A Garden For All Seasons

All great gardens have one thing in common. That is, they offer something during each of the four seasons. Through spring and summer the colorful flowers of perennials, annuals and flowering trees and shrubs are the focal point in the garden. Once the summer flowers begin to fade, the brilliant, colorful foliage of autumn brightens the garden. In the winter, it's the evergreens, berries and bark which provide the garden with color as the form and shape of the plants become more prominent.

Green is the dominant color in the garden in the spring as everything seems to be rapidly putting out new growth. The bulbs and perennials which do flower in the early spring do so against a backdrop of green foliage and brown earth. Bulbs are earliest blooming plants in the garden and are essential to the spring landscape. Some bulbs will even provide color until more perennials begin to bloom in May and June.

Early flowering perennials such as iris range in color from white to yellow to purple and in size from a few inches to 4 feet. For spring foliage, plant some hosta, they grow in a wide variety of greens, from blue-green to yellow-green and they're the perfect backdrop plant for the spring flowers.

Perennial borders peak in mid summer as a wide range of sun-loving flowers begin to bloom. Part of the mix include some leftovers from spring and, towards the end of summer, there are signs of the later blooming flowers as well. Annuals are also in full bloom mid-summer. Though most have finished flowering, fully leafed out shrubs can add a lushness to the garden.

A third wave of blooms begin brighten up the garden once again as the summer flowers begin to fade. The colors in the garden begin to change a bit in the fall with many perennials blooming in shades of yellow, orange and purple. Among these flowers are the annuals, which continue to flower until the first frost. Later in the season, the flowers, especially those of the sedum and black-eyed Susan, turn into brown and rust colored seed heads. They fit in perfectly with the colorful fall foliage of the surrounding trees. The foliage of the late season perennial is attractive on its own.

Once the blooms of the these flowers fade deciding whether to cut them back is up to the individual gardener. Some perennials will collapse to the ground anyways while others will remain standing though the winter with their showy seed heads creating off season interest in the garden.

Winter, the season in which many gardeners forget about the landscape, can offer color and visual interest through evergreen shrubs, bark, plant form and seed heads. For example, a clump of ornamental grass could be left standing through the winter. Redtwig dogwoods are great against the snow and birch trees have colorful, flaking bark. The winter landscape truly would be empty with the hardy evergreen trees and shrubs. Garden walls and fences become more prominent as the foliage which screens them in the summer disappears. Hedges, as well as walls, make a stronger statement in winter.

With some careful planning, it is possible to have a beautiful garden year round. Even in winter, when everything seems to be stark and barren. A few choice shrubs or trees can provide winter interest and a well thought out garden can flower from early spring until the first frost.

Sustainable Living Articles @ http://www.articlegarden.com

About R Birch:
R Birch is the publisher of www.gardenlistings.com . For information on all kinds of garden projects visit www.GardenListings.com/Resources.htm

The Best Flowers For Your Garden

Have you ever wondered if what you know about picking the best flowers for your home garden is accurate? Consider the following paragraphs and compare what you know to the latest info on picking the best flowers for your home garden.

Choosing the right flowers is one of the most critical decisions when planning a new garden, and combining colors and textures can make any garden a showplace. The many different colors and varieties of flowers for the garden makes finding the colors you like best very easy.

Of course plants should be chosen for their health and hardiness in addition to their beauty. When choosing seedlings for transplantation, it is important to choose only the healthiest, best looking seedlings, and to reject those that show any signs of disease or insect infestation. Choosing only the healthiest plants will make sure your new garden gets off to the right start.

Some problems with seedlings will be apparent even to the beginning gardener. For instance, it is easy to see things like spots on the leaves, holes in the leaves, or wounds in the stems. Other problems, however, are more subtle, and they may easy to miss for the beginning gardener. If you are planning your first garden, you may want to take along a more experienced gardener, or solicit the advice of the nursery staff, to find the best seedlings for your needs.

As you browse around the garden center, be sure to carefully examine the flowers, the leaves, and the foliage of the plants you are considering. Look especially for white and black spots on the flowers, leaves and foliage, as these spots are often signs of a bacterial or fungal infection.

It is also important to be on the lookout for wilted leaves and waterlogged roots, as these can mean the plants will fail to thrive after they are planted. Plants with cut stems or other types of wounds should also be avoided.

Knowledge can give you a real advantage. To make sure you're fully informed about picking the best flowers for your home garden, keep reading.

