As a child from a family of six children, I learned the importance of working in the garden and the responsibility of taking care of my section in the garden. One of the most important lessons I took away from that learning experience was that if you just put your mind to the chores that are given to you, you will be finished with them before you know it. It gives you a real sense of accomplishment to know you have done your part and helped out the other members of your family.

One day while working in the garden right along with my Dad, I ran into a problem and being a typical kid I immediately said that I could not overcome that problem. It was a very hot day and the sun was directly overhead and shade was a precious commodity. My Dad told me that I could handle the problem if I just gave it some thought. I tried giving the problem some thought but I had already convinced myself that I could not handle it so I didn’t spend a lot of time trying to figure out how I might handle the problem. A short time later my Dad happened to look over and saw that I hadn’t taken care of the problem. He asked me why and again I stated that I could not figure out how to handle it.

It was time to sit down in the shade and have a refreshing cool drink so we went over to the edge of the garden and found a cool spot to sit down and enjoy some lemonade my sister had brought out to us. As we sat there my Dad asked me what I had thought about as far as being able to take care of the problem I was having and I told him I didn’t even know how to go about getting started thinking about the solution to the problem. At this point he said he would like to tell me a little story about my great-grandfather. I was thrilled to hear about him as I had always admired him. Dad proceeded to tell me about great granddad’s experience with gardening that had started back when he was a child and lasted right up until he was in his late 80′s. By the time he was 80 years old he had become semi-invalid but was still determined to work his garden. He absolutely loved the fresh food he got from the labor he put into his garden.

As we all know, weeds are a very pesky problem that any gardener faces. Controlling the weeds is a very important part of having a healthy garden. My great granddad knew this but was faced with the paramount problem of being unable to move about freely in his garden to handle the weed problems. Knowing that weeds just don’t go away because you wish them to, he had to figure out how he could attack the problem and be efficient at getting the weeds under control. As he gave the problem some thought, he figured out that if he took an old wooden kitchen chair out into the garden he could sit in the chair and take his garden hoe to control the weed problem. He then decided that if he lashed two hoe handles together, he could reach out further and not have to move as often. It was just a matter of problem solving and after hearing the story my Dad told me I gave my problem some more thought and was able to come up with a solution.

The old moral stating that where there is a will there is a way is so true. The very next time you run into a problem that you believe there is no way to solve it, try to remember the story here and use it to your advantage. Any problem can be solved if it is given enough thought.

John Rowe The Yankee Gardener

http://www.theyankeegardener.com/

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My wife loves to see things clean, neat, and orderly. I have to say I agree with her. It shows how much you care about what is around you and what others think about you. This brings about a question. Can you do your spring cleanup to early? I would have to say as a life long resident of the extreme northeast that the answer to that question is a definite yes. The weather here is known for rapid changes. One day it can be 65 degrees and the very next day it can be 20 degrees and snowing. We also have some pretty fierce winds in the spring of the year. With all that being said I am hoping you can see where this is leading to.

Let’s say you go out and clean up all the damage from the winter snow, ice and wind storms on that wonderful early 65 degree day. The ground is probably still frozen making it easy to get out on the lawn and do some work. The very next day the temperature drops and the winds pick up and it begins to snow. Within a day or two you look out and it is like you never did any work in the yard at all. It is covered with broken tree branches and debris carelessly thrown from passing cars. You would probably wonder at that point if it was worth the time you spent cleaning up the previous day or so.

So you decide to wait a few weeks until you are sure the weather has finally taken a turn for the better and the strong spring winds have subsided. Now all that remains is for things to dry up so you can get out on the lawn and do the work of cleaning up. At this point the ground has thawed and the lawn is fairly soft. If you can get on the lawn without sinking in, it will be a good time to do some picking up. Clean up the old broken limbs and trash and remove and dead plants from the previous year. Any work like this is perfectly fine to do in the early part of the year. Don’t however be tempted to get out the rake and start raking your lawn of old leaves and dead grass right now. With the lawn being so soft and damp you endanger hurting the grass by putting a rake to it to early. You can actually pull the grass out by its roots and do much damage to your lawn.

