Garden Maintenance

Plants are beautiful in so many different ways that they are extremely versatile in their use in the garden. The key to successful planting lies in establishing a good basic framework and building up a balanced collection of permanent and seasonal-interest plants.

One of the joys of gardening is that it adds color to our lives, and by planning the use of color you can produce a garden to match your personal style, or create areas with entirely different atmospheres.
choosing a color scheme.

A soil that is both moisture-retentive and well-draining is achievable, but it is helpful to know how soil holds water -- especially if you need to improve the drainage of a waterlogged area or lawn.

New plants benefit from watering often enough to keep the soil barely moist during their first season in the ground, because they are growing on skimpy roots. After a few weeks or months, depending on the growth rate of the plants, you can water less frequently. Plants with mature, extensive root systems usually do a good job of finding the water they need deep within the soil. And plants that are mulched during the growing season need minimal supplemental water, because the mulch shades the soil, keeping it cool and reducing evaporation of moisture just below the soil's surface.

Each time you set out a plant, the final planting step is usually to cover the ground around it with a blanket of mulch. Mulches are organic or inorganic materials that retard evaporation from the soil, smother weeds, and insulate the root zone of plants, keeping them cool in summer and protecting them from frost damage in winter. Organic mulches have the added benefit of attracting beneficial earthworms, which aerate the soil and contribute plant nutrients.

Trimming off withered blossoms and tattered stems does much more than make your garden appear neatly groomed. It also coaxes plants to produce more stems and blossoms, extending the flowering time of many plants. While most perennials and shrubs will bloom all at once no matter what you do, and some plants can shed their old flowers without aid, most annuals and a few perennials depend on you to relieve diem of old flowers. When deprived of the opportunity to produce seeds, annuals have no choice but to flower again and again, in an attempt to set seeds.

Almost all vines require some type of trellis, and you can be endlessly creative as you devise or purchase arches, iron or wood trellises, or panels of wooden lattice that will hold wandering stems aloft. Single upright pillars and openwork obelisks tend to become unstable after they become heavy with plants, so it is crucial that they be deeply and firmly anchored in the ground. Arches are less likely to topple, but if you live in a windy area, it may be best to grow vines on wooden trellises that are securely attached to walls.

When well-sited, any plant will be healthier and more resistant to problems, and the plants in this book have been chosen because they are naturally healthy and pest and disease resistant. But in any garden pest problems will pop up sooner or later. Whether those problems are due to insects or diseases, prompt intervention greatly improves your chances of saving plants from unnecessary suffering. Check your garden plants often for signs of trouble, and be prepared to administer first aid right when the need arises.

The vast majority of plants can be grown from seed, and starting your own seeds, or buying commercially grown seedlings, are often the best ways to begin when you are growing annuals. However, several other methods of propagating plants provide faster and better ways of increasing your supply of perennials, bulbs, and sometimes even shrubs. Modern nurseries sometimes use high-tech tissue-culture methods to propagate plants, in which a cluster of cells is nurtured into a plant grown in a test tube. This has become an inexpensive way to produce disease-free, identical plant cultivars, but it can only be done in a laboratory setting. At home you can use more time-tested methods, such as dividing or rooting cuttings to increase your supply of plants.

When you begin with the best-quality care-free plants you can find, you can look forward to excellent results from your efforts in the garden. It is wise to buy plants in the proper season, which is spring for most annuals, perennials, shrubs, and trees in most parts of the continent, although in areas with mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers, many plants are best set out in the fall. In any season, shop early, when the selection is good, even though you may be buying plants that are just emerging from, or going into winter dormancy. Purchasing plants that have already gone dormant, and planting them in early spring, is a smart investment. As plants begin their most active season of aboveground growth, they are also poised to develop vigorous new roots over the long, upcoming growing season, and a strong root system will carry them safely through their first winter in the ground.

When you create a garden of care-free plants, you are automatically taking steps toward reducing garden maintenance. When well sited, with the type of soil and exposure they prefer, the plants described in this book will thrive with little attention beyond minimal feeding, weeding, and watering. In this section we'll share tips for providing your plants with the minimal care they deserve, and we'll also help you time your efforts to the season when your care will do the most good.

This section includes information on getting more plant performance for less effort. You'll also find advice on warding off problems when buying, planting, feeding, and watering plants, as well as tips for the minimal weed control and pruning that these plants require to maintain their health and good looks. Discover easy methods for multiplying your plants. Despite the natural resistance of these plants, the occasional flying or four-footed pest will visit your garden, so we'll also describe methods of repelling and controlling these pests. A helpful Calendar of Care is a seasonal checklist for timing your maintenance tasks so that they don't get out of hand.

No one wants a landscape that's a source of tiresome work, and although some maintenance is unavoidable, here you'll find ways to make it more enjoyable. Experienced gardeners wait for good weather and favorite times of the day to work in their gardens, whether they are doing things they enjoy, such as setting out new plants, or more formidable tasks, such as mowing the lawn. In a garden stocked with care-free plants, you have plenty of opportunities to pick and choose the green-thumb activities in keeping with your mood and what you want to accomplish on any given day.