Tag: planting

Spring Gardening – Grow Your Gardens + HM #223

Tips and ideas for Spring gardening! Grow your garden. Plus, link up @ Home Matters w/ recipes, DIY decor, more. #Gardening #SpringGarden #HomeMattersParty

Spring Gardening – Grow Your Gardens + HM #223

I am not sure there is anything that saySpring more than a beautiful garden! Whether is is flowers, bushes, or vegetables seeing the ground come back to life is a spectacular view. We love to garden (with 23 rose bushes, we’d better! LOL). You can find lots of other garden tips on this blog. Since spring is getting ready to spring, the gals of Home Matters want you to be prepared. Enjoy!

 

Gardening Beginners: 11 Tips for a Successful Start from Sarah @ The Free Range Life

 

Spring Garden Prep + FREE Printable Planting Notebook from Kristi @ Homestead Wishing

 

15 Vegetable Seeds to Plant in March from Tiffany @ The Imperfectly Happy Home

 

Lilac Bushes – How to Plant Healthy Shrubs from Lorelai @ Life With Lorelai

 

Spring Gardening – Grow Your Gardens Blog Hop

Click through all the Hosts and Co-hosts blogs to see the complete Themed Roundup!

Inlinkz Link Party

 

A Home Matters Themed Roundup

Last Week’s Theme: St. Patrick’s Day Fun Ideas

Next Week’s Theme: Spring Decor

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Each week, we like to feature some of the awesome posts shared at last week’s party. We hope you will be inspired by these creative and talented bloggers who share their best recipes, DIY projects, crafts, home decor, organization ideas, and more. Enjoy!

Check out this week’s features below.

 

St. Patrick’s Day Dessert:  Rainbow Mug Cake by Carrie @ Curly Crafty Mom

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Crystallized Egg Vases by Melissa @ The Scrap Shoppe Blog

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Mermaid Jello Shots by Melissa @ Sparkles to Sprinkles

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Hello Spring Geo Style Hoop Art by Jennifer @ Busy Being Jennifer

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No Bake Orange Creamsicle Cheesecake by Jen @ Cincy Shopper

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Tips and ideas for Spring gardening! Grow your garden. Plus, link up @ Home Matters w/ recipes, DIY decor, more. #Gardening #SpringGarden #HomeMattersParty Click To Tweet

 

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10 Beautiful Container Garden Ideas

A collection of 10 beautiful container garden ideas that you’re sure to love! Popular planters for versatility, space, lovely to make any setting a garden!

Well, folks, I have a right-hand crush injury. So, I am incredibly thankful to my friend, Michelle, for putting together this awesome guest post for me. Do be sure to stop by her lovely blog, Our Crafty Mom.

10 Beautiful Container Garden Ideas

Get creative and turn any space into a garden!

 

Hi! I’m Michelle from Our Crafty Mom and I’m happy to be guest posting at Life With Lorelai today. With Spring in full swing and Summer on its way, I put together a collection of 10 beautiful container garden ideas that I am sure you will just love! One reason I think container gardens are so popular is they are so versatile. You don’t need to have a huge space for container gardens and they look lovely in all kinds of settings. Let’s take a look at these gorgeous ideas from some of your favorite home and garden bloggers.

House of Hawthornes-Creative Container Garden Ideas

Duke Manor Farm-Knock Out Roses Container Garden

Flourish and Knot-Pretty Planters

Garden anywhere with 10 Beautiful Container Garden Ideas. #gardening #containergardens

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Duct Tape and Denim-Patio Garden With Succulents

Rain on a Tin Roof-Tips and Tricks Container Garden

Nourish and Nestle-Container Gardening

Michelle James Designs-Creating Pretty Outdoor Spaces

Our Southern Home-Container Garden Ideas

Empress of Dirt-Succulent Garden Ideas

Penny’s Vintage Home-Junk Garden

So many different options, but all beautiful! I hope you enjoyed this post and I look forward to visiting with you at Our Crafty Mom. Have a great day!

Thanks again, Michelle, for this beautiful roundup of container garden ideas! Be sure to see more from Our Crafty Mom on her social media:
Facebook/ Twitter/ Pinterest/ Hometalk/ Instagram

 

You may also enjoy these other amazing ideas for your garden.

