Fertilize Spring Flowering Bulbs
Here in my area of Kentucky, daffodils, crocus, and spring Iris are flowering! Tulips and hyacinths are also on the rise.
Spring flowering bulbs are hungry harbingers of spring. They will benefit from being fertilized in the spring while the green is emerging or when they just start to flower.
Tulips in particular can be finicky, you really have to pick the right variety for them to persist in the garden. Some varieties, if planted in an ideal setting, can persist a little longer than expected. That being said, tulips definitely benefit from fertilization each spring.
Just pull back the mulch and apply an all purpose organic fertilizer of your choice at the recommended rate. I use Bio-Tone.
Book Review: New Small Garden by Noel Kingsbury
New Small Garden by Noel Kingsbury published in 2016 published by Frances Lincoln.
This is one of my favorite garden design books. I’ve checked it out several times from my local library.
Noel Kingsbury is a famous British garden designer and has written quite a few books. He is largely known for his naturalistic planting design and his collaborations with Piet Oudolf.
In this book, Kingsbury goes through different elements of garden design and how to use them within a small garden space. Kingsbury also gives tips on how to use plants to accentuate form, shape, and texture throughout the garden.
There are some plant recommendations at the end of the book. Some of the plants may not be pertinent choices for the US. Some of the plants I would consider planting in my region. I personally tend to gloss over plant recommendation lists because I like to choose native plants to my region above other plant choices. However, there are only a few pages in this book with plant recommendations.
The style throughout this book is mostly contemporary, but the plantings are lush and little on the wilder side. There is a small section of the book devoted to container plantings and edible plants in small spaces.
Another good feature of this book is that it gives importance to being environmentally conscious. There’s design ideas on how to incorporate rain gardens, drainage swales, and permeable surfaces. I really like the section that encourages the use of salvaged and recycled materials in the garden.
This post originally appeared on http://www.EARTHeim.com. There may be links to products in this post. As an Amazon Associate I earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through these links. This is at no cost to you and you don’t need to do anything. All opinions are my own.
Egg Carton Easter Wreath DIY
If you eat eggs, you’re likely to get egg cartons you throw away or don’t know what to do with. There are many crafty ideas out there on how to reuse egg cartons, from using as organizational storage boxes to small crafts.
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In a magazine I saw an egg carton that was made into a tray to hold jewelry. Something from that article inspired me to think that an egg carton would make a cute spring wreath. I got out a couple of cartons and scissors and started putting together a wreath and this is what I came up with.
It makes a fun craft to do with kids, especially in a classroom setting, and is inexpensive. It can be decorated anyway you like. You can use craft supplies you already have on hand too.
You will need
- 2 paperboard egg cartons
- Hot Glue Gun and glue sticks
- Scissors
- Paint & paintbrush
- Decorative elements of your choice
Instructions
Step 1. Trim off the lid and closing flap. Then trim the points that stick up between each individual egg cup.
Step 2. Cut the tray into 4 pieces as shown.
Step 3. Arrange the 4 pieces as shown.
Step 4. After you have completed Steps 1-3 for both egg cartons, arrange them into a wreath shape as shown. Then take each piece and trim the edges to make them smoother.
Step 5. Hot glue each section together. Apply the glue at the top of the egg cups and hold together until it sets.
Step 6. Take the lid, and cut into strips. You can use these strips to reinforce the wreath by gluing them across the sections on the back.
Step 7. Paint the wreath front and back with the desired color/s. Spraypaint would make this faster. I used a paint sample from Lowes I already had.
Step 8. Add your decorative elements!
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The Potager: Kitchen Gardens
A kitchen garden is a space to grow food with herbs and edible and non-edible flowers mixed in. In France, a kitchen garden is called a ‘potager’ (pow-tuh-jei). When I think of the word ‘potager’ I envision a small edible garden that’s pretty, organized, and a welcoming space.
A kitchen garden should be fun and exciting. It does not have to resemble a big rectangular plot we till and plant rows of crops in every year. It can be small, stylish, and planted in any pattern.
Helpful Link: Brooklyn Botanic Garden- Potager Gardens
Growing your own food right at home can be a satisfying experience. Besides growing nutritious fresh food, it has other benefits to health. It’s a reason to get outside, get some light some exercise, and focus on something that requires you to be in the moment.
