Watch the Garden
One of the most indispensable techniques is to simply make the rounds of the garden every morning and observe. This is a time just for looking, not harvesting, planting, or weeding. Make a thorough inspection of plants, hand picking insects and egg clusters before they hatch. Early morning is a good time to handpick insects because many are still sluggish from the cool night. Take the time to learn to recognize bad insects and their egg clusters, while leaving alone beneficial insects -- a good project for those long winter months!

Time Your Planting
Timing can sometimes be a big help in avoiding pest problems. For example, if you start your cucumbers early in peat or paper pots, the larger plants will be more able to fend off problems with cucumber beetles and bacterial wilt.

Cover the Plants
If you're diligent about placing row covers over cole crops such as cabbage and kale, you can avoid problems with cabbageworms. The row covers let in light, air, and water but keep out the adult butterflies and moths. Just be sure to anchor the bottom edges of the row covers well so that pests can't sneak under.

Attract Good Guys
Let plants in the mustard family such as arugula, mustard, radish, broccoli, and sweet alyssum go to flower. The profusion of small flowers from mustard family plants are a magnet for beneficial wasps. 

Read more at the national gardening association.

For more information please visit national gardening association.

To conserve moisture plus reduce weed germination around shrubs, trees, flowers, and vegetables, apply a layer of organic mulch, such as pine needles, aspen shavings, shredded cedar, or dried grass clippings.

Divide Iris
If you want a glorious garden of colorful iris, dig overcrowded clumps of bearded iris after flowers fade. Discard any dried out or mushy rhizomes, separate healthy ones, and replant in full sun in well-drained soil amended with compost. Don't plant the rhizomes too deep as this will delay flowering and may lead to rot; let the shoulders of the rhizomes hug the surface of the ground.

Tend the Compost Pile
Continue the process of composting. Add any disease-free, leafy debris, including grass clippings and annual weeds (before they produce seed heads), to the compost pile. Turn and water the materials every few weeks to hasten the decomposition process. By fall you can add this rich, organic amendment to your flower and vegetable gardens.

Spider Mite Alert
Be on the lookout for mottled leaves and fine webbing on landscape plants. This is a good indication of an invasion of spider mites. Spray with horticultural oil or wash off the infested foliage with a strong stream of water every few days. 

• Stem-cutting shears or sharp pruners
• Pail
• Vase
• Water
• 7-Up
• Bleach

Cut flowers. Cut flowers in your garden in the morning before the dew has dried, or in the early evening. With stem-cutting shears or sharp pruners, snip above a node or dormant bud to spur new blooms. Put stems in a pail of lukewarm water as you cut them.

Recut stems. Recut stems on a slant indoors under water to eliminate air bubbles that block uptake of food and water. Certain types of flowers (including celosia, sunflower, and zinnia) benefit from scalding the stem ends in boiling water for 20 seconds or over a candle flame to stop nutrient-rich sap from oozing. To prevent decay, remove bruised leaves and foliage below the water line.

Condition flowers. Condition flowers several hours before arranging. Rest stems in lukewarm water in a cool, dark place so they can absorb water.

Arrange flowers. Arrange conditioned flowers in a vase of warm (110° F) water. To slow aging, place the vase in a well-ventilated cool place (as low as 38° F). Don't store flowers near unsealed fruits and vegetables, which produce ethylene, a gas that hastens ripening, or in the case of flowers, aging.

Add water. Freshly cut flowers have enough stored sugars to survive in a vase. But if you would like to add a preservative, try a homemade version. Tests have found commercial floral preservatives to be less effective than the following formula; the sugar in the 7-Up provides energy for the flowers, and the bleach controls bacteria. If you need more liquid, just increase the amounts proportionately.

• 1 cup regular 7-Up
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon household bleach

Change water. Change water every couple of days. In mixed bouquets, some of the flowers may give off sap that is toxic to other varieties in the vase shortening their vase life, a process that is avoided by frequently refreshing the water.

Tips
Some of the best and most widely adapted annual cut flowers with the longest vase life include: alstroemeria, aster, celosia, cosmos, gypsophila, lavatera, rudbeckia, scabiosa, snapdragon, statice, sunflower, yarrow, and zinnia.
Keep in mind that flowers with hollow stems do not have a long vase life.

Ream more at National Gardening Association. 

For example, instead of buying one plant, encourage customers to tuck several houseplants into the same pot, just as they would for an outdoor container garden. By using same design principles, customers can create eye-catching houseplant combinations that rival professional work. Engage your customers by tapping into their creativity. Help them beautify their home or even someone else’s if they are growing a container garden as a thoughtful gift.

Here’s a guide customers can follow when planning, designing and planting an indoor container garden:

One size or style does not fit all
One of the first steps in building a container garden is choosing the right size and style of pot.

Size: Find out from the customer where the container garden will be displayed, and assist them with selecting the appropriate size pot. The container should be in scale with interior spaces and furnishings.

For an end table, choose a smaller container with a diameter no bigger than eight inches. A container serving as the centerpiece on a dining table or bar may have a diameter up to 10 or 12 inches. For tabletop gardens, suggest shallow containers, such as bulb pans or colored bowls. For floor container gardens, use larger pots (up to 14 inches across).

Material: For indoor containers, customers should plant directly into plastic pots. Unglazed terra-cotta containers lose water through their porous sides. In the dry air of a winter home, that extra water loss can create desert conditions for indoor plants. Plants in nondescript plastic containers can be slipped into pretty cachepots made of any material.

Drainage: Containers must permit water to drain away. Suggest buying a waterproof saucer to catch drainage from watering the houseplants. Even one drop of water on a wood surface can lead to spots or mildew, which could turn customers off from creating another container in the future.

Dressing: If soil is visible, provide the customer with options to cover it with, such as moss, sea glass or polished river rock. Soil coverings also can help deter digging pets, preventing damage to houseplants and indoor gardens.

