How to Landscape with Evergreen Plants in Winter?

The winter is coming, and how to landscape your garden with evergreen plants? I wish this article will help you somewhere.

There are hundreds of varieties of evergreens. While many grow into massive specimens, dwarf selections (select as this bird's nest spruce) are perfect for planting in beds and borders. Try them between brightly colored plants to give your eyes a visual break.

Because they keep their foliage all winter, low-growing evergreens are perfect for planting around your foundation to hide it all year.

One of the most common ways to use evergreens is as a screen in the landscape. Tall, columnar varieties of arborvitae, yew, and juniper are great for small spaces. If you have room, be sure to include broadleaf evergreens, such as rhododendrons, as well.

Some evergreens (such as junipers and yews) have a tight growth habit that makes them perfect for shearing into fun shapes. Try growing two a few feet apart and wire them together to create a unique arbor.

Give your beds and borders a beautiful background with evergreens. Choose tall varieties that have dark green foliage to accentuate bright colors. Or select cultivars with colorful foliage (such as the blue spruce shown here) to add interest to your plantings.

Plant four modest-size upright evergreens (such as dwarf Alberta spruce) in a square to create a garden room. Even if you don't enclose the area with shrubs or other plants as walls, it will feel more intimate and inviting.

Enjoy a beautiful carpet by letting spreading evergreens become a groundcover. A creeping blue spruce (shown here), junipers, or spreading pine is perfect for filling a space with year-round color and interest.

Boxwood, yew, and juniper take well to tight pruning. Take advantage of this and clip them into fun shapes to add a bit of whimsy to your yard. A low boxwood hedge becomes fun with a mounded corner. Or try spirals (as this variegated boxwood has been pruned) and other shapes.

Plant artistically sheared evergreens (such as the junipers shown here) on both sides of your gate or along a path to give an entry a bolder, more formal feeling. They'll take yearly pruning to keep their swirly shape, but the effect is worth the effort.

One sure way to highlight the fall colors in your yard is to pair them with evergreens. Blue spruce, for example, looks smashing against bold reds and oranges. And bright yellows practically sing next to a dark green background.

Make garden design easy by choosing a theme and repeating it. For example, this garden makes use of circles - a rounded boxwood echoes stone spheres along a path and the shape of an arbor farther along. You can do the same thing with just about any shape or color.

Big, bold evergreens can be perfect container garden plants if you have a large container. This Austrian pine, for example, adds a dash of color (and privacy) to a rooftop garden -- but you can get the same effect on a deck, patio, balcony, or even along a wide driveway.

Embrace flowering evergreens to add landscape drama. Rhododendrons, mountain laurels, and pieris add color in Northern areas; abelias, camellias, and loropetalum are perfect for warm-winter areas.

Keep cold winter winds from pulling all the heat from your home with a windbreak. Plant evergreen trees on the north or east side of your home and watch your savings grow.

Choose a particularly stunning evergreen (such as golden 'Chief Joseph' pine, contorted 'Emerald Twister' Douglas fir, or white-variegated 'Horstmann's Silberlocke' Korean fir) and treat it as a specimen plant in your landscape. Selections such as these are so eye-catching they don't need neighbors.

Your front yard will shine all year long if you fill it with a collection of evergreens. Choose varieties with different forms, colors, and textures and you'll put on a show without a single bloom.

Save yourself hours of effort every week by planting a collection of evergreens on a hard-to-mow slope. They'll keep it looking good all year long, stop erosion, and smother most weeds so you can just sit back and enjoy the view.


* Original post: The Garden of Eden for Gardeners (Garden Tools World)

Flowers should be Treated in Different Ways for the Winter

Flowers can be mainly divided into two groups: Cold-Resistant and Cold-Fragile.