Of course, finding the healthiest plants is only part of the battle. The other part is transplanting those seedlings properly, and caring for them once they are in the ground. It is always important to get the transplants into the garden as quickly as possible. When planting seedlings or young plants, the hole you dig should be slightly larger than the root ball of the plant. Making the hole larger will ensure that the plant can be placed into the ground without disturbing the delicate root structure. After the plant is in place, the earth should be gently tamped down, and the plant should be given plenty of water and fertilizer.

When starting a new garden, it is also a good idea to have a good soil analysis done before buying your first plants. A soil analysis will tell you if your soil is of sufficient quality, and help you be sure that it contains the nutrients your plants will need. A soil analysis will also spot common problems, such as soil that is too acidic, too alkaline, too sandy, contains to much clay, etc. There are ways to fix all these problems, but it is important to have a soil analysis done so you know how to correct any problems found.

In addition, understanding the type of soil you have can help you to choose the plants that will do best in that soil. Tailoring the plants you select to the soil you have is a great way to reduce the use of pesticides and other chemicals while still enjoying a healthy and robust garden.

Those who only know one or two facts about picking the best flowers for your home garden can be confused by misleading information. The best way to help those who are misled is to gently correct them with the truths you're learning here.

Sustainable Living Articles @ http://www.articlegarden.com

About J. Brian Keith:
B. Keith Johnson is a contributing author for Flower Gardens. Visit his other sites for Product Reviews, Free Website Content and Free Photo Sharing

Green House Gardening Tips and Tricks

Gardening enthusiasts in the more interesting temperate climates and any place where there are four seasons are faced with great benefits as well as challenges. Because of the four seasons, gardeners are blessed with huge plant varieties conducive for planting on one or two of the seasons. In the period of a year, they are given an opportunity to plant varieties that must grow in cooler climates, and take advantage of the sunny summer to plant those that would require more exposure to the sun. However, the seasonality of plant varieties may pose challenges to those who would rather grow plants continuously, regardless of season. This is especially true for flower and fruit varieties that require continuous sunlight for an entire year, for example, or fruit and vegetable perennials that do not bear fruit and instead shrivel up in the winter.

The response to these challenges is the creation of greenhouses or greenhouse facilities. A greenhouse is a structure made of glass or plastic that stores up the sun’s rays in order to simulate the temperatures in the spring all year long inside. By storing up heat inside a greenhouse, it allows individuals to grow plants continuously even while winter rages hard outside it. Greenhouses also go by the name glasshouses or hothouses. The glass or plastic used in the construction of greenhouses are specially designed to have transmission qualities that will allow for the sun’s ultraviolet rays to be stored inside the greenhouse facility, providing a warm atmosphere inside, and in effect, warming the plants and the soil. A greenhouse leaves little or no openings through which the air heated by the stored sunlight can escape; leaving a small window or hatch open in a greenhouse will lead to a drastic drop in temperatures.

The general idea of a greenhouse is to protect temperature and climate sensitive plants from extreme shifts in temperature—either too hot or too cold. Maintaining a greenhouse has its own share of toil. Unlike the normal outdoor environment, which may be left to its own devices to some extent as nature creates some degree of balance, a greenhouse must be placed under strict regulation. Inside the greenhouse is a controlled environment that must simulate the outdoors without overdoing it. For a start, it must regulate heat and humidity inside the facility. Other factors to be considered are irrigation of the plants (and sufficiency of the water available to them), light exposure, and the presence of pests and diseases must be put into great consideration. Moreover, due to the fact that the spring outdoors is sealed into a single facility, natural activities like pollination must be simulated by the introduction of species that will help make this possible. Bumblebees are the most popular option for pollinators in greenhouses.

It is recommended that greenhouses be built in the southeast portion of the property. It is in this way that the minimal sunlight available during the winter will be maximized by the greenhouse. Moreover, the house can serve to protect the greenhouse from strong winter blizzards coming in from the north.
Greenhouses may be built attached to a house, or as stand-alone structures. The latter option provides more growing room for the greenhouse facility. While it may seem that there is too much to do in order to simply start a greenhouse, gardening enthusiasts will be more than willing to vouch for greenhouses, especially if gardening is a hobby. Gardening affords even the busiest of folks to tend to their plants when they are available. With a greenhouse, the constraints of day and night, and even the seasons, are put in the backseat. Greenhouses provide the option of tending to gardens even at night because lighting and heat is consistently present inside the structure.