Mobility: For large floor containers, placing the pot on a plant dolly will make housecleaning easier. Don’t forget to mention this to your customers. On tabletops, they can protect surfaces from containers by placing saucers or felt bumpers beneath their containers.

Design like a pro
Use these principles to group plants and use small, printed cards to explain their importance.

Care: Choose plants that demand the same light intensity and similar soil moisture and place them close to each other. Mixing a cactus with a tropical foliage plant is a recipe for disaster, so don’t display them next to each other.

Color: Customers can design their container garden to complement their home’s interior color scheme, or simply using plants they like. Suggest that they consider variegated or patterned plants to add visual interest to their container.

Texture: Propose mixing houseplants with different leaf textures to customers. For instance, a feathery fern looks striking paired with a broad-leaf prayer plant.

Habit: Choose plants with different growth habits to create levels of interest. Follow the same categories as you would when designing an outdoor container garden: thriller, filler and spiller.

• Thriller: In general, the height of a thriller plant shouldn’t exceed more than 1.5 times the pot height.
• Filler: Help them to choose an appropriate filler plant that clusters around the thriller, filling in the space between its stems and soil.
• Spiller: Spillers cascade over pot edges in a waterfall of flowers or foliage. In autumn containers, low-growing ornamental cabbages frequently fill the role of spillers, despite their lack of trailing growth. Let your customer know what his or her options are.

Spillers typically belong near pot edges, thrillers fill the center, and fillers land between the two. Find out if the container will be viewed from one side only, and if so, have the customer place the thriller toward the back of the pot.

Indoor Container Garden Combos
For inspiration, give customers some examples and provide information about caring for houseplants. Most combinations will hold for about a year and then out-grow their pots.

Bright Indirect Light Tabletop Garden
Exotic foliage plants fill this container with lively color.

• Thriller: foxtail fern (Asparagus densiflorus ‘Meyersii’)
• Fillers: aluminum plant, grape ivy (Cissus rhombifolia)
• Spiller: variegated ivy (Hedera helix ‘Ingelise’, or any variegated indoor ivy)

Care tip for customers: Pinch out growing tips on aluminum plant and both types of ivy to keep plants bushy.

Low-light tabletop garden
This container garden dances with foliage color, patterns and textures.

• Thriller: peace lily (Spathiphyllum)
• Filler: Southern maidenhair fern (Adiantum capillus-vernis)
• Spiller: golden pothos (Epipremnum aureum)

Care tip for customers: Snip spent peace lily blooms when they turn green. All of these plants prefer high humidity; planting them together helps raise humidity.

Bright Indirect Light Floor Garden
Fill a bright location on the floor with a living tapestry of leaf texture and color.

• Thriller: fiddleleaf fig (Ficus lyrata)
• Filler: Sapphire Suzanne Chinese evergreen (Aglaonema modestum ‘Sapphire Suzanne’)
• Spillers: variegated spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum ‘Variegatum’), creeping fig (Ficus pumila)

Care tip: for customers Snip spider plant stems that bear babies to avoid dropped blooms and dangling plantlets. 

Read more at the Garden Center magazine.

Salad Feasts

While flowers and ornamental plants may be a feast for the eyes, a salad you’ve grown in your own garden is truly a feast for the body.

One of the beauties of your own salad garden is its versatility. You can make an “enthusiastic salad” – where you put everything you have into it – or keep things as simple as lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers. And if you have family members that may not be the avid fans of the leafy greens and their companions that you are, getting them involved in the salad garden project will often whet their appetites.

Choices

Salads today go far beyond the simple fare they once were. Practically anything and everything can go in a salad. This means that you can grow what you like to eat and ignore those that you don’t. It also means that you can be adventurous in trying new things on a small scale.

Basic Components

At the base of most salads is a leafy green vegetable of some kind: lettuce and spinach are two of the most popular. Kids who “don’t like spinach” often like it as a fresh green – they think it’s just another kind of lettuce. Some choices for leafy greens to form the base of your salad are spinach and lettuces such as Iceberg, leaf, Romaine, and Boston. To add color to your salad, use ingredients such as carrots, red and green bell peppers or other peppers that can range from purple to green, red or yellow tomatoes, radishes, rings of sliced onions, and a little basil, thyme, dill or parsley. A salad should include a variety of colors, shapes and textures to appeal to the eye as well as to the taste buds.

Exotic ingredients

The produce in grocery stores has expanded to an international market. There are easy-to-grow salad vegetables from Europe and the Orient to add to your garden. The annual endive is native to the Orient, but was eaten by ancient Greeks. It is grown like lettuce, a cool season crop. Escarole and chicory are both essential salad greens in Europe and require little garden care. Radicchio, of Italian origin, is more difficult to grow, but the deep burgundy color is distinctive.

Under the generic heading “assorted greens” are some fast growing leafy crops. In the Mustard family, cress is probably one of the quickest salad crops, needed only 10 to 20 days until harvest. The most vigorous cress is best grown restricted to a container. The peppery flavor of cress is a “wake up call” for salads. Mustard greens are another class, and like cress, cannot be described as bland. These greens are ready to eat in about 5 weeks.

Garden Culture

Depending on how much salad you want, you can make the salad section of your garden as large or as small as you want. If your wants are minimal, you can even grow a salad in a large tub or other container, planting items in rows or circles. If you want to have fresh salad fixings as long as possible, plan successive sowings of radishes, carrots and lettuces about 10 to 14 days apart so that you will have different rows maturing at different times.

Read more at the National Garden Bureau. 

Start Small. If you decide to plant up some new areas this year, start small so that you can test for success and appearance. You can always make it bigger next year.

Consider water access. If you are planting an area far from a water source, figure out how you are going to get water there. If a long hose isn’t practical, you may have to carry water there, or plan on carrying the plants (assuming they are in containers) to the water source.

Try something new each year. If something in a seed catalog or in the garden center captures your imagination – try it. Starting on a small scale and a new spot, you can test the plant without a lot of expense or disappointment if it doesn’t please or doesn’t succeed.