Most of flowers and plants come from tropical and subtropical regions will stop growing and get into dormant term when the circumstance temperature is under 10 degrees Celsius, otherwise their branches and leaves will be damaged easily and even froze out. For example, araucaria, cordylie fruticosa, pocket coconut, aglaia, clivia, jasmine, pineapple, color cactus planted directly in pots and other plants etc., the room temperature should be kept at about 3-5 degrees Celsius; While banyan tree, palm bamboo, balata, aloe, tulip wood, epiphyllum, and so on, the lowest room temperature should be kept at 1-3 degrees Celsius or more higher.

As rose, azalea, laurel, cycads and other plants are belonging to cold-resistant plants, so even if they been placed in a balcony or outdoors they can survive the winter safety; While the aglaia, chlorophytum, pachira macrocarpa and other cold-fragile plants should be moved into the room. Therefore, for the coming winter, we must treat different flowers and plants in different ways.

Chlorophytum



Chlorophytum is a type of semi-cold resistant plant, which can survive in winter indoors, but the leaves may die. However, dead leaves does not matter, as long as its roots not die, chlorophytum can grow better in the next year. In particular, remember that, although the leaves of chlorophytum have dead, you’d best move it into the room for the winter. Timely watering is also necessary when it turn to drought, but be careful not to take too much watering, otherwise their roots will rot.

Bunting



In summer days taken care of bunting is more easily than chlorophytum, it has strong reproductive competence, it can grow under the full sunlight and half-sunlight conditions, bunting is good at cool-resistance, bunting likes warmth and should be kept wettish in the whole year. So in winter it should be placed indoor, and if the indoor temperature is too low, it will shriveled, too.

Ivy




Ivy is rather good at cold-resistance, it do not demands too much sunshine, and it like living in cool places. For ivy, living indoor is no very difficult, while the sultry climate with high temperature in summer is no good to the growth of ivy.


Aloe Vera



Aloe like bright sunshine with rather high temperature, but must be careful to avoid exposing to strong sunlight. In winter the lowest circumstance temperature can not less than 2 degrees Celsius, so you should move it indoors timely. Although aloe vera likes water, but you can not watering it every day, you may watering it when the soil turn to very dry.

Pachira Macrocarpa



Pachira is fear of coldness, placing it in an air-conditioned room in winter, it will overwinter easily. In usually days you may watering it once per two weeks, but in winter you should watering it once a couple of months.

* Original post: The Garden of Eden for Gardeners (Garden Tools World)

Growing More Food with Less Impact

The ideal agriculture in our opinion is both productive - produces a lot more. We need it and there are a billion people hungry today. But, at the same time, we’re running out of planet, and we can't afford to be damaging the environmental resources that actually agriculture largely relies upon.

Jules Pretty, an agricultural expert at the University of Essex in the United Kingdom. He's also an author of a late 2009 Royal Society report on the science of global agriculture.

Jules Pretty said that global food production will have to increase by 50 to 100% in the next 30 to 40 years, in order to feed Earth's growing population.

"What we're saying is, look at the system first of all, and then see how you can manipulate it. If you can get your spiders and beetles to eat all your pests, then great. Do that first. If you can't, then you might have to use a pesticide. " said Jules Pretty.

He also illustrated the point with an example from East Africa.

Scientists working on the chemical signals that plants give off realized that if you had the right kind of grasses growing next to your maize fields, then those grasses repelled the pests that would normally come to eat your maize. So if you have a mixed system, and design it very carefully, you don't need to use any pesticides to kill the pests.

* Original post: The Garden of Eden for Gardeners (Garden Tools World)

4 Useful Hand Tools Help You Take Care of The Garden (down)

3. Loosing Soil / Scarification



There are many benefits of loosing soil for flowers and plants: One is to avoid surface hardening of potted earth; Second is benefits breathing of plants; Third is can removing or blending pollutions on the pot surface.

In general, before loosing soil, you need to take a watering to the plant enough, take a throughout watering, and wait the surface of potted soil turn to dry by 70-80 percent, then do the job of loosing soil.

As for plants with short roots the loosing should be carried rather shallowly, while for long roots and ordinary roots the loosing should be carried more deeper, usually to 3 cm is appropriate. Not enough watering will cause earth hardening easily, at this time you may add some fermented sawdust, coal ash etc. when loosing.