Just take some time to survey the situation and try to decide whether you will do more harm than good by attacking your cleanup chores to soon. You have been the one maintaining your property for many years so nobody knows the property better than you do.

John Rowe The Yankee Gardener

http://www.theyankeegardener.com/

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A healthy, bright green lawn is something that most homeowners want, the problem is it may be difficult to achieve. There are various factors, which affect the garden and lawns for many people. Maintaining a beautiful lawn will take some work. The rewards are tremulous such as playing outside and just a remarkable site to see. Having a beautiful lawn can be a huge plus for your home and we are going to show you how. Plants and animals love a healthy lawn and garden. The source of food, which the life cycle needs, will flourish under these conditions. We are going to explain several keys to having a great healthy lawn.

Grass is needed to keep pollutants to a minimum and the ability to convert carbon dioxide to oxygen. This natural process helps to clean the air for us as human beings here on earth. Not only will your garden and lawn look wonderful, you will be contributing positively to the environment. You don’t need a degree in lawn care management; just have an open mind towards the environment as well as nature. You need to have goals set for your actual lawn and stick to them. You do not want to overuse pesticides on your lawn. This in the long run can ruin your garden or lawn.

First, develop a health lawn program and definitely stick to it. Wherever you are locally you should determine which course of action is needed. Your soil is a top priority on your list, the selection of the grass type, kind of blades that you are using on your lawn, and the amount of water you are using on your lawn. Getting healthy soil requires tons of energy and effort. By having good soil, you are laying the foundation of a healthy lawn. Nutrients are needed to ensure healthy growth and development. Do some research on your soil and begin to understand what kind of soil you are dealing with. Different soils have different types of needs. Your lawn may need fertilizing done to it; it should be done at least once a year.

The selection of your actual grass type is key. Climate affects your grass, so when choosing a type of grass make sure it can handle the surrounding climate. If your grass can’t handle that particular climate, well you will be quickly buying new grass again. You can always seek advice if you are not sure what type of grass to purchase. If you or someone else cuts your lawn, you may want to check the blades they are using. A tip is to mow it very high and use sharp blades. By doing these it allows your grass to be stronger and have a healthier root system. There is usually a chart that you can find to help you know what the best height of your grass blades should be. Lastly, do not water too often, as this could be deadly to your lawn. You don’t want shock your garden or lawn by doing this. If you follow all these tips, your garden or lawn should be in fine shape.

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In today’s gardening world we have many choices for tools that did not exist many years ago. This makes gardening much more productive and enjoyable. We have a variety of hand tools our grandparents never even dreamed of like bulb planters and different types of weed removing tools. We have power tools to do many jobs to make gardening fast and productive, not to mention easier on our body. Gardening technology has advanced by leaps and bounds in the past fifty years. We can elect to use tools like pesticides or go with a more Eco Friendly approach like organic styles of gardening which is much more kind to our planet. With tools like rototillers and fertilizer spreaders, we can produce more crops and flowers faster, better, and bigger. Gardening should be relaxing and easy. Information is available to anyone that wants it through the World Wide Web and the many universities that offer it for all to enjoy and benefit from. Through these great information sources even a complete novice can become an excellent gardener and not waste resources and money learning how to do things the proper way.

Here at The Yankee Gardener we have used a simple but very effective little tool called a Bulb Planter to plant 70 bulbs in a little over an hour and a half. It made planting bulbs quite a lot of fun. It also made it extremely easy. My wife and I are not into a lot of power tools and that is mainly because we just enjoy getting our hands right into the earth and feeling like we are totally connected. We do use power tools for certain gardening chores like the initial ground breaking and tilling. From there we try to use hand tools for many reasons. Gardening should be about peace and quiet and enjoying your time with nature. There are many new tools on the market today to suit your gardening needs
and wants.