Moreover, it gives gardeners the ability to plant exotic flowers and fruits that are usually grown in warmer tropical areas as they are able to control light exposure and heat inside the greenhouse. Greenhouses may even provide profit-making possibilities for gardeners. With potted plants for indoor growing and flowers growing in demand, greenhouse owners are given opportunities to sell what they grow inside their greenhouses to buffer whatever maintenance costs they incur along the way. In the higher-latitude territories, greenhouses carry the important task of growing fresh produce in areas where the climates are harsh and cruel on plants. This is one of the biggest reasons for huge greenhouse facilities that house vegetables and fruits more than flowers and exotic foliage. At the end of the day, greenhouses allow for the creation of a miniaturized and highly controlled natural environment to suit gardening needs. Its growing potential to provide for fresh produce in territories even with the instability of global climate proves to be a benefit that may be explored in the future.

Sustainable Living Articles @ http://www.articlegarden.com

About Percy Troughton:
Percy Troughton's runs his own garden center as well as running several shopping based websites. His particular speciality is gardening equipment. Visit his website which is full of Green House Gardening Tips. www.gardenresourcesworld.com/green_house_gardening.html

Enrich Soil Naturally - How To Make Compost

Anyone who prefers to buy their vegetables and flowers from the local grocery store will have a difficult time understanding the gardener's delight digging into a smelly pile of compost, or having a truck load of manure dumped in their yard. Really, who in their right mind, would pay to have a substance excreted by animals brought to their home?

A gardener. One who knows that good manure and compost can be the difference between a lush garden and a sparse, struggling one. And lets not forget the aroma, a gardener will describe the smell of compost or manure, as "sweet", or "rich", the average person, with no interest in gardening, is more likely to use the word "disgusting".

An experienced gardener knows that compost and manure are the life-blood of a garden. It is the primary way to enrich your soil naturally, and provide all the nutrients your plants will need to grow healthy and strong. The addition of compost and manure can transform even the worst soil into black gold, given enough time.

Composting is a natural biological process where bacteria, fungi and other organisms decompose organic materials such as leaves, grass clippings, and food wastes. The resulting product is called compost. Although composting occurs naturally, the process can be accelerated and improved by human intervention.

Where do you start?

In this article the focus will be on composting. If you are new to gardening, knowing how to start and build a good compost bin may seem a little complex, you may ask, "How do I build a compost bin" or "What can I put in my compost bin". Overall, making compost is relatively simple.

We will focus on compost bins and tumblers. Tumblers are excellent alternatives for gardeners living in the city who may not have room for a compost bin, or where city bylaws prohibit open compost bins. Putting kitchen scraps in the compost bin versus the garbage can have the added benefit of reducing foul odors. You will also have the peace of mind knowing you are contributing less garbage to the local landfill.

It is best to have two compost bins, one for fresh compost additives, and the other for use in your garden each season. Using two compost bins ensures you will always have good compost at the start of each gardening season. If you prefer to use tumblers, the same principal applies. One is in development, the other is ready to use.

There are two ways of composting, "Passive" and "Managed".

Passive composting
This is really very basic. You have a compost bin; you throw in all the various kitchen scraps, yard waste and so on. Once in a while, you mix it up; weather, bacteria, fungi and time do the rest. Hopefully, each year, you will have useable compost. Often referred to as "The Lazy Gardener's Compost".

Managed composting
This requires more time and attention than passive composting, but the resulting compost will be ready sooner, and better quality. A managed compost pile is often referred to as hot compost since the pile heats up as it decomposes, thus speeding up the process.

A managed compost bin can be ready in just 6 weeks, however, unless you are using tumblers, in most cases useable compost will probably take 2 to 3 months. Chopping or shredding leaves and other materials will speed up the process drastically.

Most of the organisms that decompose organic matter in a compost bin are aerobic - this means they need air to survive, so air circulation is important. This can be done by mixing (turning the top and sides of the pile into the center) the pile up every 3 or 4 days, or when the compost begins to feel cool. Building a bin with slats allows air to enter the pile from the sides. Using both methods is best.

How fast you produce finished compost will be determined by what you add to your compost, if you chop it up and how you mix them together. Layering is a common technique, but in most cases, redundant if you hand mix the pile.

The temperature of your compost pile is critical - If it is warm or hot, everything is good. If it feels luke warm, decomposition has slowed down and you need to add more materials such as grass clippings, leaves or kitchen waste. If you prefer to be very precise with the management of your compost, a compost thermometer can be used see how well your compost is doing. They are not expensive and readily available. If you can't buy locally, you will easily find them online.