Go for variety. Even within the confines of a color family you can achieve a pleasing mixture of different flower forms, heights and textures. While large displays of a single flower can be awesome, too much of a good thing can be boring.

Keep a “cookbook.” In a notebook, write down which classes and varieties you planted where. Often you can just tape a plant label to a page and write “front door,” or “patio tubs” next to it. At the end of the season you can write down how it performed and whether you want to plant those again, try them somewhere else, or try something new.

To be sure you take advantage of all your growing areas, get a piece of paper and a pencil and make a rough “bird’s eye” sketch of your lot, including marking out where your house is. Indicate which areas are the sunny, partially sunny, and shady areas. Be as detailed or as rough as you want. The idea is to identify all potential growing spots and then decide what to put where.

Once you have your sketch made, think about each area and where you would like the color and texture of plants. If you have a deck or patio, baskets or tubs of flowers can add a lot to the appearance. If there is a spot in your yard that you look at all the time from the kitchen window or that guests in your yard naturally tend to look at, brighten it up with flowers. And there is no rule that says you have to shove your garden back against the fence or property line – a garden spot in the middle of a yard can become a focal point and attractively break up boring expanses of grass.

If you already have a focal point such as a fountain, a brick barbecue, or even a tree, you can make it more attractive by planting flowers around it to draw even more attention to it. This idea also works for storage sheds or objects that you may consider as less than attractive focal points. Chances are these aren’t going to go away, so dress them up and make them worthwhile to look at.

Choose a Color Theme

For a really sophisticated look, choose a family of colors for all your flowers. If you choose red, for example, you can select flowers in pink, rose and bright red. You will still be able to get a variety of flowers and plants, but the look will be more unified if you have an overall color theme.

Sun and Shade

Most yards have a mix of full sun and some shade, so you should have plantings for both. If you are planning a vegetable garden it should get the prime sunny spot whenever possible. Even if the sun shines only on your deck or patio you can grow vegetables. Many can be successfully grown in containers, letting you “move” the garden into the sun.

Many people get discouraged over getting any color into shady areas. However, prudent planning can get color just about anywhere. There are a number of colorful plants that will do well in all but the deepest shade. Impatiens are outstanding for brightening up shady spots, as are coleus and begonias. These also have the advantage of a wide variety of colors for your overall theme. If the shady area also has the problem of poor soil conditions, a raised garden bed or different size pots and containers can overcome that problem without a lot of work. Baskets hung from tree limbs can draw attention to the beauty and position of the tree in the garden.

Key Areas

In addition to the yard areas where you are most likely to want an attractive display of flowers and plants, consider the impression your house makes on passersby and visitors. Baskets, pots or a small flower bed near the front door can say “welcome” and give your home a well-cared for appearance. The driveway and garage area is another often overlooked opportunity for gardening. Lining the driveway or putting some baskets or pots in a few selected areas can make an otherwise utilitarian area come alive.

Getting Started

One of the ways to get your garden into bloom or fruit as early as possible is to start plants indoors. Basically, a good sunny location for the started plants is all that is needed, or grow lights if you don’t have a sunny location. You can buy “seed starter kits” at most garden retailers, or do your own seed starting in containers as simple as egg cartons. Books on the subject can be found at your library and at garden retailers, and a wealth of information is available on the web. Within reason, the earlier you start, the more mature and established your plants will be when transplanted outdoors to the garden or to containers. If you start too early, your plants will become overgrown and you may have to cut them back and start with a funny-looking garden. Six weeks or so before the last frost date or normal planting time in your area is a good rule of thumb for starting indoors.

If you don’t have the time or confidence to start plants from seed, there are a rainbow of colorful bedding plant flowers and vegetables at your local garden centers or retailers.

Depending on the weather and how soon you can get outdoors, it is a good idea to prepare your garden bed by digging it up, turning it over, adding amendments such as compost or fertilizer. Your local County Extension Agent can tell you how to have a soil test performed, or soil test kits can be purchased. Soil preparation is one of those areas that often gets ignored, yet is vitally important to your garden’s success.

SUMMARY

To create a garden with beauty and balance, begin with planning, not digging. A way to start a plan is by drawing a sketch of all garden areas. This sketch will help identify all of the outside areas to be decorated with flowers or vegetables. Adding a color theme to your garden will help unify it. To record successful plans, or even failures, keep a simple ‘cookbook’ of plants and their performance. This “Cookbook” can be the start of next year’s garden.

Read more at the national gardening bureau.

Materials List:

• Two planters at least 8 inches deep (such as window boxes), with drainage holes
• Seeds: radishes, mesclun mix, baby carrots, beets (shredded raw beet is a tasty and colorful salad topping)
• Soilless potting mix enriched with compost
• Fertilizer

Steps:

• Moisten your potting mix. If you wish to use a slow-release fertilizer, add it as recommended by the product label. Fill window boxes, and firm soil gently in place.
• Following the directions on the seed packets, sow seeds of radishes and greens in one box, beets and carrots in the other. Radishes are ready to harvest about 28 days after germination; baby greens (lettuce, spinach, mesclun), in 30 days; beets, in 55 days; baby carrots, in 70 days.
• Water gently so that you don't wash seeds out of the soil. Keep soil evenly moist, and watch for seeds to germinate.
• Seedlings will come up thickly; thin them the first time to stand 1 inch apart. You can either pluck them out individually or use scissors to snip seedlings at the soil surface. (Eat the thinnings of greens and beet tops - your first unofficial harvest!) Thin the carrots and beets again when they've doubled in size; ultimately they should stand 2 to 3 inches apart.
• Fertilize every two weeks, unless you used a slow-release fertilizer at planting time. Use a water-soluble formula, such as fish emulsion.
• Sow some more. As your harvest of greens and radishes makes room in that container, prepare to grow another round. Work an inch of compost into the empty spots and sow more seed.

