-fill.....and so many other good things.
Grass clippings do marvels. If you have any lawn to mow, get a grass-catcher for your mower.
All the leaves you rake in the fall are pure gold.
You may not have a large amount of any of the above, but pick a spot and start building one small area at a time.
Years ago, my hubby used to go out early in the morning, ahead of the trash pick-up truck, and gather up bags of grass clippings and leaves. We turned a garden that looked like cement into deep, fertile soil in 2 seasons.
Roam around the country side and spot old bales of hay rotting in the field. Ask. You might get a bargain. It does help to have a pickup or a utility trailer.
Check out the land-fill. Do they have a recycle center for yard waste. Some municipalities have free or inexpensive mulch.
Hair from the hair salon will compost nicely in your garden.
You name it, if it will eventually break down, use it in your composting projects.
Remember, you do have junk mail! Newspapers. Cardboard.
Use it!
Works wonders for long-term soil recovery. Keeps down weeds. Holds moisture.
Gets rid of land-fill.....and so many other good things.
Grass clippings do marvels. If you have any lawn to mow, get a grass-catcher for your mower.
All the leaves you rake in the fall are pure gold.
You may not have a large amount of any of the above, but pick a spot and start building one small area at a time.
Years ago, my hubby used to go out early in the morning, ahead of the trash pick-up truck, and gather up bags of grass clippings and leaves. We turned a garden that looked like cement into deep, fertile soil in 2 seasons.
Roam around the country side and spot old bales of hay rotting in the field. Ask. You might get a bargain. It does help to have a pickup or a utility trailer.
Check out the land-fill. Do they have a recycle center for yard waste. Some municipalities have free or inexpensive mulch.
Hair from the hair salon will compost nicely in your garden.
You name it, if it will eventually break down, use it in your composting projects.
Never Build Another Compost Heap Again!
Quick Compost
Never build another compost heap again!
There are many ways to build up the fertility of your soil. Some of them are very time-consuming. Short-cutting the compost pile and going directly to the soil builds fertility just as well and takes much less time and energy.
Here are several short-cut methods that have worked well for me.
1) If you live out in the country, raise chickens and throw your kitchen garbage into their pen every day. They will love your veggie scraps and give you beautiful eggs in return. Clean the chicken pen now and then and apply the results to your garden or flower beds.
2) Spread leaves and grass clippings directly on the garden. Time will compost them for you and you never have to touch them again. An added benefit is weed-control. Fresh grass clippings are Nature’s manure. Spread them only about 6 inches deep or they will get too hot as they compost and you will loose much of the value of their nutrients.
3) Dig a short trench in your garden (several feet long). Only the width of your shovel and no deeper than the shovel blade. Lay the dirt you dig right beside the trench. Every day, bring out your kitchen garbage and dump it into the beginning of the trench. Dig the next shovel full of dirt from the far end of the trench and use it to cover the kitchen scraps you just emptied into the trench. The garbage rots right where you need it.
4) After every meal prep, put all your veggie peelings into the blender or food processor. Use enough water to allow the blender or processor to chew up all those scraps. Pour the resulting slurry directly on the area you want to enrich. You may need to throw a bit of grass clippings, leaves or other mulch over the veggie water to discourage flies.
Reminder: Please do not use any meat scraps or left-over meat in your compost. It attracts too many critters you don’t want in your garden.
Your ground loves you! You have eliminated smelling land-fill garbage. You have better soil. And best of all, No Back Ache!
Never build another compost heap again!
There are many ways to build up the fertility of your soil. Some of them are very time-consuming. Short-cutting the compost pile and going directly to the soil builds fertility just as well and takes much less time and energy.
Here are several short-cut methods that have worked well for me.
1) If you live out in the country, raise chickens and throw your kitchen garbage into their pen every day. They will love your veggie scraps and give you beautiful eggs in return. Clean the chicken pen now and then and apply the results to your garden or flower beds.
2) Spread leaves and grass clippings directly on the garden. Time will compost them for you and you never have to touch them again. An added benefit is weed-control. Fresh grass clippings are Nature’s manure. Spread them only about 6 inches deep or they will get too hot as they compost and you will loose much of the value of their nutrients.
3) Dig a short trench in your garden (several feet long). Only the width of your shovel and no deeper than the shovel blade. Lay the dirt you dig right beside the trench. Every day, bring out your kitchen garbage and dump it into the beginning of the trench. Dig the next shovel full of dirt from the far end of the trench and use it to cover the kitchen scraps you just emptied into the trench. The garbage rots right where you need it.
4) After every meal prep, put all your veggie peelings into the blender or food processor. Use enough water to allow the blender or processor to chew up all those scraps. Pour the resulting slurry directly on the area you want to enrich. You may need to throw a bit of grass clippings, leaves or other mulch over the veggie water to discourage flies.
Reminder: Please do not use any meat scraps or left-over meat in your compost. It attracts too many critters you don’t want in your garden.
Your ground loves you! You have eliminated smelling land-fill garbage. You have better soil. And best of all, No Back Ache!
Friday, November 14, 2008
Beat the Heat. Save Your Plants
Cheap and easy way to protect your landscape plants from hot, dry weather
Here in the Upstate of South Carolina, we are experiencing severe drought conditions.
