Garden Plants Nursery Landscaping Guide
Garden Plants To Extend Growing Season
By Suzzie T Franklin
If you are truly passionate about your garden plants and take
great joy from a colorful bloom, then you probably want your garden
to survive all winter long. In frosty and snowy climes, this task
may seem impossible. However, there are certain flowers, shrubs,
trees and plants that have been known to survive from November
through March.
The hellebore will bloom white, green, red or purple from November
to March. The honeysuckle will give you small white flowers starting
in winter. The Erica carnea heath can even bloom in a sheltered
location down to -25 Fahrenheit! Witch Hazel shrubs are hardy
throughout December and January, despite snow or ice.
Knowing What And How To Plant
Of course, who could forget the classic winter holly bush? Your
gardening experience can last the whole year through if you know
what to plant and how to plant.
During the winter, you may also want to review your options and
add late growing plants to the mix. You can plant ornamental cabbages
that come in stunning foliage colors such as yellow, lilac, deep
purple, white and pink. This heath is the hardiest winter flower,
as it’s able to withstand temperatures as low as -25.
Delicious Vegetables Growing In Your Garden
Parsley survives from May through November. From June through
November, you can harvest broccoli, chard and kale. Beets can
even be harvested into December and potatoes can be dug up from
July into December. Starting in August (through November), you
can harvest broccoli raab, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, rutabagas
and turnips.
Starting in August (through December), you can harvest leeks,
pears, carrots and winter squash. September through November,
you’ll gather your pumpkins, shelling beans and celery root.
Seeing The Fruits Of Your Labor
October through November, you’ll pick fennel and from October
through December, you can gather cranberries and parsnips. Mushrooms
can be cultivated year-round. Home vegetable gardening is not
only enjoyable when you see the fruits of your labor, but it’s
also practical because you can feed your family, while saving
hundreds at the grocery store.
There are several tactics to help your garden plants withstand
colder temperatures and extend your growing season. The Ed Hume
Seeds gardening blog recommends building windbreaks and walls
to add 10 to 15 degrees of warmth to your garden.
Firmly Secured Portable Greenhouses
Similarly, permanently edged raised beds with well-made soil
can increase the temperature between 8 and 12 degrees. Cloches
(portable greenhouses made of cloth, glass panes or pop bottles)
can increase the solar energy, although they must be properly
ventilated and firmly secured.
Cold frame boxes made of old 18 x 12 window sashes and glass
are more permanent structures that protect from strong winds,
elevate temperatures and protect flowers and veggies from frost;
these boxes can also allow you to seed up to 8 weeks earlier than
usual.
Keeping Your Garden Frost Free
Hot beds (cold frames with electric heating cables to provide
bottom heat) can keep a garden frost-free all winter long. Lastly,
if you’re really into home vegetable gardening, then you may want
to build a permanent greenhouse.
You can grow leaf and root vegetables without heat, or -- if
you’d like -- you may grow tropical plants, tomatoes and cucumbers
in a heated greenhouse even if it’s cold as Alaska outside!
If this is your second year of producing garden plants, then
it’s important that you plant your winter vegetable crops in a
different location than last year. Planting in the same spot every
year weakens the soil, loses nutrients and attracts insects or
disease.
Repairing Damaged Soil
A gardening expert may also recommend that you use cover crops
to build up damaged or idle soil. By planting fast-growing greens,
you can spade, plow or till them into the soil for added green
organic matter and nutrients.
In the fall, you can sow alfalfa, Austrian field peas, white
clover, crimson clover, red clover, purple vetch, hairy vetch,
woolly vetch, common vetch, fava beans, wheat, oats, cereal rye,
winter rape, and lupines.
If you’d like to cover in the winter, try cow-peas (Southern
peas), hairy indigo, bell beans (a small fava bean) Lana vetch,
winter peas, lupines, and purple clover.
About the Author:
Suzzie T Franklin has written a number of articles on gardening, flowers,
and landscaping including
The Japanese Garden,
Zen Garden,
Cherry Blossom,
African Violets,
Plastic Flower Pot,
Bamboo Plants,
Wire Topiary Frames,
Planting Guide,
Flower Seeds,
Gardening Vegetable,
Bonsai Trees.
Keep a lookout for more of her articles on this website.
Little Known Gardening Facts....
What type of gardening tips can I get for growing a flower garden?
One of the best gardening tips you can get
for a flower garden is to not buy that expensive paper that is
supposed to act as a weed barrier. Lots of people buy it because
they do not want to spend the time it takes to weed their flowers.
But there is a better way that is much
less expensive and makes use of recycling. Take old newspapers
and put them down instead! They act as a barrier just as well
and will also decompose to help your flowers grow.
Another great tip is to actually read the
little flower tag that comes with your flowers when you buy them
and transplant them from their little seed carriers. That tag
will have some very important information regarding when to plant,
when to water and most importantly…how much sunlight the flower
needs.
Most people make the mistake of throwing
them away but they are invaluable tools. Another great tip is
to get flowers from your friends. Many times they will need to
weed out some flowers to make room for the others to grow.
Simply ask them for the flowers they would
typically throw away. You can transport them in a wet paper towel
and then plant them in your own flower garden. That is recycling
at its best!
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