Tips:

• If you have enough space, add containers for other salad favorites, such as tomatoes and cucumbers. (They need larger pots.)
• Watch out for pesky squirrels - they like to dig in freshly disturbed soil. If they're a problem, cover your planters with wire mesh or fabric row covers.
• For color and spicy flavor, sow a few nasturtium seeds in your containers. The flowers are beautiful, fragrant, and tasty in a salad!

Read more at the National Gardening Association. 

Frequency: Watering more thoroughly is better than watering more frequently. A thorough drink for your plants will help them establish deeper, stronger roots.

Amount: This is where it gets tricky and no one can precisely make a blanket statement on how much water your plants need. It depends on your soil type, the air temperature, wind, type of plant, age of the plant, in-ground vs. in containers (and which type and size of container). An overall rule of thumb is to give your plants 1” of water per week. If you have sandy or silty soil, you will likely need to water more than 1” per week. If temperatures spike then you will also likely need more than 1” of water per week. For vegetables, here are a few more specific guidelines:
* All seeds need even moisture during germination.
* Beans need more watering when they’re flowering.
* Sweet corn needs water during silk, tassle and ear development
* Watermelon needs more water during fruit set and growth
* Tomatoes need consistent amounts of water to prevent blossom end rot

Technique: Drip irrigation, hand watering, sprinkling or other? The best technique sends water to the soil and roots, not the leaves of the plant. The roots are where the plant takes up water and nutrients so hold your watering tool close to the soil. Sprinklers are not a preferred tool for watering gardens so save those for your lawn. Drip irrigation or soaker hoses are good but if you have it set on an automatic timer, check frequently as it’s easy to over-water when a good soaking rain comes through.

Another good rule of thumb, plus a way to conserve water, is to water only the plant root ball, not the leaves. Not only does the plant not benefit by watering the leaves but that too can encourage diseases. Too, irrigating the entire garden only encourages weeds to grow where you don’t want them.

An inexpensive rain gauge is an easy way to keep track of how much water your garden is getting. If your plants have not received an inch of water in a week, you know to supplement with additional watering.

Thinking about trying some of the self-watering containers or hanging baskets? Something like these Garden Patch Grow Boxes will make your life much easier!

And what for all you recyclers/upcyclers? Yes, there are good ways to use your used milk jugs, soda bottles and wine bottles in your garden! For fun, we went to Pinterest and searched for ways to use those bottles. Leave them whole, cut them in half, bury them in the soil or set them on top--they all seem to have their benefits!

Read more at National Gardening Bureau. 

Fall isn’t quite as spirited, however. With winter on the horizon, it’s easy to settle into the doom and gloom of the active growing and selling season coming to an end. It doesn’t have to be that way. If you approach your garden center like you would a boat on stormy seas, you won’t have to call in an SOS and abandon ship so quickly. With some strategy, cleverness and a little bit of ambition, you can turn fall into a time of year just as exciting as spring.

The reason for the season
The most common thing associated with fall is the changing foliage and colors all around. This can be beneficial to you in many ways, and for more reasons than just selling stunning foliage. Adapt a similar mindset as those trees and shrubs outside and make some changes around your garden center that will perk up the interest of your customers and keep things looking fresh. A customer that has visited you in the past will have a certain game plan before they even get out of their car, but if they’re confronted with something new and potentially exciting, this might entice them to step outside of their boundaries and purchase more items, perhaps items they didn’t even know you had.

Reroute your garden center plans by making a few changes such as:

Rearrange the configuration of your annual tables. This will create a new path for your customers to navigate in the new exciting sea of flowers.
Move the cart corral area to an area close to the original location, but not exactly where the customer is expecting it. This too will create some sense of freshness.
Reconfigure your front counter. Include fall specific impulse items such as rakes and bulbs, and cross merchandise as much as you can to create extra revenue at a critical time of year.
If you carry large concrete or statuary of any kind, send them to different areas of the store. That same dog statue will look fresh and exciting if it’s not in the same place it was for the past two years.
Create a fall ambiance in your restroom. Believe it or not, a couple of little floral arrangements will lift the spirit of the shopper and get them in the mood to create a similar fall vignette in their own home.

Changes are good, evolution is better
If we’re to compare the garden center industry to that same boat ride again, we must look at what the boat is riding on, water. Water and the tides change constantly; high and low tide are never going to be at the same time, and the low tide isn’t going to leave the same shells on the sand after it rolls back out. Fall from one year to another is very much the same way, and sadly, we cannot control Mother Nature. This can be discouraging, especially in circumstances such as trying to market shrubs for fall color. Although a description given to a customer as to what the color will be when the plant actually turns might seem grandiose enough, not even the most elaborate wordsmith (me included) can really describe how magnificent a Katsura Tree is in fall. This is why it is imperative you have the plants in stock BEFORE they start to turn. By having these plants on hand while they’re still green, you’ll benefit for a few reasons:

This will assure they are in stock for when they start putting on their show. Wait too long, and your grower might run out.
Once plants turn, they shed leaves when moved around. If you have them already set up, instead of moving them once they’ve turned, the color will last longer.
Once the foliage starts turning, they’ll be their own salesperson, leaving you to tend to more important tasks – like deadheading pansies.

Stock your shelves with the right stuff
Just like you need the proper boat for the proper water condition, you must make sure you have proper plants to really create fall excitement. Depending on your zone, there are multitudes of plants that will provide you with a stunning show, but it’s not that simple. Plants are constantly changing through propagation and breeding, so be forward thinking and keep up to date on any new varieties of stunning plants are out there for grabs. That burning bush that was popular a few years back might be replaced by a better new dwarf variety, and that pansy that you’ve been selling for years might have been improved to have better cold tolerance. Don’t settle for the same order every year. Mix it up, try new varieties, and your customers will appreciate the fact that you’re cutting edge!

