Shade gardening is a type of gardening many new gardeners don't think of, because most seem to think that in order to have a beautiful blooming garden, you need to put plants in areas that get some sunlight. In fact though, there are some shade loving plants that are quite beautiful, and most of them create blooms of some kind or other as well. Many shade loving plants also tend to have beautiful colors and textures on their leaves and stalks as well, which helps bring beauty and interest to a previously drab, dark or boring area of your yard.

Shade gardening is not difficult at all, but it can seem a little tricky at first. And this is because there are varying levels of shade at any given time of the day. Some areas of your yard for instance, may have filtered sunlight throughout most of the day instead of full shade. Other areas may seem to never see sun at all, and still others may have deep shade for most of the day, with bright direct sunlight for a small part of the day too. And these variations in the amount of sun or shade a given part of your yard has will determine the success or failure of your shade garden.

There are some shade loving plants which cannot tolerate any direct sun for instance, but they'll do just fine with a bit of filtered sunlight each day. Other shade loving plants though, prefer to grow in full, deep, dark shade all the time.

The best plants to put into a shady area of your yard and garden though, are called Hostas. These plants come in a wide variety of textures, colors, and sizes. Most of them create beautiful blooms too, but possibly one of the most interesting things about them is how they create such a wonderful display of color even when they don't have any flowers in bloom.

Hostas are perennial plants, which means they live for many years. In fact, these plants actually get more beautiful as they age too, because they tend to create gorgeous clumps of color that keep expanding and growing each year. Many types of hostas also show even more color as they get older too.

Hosta plants range from very small to very large, and though most will do just fine in full, deep, dark shade, they tend to thrive best when they have at least a little morning sun, or some filtered sunlight throughout the day. Hostas will also grow quite well in containers too, so feel free to plant some for sprucing up the inside of your home, or the patio and porch areas too.

Tags: Shade Gardening

When you decide to try your hand at organic gardening, one of the most frustrating parts of the entire process is trying to control pests, disesases, and other miscellaneous problems that come up with any form of gardening. Thankfully though, there are natural techniques which can be used to solve many of these common gardening problems, and one of those techniques is known as companion planting.

Companion planting is the process of planting specific flowers, herbs, and vegetables together in a way that either enhances the taste of the vegetables, and/or serves to help naturally control common pest and bug related problems in the garden.

Companion planting is important and useful for natural garden pest control, but it's also very important in vegetable gardening too. When you decide to plant two or more vegetable plants close together in your garden, you could end up with either a very bad tasting vegetable, or an extremely good one. And how your vegetables taste is dependant upon which companion plants you chose to plant together.

If for instance, you plant basil close to your tomatoes, or put them together into the same container garden, you can enhance the flavor of the tomatoes - particularly when using them to make home made sauces such as spaghetti sauce.

Chives is another excellent companion plant for tomatoes as well as carrots. Not only will the flavor improve, the growth of these plants will too. Chives also helps to keep aphids away from tomatoes, and they're thought to help keep carrot rust flys away too.

Chives can even help prevent black spot on roses. They need to be planted near the roses for two or three years before they begin to help prevent this common disease though.

Planting cabbage with celery, dill, onions or potatoes will benefit all these plants, but trying to plant cabbage too close to tomatoes or strawberries may cause problems with both growth and production.

Marigolds, also known as Calendula, are a very common flower to use for repelling pests around your home and garden. These little flowers have been used for this very purpose for centuries. You can scatter them throughout your yard and garden to help repel a variety of common bugs and pests. You need to plant marigolds which have a scent though, or else they won't work to repel the bugs. Some people don't like the scent of marigold flowers either though, so if you've never smelled them yourself, you may want to before planting too many.

Tags: Marigolds, Organic Gardening, Companion Plants

Hanging Baskets

Hanging baskets are one of the best ways to bring immediate color to areas of your home and garden, where growing plants in the conventional way may be difficult.

They can be positioned by the entrance door, to add a welcoming note for visitors, or to bring color to shadier areas. It's just a matter of providing a suitable bracket from which to hang the basket. Do remember that even a small basket, when filled with potting compost and well watered, weighs a great deal. So make sure your bracket is firmly fixed to the wall . Special anchor bolts, rather than simply a screw and a plastic wall plug are the order of the day.

As with all planting, you should consider the conditions of the area where the basket is intended to hang, before choosing your plants. So, if your basket is intended to brighten up a shady area, you should consider using a fuchsia as the centerpiece for height and surrounding it with shade tolerant plants such as impatiens, otherwise known as "Busy Lizzy". This plant originates on the floor of tropical rain forests. From this, you can understand the conditions it likes best: warmth, plenty of moisture and not over-bright conditions. For planting in the sides of the basket, trailing lobelia is ideal, as it tolerates both sunshine and shade.

If you are planting for an area that gets a lot of sun, you should use a geranium for your height giving central plant and under plant with petunias. When established these will tend to spill over the sides of the basket, although you should also plant the sides of the basket with contrasting lobelia.

No plants give of their best in windy conditions and by hanging up there in mid air, hanging baskets are at more risk of windy conditions than plants at ground level. Although hanging baskets can tolerate a certain amount of wind without detriment, do avoid areas that are prone to wind. For example, sometimes two buildings together tend to take on the conditions of a wind tunnel and amplify the windy conditions.

Trailing lobelia, in particular, does not like wind and, if you find the tips of this plant turning brown, too much wind is probably the cause.

In order to get the maximum flowers from your baskets you should make sure they never dry out and have an adequate supply of high potash fertilizer. You can give them this by either mixing a slow release fertilizer in the compost, along with some moisture retaining crystals, or you can give them a liquid feed of a high potash fertilizer as recommended by the maker's instructions.

You should water the baskets as often as once a day in very sunny or windy conditions. You might find baskets in shadier, sheltered areas can go a bit longer between watering, although the fuchsia/ impatiens shade basket will appreciate being sprayed with a fine mist of water on hot days — provided the sun is not shining directly on them.

Dead head your plants regularly, to encourage more flowers, and you will be rewarded with a very long season of continuous color.

Tags: Hanging Baskets