 

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5 Tips To Growing Gourds In Your Garden

Celebrate Fall in your garden! Here are 5 great tips to growing gourds in your garden, brought to us by regular contributor, Megan Wild.

 

Growing Gourds – Celebrate Fall In Your Garden

Get 5 Great Tips!

 

Tips for Growing Gourds

You’ve probably started seeing them in fall décor, and in the spring you might have seen them put out for birds to nest in. You don’t need to shell out money for these decorative staples: Did you know you can grow your own ornamental gourds as a fun project with your children, or just to have a surplus for decorating next season? While they have a long growing period before the gourds can be harvested, they are very easy to start from seeds.

Here’s how you can grow your own gourds and enjoy them from season to season.

Getting to Know Your Gourds

Gourds are a vining fruit that actually includes watermelons, pumpkins, squash, melons and cucumbers. There are three basic types of gourds that are grown for decoration or for crafts and utensils.

  1. Vegetable sponge gourds (luffa) have an exterior shell that is removed after they are harvested. It is the center of the gourd that is used as a sponge. Once dried, the luffa sponge can be used as an exfoliating scrub when bathing. If you make your own soap, you can also slice a luffa and pour your homemade soap over it in a mold to make an exfoliating bar.
  1. Ornamental gourds are typically the ones used in decorating. They can be unusually shaped and brightly colored. Small ornamental gourds can be dried and preserved, but large ornamental gourds will not be suitable for drying.
  1. Utilitarian gourds will be green while they grow, but will dry to a brown color with a tough shell. These can be used for bird houses, crafts and if left to grow on the ground with a flat side, can also be cut in half to use for bowls.

Constructing Your Garden

Since gourds are big sun lovers, you should select an area in your yard that gets full sun with well-drained soil. You may also want to enrich the soil with compost or organic material. If you intend to use your gourds for decoration, you should construct a trellis that will support your growing gourds, unless you are planning to grow utilitarian gourds for bowls.

Preparing the Seeds

Gourd seeds can have a hard outer shell, which can cause them to take an extra-long time to germinate. To help speed up the process, you can scarify them by roughing up the surface with sandpaper or a nail file. You will need to gently rough up both sides of the seed. After you have done that, soak them in a bowl of lukewarm water for 24 hours, and then let them completely dry so they won’t rot before they sprout.

Caring for Your Plants

If you have a long winter, you can start your seeds indoors. Be sure to wait until all danger of frost is gone before planting them in your garden. Since gourds are a vine, they will need plenty of room in the garden if you will be letting them grow on the ground. If you will be using a trellis, make sure it will support the weight of your growing crop.

While they can be resistant to pests and disease, they don’t like weeds, so be sure to weed your garden regularly. If you are growing in a climate that tends to be extremely hot and dry, you will want to make sure your gourds get plenty of TLC and water.

Gathering Your Harvest

If you plan on drying, or curing, your gourds, you should start by leaving them on the vine as long as possible. Check them every few days to make sure they haven’t started to rot or have become a snack for wildlife. A good indication that your gourd is ready to cut is when the vine has turned brown. Curing gourds can take a while, so be patient and don’t try to rush them. You may want to plan on using your dried gourds the year following the harvest to give them sufficient time to dry.

If you are growing gourds for decoration, don’t seal them with any kind of varnish or shellac, since that will seal in moisture and cause them to rot. If you want them to appear polished, you can use a liquid floor wax instead.

Growing gourds for decoration and crafting can become a fun hobby for novice gardeners, bird lovers and children. It can also become a lucrative business depending on your creative skills and imagination. With so many different uses for gourds, as well as their various colors and sizes, the only limit to what you can make with them is what you don’t think of.

 

See what Lorelai does with her pumpkins. Click HERE!

 

~Megan

Celebrate fall with gourds. Get 5 Tips to grow gourds in your garden. #gourds #gardening #garden

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Sunflowers – How To Grow These Healthy Giants

We’re back in the garden with regular contributor, Megan Wild. You’re going to love these floral giants — sunflowers for your garden!