At The Yankee Gardener we will continue to bring you many new resources and connections to information and new education as it becomes available. We want your gardening experience to be a happy and productive one. That is one sure way for you to feel like you have really accomplished something and feel great about working in your own garden. We have tools like Trug’s Tubs to carry your assorted gardening tools and seeds or fertilizers. Trug’s Tubs are an Eco Friendly product made from recycled tires and plastic to keep the landfills in better shape and make use of Earth’s dwindling resources. anything at all we can do to help our planet out is a very welcome effort in our book here at The Yankee Gardener. We also welcome and will use your suggestions and make sure you get the credit deserved for those suggestions. Please feel free to email us with your suggestions and pictures
so we may share them with all the gardeners that enjoy this great hobby.

As reported By Sarah Bultema
Loveland Reporter-Herald
This year’s Christmas has been unwrapped, and soon it will be time to say goodbye to the centerpiece of many holiday celebrations: the Christmas tree.

But getting the pine out of the house doesn’t mean it has to end up in a landfill.

There are plenty of ways to recycle and reuse a Christmas tree — both the real and artificial varieties.

“Keep those trees out of the landfill,” said Rob MacDonald, Loveland’s parks forestry specialist. “There are other uses for them.”

MacDonald and Rose Watson, an educator with the Larimer County landfill, offer some ideas to keep your evergreen’s disposal environmentally friendly. More »

When was the last time you looked your garden over real well? How long has the mulch been around your plants? How much mulch do you have in your garden, 3 inches, 4 inches or even more? Did you use weed fabric under your mulch? There are many questions you can ask yourself about the condition of your garden. Start out by making a list. Write it down, use a voice recorder or what ever way is best for you. This way you don’t get side tracked and forget an important step while giving your garden a tune-up. First things first.

How long has that mulch been surrounding your plants? If it has been more that 3 years it is time to replenish it. By replenish it we do not mean just go out and buy more mulch and dump it on top of what is already there. If your mulch has been in the garden more than 3 years you are asking to invite some very unwanted diseases to your plants. Mold and mildew will form under the surface of the mulch where the moisture does not get a chance to completely dry. With mulch being a relatively inexpensive addition to your garden you should never jeopardize your valuable plants by leaving it in your garden to try and save money.

A good practice is to completely remove all the mulch and weed fabric from your garden every 2 to 3 years and replace it. While you are doing that you have a great chance to do some serious digging around the roots of your plants. Your outdoor plants are really no different than your indoor plants. They both become very compacted around their roots over time and need at the very least to have the soil loosened around the root system to allow them to grow and breath with less stress on the plant.  With certain types if plants like Hostas you can actually take advantage of splitting them in half and gaining plants for new areas of your gardens.

After digging up around the roots, give them some mild fertilizer and lay down some new weed barrier and put some edging around your beds to make for easier trimming when mowing or weed wacking to keep the beds looking great. Finally put back some new, fresh mulch and give everything a good long drink of water. You only need 2 or 3 inches of mulch in your beds.  Any more than that makes it hard for the mulch to dry out underneath.  The mulch will still do it’s intended job of helping to keep weeds to a minimum and keeping moisture around the plants from evaporating to quickly. More mulch is NOT a better thing, it only invites trouble. The same goes for old mulch.  The work you just did will pay you back in a big way by extending the life of your valuable plants and give your flower beds a well tended look you can be proud of.

You know as you get older things do not work the way you would like them to. The garden can still be a serious passion for you but your body may fight you in your efforts to do certain mundane chores in the garden like digging or weeding. I was recently at a farm doing some work for a very nice older farmer and asked him just how he kept his farm in such great shape for a fellow his age. He told me is was no great secret. He just used what was there for anyone that had the knowledge to go out and find. It was so very simple and when he told me I was amazed. It was using the local church groups younger adults and teenagers. He feeds them a generous lunch and does not ask to much of them and they are more than happy to help out. He in turn donates products from his farm to the less fortunate parishioners and it turns out to be a win win situation for everyone. So the next time you are in need of help in your garden why not contact the local churches and see if they offer such a service. Maybe you can donate something as simple some beautiful flowers for Sunday services or extra food from your garden to help out the hungry. We can all work together and help each other through these tough times we are in just like people used to do in the great depression. If we work together and share, we will not only feel better about ourselves but we can know in our hearts that we have done what is intended of us as caring human beings.