Contain the storm
Just like a sudden storm at sea, you will experience a flash flood of customers coming into your store wanting help. Of course, over the summer it’s easy to fall into a less-than-creative frame of mind and have your brain short circuit from keeping things watered or answering questions on how much to water. Avoid this mind melt by creating excitement around container gardening and any pottery you might want to try to get rid of before your new spring bookings start rolling in. Gardeners in the fall tend to be a little less spunky about the practice of replanting annuals, so it’s up to you to draw in the excitement. Make fall gardening fun again by sponsoring a “Contain Me” event, simply put have a little workshop on how to create fall container masterpieces. If you’re able to put on a happy face and get excited, chances are that excitement will be contagious and the customers will be more apt to stock up! Get silly if you have to, wear a jail costume if you must. Let your creativity go wild.

Avoid the “Sale Syndrome”
“Sale Syndrome” – the mindset that all plants should be discounted in the fall to clear the store out for winter.

This doesn’t have to be the case. Unless you’re in a position that you cannot keep your lease another year, there is no reason to try to liquidate your plants. Sales should be sporadic and exciting, not a date on a calendar, otherwise you’ll create a customer base that MAY just wait to make all of their big purchases until fall. If you’ve already succumbed to the “Sale Syndrome”, that’s okay, there’s still hope. By weaning your customers off of this mindset slowly, you’ll eventually find yourself with more money in your till every day.

This doesn’t mean no sales at all, of course. If you’re going to run a fall sale, make it item-specific and ever-changing. For example, if you want to clear out some pottery, mark it down a reasonable amount, but concentrate salespeople around that area. Make sure nobody leaves the store without a bag of potting soil and some annuals to go in it. Same goes for any woody shrubs you might carry. Make sure with every shrub sold you have the starter fertilizer, compost and a set of gloves in the hands of the customer before they check out. Don’t let these tack on items seem like a want, make them a NEED for the success of the plant.

Chew it up
Fall is also a great time to capitalize on the changing environment in the vegetable garden scene. Surprisingly enough, a large population of home gardeners have no idea that they can continue to grow crops after their precious tomatoes have been pulled up. Don’t let your summertime veggie gardeners get by with only one visit to your garden center a year. Cold weather crops such as spinach, cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower will fly off the shelves if people know about them. Plan ahead, and when you sell those tomato plants early in the spring, notify the home farmer that they should come back in the fall for their cold weather crops. Chances are you’ll get a surprised look and a “Whaaa?” This will also drive them in once more to be tempted by the fall flowers and impulse plant items like a mum or blooming aster.

Fall, panic? Not at all. Fall can actually be a very refreshing time of year for your garden center. As the leaves around you are changing, take a look at your garden center and take notes of what changes you’ve made personally. Take inspiration from the trees around you and drop all of that unwanted baggage and start off the next year fresh and ready to flourish. Take notes if need be of strategies you’d like to adopt for the new year and always think big! Don’t let that wild sea rock your garden center boat around, let fall be your lighthouse on the horizon. 

Read more from the Garden Center Magazine. 

Selecting plants

Generally, bedding plants are grown in small “packs” divided into three, four, or six sections, each containing one or more growing plants (if you read a garden center ad for a sale on “6-packs,” think plants, not beer). Larger, plastic “flats” hold 12 to 24 packs. Packs are often individually priced a little higher than a whole flat, so, if you are so inclined, taking a pocket calculator with you when shopping can help you figure prices and number of plants quickly.

Unless you are buying a plant variety that is supposed to have purple, blue, rose, yellow or gray leaves, avoid those that do. This is an indication that the plants have been stressed in some way. Chances are they will recover, but let someone else worry about that. Look for plants with well-formed leaves of uniformly green color. Brown and damaged-looking leaves should be avoided, as should any signs of pests such as spider webs or small insects crawling over the plants. Be picky, after all, it is going to be your garden.

No doubt your immediate impulse will be to buy the packs or flats that have the most blooms on them. Retailers know this and encourage their suppliers to give them “lots of color.” But you are about to become a savvy shopper and learn why you want to avoid that temptation.

For the best success in your garden (beds or containers) you want to select plants without any blooms and even without buds if possible. Why? Because once the plants are transplanted to a new location, they need a little time to establish themselves. It’s something like moving to a new house or rearranging a room of furniture – until you get used to it, you just aren’t as productive as you were before. And the “energy” a plant spends on producing blooms takes away some of the “energy” it could be spending on establishing itself in your garden, and so the process takes a little longer. As a smart shopper, you want plants that will spend their immediate energy on getting established so that later they can get busy producing blooms in your garden.

Should you totally shun those plants in bloom? Of course not – they are your “samples” of what you can expect in your garden. Pick out those you want and carefully read the labels. Then find packs or flats of the same plants without blooms and buy those that are mostly green.

Once you’ve made your purchases, take the plants home. Place them on the seats or in the trunk (flats and packs are often dirty and wet on the bottom, so you might want to have a blanket or old shower curtain along), taking care not to stack them on top of each other or too loose so that they will tumble around and get damaged. If they are going to remain in the car for some time before you get home, protect them from too much sun. Even on a mild spring day, the sun can heat up a car considerably and possibly wilt or even kill your plants. Leave a window open a little to allow some air circulation, or open the trunk every now and then to let some fresh air in and allow built-up heat to escape.

Preparing for Planting

If you can’t plant immediately, store your plants in a protected area out of wind and free of danger or a late frost. Water as necessary, keeping them from drying out. If days are warm but nights are cold, you might want to put them outside during the day and move them to a more protected place such as the garage overnight.

If you haven’t already prepared your garden soil, work it to loosen it, add compost and use a granular fertilizer to make it ready for the plants.

When ready to plant, gently “pop” the individual plants out of their packs by pressing on the bottom of the pack. One easy method is to place one hand over the top of the pack, turn the pack upside down, and with your other hand press on the bottom of the pack to release the plants. Just be ready to catch any plants that may already be loose. Handle them with care, holding them by the ball of soil and roots, or by holding onto the central stem close to where it meets the soil.