Keeping your compost pile moist is important. Too dry, and the pile will not decompose as quickly. A compost pile should be moist, but not wet - add water or dry matter as required to maintain this balance. To much water will reduce air in the compost thus slowing down the decay process. A good sign of healthy compost is worms. Worms don't like it too cold, too hot, too wet or too dry - they can be used to monitor the condition of your compost.

A new compost pile will begin to heat up within a few days as the microorganisms thrive and your pile begins to decompose. Ideally, your pile should heat to about 140-160 degrees to kill weed seeds and diseases that may be present in garden plants.

Building a compost bin
A compost bin can be made from almost any scrap lumber. It does not need to be pretty; it simply has to hold all the different household and yard waste you will be adding to it. See the image to your right; this is typical of a compost bin.

A good design will be at least 3' x 3' x 3'. This will provide enough mass to generate optimal temperatures. A bin should incorporate removable front panels, usually in the form of boards, which can be removed one at a time. This is important since the weight of mature compost against a single large panel may make it impossible to open. If you want to get fancy, you can add a gate on the front.

There are many ways to build a compost bin, the details of which are too lengthy for this article. However, a simple search on Google using the term "How to build a compost bin" will provide numerous links to websites offering you many ways to go about building a compost bin. There are heap composting and worm composting - although worms can, and should be added to any compost bin, regardless of design.

Compost bins need to be turned by hand (mixed) to help with the decomposing process and help recently added scraps decompose quicker. Mixing helps improve overall quality of your compost.

Compost tumblers
You have probably seen these on Internet or at your local garden shop. Basically, they are a round tub, mounted on a frame, or base, designed to turn compost and speed development. Many will also collect compost tea (excess nutrient rich moisture that seeps into the base of the tumbler).

Compost tumblers are perfect if space is limited, or city bylaws do not permit open compost bins. They are also ideal if you have a small garden and do not need a large bin. These bins work by rotating the bin every few days, which can speed up compost development by as much a 3 times. The rotation helps to mix compost evenly and create very good compost.

What can you put in your compost?

• Grass Clippings (thin layers 1 - 2 inches)
  
• Leaves and yard waste
  
• Flowers
  
• Dead plants from end of season garden
  
• Weeds without seed heads
  
• Fruit and vegetable scraps
  
• Coffee grounds
  
• Tea bags
  
• Egg shells
  
• Citrus fruits (cut up)
  
• Pure wool jumpers and socks (cut up)
  
• Pure cotton articles (cut up)
  
• Blood and bone (with no meat)
  
• Shredded newspaper
  
• Small amounts of wood ash
  

Do not add the following to your compost!

• Any Type Of Plastic
  
• Foam
  
• Metal
  
• Weeds with seeds (personal recommendation)
  
• Bulbous weeds
  
• Weeds with runners
  
• Pet Droppings
  
• Dead Vertebrate Animals
  
• Uncooked Meats
  
• Cooked Meats
  
• Diary Products (Except Egg Shells)
  
• Pig manure (questionable parasites and bacteria)
  
• Big woody twigs
  
• Evergreen needles (unless you want an acidic compost)
  

Troubleshooting
Composting is generally not a problem and easy to do. However, sometimes things don't progress as expected and this can usually be attributed to a few common problems. Here are the most common problems and solutions:

• Bad odor
  There is not enough air, or your pile is too wet. Mix the pile, or add dry materials to the pile.
  
  
• Not decomposing
  Pile may be to dry or wet. If dry, mix the pile and moisten as you turn the compost. If wet, mix the pile and add more dry material.
  
  
• Compost feels right, but not heating up
  Lack of nitrogen - add items like grass clippings, manure, and other greens
  
  
• Animals attracted to the compost
  Are you adding meat or milk products to the pile. Avoid scraps likely to attract animals.
  

Compost is the best natural fertilizer for your garden. In most cases, it contains all the nutrients your plants will need. Compost made with a wide variety of materials, including manure (recommended) is the best.

Compost is the best natural material to enrich and build soil. If you want black gold, you need compost. Experienced gardeners know that healthy soil, rich in organic matter, will grow healthier plants that naturally resist disease, insects, and adverse weather.

What more could a gardener ask for.

Sustainable Living Articles @ http://www.articlegarden.com

About H Reinders:
My name is Henry Reinders. Avid gardener and owner of usagardener.com A complete online guide to gardening. My Latest commercial garden project was included in our community garden tour and featured on our local community cable channel.

Landscape Lighting Magic In Your Garden.