During cold days in winter, it is not good to break ground, it is best to wait until spring comes, otherwise the roots will be damaged in cold weather. When you want to loose the soil of potted flowers, you may use a bamboo or wood slice or a small rake and wait the soil become half-dry after watering, the depth is subject to seeing the root. At the same time you may cut off some roots of the surface, thus to facilitate the germination of new roots.

Flower shovels and rakes can both used for loosing soil, you may choose different size tools subject to different objects(potted plants or ground training plants). For ground training plant with rather bigger size, you may use a hoe or rake, while for small potted plants you may choose a small flower shovel or a small rake.

You may buy some mini garden tool sets from Beijing Laitai Flowers Store and Shanghai Yike Home Gardening Store, you can found some rakes with very small bodies, even mini-pot is also applicable.

4. Clean Up Dead Leaves


Dead leaves fallen on the ground in autumn and winter, will inevitably undermine the overall impression of the garden, you need to remove them timely. The dead leaves you collected together can be made compost, use it as manure for the next year.

In addition, some fallen leaves were caused by pests, it they had not been cleaned up timely, it may cause germs infection on other plants or other parts of the plant, it is necessary to be removed timely.

Tools for cleaning up dead leaves is very simple, a piece of 9 teeth rake is enough.

(Finished)

* Original post: The Garden of Eden for Gardeners (Garden Tools World)

4 Useful Hand Tools Help You Take Care of The Garden (up)

1. Pruning


Adult woody plants need pruning before the sprouts come out soon, because once the eruption of new shoots, nutrients will focus on the new shoots, so you should to remove those unnecessary branches in advance, and leaving those healthy branches and shoots, thus lead nutrients concentrated on branches and avoid wasting. So if you want the branches can grow healthy, it is necessary to do some necessary pruning.
　　
Generally a system pruning work should be carried out twice per year, and should be finished in the summer and winter respectively. The pruning focus in winter is lies on: leaving new branches (new branches issued last year) and branches flowering most in last spring, abandon aging branches; Such action will enable the plant more young, and the same time clear out some mixed branches, which will help plants maintain a good condition of ventilation and sunlight, but also organize the overall plant shape, make the plant figure more beautiful - the general principle is to prune branches to the full.
　　
Pruning tools with different pruning objects have different types, for example, living branches shears (to cut off living branches), dead branches shears (to cut off dead branches), rose shears (to remove the thorns on rose stems) , high-branch shears (to cut off high branches on the tree), lawn shears (to shave lawns), hedge shears (to cut off hedges and other shrubs required high level of tidiness), etc., there are some special garden tools such as saws, which is to deal with branches rather thick.


2. Weeding

Plants need careful cultivation by the host to grow healthy. For weeds, they need no more special care, by dint of nutrients and water stored aside flowers and plants, they can grow freely and happily. In order to take care of our beloved plants and flowers, weeding is necessary.

In general, if the species of flowers and plants in your garden is somewhat complex, or the garden area is rather small, both of which are suitable for physical weeding way, such as using weeding shovel and weeding machine. If your garden has a large area or there are many flowers and plants in your garden in a single species, you can use herbicides.

Herbicides according to their chemical composition can be divided into two groups of organic and inorganic herbicides. Commonly inorganic herbicides there are arsenides and chlorates, now they have been obsolete gradually. Today the majority of herbicides has low toxicity on human and animals, however, to people with sensitive physique, for more security it’s best to take physical weeding with tools.

There are many tools used for weeding, including wide weeding fork, small weeding fork, weeding blade, short-handled cutting knife, for household using, a small weeding fork is enough.

(not finished to be continue...)

* Original post: The Garden of Eden for Gardeners (Garden Tools World)

How to Prune Garden Shrubs?

Garden shrubs can be generally divided into view of three types as flower viewing shrub, fruit viewing shrub and branches viewing shrub, and different shrubs should taken different . pruning methods.