Follow the recommended spacing (on the plant label or from a gardening book), and arrange and rearrange your plants on top of the garden bed until you have them where you want them. Then use a hand trowel to dig a hold for the plant. Put the plant in the hole and fill in around the plant firmly but not compacted too hard. You want the garden soil to just cover the top of the soil the plant is growing in, leaving the top of the green plant to catch the sunlight.

If there are any open blooms on your plants, ruthlessly pinch them off. Your plants will recover faster from the transplanting if you do.

Special Words about Vegetables

Some people find it hard to believe that the spacing recommendations for vegetables are right. Planting those “scrawny” tomato plants two feet apart, or allowing lots of space for melons and zucchini seems like an awfully generous thing to do. But once they get growing, those plants really do need all that space. For tomatoes and other vegetables that you will want to stake or cage, plant them and put the stake next to them or cage over them right away. If you do it later when the plants are bigger, you may end up damaging the plant or the root system. Do it all at once.

Gardens for Procrastinators and Those Who are Impatient

If you are late getting your garden planted, or are one of those people who kept waiting for the weather to “get better,” or you just “can’t wait” for plants to get larger, there’s still hope for planting an enviable garden. Bedding plant retailers often offer larger size plants for “instant” show in garden beds and containers. Frequently called “4-inch,” “6-inch,” “8-inch” and even “10-inch” plants, be aware that the size given is referring to the diameter of the container the plant is growing in, not the size of the plant itself. Supermarkets often advertise “10-inch house plants,” and you might be surprised to find a much larger plant than you expected, because the plant isn’t 10 inches tall (it’s probably taller and wider), it’s the container that is 10 inches across. The same is true for bedding plants advertising as “4-inch,” etc.

If you buy larger plants, plant them in your garden or containers as you would smaller plants. For spacing, measure from the center of one plant to the center of the next. Larger plants will need more water and fertilizer to get established, so be prepared to water a little more often at first.

Larger plants are often hard to find in the “green” stage and may be covered with blooms and buds. Again, to help the plants become established in their new home more quickly, ruthlessly pinch off any open blooms, but you can leave the buds.

On With the Show

Keep your plants watered and fertilized, take some time each week to pull out weeds that may appear in the garden, and watch your garden grow. Hanging baskets and plants in containers may need frequent watering during hot weather (sometimes even twice a day in really hot weather), so watch for signs of wilting.

Don’t be shy about your garden – it’s one of those things that everyone enjoys – so invite your neighbors over to see how well it’s doing. And, if you are like many gardeners, you’ll probably have extra vegetables you can share when things really get going, so share the abundance.

Take notes or photographs of your garden to plan for next year. If you really liked a certain variety, write it down so you won’t forget it next year when you go shopping (saving plant labels is one easy way of doing this). If you think you could use more of something next time, make a note of that, too. And if you think you could use a bigger garden, start planning early so you will be ready when the bedding plants are again available at your garden outlets.

Read more on planting an "Instant" Garden here from the National Garden Bureau 

In 2013, The Board of Directors in conjunction with National Lawn & Garden Show initiated a vendor company loyalty discount program for companies who have consistently attended NLGS since its inception in 1995.

“It is our way of giving back to those who have supported our buying event, said Bob Mikulas, president and founder. “We sincerely appreciate the companies that have been loyal to this event over the years and trust their business has grown and benefited from consistently attending. This is our way of saying thank you for their patronage.”

Many lawn and garden companies agree. “NLGS is guaranteed to create a personalized schedule unique to every vendor and buyer who attends the event,” said Larry DeWitt founder of DeWitt Company. “It’s an incredibly productive and economical choice for our company, and that is why we have attended for the past 19 years.”

For vendor companies who have attended the event for at least three years, NLGS offers a graduated discount to the current registration fee. The more years that an individual company has attended the event, the higher the discount is and the more complimentary services your company will receive.

“Our sole mission since 1995 has been to provide an affordable, efficient, alternative to traditional tradeshows which assures buyer/vendor introductions in preset scheduled appointments,” said Mikulas. “We love what we do and wouldn’t change it for the world.”

Read more at Garden Centre Magazine. 

If you mow anywhere from 1/2 to 2 acres of lawn, you most likely have or would like some type of mower you can ride on. Consider the time you'll save: figuring that most riding mowers will cut a swath that's 50 percent wider and will cut about twice as fast as a walk-behind mower, you'll finish mowing your 1/2 acre of turf in less than half the time.

Though there are several types of lawn mowers you can ride, this article is about only one of them, the rear-engine type. These mowers have evolved significantly over the last two decades. Today's models are more comfortable to use and more reliable mechanically. They also provide a better cut and have more efficient, quieter engines.

Rear-engine models also offer some key advantages compared to zero-turn (ZTR) mowers, small lawn tractors, and larger garden tractors. Rear-engine mowers are typically smaller and lighter than these, so they take up less garage or shed space; they are also easier to transport if necessary. Their lower center of gravity makes them safer than tractors on slopes.

Most importantly when compared to the lawn and garden tractors, they offer superior visibility (you ride at the front of the mower) and maneuverability (it's very easy to get around irregularly shaped lawns). Compared to ZTRs, which are operated by levers, they are easier to use.

Generally, rear-engine riders are powered by 8- to 14-horsepower gasoline engines mounted to the rear of the seat. Mowing decks are generally in the 25- to 38-inch range. Most have optional rear-bag collection systems or mulching decks, which return clippings to the lawn. Some models also have dethatching and raking capacity, and a hitch on the back--a handy feature for hauling carts with tools or soil. Most riding lawn mowers also now come with an electric start instead of a pull cord.

Ream more about ride on mowers from National Gardening Association.

Pick the Right Plants

1. First off, let's make certain you have selected the right plants for your area. The more you try to test the boundaries of garden zones and climates, the more difficult of a time you'll have in getting your plants to thrive. We've heard of zone 5 gardeners who can successfully overwinter perennials meant for zone 7 but be forewarned, they probably have to take extra precautions (read: extra work!) to help them survive.