Though there are a few exceptions outdoor lighting ordinarily needs not to be about the lights themselves but instead about the outcome. The lights can be manipulated via mechanical timers located inside the housing of the outside transformer.

Landscape lighting is totally about prettifying all that is natural or man-made in the outside surroundings adding a beautiful and spectacular element to a home's nighttime appearance. The right exterior lighting can be both functional and beautiful. Lighting showers your dwelling and yard in a comforting glow, promoting your property's appeal.

Out-of-door lighting is ordinarily advisable, but specially about water features, which present a specific danger after dark and is ideal for highlighting paths. Outside lighting is a simple improvement that ought to make a big difference in the safety not to mention the security of your home also the visual appearance after dark and is safer to operate than normal mains lighting. As an accessory outside lighting is as functional as it is cosmetic, bettering the safety and security of your household, as the home owner and family members are able to move about their property in safely after sunset. Quite popular nowadays are low-voltage outdoor lighting designs. These systems normally come complete with a step-down transformer. For lighting systems in built up areas, low-voltage systems is used for outdoor lighting. Outside lighting is used to bring bushes and plants to life after dark, feature focal areas around your household, illuminate drives and stairs for safety and security. And of course it is a terrific way to heighten the value of your household and to add and safety after dark.

One drawback with solar outdoor lighting is that you may not feel it is very effective beause they produce very little light and get dimmer as the battery runs out. Nonetheless most solar lighting can be as bright as traditional low-voltage. This outside lighting option has been increasing in popularity the past few years. However, the PV panel utilised to charge the battery must be in an area where it will receive a lot of direct sunlight. It is a quick easy option that can brighten up your yard decor or landscape. Now that manufacturing systems have improved and costs are falling , solar lighting has become the hottest segment in the horticultural industry. Solar landscape lighting supplies many alternatives for you to include into your gardening project including pathway, driveway lights, accent lights, lanterns, fountains, and spotlights. Solar landscape lighting can be supplied in a assortment of styles from a variety of manufacturers offering solar exterior decor that fit your style. One common complaint is that they frequently only give off a low light that illuminates a relatively small area. An added benefit of solar outside lighting is that it is childs play to instal, and the installer wouldn't have to dig under their walkway to run wires. Landscape lighting is the perfect product for solar powered, wireless style lights.That said ,they must be placed in an area, which enjoys a lot of sunlight during the day time. Solar powered lighting systems are not wired to anything nor do they use any transformers.

The preparation of footings for light fixtures, setting up of fixtures, or setting up of empty conduit for future landscape lighting are projects that must be well thought out ahead of setting up your outside lighting. In the natural landscape, the majority of lighting, generally, is provided by the sun, modulated by clouds and reduced by vegetation. Light, or its absence can dramatically change the visual effect of your gardening projects. Try playing with your timing and using a variety of set-ups to alter the atmosphere over the evening eg set for evening, not too dark, and with a reddish orange ambiance. There are many choices for exterior lighting from which you can pick out.

Sustainable Living Articles @ http://www.articlegarden.com

About Dave Kearsley:
Wiring Low Voltage Landscape Lighting - Mr. Kearsley works with several web sites and resides in Britain. www.landscapelightingnet.info

Growing the Greatest Flowers Around

Most every gardener strives to grow the best, most stunning flowers around, but that goal is hard to get hold of. Whether you want to raise prize-winning blooms or just have a home garden filled with of beautiful flowers, there are some things you can do in order to ensure your garden is in the best shape possible.

Soil chemistry counts
The chemical make-up of the soil is one of the biggest factors that contribute to the success or failure of your garden. If the soil in your planting beds is poor in nutrients, it is unlikely that your plants will thrive or produce those beautiful flowers that you want until you enrich the soil with the nutrition the plants need.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that the soil chemistry is the same all over your yard. It is important to test the soil in each area of your property that you plan to plants, especially if the areas are away from each other. This can be important if part of your property is on a slope, or if it has been used for other things in the past.

The slope of the land and the soil type in your area are important considerations to make. A complete analysis of the soil in your yard will give you a good place to starts and a help you to monitor the quality of the soil as your garden matures.

Know what your plants will need to thrive
You probably already have an idea about what you want to plant in your garden, so it is important that you understand what those plants will require in order to grow and flourish. Although many types of annuals, perennials, and bulbs can grow and thrive in a broad range of soil and weather conditions, others can have special requirements for food, water, and soil conditions.