Shrubs grow for viewing flowers, commonly there are jasminum nudiflorum, forsythia, xanthina, Bauhinia, cloves and so on, and their flower buds are formed on the branches in the first year, so the prune job should be carried out after flowering in May and June.

Summer pruning should be carried out mainly with purpose of thinning branches and trimming shapes, cutting out crossed branches, leggy branches, dense branches, insect pest branches and dead branches, to facilitate ventilation and light transmission, so that make nutrient more concentrated; Remained flower branches may be shorten thus to help them grow more rapidly, which is also benefit for its flowering in the coming year.

For summer flowering shrubs such as roses, hibiscus, Chinese wolfberry, crape myrtle, etc., which are generally blossomed out on new shoots grow in the spring of that year, so the pruning job should be carried out after defoliation in the winter. Cut off too dense branches, dead branches and pest branches etc.

When thinning branches the stubs can not be left too long, generally should cut begin from the branching point, cutting with an inclination angle of 45 °, the incision should be kept smooth. Weak branches should be cut heavily while heavy branches should be cut lightly, 4-6 buds may be remained on each branch, the rest be cut off partly.

When pruning shrubs growing both for viewing flowers and viewing fruits, keep branches 5cm-20cm left, the rest part be cut off, thus to facilitate it grow more new branches in the next year.

* Original post: The Garden of Eden for Gardeners (Garden Tools World)

Essential Tools for Flower Gardening

In addition to flower gardening containers, it is also need following garden tools:


1. Transplanting trowel: used for mixing soil, move soil into flower pots or used in digging soil.












2. Mesh sieve: to prepare three kinds of wire mesh of different sizes, used in screening leaf mold and other soil.






3. Garden shears: Used for cutting stems and foliages.










4. Watering can/pot: Used for watering flowers. If the flower pot is small, it is enough to choose a water bottle and other similar small containers.










Additionally, you should prepare brushes, gloves, pesticide sprayers, metering instruments and other garden tools.

* Original post: The Garden of Eden for Gardeners (Garden Tools World)

Flower Gardening - How to Manure?

I. A balance between nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium is required

Fertilizer is a necessary nutrient for plants growth. Plants may absorb oxygen and calcium carbonate form air and absorb oxygen, carbon or hydrogen form soil; However, nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium or potassium, magnesium contained in soil is often insufficient, so we must add fertilizer to make supplement.

In all fertilizers, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are the three major factors, and have important functions; if we use plants to make an imagery, leaves are similar with nitrogen, fruits (flowers) similar with phosphors, and roots same with potassium. That is, nitrogen is one of the structural components of plant itself, when it is insufficient the leaves turn yellow. Phosphorus manure is one of the structural components of the nucleic acid, insufficient phosphate may impede flowering and fruiting; Potassium has functions of adjusting the physiological role of plant, insufficient potassic fertilizer may cause disease to plants.

Therefore, when to manure, you should pay attention to keep a balance between nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium three elements.

II. Fertilizers for gardening plants includes basal fertilizer and top dressing fertilizer

Fertilizers can be divided into organic fertilizer and inorganic fertilizer, the former includes fermented oil grains, bone meal, dried cow dung, etc., the later is a type of chemically synthesized substances, commonly referred to synthetic fertilizers, and can be divided into solid fertilizer and liquid fertilizer apart. Among which, the organic fertilizer is a type of slow action fertilizer, and synthetic fertilizers includes both slow action and quick action fertilizers. These fertilizers can be divided into basal fertilizer and top dressing fertilizer, they are all conducive greatly to plant growth has

Basal fertilizers are slow action fertilizer, and top dressing fertilizers are quick action fertilizer.

The so-called basal fertilizer is the one should be mixed into soil before plants planting. If you use gardening container to grow, they are generally mixed into the soul, also you may mix granular slow action synthetic fertilizer into soil. As for the mixture ratio, please refer the instruction described in my previous post in this blog.

