ⓒ Janet Harriett

As with many tasks around the home, preliminary planning is the most time consuming part of planting a tree. Part 1 of this series looked at considerations when choosing a tree to plant, for Earth Day or any day of the year. Part 2 looked at choosing a spot to plant. Once you’ve chosen a suitable tree and spot, it’s time to break out the shovel. Compared to the preparation of choosing a tree and location, planting is a snap. Planting a tree can take less than an hour once you have the preliminary work done. (continue reading…)

Nature has a bounty of plants to choose from, but you have to narrow down your choices that seem to work best for you and the place you live in. The plants I am going to discuss here are suitable for wide geographic areas and growing conditions. Plants’ resistance to weeds, pests and diseases and requirement for less time in pruning are also important factors while choosing a plant.

Aristocrat Pear (Pyrus calleryana ‘Aristocrat’)

General: It is a small, sturdy shady, bearing white flowers tree attracting birds like robins which eat the fruit. It forms neat, upright, pyramidal form and its flowers appear in early spring, normally before the leaves emerge. Fall color may be red, orange or yellow. There is a brown fruit which requires cleaning up but can provide food to wildlife. (continue reading…)

©iStockphoto.com - CJ McKendry

Choosing plants for the backyard requires careful consideration to a number of factors, like soil pH, heat tolerance, hardiness and heat tolerance zones, sun and shade patterns, wind pattern, water requirements, pruning, pest and weeds. I hope these guidelines can help you to shortlist the plants when you plan your backyard.

Hardiness and Heat Zones

All plants can’t survive in all kinds of climatic conditions. A few can survive in long winter, whereas few others can tolerate the hot summers. You can make the use of USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, which is based on average annual low temperatures to determine which plants thrive and which plants may die in the heat of summer or cold of winter. Simply find in which Hardiness zone you are located in and select plants according to that. (continue reading…)

©iStockphoto.com - viktor_kitaykin

Where you plant a tree is just as important as how you plant it. A tree’s location should fit in the overall landscape. As I said last week, know where a tree will be planted before opening your wallet. Ideally, the choice of tree will be guided by the spot in the landscape it’s meant to fill. The site should also be appropriate to the tree, giving it enough room to grow to its mature size and the right soil conditions for the type of tree. Once you have identified a potential hole in your landscape, check the long-term suitability of the site (continue reading…)

ⓒ Janet Harriett

Planting a tree is an easy way to improve your carbon footprint, with one tree able to absorb about 48 pounds of carbon per year. Getting the most benefit out of planting a tree requires some advance planning to choose the right tree for the right spot and the right purpose.

Trees should not be an impulse purchase at the nursery, and never, ever, buy a tree without knowing exactly where it’s going to go in the landscape. Even a short-lived tree like a peach will be around for 15-20 years, so pick out what type of tree you want before you go out looking for a specimen to buy. Green Diva Mom recommends researching cultivars to find one that suits the location and your needs, then looking for a retailer. Mail-order or online nurseries can ship the exact tree you want to your door. Alternatively, buying from a local nursery that grows its own stock ensures that the tree is suited for the climate.

Research to choose a tree to plant should be guided by what the tree is intended to do. Aside from being the bones of a landscape and providing seasonal interest, different trees have different functions. Fruit trees trained for good production don’t provide a lot of shade, since good light penetration through the canopy is a basic principle of growing fruit trees. Evergreen trees are great for privacy, but won’t let the sun through in winter. (continue reading…)

©iStockphoto.com - Maica

Spring officially begins at 1:32 p.m. Eastern Time today, and across the middle and northern latitudes of the U.S., the weather is finally breaking enough to consider gardening. You can start a veggie garden in a weekend, without digging or tilling, using square foot gardening. Be careful not to go overboard with the size of the garden, though. Two square feet may not look like a lot when it’s bare growing mix, but in a couple of months, you’ll be amazed at how much lettuce will come out of that little bit of soil.

While tomato-growing weather is still months out in many zones, the time is just about right to start a cool weather vegetable garden. Cool-weather vegetables are primarily ones grown for their roots or leaves, rather than fruit like tomatoes, peppers or cucumbers. Some cool weather veggies to plant now: (continue reading…)

ⓒ iStockPhoto - TriggerPhoto

A sunflower room provides a living outdoor playroom for kids in the summer which can be expanded and moved each summer. Plant the sunflower room as soon as the danger of frost has passed in your area (consult your local cooperative extension for safe planting dates) and the kids can enjoy their own private outdoor enclave all summer. As a bonus, the best variety of sunflowers to use for a sunflower room, Mammoth Russian, also produce some of the most delicious sunflower seeds for snacking.

You can plant a sunflower room straight in the lawn without suffocating the grass or using weed killer. You can either carefully cut the grass around and between the sunflowers with a string trimmer or weedwhacker, or just let it grow longer for the summer on that patch. If you do decide to kill off the grass inside the sunflower room, we suggest distilled white vinegar, which kills the vegetation but is safe for use around children’s and pets’ play areas. (continue reading…)