How to Grow Healthy Sunflowers

Add some wow factor to your garden!

 

One of the greatest joys of gardening is watching something you planted from a tiny seed grow and reach amazing heights – even towering over you. There’s no better way to get that wow factor in your garden than to plant sunflowers. Some varieties can reach 10 to even 16 feet high! To grow large, healthy sunflowers, though, it pays to follow a few best practices to give them the best chance to thrive.

 

Choose the Right Location

 

It should come as no surprise that sunflowers do best in a sunny location. They need at least six to eight hours of direct sunlight per day – the more the better. Sunflowers also need a soil that drains well, so planting them on a slope will often help keep their roots from becoming too waterlogged.

 

Another advantage of planting sunflowers on a slope is that picking the right plants can help reduce soil erosion and minimize flooding in other parts of your yard. Sunflowers have long taproots that anchor deeply and soak up a lot of excess water, which can help preserve the rest of your landscape.

Got a slippery slope? Plant Sunflowers! Learn more… #sunflowers #garden #gardening

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Plant in Mid-Spring for Best Results

 

Sunflowers aren’t frost-hardy, so it’s best to wait to plant until all danger of frost has passed in your area. Prepare your soil by adding a low-nitrogen fertilizer and lots of compost. Turn these into the soil with a spade to loosen the planting area and allow roots to flourish. Press sunflower seeds into the prepared soil to about an inch in depth, making sure to plant seeds in rows 6 inches apart. Cover seeds with soil and water well.

 

If garden pests like birds, chipmunks or squirrels disturb your seeds, cover your planting bed with bird netting or chicken wire to protect them. Water seeds daily until they sprout.

 

 

Support Your Sunflowers as They Grow

 

Once your sunflowers sprout, they don’t need much care unless you are experiencing a drought. An inch of rainfall per week is the right amount, but if you get less, water your sunflowers deeply once per week to make up for the deficit.

 

When your sunflowers reach a foot in height, it’s time to thin them. For a row of dwarf sunflowers, you should pull out the weaker seedlings and leave the strong plants at a spacing of about one per every foot. For giant sunflowers, thin to one every 30 inches or so. It’s important to create enough room for your sunflowers to reach their full potential, so don’t skip this important step – even if it seems sad to kill half of your seedlings.

Give #sunflowers some elbow room! Tips and tricks on growing sunflowers. #gardening #planting

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As your sunflowers bloom, they will need staking to keep them upright. Sometimes the seed heads get so heavy that the stems bend or break, so use strong bamboo stakes to hold them upright. Simply insert the stake into the ground a few inches from the stem and use garden twine to tie the stem to the stake every 6 inches or so. This will also help your sunflowers if you live in a windy area.

 

 

Protect Sunflowers From Predators

 

Sunflowers are tempting food sources for local garden critters, so you may need to protect them, especially if you are interested in harvesting the seeds for yourself. To do this, you can spray plants with a hot pepper spray or other squirrel deterrent. You’ll need to reapply ever few days, or after a rainfall.

 

To keep birds away from your sunflower seeds, tie a paper bag over the flower head as the seeds begin to develop. This won’t allow you to enjoy your flowers for their beauty, but it’s usually the only way to keep the local birds from making off with your crop. If you’ve planted a whole bed of sunflowers, you can select just a few to protect and allow the birds to eat the rest while you enjoy the flowers for their decorative features.

 

Once you get the hang of growing sunflowers, you‘ll never want to be without them. They are a brilliant feature in any garden, and they’re loads of fun for kids to enjoy – especially if they get to snack on the seeds in the autumn. Give these giant beauties a try for a fun garden project this summer.

~Megan

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Have you grown sunflowers before?

Do you have any tips or tricks for growing sunflowers in your garden?

 

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Lilac Bushes – How To Plant Healthy Shrubs

Spring is here, and we’re in the garden! Today, our Regular Contributor, Megan Wild share with us How To Plant Healthy Lilac Bushes. Lilacs are one of my most favorite flowers, so pretend you have a fresh vase of lilacs on your table, and enjoy…

 

How To Plant Healthy Lilac Bushes

Spring in the garden with gorgeous lilacs!