As top dressing fertilizer are fertilizers should be added during the plants growing course, most of them are liquid fertilizer, others are solid organic fertilizer, and synthetic fertilizer. If you choose to use liquid fertilizer, you’d best to dilute it with water before, which will be helpful to achieve a better effectiveness.

* Original post: The Garden of Eden for Gardeners (Garden Tools World)

Use Suitable Mixed Soil for Plants Growth

Plants need to absorb water and nutrients from soil and nutrients, so choose suitable mixing soil for its growth is important for flower gardening.

There is a wide range of gardening soil, which is suitable for all kinds of plants. Here, based on the premise of flower gardening, I’d like to introduce several kinds of mixed soil. In general, a type of soil in good condition should has following characters:

1. Good conditions in aeration and drainage.
2. Fertile soil (contains appropriate fertilizer).
3. Granular (gathered and solidified by fine particles, contains moisture, nutrients and air).
4. Free of impurities.
5. Clean earthiness (without bacteria).
6. Slightly acidic (almost all plants are like slightly acidic or neutral soil).

With the above conditions, here are examples of mixing ratio of gardening soil on the market for different plants:

- Herbaceous plants: Ruby soil: Leaf mold: Vermiculite = 5:3:2

- Flowering Tree/Court tree: Ruby soil: Leaf mold = 7:3

- Foliage Plants: Ruby soil: Peat soil: Vermiculite = 5:3:2

- Succulent Plants: Mixing soil of Kiryu sand and equal amount of Daytime soil: Peat soil/ Leaf mold = 9:1

- Weeds: Araki Land (plant with ruby soil, then covered with gravel thus to prevent soil floating)

- Mixed soil for Hanging bowl: Ruby soil: Leaf mold: Vermiculite = 4:3:3

ps: You should take the water absorbency into account with soil for hanging bowl, then based on which to decide pay the mixed ratio.

* Original post: The Garden of Eden for Gardeners (Garden Tools World)

Choose Flower Containers Matching Location

Choose a suitable flower pot with different decorative location

The so-called "flower pot" is refers to the general term of pots used to grow plants and flowers, no matter to material, pattern and size there are changes with a countless quantity. In materials, there are distinctions of ceramic, plastic, wood, stone and etc.

According to different planting ways and different shapes, flower pots can be divided into following types:

A) Bowls and Pots (pots and small size containers)

Namely deep bowls with diameter about 30cm

B) Window type flower pots

Rectangular flower pots dedicated to decorative window sill.

C) Shallow bowl

Large size flower pot whose mouth length much longer than it depth, namely shallow bowl type.

D) Hanging baskets (hanging pot)

Flower baskets can be dangled or hang on the wall or fence.

E) Other flower pots

1. Large size flower pot - Barrel, etc..
2. Vase-type flower pot - flasks and so on.
3. Bowls special for strawberry

If you want to use flower containers to grow plants and decorative residency, first of all you must to decide the decorated location, and choose suitable flower containers and plants, then to prepare soil or fertilizers, and other tools.


ps: In the coming articles, we will introduce you basic knowledge of flower gardening, and flower containers, soil, tools and basic growing methods, as well as daily management issues.
* Original post: The Garden of Eden for Gardeners (Garden Tools World)

Basic Knowledge of Gardening III - Method of Plants Selection

In order to enjoy the fun of flower gardening fully, you must try to understand the special nature and characters of selected plants.

At this time, you can choose suitable plants based on the environment of flower location, or different sizes and shapes; However, if you want to put two and more species if plants into one flower container, aside from considering color match and shapes, you must pay much attention to the different natures of every species and arrange them correctly.

In addition, when you choose two or more species plants to grow them together, as for the height of different plants will have a great variation, so you should pay full attention to the plant height and grow conditions of them, otherwise if there is a variation in the plant heights, which will destroy the balance of the whole flower, and even caused stunted growth.