For example, if you are interested I n cultivating roses in your garden, you will need to know the pH level of your soil, and adjust it if you need to. Roses are commonly acid loving plants, and therefore they will not thrive in soil with a higher alkaline level. Getting some humus and tilling it into the soil can amend alkaline soil. If the humus does not do the job, adding sulfur to the soil can raise the acidity level.

Keeping an eye on nutrition
The nutrients in the soil will dictate the health and vitality of your plants and flowers. If the phosphorus and nitrogen levels, as well as the presence of other types of organic matter are not sufficient, your plants may be malnourished, and not thrive at all. Nutrients can be added to poor soil by suing humus or any number of good-quality fertilizers.

Now you understand why the chemistry of your garden soil is so important in growing your ideal garden. Having the best flowers around is a big task to fulfill. Make sure that your garden soil is ready for the duty.

Sustainable Living Articles @ http://www.articlegarden.com

About Ken Snowie:
To learn more about flower gardening and receive a free flower gardening report visit www.discover-flower-gardening.info">

Fall Bulbs for Spring Blooms

Fall bulbs are, naturally, planted in the fall and flower in the spring. Many believe that they should be planted in the early spring, believing that the winter frosts can harm them. In fact nothing could be farther from the truth.

Bulbs, corms and rhizomes are all classed as bulbs for the purposes of fall planting. Fall bulbs need the cold of winter earth to prompt them to start growing and form a healthy root system, and a newly planted bulb will remain dormant until the ground temperature reaches 5 – 10 Celsius (40 – 50F). If you have an early fall frost and a mild winter, you will find bulbs starting to peek above the ground in January rather than March, and if your winter is mild, your bulbs will grow, but the roots will not be strong. The bigger the bulb, the more important a frost for their root system.

The cold of winter is essential for them. That is something to keep in mind when considering planting time, and with global warming sometimes causing mild falls, you might want to plant your bulbs later in the season – around November or December. Whatever you plan to do, you should make up your mind early exactly what you want to plant.

You have a very wide choice of plants and colors. You can get most colors from bulbs these days thanks to the wonders of hybridization, and there is no reason why your spring garden should not be a riot of yellows, reds, pinks, blues and purples. Add to that the snowy white of snowdrops and your garden should look great. However, keep in mind that not all of the different plants bloom at the same time, so choose carefully if you have planned a garden around that.

Possibilities are the snowdrops already mentioned that look fabulous when grown in large clumps, and then crocuses, lilies, tulips, daffodils and other narcissi, hyacinths and alliums. There are also irises and many others, most of which are available in a multitude of different colors. Towards the end of summer the garden stores will be full of them, and also the general stores, outdoor centers and even department stores. You will find pages and pages of sites online, and if you Google ‘fall bulbs' you will have so much choice you will likely never want to stop looking!

Many gardeners like to color theme their gardens using fall bulbs, or to layer them with the smaller plants at the front and larger at the back. That is when you should check the estimated flowering times since you don't want the yellows coming out in March but the reds leaving it till June! The same with the sized planting: you could have a big bare patch in your garden while the middle sized bulbs leave it till May to flower. All of this information should be on the pack, but if not you can get the information online for your specific bulb.

The bulbs should be planted when the soil temperature drops to at least 10 Celsius (50F), and should be two bulb thicknesses deep. Make sure you plant them the right way up! They like a well drained soil that holds moisture, and if you add a thickness of compost below the bulb by digging the hole a bit deeper, this will provide the needed drainage, moisture and nutrition required for the first year's growth.

Old bulbs should be fed with a top dressing of a good bulb fertilizer, and clumps separated every now and again to promote more vigorous growth. Bulbs like a sunny spot in the garden, where they are exposed to about 5 – 6 hours of light daily. Under a tree or beside a wall that shades them from the sun are not suitable, and growth will be slow. Once they have been planted you just leave them and they will look after themselves. The fall bulbs don't mind frost and snow, unlike summer planting bulbs that should be lifted over the winter.

Anybody who would like a nice show of blooms in the spring should plant fall bulbs. You can design your spring garden in any way you want so long as you are acquainted with the bulbs, corms or rhizomes that you are planting. They are easy to look after, and are the ideal solution for the amateur gardener that wants to impress the neighbors in March.

Sustainable Living Articles @ http://www.articlegarden.com

About Colin Clifford:
Want to find top qualitity Fall Bulbs for your garden then visit www.mygardencenteronline.com . Where you will find a full range of Allium, Anemone, Crocus, Daffodil, Hyacinth, Tulips and alot more other types of fall bulbs.