 

Lilac bushes can make a wonderful addition to any garden. They’re perfect for bringing some color to a space, and the lovely fragrance that comes with them fills the air. Their beauty and enticing scent, along with the fact they are one of the most carefree shrubs you can grow, makes it easy to see why they’re a favorite among gardeners.

Lilac Bushes – a fragrant, lovely addition to any garden! Learn how to plant them. #Lilacs #Garden

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With a few tips you can keep your lilac bushes growing healthy for decades to come. Check out the list below to get the scoop on keeping your lilac healthy and happy.

 

Start With Your Soil

 

Healthy soil means a healthy plant. Checking your soil before planting will give you an idea if anything needs to be fixed before you put your lilac bushes in the ground.

 

Lilacs are relatively forgiving when it comes to soil. Your bushes will tolerate a variety of soil types, but lilacs do prefer well-draining soil that’s rich with humus. Humus helps air and water move through the soil more easily. Loose and airy soil will prevent it from trapping excess water that may cause root rot or other problems.

 

You can do a test at home to make sure your soil is draining well enough. To test your soil drainage, you’ll want to dig a hole that is around 12 inches deep and fill it with water. Timing how long it takes the water to drain from your hole will show you whether or not you have a draining problem. If after an hour there’s no noticeable difference, the soil in that area drains poorly and is not a good location for your lilac bushes. A good drainage rate is at least 1-2 inches per hour.

 

Checking your soil can also tell you its pH, what nutrients it may be missing and whether or not your soil has toxins. Since you’re probably not planning to eat your lilacs, toxic soil isn’t a huge concern unless you have children that like to play in the dirt. If your soil test turns up toxins but children aren’t a concern, you can still safely garden – just be sure to wear gloves when working in the soil and be careful not to breathe in any soil dust.

 

Pick a Location

 

Lilac bushes need full sun and plenty of room to grow, so choosing the right location for them will depend on those factors. Full sun means at least six hours of direct sunlight every day. Since lilac plants can get pretty large, you’ll want to place each plant a minimum of five feet apart to prevent overcrowding. Even if you plan to use your lilac as a hedge, the plants will need this space to grow happily.

 

Lilacs love alkaline soil. Adding lime to the area you intend to plant in will keep your soil from becoming acidic and make your lilac shrubs feel right at home.

 

Planting Your Bushes

 

Now that your soil is ready and you’ve found a location for your bushes, it’s time to start planting. If your lilac was shipped in spring and has come in the form of bare roots, don’t worry: Your plant isn’t sleeping, it’s just dormant. Soaking the roots in tepid water for 10-15 minutes will get your lilac ready for the ground.

 

  • Prepare a hole that’s wide and deep enough to accommodate the plant’s root structure. If you’re digging for several plants or have to move a large amount of soil to prepare your planting area, you can increase your efficiency and minimize fatigue by using professional equipment to plant your bushes.
  • For bare root plants, you want the roots to be a few inches below the surface of the hole. If your plant has a root ball it should be level with the top of the hole.
  • After placing your plant in the hole, fill it in with soil, add a thin layer of mulch and water thoroughly.

 

Lilac Maintenance

 

Planting is just one aspect of growing lilac. You have to maintain the plants once they’re in the soil to keep them healthy for years. Lilacs are pretty low maintenance, which is good news for the lazy gardener. Here’s how to keep your lilacs happy:

 

  • You should water your plant thoroughly, but not excessively. Lilacs don’t like wet roots.
  • Fertilizing regularly isn’t necessary, but your bushes may benefit from an application in early spring. You’ll want to avoid anything that’s too nitrogen rich, since this can stunt the growth of blooms on your plant.
  • Pruning spent blossoms will keep your plant producing more new flowers. Occasionally, pruning may be necessary if your plant gets too tall for you to enjoy.

 

Whatever effort you put into your bushes they will repay tenfold. These fragrant shrubs are low maintenance and eager to please. With proper care, your lilac bushes will provide you with beautiful blossoms for years to come.

 

 

Get tips for growing healthy Lilac Bushes in your garden. #Gardening #LilacBushes #Planting

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