2. If using perennials, choose plants that are slower growing so there is less of a need for dividing or thinning them. Your local garden center can help you make those choices.

3. When planting annuals, choose varieties that don't require a lot of dead-heading to stay tidy and clean. True of both annuals and perennials, the closer you space them, the more they'll starve out the weeds from growing and requires you to use less need mulch.

4. You might want to consider natives, which by their very name defines that they are hardy in your area and have already adapted to your climatic conditions.

5. Make good choices for companion plantings; for example, I interplant my hostas with spring bulbs so I get tulips and daffodils blooming before the hostas get very tall. Then, as the foliage of the bulbs begins to die back, the hosta leaves will grow up and over the yellowing foliage. No need to trim!

Try Containers

6. A well-planted mixed container is not only attractive, and easy to plant, but can require less maintenance since fewer weeds grow in fresh potting mix, especially if the plants are packed tightly in the container and drown out the weeds. Container gardens can certainly reward you with season-long color and about the only maintenance is watering.

7. Creating raised beds can reduce maintenance for a number of reasons but my favorite is because soil won't get as compacted so there is less need for tilling or digging when you're ready to plant.

Define Your [Relaxed] Style

8. If "relaxed style" gives you the chills, maybe it's because you prefer more formal, French-style gardens. And that's great but is certainly more labor-intensive to keep prim and proper. A cottage style garden of wildflowers or sweeping mixed borders with casual shapes and flowing lines tolerates a lot less pruning and fussing. If you have a lot of shade, try to mimic a naturalized woodland and let nature takes its course.

Use the Right Tools
9. I am so guilty of NOT taking this advice. Just like in the kitchen, I forget that a dull knife is not only dangerous, but it makes your work much more difficult than it should be. A sharp spade cuts deeper and cleaner. The right watering wand is easier to use and can reach where you need it to with little effort. So use the right tool for the job.

10. Will your budget allow for installation of sprinklers or drip irrigation? For me, watering all summer is my number one time-consumer and although it's an enjoyable task, I would feel less tied to the hose if I had some automated waterers installed.

Let's Go Garden! 

Read more about creating a low maintenance garden from the National Gardening Bureau.

• Select plants with differing growth habits. For example, combine spiky grasses with shrubby verbena and cascading sweet potato vine.
• Make sure plants are compatible. Planting sun-lovers that require excellent drainage with shade- and moisture-loving plants is a recipe for disappointment.
• Use foliage to your advantage. Choose dark-leaved plants to complement light or bright flowers, or chartreuse-leaved plants to brighten a planting.
• Consider fragrance, especially if planters will be located near a doorway or window.

Thinking Outside the Pot
Consider mixing edibles with your flowers. How about including a pepper plant surrounded by trailing diascia? Or make 'Bright Lights' Swiss chard, with its multicolored stems and leaves, the focal point of your container. Culinary herbs, such as purple sage and bronze fennel, are ornamental, plus a sprig or two can liven up dinner. Edible flowers, such as nasturtiums, combine well with herbs, such as purple basil, for an attractive and tasty combo.

Plan for the Seasons
Annual flowers can be categorized as either cool weather-lovers or heat-lovers. Those that like it cool can withstand light frosts but begin to flag when temperatures soar. Heat-lovers won't tolerate cold but thrive in the heat of summer. Take advantage of these characteristics by planting a succession of crops in your containers. You might start with dianthus in spring, replace it with verbena in summer, and follow up with ornamental kale in autumn.

Planting Pointers
Make sure your container has drainage holes. If the drainage holes are blocked when the planter is set on a surface, try placing the planter on casters or on a tray of pebbles. The water must be able to drain freely.

Use a high-quality potting soil. Avoid using garden soil, which often drains poorly and may contain disease organisms. You will be asking a lot from your container plants; you want them to flower and thrive all summer, despite having their roots confined to a limited space. So start them off right with a top-quality soil.

Ongoing Care
The main difference between container and garden plantings is that you'll need to water and fertilize container-grown plants more often, since roots are confined. Note that small containers may need watering daily -- even twice daily -- during hot, sunny weather. Most annuals benefit from regular deadheading to promote more blooms.

You'll also need to keep an eye out for insect and disease problems. While container-grown plants are sometimes less vulnerable to pest attack because they receive extra attention and/or are kept at a distance from the rest of the garden, you'll want to examine the foliage and flowers regularly. Many insects can be controlled by simply hosing them off the plants every few days. If this doesn't control the problem, try insecticidal soap.

Read more about creative containers on the national gardening association.

Native to the mountains of central and southern Europe and the Mediterranean islands, sempervivums form low-growing rosettes of pointed, fleshy leaves. They propagate by forming new plants ("chicks") at the end of long stolons. A single mother plant (the "hen") can colonize a rocky crevice in a remarkably short time, all with out supplemental fertilizer and, once established, water.

In fact, overwatering and overfertilizing spell trouble for sempervivums. These durable little plants thrive on neglect. It's hard to believe they can grow so well with so little to work with -- some sunshine and whatever water and nutrients they can gather from their rocky perch. On the other hand, such meager surroundings mean they have little in the way of competition from other plants. Mother Nature has her ways, and it pays us gardeners to heed her.

In their alpine habitat, sempervivums are often found growing in rocky crevices. So, excellent drainage is a must, and a niche in a stone wall or rock garden is a perfect site. Set in rich, damp garden soil, the plants will likely suffer from rot or be overrun by more vigorous plants.

Read more about Sempervivums on the National Gardening Association website

Not quite. While the air is crisp and bugless, take advantage of this weather to mulch. Mulching properly now will mean more fun this summer -- less weeding and less watering. Consider mulching a smart, preemptive strike to stop weeds before they get a roothold. So clean out the wheelbarrow and enlist several strong arms to hoist, haul, and carefully apply a 3-inch thick layer of mulch between annuals, perennials, shrubs, and trees. Just be sure not to pile it up against trunks, crowns, and stems or you'll invite decay. Leave several inches between the bases of plants and the mulch.
 