There are plenty of chances for creativity while growing a kitchen garden, such as figuring how to arrange the plants and what to do with all the food, herbs, and flowers after harvest. Too much fresh sage? Learn how to dry it and save it to make Thanksgiving stuffing.
Herbs are easy to incorporate since most are smaller and shorter than the fruiting plants. A kitchen garden could be planted with herbs alone. I built an herb spiral for one of my clients, where many different types herbs could be planted.
A kitchen garden is a way to spruce up a potentially unused area around your house. It can be located in an outdoor space near your kitchen, but can be anywhere as long as it’s easy to access. Raised beds make edible gardening easier, but the garden can be grown in the ground too.
Intermixing fruiting plants with herbs and flowers has other benefits. Flowers can be cut for bouquets to liven up the kitchen table. All the flowers from the plants invite bees, butterflies, and beetles, which we want to pollinate our food. Even though I don’t use much basil, I grow tons of it each year, just to simply please the pollinators.
EARTHeim offers consultations and garden coaching if you’d like to learn how to set up your own kitchen garden as a diy-er. I also offer design and installation services for kitchen gardens.
An upcoming book you may be interested in, ‘Kitchen Garden Revival’ will be coming out in April, written by Nicole Burke. Read the Article on Southern Living Here about her.
This post originally appeared on http://www.EARTHeim.com. There may be links to products in this post. As an Amazon Associate I earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through these links. This is at no cost to you and you don’t need to do anything. All opinions are my own.
Book Review: Crops in Tight Spots
Crops in Tight Spots, written by Alex Mitchell. Published by Kyle Books in 2019.
Growing food, and growing them in tiny spaces is a trendy part of gardening right now. This is a good trend, since growing food at home is always a good practical hobby.
I have thought for a long time, that growing food at home, even if it’s herbs or a single tomato plant, is the best way to reduce one’s carbon footprint.
It reduces the fossil fuels needed to produce and transport the food. It can prevent food waste, since the food is bypassing more parties and going directly from ‘backyard to table’. Any spoiled food grown can be composted at home and recycled back into the earth.
If more people grow food, this puts less demand on large mono-culture conventional agriculture, which would eventually reduce the amount of chemicals poisoning the soil, air, and water. Plus, you know how your food was grown and what’s on it, potentially reducing risk of food poisoning.
This book has many ideas on what types of containers to grow food in. Tight spots require small containers, or at least containers that utilize space and give the most growing space.
Many of the containers are recycled items that most everyone may collect at some point- like tin cans, take out containers, and wood crates. This is good, because if someone lives on an upper apartment floor, it’s less things to carry up or down. It’s also the newly added fourth ‘R’ in Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Repurpose!
In tight spots, space is a premium, so there are ways one can grow plants vertically with shelves, wall hangings, or trellises. Most of the book focuses on growing food in containers on patios or balconies, but there is a section on small sized in-ground gardens, or growing indoors too.
Throughout the book, there is information on how to best grow each type of crop in small spaces and dwarf varieties to grow. For example, sweet peppers like warm sheltered areas and moist soil. When grown in a pot, it may want to be placed in an area protected from wind and where shade is casted on the container its potted in.
One neat technique is growing radishes in a pot, and revolving them, so you have a fresh crop all season long. Small space gardening is all based on efficiency and how to get the most of the resources available, including growing weather.
I believe this book can be used by anyone who’d like to vegetable garden. Some homeowners may have a large backyard, but due to mobility or shade, would like to grow food on a sunny patio.
Small space gardening can also be a way to make a garden-y fashion statement. Cute containers, green beans growing on wires off an awning, and tiny tomatoes in hanging pots are certainly more interesting to see than single crops all planted in a row.
Crops in Tight Spots is a neat book to check out if you’re interested in growing food. It has lots of neat pictures with ideas for growing your veg, with plenty of information as well.
This post originally appeared on http://www.EARTHeim.com. There may be links to products in this post. As an Amazon Associate I earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through these links. This is at no cost to you and you don’t need to do anything. All opinions are my own.