If you have not started yet, it is never to soon for people in the Northeastern part of the country to get thing ready for the long, cold, often snowy, winters we have here. Make some simple plant covers out of light plywood to protect your investment in those beautiful plants (and yes even the established plants) you have nurtured through the year. A good feeding before they go to bed will only insure when they wake up in the spring, that they have a head start.

For any new young trees you may have planted, please make sure to wrap the trunks right down to the ground to keep the mince from girdling them which will surely result in them dying on you. They need that layer to direct their food to the branches. Some plants can even be sprayed with a light vegetable oil to help protect the foliage from insects and diseases.

You spend a lot of money and time on your labor of love. Why not protect that and leave nothing to chance? After all you did bring them to your garden for a reason. You obviously saw something in them that you liked, and brought them to their new home. A small bit of effort will ensure that you will enjoy them for many years to come. We have more info being added on our web site constantly about the care and health of your garden and the plants in it. We also have resources to some great ebooks for care of fruit trees. Check those out at Yankee Gardener Info

It is getting down to temps low enough to create frost now in the northeast at night. If you have plants you want to be able to enjoy for a few more weeks you really need to cover them at night. You can use any light material and something as simple as a few small rocks on the edges of the material to hold it from blowing away in case a breeze comes up during the night. A lot of people don’t realize that frost actually falls down and lands on the plants. It isn’t always the temperature that kills the plant it can be the icy frost landing on the leaves. Some plants actually thrive with very cool temps at night and rebounding warm temps in the daytime. We use old saved bed sheets or curtains to cover all our vegetation that we want to keep until the temps drop to the point of freezing and kill the plants for the season. Now is a good time to get building the permanent plant covers.

Any perennials you have deserve to be protected so they will be here for many years to come. You can find sources for cover making material at many construction sites like a new home being built. If you go there and ask the contractor, he will usually have waste pieces left over from sheet goods that they wind up tossing in the dumpster that are quite often large enough to make great plant covers. Grab a couple of old barn door style hinges from the hardware store for a couple dollars and a couple of bolts and nuts too. Drill a few holes and hinge two pieces of material together and you have a cover you can use for several years for less than $5.00. Give your plants a fighting chance against the snow loads and the cold and save money at the same time by not having to replace plants unnecessarily.

It is never to late or to early for that matter to get ready for the upcoming year in the garden. It is actually a great time to find some good deals on seeds and tools. Many web stores are in the same position that the brick & motor stores are with the slump in our economy. They are offering good deals to try and keep sales at a level to at least sustain their businesses. You should take full advantage of any deals you can find when you see them because they might not be there the next time you visit that same site.

If you are in an area of the country where you are stuck inside because of the cold and snow, it is a great time to start planning this years gardens or changes to already existing gardens. Winters are long for those of us that are not outdoor winter sports enthusiasts. There is software available that you can use to plan your gardens and it is sophisticated enough now to even show you what the plants will look like when they have aged. That way you can look into the future and decide if a particular plant you are thinking about would work in that spot in your garden. Plants are expensive and they will be around for many years with proper care. It would be nice to know that you have put them in their permanent home. They do hate to be moved around but they will tolerate it if it is done correctly.

Have some fun, do some planning and some dreaming about the warm weather and being out doing what you love. Think about adding different types of garden decor to your gardens for a change in design. Garden decor is great because it is easily moved around and gives the appearance that you have done something new in your garden just by merely moving the decor from one place to a different spot in the garden. If you like to play out in your garden and enjoy they look of instant change, consider adding garden decor like Gazing Globes, or Gnomes to your garden. There is always the elegant Garden Arbor to consider also. They add a touch of class to any garden and act as a way to direct people to a particular place in your garden. Now is a great time to dream and plan. Have some fun!