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Do you want to get more flowers in your ornamental garden? Do you want to improve the production of your vegetable garden?

Do you already spend a lot of money on new soil, bags of compost, or loads of fertilizer???

Start making your own compost NOW.

You generate a lot of waste material in your yard. Removing dead flowers from your spring bulbs and saving your lawn clippings and pruning cuttings, it all adds up. In the fall there is an abundance of dropped leaves from trees and dead annuals and the foliage of perennials.

Don’t let your dead tree leaves blow away to the neighbors or down the street. Collect them like a treasure as it will produce black gold.

There are all kinds of dead plant material that can be recycled. This includes green waste from the kitchen.

All this green or has-been-green stuff can easily be recycled. All you need is a compost bin. Dump the waste material in the compost bin and nature will recycle it for your. The result is soft and warm brown material that will greatly enhance the structure of your garden soil. It will improve the soil in a number of ways: from a better bacterial community to a more balanced acidity. Your plants will love it and product more blooms and bigger and greener leaves.

Compost bins come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. You can make your own, but the features of many readymade bins cannot be replicated in a home made box.

Feel free to take a look at some example compost bins here.

Enjoy the outdoors!!

Vry Buiter

Pink Impression Tulips

There are a multiple species of spring flower bulbs. These are the main ones: Tulips, Daffodils or Narcissus, Hyacinths and Crocuses. They all bloom around the same time in spring, between March and May. They all display a spectacular color show. They all grow from bulbs that are planted in the fall. As you can see these bulbs are similar in the mentioned respects, but there are also differences.

Tulip and Hyacinth bulbs are to be dug up after the leaves die down. They prefer to be planted in a different location the next fall. They love the new nutrients in the new location and will reward you with bigger and more bulbs every year. This way you will get more bulbs and can plant larger groups and grow your color show each year. After digging up the bulbs with the half dead leaves, let them dry on a newspaper, but never in the full sun. As soon as the bulbs are nice and dry the dead leaves are removed and the bulbs are gently cleaned by rubbing off the soil and removing old roots.  Store the bulbs in a cool, dry and dark place until it is time to plant them in the fall. Be sure to keep the various types/colors separate and properly labeled so that you know what you are planting the in the fall.

If you would leave these types of bulbs in the same location in the ground they lack sufficient nutrients and the bulbs will shrink, stop blooming and after a couple of years they will completely disappear. I know digging up and replanting requires some work every year, but I find the growing number of bulbs well worth the trouble.

Crocuses

Contrary to the previous types of bulbs Daffodils and Crocuses do not mind to be left in the same spot. These bulbs multiply year after year if you leave them alone. Crocuses also do well in a lawn. A group of Crocuses looks great. A swirl of purple ones in a section of the lawn or a big yellow dot in a prominent spot looks stunning in spring. Keep in mind that you should not mow that part of the lawn as long as the Crocus leaves are still green. The bulbs need the green leaves in order to grow for the next season. So be patient and resist cutting the grass for 6-8 weeks in the sections where Crocuses are present.

Daffodils do well in groups between shrubs. They provide a bright color show when the shrubs are still barren. Leave the daffodil leaves alone as long as they are green. In the meantime the green or blooming shrubs will camouflage the daffodil leaves after they finish blooming. This is called companion planting, a favorite gardening technique. One type of plants is dominant in one season and the prominent role is taken over by another plant in the next season.

After the clusters of these bulbs have expanded during 5 years or so, you can dig up the clumps and split them in 4 or 5 smaller clumps and replant them in more locations. You can do this the same day you dig them up. You can dry, clean and store them until the next planting season, but there is no need to do that.

For all types of bulbs the following advice: mark the locations where you planted bulbs. One easily forgets where bulbs were planted and when doing other yard work you could dig up the bulbs or step on sprouting bulbs in the spring.

Enjoy the outdoors!!

Vry Buiter

In general hobby gardeners come in two main categories. The first group consists of the vegetable and fruit growers. These are the practical gardeners who try to save on grocery bills or who go for healthy food and good flavors. To the second group belong the flower and/or ornamental gardeners and the ones who like landscaping. They like the beauty of the flowers and plants or the composition of the plants in the garden.

Practical gardeners

Raised Bed Gardening

The practical gardeners try to make the most of the available garden space they have. They work in rectangular beds and straight rows of plants in the beds. The plants must be within easy reach for maintenance, pruning and harvest.

They try to extend the growing season by sowing under glass or in a green house or in pots on the window sill. The earlier the better; “after an early harvest we might be able to get a second crop from the same plot”.

During the growing season the practical gardener wages a war against weeds, pests and the birds who know exactly when the fruit is ripe. And then at harvest time they bring in the fruits of their labor inside. Sometimes too much of everything at the same time.

In any case the vegetables from one’s own yard are the freshest available. The taste is better than of the fruit that comes from a far away country and was picked way too early. This produce is never being recalled. The gardener knows exactly what plant food and pest control he personally applied.

Ornamental gardeners

Spring Flower Bulb Show

These gardeners go for beauty. The beautiful color or composition of a flower is what excites them. Or they are attracted by a hard to grow rare species and that he manages to get to bloom. Some of these flower gardeners specialize in orchids, dahlias or any other kind of flower. Others specialize in spring flower bulbs, such as tulips, hyacinths and narcissus, or summer bulbs like begonias an gladiolus. They may be members of a club where they exchange ideas and seeds or cuttings. They bring their babies to shows and hope to win prices with their newly developed hybrids.

Other gardeners go for the big picture and are amateur landscape architects. They design a complete garden from scratch or they start simple and let the garden evolve over time into a little paradise. Their clubs organize tours to famous model gardens or botanical gardens, or organize open houses in the gardens of the local members.

As you can see there is a large variety of possible hobbies in the two main categories.

If you are not involved in one of them yet, I do encourage you to start now. Gardening is relaxing, rewarding and renews the spirit. You are outside in the fresh air and working with nature which has always new surprises in store. It is a wonderful hobby.

In case spring flowers bulbs are the hobby that fancies you. Now is the time to plant tulips, daffodils and hyacinth bulbs. Start your new hobby now. Get some spring flower bulb planting ideas here:  Dutch Tulip Mania.

Enjoy the outdoors!!

Vry Buiter

Not really? Or is it?

We are still in the heat of the summer, but the planting season for spring bulbs is approaching rapidly.

You are not in the mood for tulip bulbs? I understand.

Keukenhof - spring flower bulb show

Just take a look at the picture in this blog. What if your garden would look like this in April 2011?

Sorry, but then your will have to get your imagination in motion. Imagine you plant some tulip bulbs next to the front door. A row of daffodil bulbs along the pathway. A cluster of crocus bulbs in front of the window. How about some Hyacinths around the flagpole. And some more tulips in a bed in the middle of the lawn.

I know, it sounds kind of basic, but would that not be a good start for your spring garden plans? Perhaps you are much more creative than this.

Take a look at a bulb catalog and get even more inspired. Look at the many types of spring flower bulbs: tulips in all kinds of colors, early or late blooming. Daffodils in more shapes and forms that you knew were available. Super fragrant hyacinths – what a breath of fresh air in the spring. Snow drops, the brave early heralds of spring are a wonderful sight after the snow disappears.

Enjoy browsing a spring bulb catalog.

Enjoy the outdoors!!

Vry Buiter