Read more tips on the National Gardening Association website.

Rely Trees and Shrubs
Use properly chosen trees and shrubs in mulched beds as the backbone of your garden design. They'll provide long-term structure and seasonal interest for the least amount of effort over time. Once they are established, trees and shrubs that are well-adapted to the conditions your landscape offers will perform well with a minimum amount of care. Grouping plants in mulched beds will help to keep weeds down, conserve moisture, and make mowing easier.

Start by evaluating the conditions in your yard -- climate, soil conditions, light, and space. Consult gardening references, experienced gardeners, and knowledgeable garden store staff for advice on plants that are best suited to the conditions that exist in your garden. Checking out nearby native vegetation can give you an idea of what plants might do well in your garden. But don't assume that just because a plant is native to your general geographic region that it's a good bet for your yard. Only plants that are adapted to the specific conditions found in your garden are going to thrive, whether they are native or exotic.

Size Matters
Here is one of the most important pieces of low-maintenance advice: learn the ultimate height and spread of the trees and shrubs you choose, and plant them where they will have adequate room to develop. Don't plant anything that will eventually get too tall or wide for its location unless you are willing to remove the plant before it outgrows its space, and you'll save yourself countless maintenance headaches over the years.

Read more tips on the National Gardening Association website.

Grasses Differ in Tolerance of Shade
Lawn grasses differ in their tolerance of shady conditions. St. Augustine is the most shade-tolerant of our southern lawn grasses. If a spot is too shady for St. Augustine, it is too shady for any warm-season lawn grass. In somewhat less shaded spots, zoysia is a good choice. Bermuda, seashore paspalum, and buffalo are the least shade-tolerant of our turf species.

Once a lawn begins to thin out from lack of sunlight, other complications will likely arise. Soil structure will be lost as raindrops and foot traffic pack the surface, reducing water infiltration, aeration and root growth. Weeds often become a problem in these spots, further stressing the remaining grass. This is when you find your lawn becoming a maintenance headache rather than a landscape asset.

Improving Lawns in Shady Areas
If you have a shady lawn area, here are several tips to help improve the turf and reduce your maintenance chores.

• Consider having some tree limbs in the upper canopy removed to allow more light through. Remove some low hanging limbs as well to allow reflected light in from the sides. In many cases this will solve the problem without significant loss of cooling shade.
   
• Avoid compacting the soil. Reroute the pitter-patter of little feet at until the area fills in. Severely compacted soils may benefit from mechanical aeration by a lawn care professional. In areas that see lots of regular foot traffic, consider installing paving.
   
• Speed re-establishment by planting plugs or sod strips in bare areas.
   
• Set your mower higher for shady spots. The leaf blades of the grass are its solar panels. More leaf area enables them to catch more light to support new growth. Plus, it makes thin areas look thicker.
   
• Avoid the temptation to over-fertilize or over-water. You can't make up for a lack of light with an excess of nutrients or water. In fact, heavily shaded areas need only one-half to tw- thirds as much water and fertilizer as areas in full sun. Over-fertilizing and over-watering can result in increased disease problems, not to mentioned pollution of surface and ground water.

These tips, although helpful, will not guarantee a lush lawn in heavy shade. Let's face it, some spots are just too shady to grow grass! Shady spots are ideal for raised beds with appropriate shrubs, perennials, annuals, or groundcovers. With a little planning and creative design, these areas can become a beautiful addition to the landscape. 

Source: National Gardening Association

You will need:

• Sturdy bristle brush
   
• Grill cleaner
   
• Toothpicks
   
• Soap and water
   
• Venturi brush

Step 1
Remove all the cooking grids, grates and burners and use a sturdy bristle brush to remove the build-up of grease on the inside of the oven. Using a grill cleaner scrub the inside and outside of the oven and then rinse with water. Never use oven cleaner on your grill, it is corrosive and can damage the other components.

Step 2
Inspect the burners making sure there are no holes rusted through any of the components. If there are, it's time for a replacement. Clean out any clogged burner ports using a toothpick, being careful not to damage the ports. Check all igniter contacts to ensure they are not corroded or loose and remove any debris from the electrode. Next, clean out the burner venturi tubes using a venturi brush. It's very important to keep these tubes clean, Spiders love to make nest in these tubes, creating blockages that can cause serious damage.

Step 3
Examine the heat medium, if you have a heat plate remove any grease build-up and make sure there are no holes rusted through. If you have briquettes make sure they aren't crumbling and the pores aren't clogged with grease.

Step 4
Check the cooking grids and make sure no welds are broken and brush off any stuck on residue. If you have cast iron cooking grids, season them with oil to help keep food from sticking and help prevent rust.

Step 5
Inspect the gas hose to make sure there aren't any cracks or leaks. This can easily be done by preparing a soapy solution and applying it to the connections at the tank and valve. Turn the tank on slowly and watch for bubbles to form, which indicates that there is a leak. Try tightening the connections and re-test. If persistent leaking or blistering is detected, stop using your grill and replace the gas assembly.

Finally, check the condition of your control knobs, thermometer, and handles. Replacing small items like this can refresh your grill and make it look new again.

More information, including recipes, is available online at www.broilkingbbq.com.

www.newsnorthamerica.com

How it works

1. Creating the gift. Use your green fingers to create your mom a Mother’s Day gift.
    
2. Take a photo of your Green Mother’s Day gift.
    
3. Upload your photo. Visit the photo competition app on our Facebook page and use the app to upload your photo. Share the photo with your friends for more votes. The competition page will be launched on the 8th of May. Don't forget to like our Facebook page first before entering.

Prize draw
On May 20th we will choose the photo with the most votes and announce the winner of the $100,- gift card.