Plants are dying for lack of moisture.
With the information below, you can now put out new plants with confidence and know you are not wasting your time or your money.
What I am about to show you is a very simple way to help your plants stay moist.
You will use this method to keep down a lot of the weeds and not have to mess with groundcover cloth.
Using this simple technique, you promote good growth, too.
And best of all, this is FREE!
Let me show you how to build layers of water-saving mulch to save your plants.
While you are saving your plants, you will be doing yourself and everyone else a recycling favor.
If your home or business is anything like mine, you generate loads of junk mail, phone books, catalogs, cereal, cracker and cardboard boxes every day.
By recycling these valuable resources, you will save your plants.
Some folk call this method Lasagna Mulching.
Here at Just Plants Nursery we call it recycling, too.
Just Plants Nursery has a paper shredder and we put all our junk mail and used computer paper through the shredder and out under our permanent plantings. It really works!
If it is made out of paper, it will bio-degrade! Keep it out of the landfill. Why buy bagged soil amendments when you are hauling mulch home in every grocery bag and picking it up by the handful from your mailbox every day?
Here’s how you do it:
1. Use a shovel and loosen the soil in a small area around where you want to put your plant.
2. Wet down the ground
3. Set your plant in the ground. Set it high in the hole. Leave some of the potting mix showing above the ground to start with.
4. Wet down the ground
5. Dip newspaper sheets in a bucket of water. Place at least 10 layers of wet newspaper all around the plant. Don’t crowd the wet paper up too close to the plant. Mice might like to chew on the paper and enjoy your tree, too.
6. Wet down the newspaper again.
7. Flatten out a large cardboard box. Cut a hole about 3-6 inches larger than your plant.
8. Lay this cardboard around your plant to hold down the wet newspaper.
9. Wet down the cardboard.
10. Mulch over the cardboard and up around the new plant. (Bark or pine straw mulch, leaves, grass clippings, anything that will eventually rot down, but will hold moisture now.
11. Wet down the mulch as you put it down so it is nice and damp.
12. Inspect you tree now and then to see if it needs anything else.
13. Fertilize in the Spring.
14. Renew the mulch as needed.
15. If the grass and weeds really take over, put down more layers of wet newspaper and cardboard and mulch.
16. This method will help hold moisture for weeks at a time during dry weather and discourage weeds.
Brought to you by Just Plants Nursery 475 Babb Road Campobello, SC 29322 (864) 895-9660
www.justplantssc.com
jmyers61@bellsouth.net
Janice Myers
Here in the Upstate of South Carolina, we are experiencing severe drought conditions.
Plants are dying for lack of moisture.
With the information below, you can now put out new plants with confidence and know you are not wasting your time or your money.
What I am about to show you is a very simple way to help your plants stay moist.
You will use this method to keep down a lot of the weeds and not have to mess with groundcover cloth.
Using this simple technique, you promote good growth, too.
And best of all, this is FREE!
Let me show you how to build layers of water-saving mulch to save your plants.
While you are saving your plants, you will be doing yourself and everyone else a recycling favor.
If your home or business is anything like mine, you generate loads of junk mail, phone books, catalogs, cereal, cracker and cardboard boxes every day.
By recycling these valuable resources, you will save your plants.
Some folk call this method Lasagna Mulching.
Here at Just Plants Nursery we call it recycling, too.
Just Plants Nursery has a paper shredder and we put all our junk mail and used computer paper through the shredder and out under our permanent plantings. It really works!
If it is made out of paper, it will bio-degrade! Keep it out of the landfill. Why buy bagged soil amendments when you are hauling mulch home in every grocery bag and picking it up by the handful from your mailbox every day?
Here’s how you do it:
1. Use a shovel and loosen the soil in a small area around where you want to put your plant.
2. Wet down the ground
3. Set your plant in the ground. Set it high in the hole. Leave some of the potting mix showing above the ground to start with.
4. Wet down the ground
5. Dip newspaper sheets in a bucket of water. Place at least 10 layers of wet newspaper all around the plant. Don’t crowd the wet paper up too close to the plant. Mice might like to chew on the paper and enjoy your tree, too.
6. Wet down the newspaper again.
7. Flatten out a large cardboard box. Cut a hole about 3-6 inches larger than your plant.
8. Lay this cardboard around your plant to hold down the wet newspaper.
9. Wet down the cardboard.
10. Mulch over the cardboard and up around the new plant. (Bark or pine straw mulch, leaves, grass clippings, anything that will eventually rot down, but will hold moisture now.
11. Wet down the mulch as you put it down so it is nice and damp.
12. Inspect you tree now and then to see if it needs anything else.
13. Fertilize in the Spring.
14. Renew the mulch as needed.
15. If the grass and weeds really take over, put down more layers of wet newspaper and cardboard and mulch.
16. This method will help hold moisture for weeks at a time during dry weather and discourage weeds.
Brought to you by Just Plants Nursery 475 Babb Road Campobello, SC 29322 (864) 895-9660
www.justplantssc.com
jmyers61@bellsouth.net
Janice Myers
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