Moreover, special attention should been paid to the blooming periods and flowering periods of flowers grow in one flower container, if the flowering periods of flowers cultivated together are different, I am afraid it is difficult to show their respective beauty and charms fully.
* Original post: The Garden of Eden for Gardeners (Garden Tools World)

Basic Knowledge of Gardening II - Fun of Flower Gardening

As long as there is space in your home for placing a variety of flower pots, you can design and create a charm garden with rich changes according to the material, shapes, sizes, and plants you choose to grow.



Aside from plastic, concrete and stainless steel and other artificial substances, the material of flower pots could be ceramic pots, pottery or rosewood and other natural materials.

Considering the ventilation or drainage, etc. cultivation level, can based on the coordination between material and the surrounding, or coordination between materials and plants, materials and surrounding landscape or highlight sense, thus to emphasis the effect of display.

In general, the balcony and corridors are often targets to be designed into a flower garden. In addition, the United States and Europe countries, people often use roofs, gazebos, wood flooring or window sidebar as locations of engaged in flower gardening.

In addition, the vestibule or lobby, are also the most suitable places for flower potted gardening. In addition, the common bay windows, if you have some ingenuity, it can be formed into a beautiful landscape too.

* Original post: The Garden of Eden for Gardeners (Garden Tools World)

Basic Knowledge of Gardening I - What is Garden Container?

-->In Asia areas, a large size pot or basin is called flower container generally, but in western countries, flower pots or basins, regardless of the size of container, they called all containers used to plant and grow plants as garden container or flower container. However, frames of flower pots and basins are not used for plants cultivation directly, they are different from garden containers.
The cultivation way of utilizing garden containers is known as "garden container cultivation", while the way of using garden contianers, with which to plant and grow a variety of flowers, grass, garden trees or foliage plants, to beautify residence and the surrounding environment is known as the "container gardening".

** Original post: The Garden of Eden for Gardeners (Garden Tools World)

Most Usual Garden Tools for Housewives

Grow several plants in the house and decorate the environment in everyday life, which could make the whole family live together become more vivid in mentally and physically, while to be a good housewife who is skilled at gardening, you need several essential garden tools.

Flower Shovel
Flower shovel is small, lightweight, and simple to use, which can be used to do jobs such as transplanting, earthing up, cultivation, weeding and so on. For example, when to use planters or flower pots to grow plants, the flower shovel can replace hoe, rake and shovel, and other large tools.

This is a garden tool with wide range of uses, you must to purchase one. But when using you should pay more attention, because the size of a flower shovel is small, the joint part connecting the handle and the body of the shovel should be broken most easily, so you taken more care when using it.

There are different patterns shovels available in the market for you to choose, among which a shovel with a whole handle and body, which was been casted in a whole is a more durable shovel.


Lopping Shears
Lopping shears can be used to prune branches, as well as suitable for harvesting crops of melons and legumes. The thing you should consider is the spring lies in the middle of the shears is very easy to lose.

Lopping shears available in the market with many styles and patterns, the same time the price variation is also very large, in general, the more expensive the price is the more sharp the shears, but for general gardening, an pair of ordinary shears can be competent. If you have children at home, a pair of round-ended shears is more suitable.

Watering Can
Watering can can be used to watering and Shi liquid fertilizer, metal texture and more durable than the plastic texture. It is need to be reminded that the most vulnerable also the most been lost part of a plastic flower pot is the spout, so each time when you finished the fertilization, you should clean the spout carefully and store it in time.






Handle Trigger Sprayer
Handle trigger sprayers are mainly used for spraying water and natural pesticides, which can emit water out with mist, and sprinkled on plants more evenly, judge the quality of a sprayer is to see whether the water mist sprayed out from the sprayer is enough tiny and equal or not.

Remember to clean the sprayer carefully after using, so to avoid the water hole of the trigger sprayer be plugged by contaminations.

Handle trigger sprayer is also can be replaced by water sprayer, although a water sprayer is not competent enough to finish the watering job as a trigger sprayer, it is still a good choice with inexpensive price.** Original post: The Garden of Eden for Gardeners (Garden Tools World)