One of the biggest challenges with a garden fish pond is keeping fish safe from predators. If you aren’t careful, you can spend a considerable amount of money replacing fish that vanish on a regular basis. There is no guarantee that you won’t ever lose fish to predators, but a little planning should help keep them safe.
Found in increasing numbers in gardens in the US, UK, and elsewhere, where they nest in trees and bushes, the (more…)
These days you can easily find plenty of plants to beautify your garden pond. The variety of shapes and sizes available is ridiculously huge. When buying, try to think about the overall shape and form you wish to create in and around the water. Ideally have tall marginal plants around the back and sides, with perhaps a bog garden area for amphibians and other wildlife.
Small marginal plants look good at the front, with perhaps a (more…)
One of the best substitutes for organic manures may be the plant food organic waste provided by a compost heap. This is made by composting all garden and kitchen waste so that it is acted upon by soil bacteria and fungi and so converted into humus.
Before considering the material to use on the heap, some thought should be given to selecting a site, for the more favorable the position, the easier and quicker will be the process of decomposition.
Refrain from fully exposing the heap to outside elements such as rain, sunshine and wind. Another thing to avoid is extremely (more…)
Winter is the worst time for gardeners in respect of weeds. You can pull them all out one day and then it rains, and they are back and then it starts all over again.
Do not despair there are different ways for you to combat this never ending problem. Weeds are a problem in all gardens no matter whether it is a vegetable growing, flower or shrub garden. They have no preference where they grow.
The important thing is to (more…)
Below you’ll find a total of 42 plants that are very much suitable to be planted in a rock garden.
Rapid and invasic carpeter with small bronzy leaves. In summer, mats dotted with arresting short-stemmed crimson spined burrs. Good ground-cover for bulbs. Prostrate.
Rosettes of ferny grey green leaves, 10cm/4in high, spreading to 25cm/10in, form attractive woolly carpet. Mustard yellow flowers, 5-8cm/2-3in wide, appear in June and July.
Bright green ferny leaved plant, 23-30cm/9-12in high. In March, butter yellow, cup shaped flowers form on 23cm/9in stems. Plant where no opposition from neighboring plants.
Light blue spikes of flower in spring. Green and silver variegated leaves, good for carpeting in light shade.
Thrives in hot dry positions. 10cm/4in high, spreading. From May to July plants covered with rose-pink daphne-like flowers. Good for (more…)
Hybrid daylilies are some of the easiest flowering plants for a beginning gardener to include in the summer landscape.
If your knowledge of daylilies is limited to the “wild orange daylilies” that appear to set American roadsides ablaze for several weeks each summer, you’ll be pleased to learn that daylilies have come a long way.
You can now find hybrid daylily flowers in almost every color of the rainbow. If you have a well-drained spot that receives at least 6 hours of sunlight a day daylilies are the perfect set and forget perennial.
Daylilies can be grown in (more…)
Caladium bulbs (Caladium bicolor) are colorful easy to grow tropical natives that will brighten shaded areas of the garden. The beautiful shield shaped leaves of bright red, pink, and gleaming white with green or red veins or splotches have made caladiums a shade garden favorite for over a century.
Caladiums are native to the Amazon basin of South America, mainly Brazil and are at home in shaded woodlands and creek banks. Almost all caladiums sold in (more…)
