Gardening Life

Brenda Gousha planted Carolina laurel cherries (Prunus caroliniana) from 1-gallon pots, spacing them in a row; 2-1/2 feet apart. Where they overlap, the two hedges are planted 4 feet apart.

It worked. From other areas of the garden, the two hedges visually merge, creating an unbroken line and maintaining the larger hedge's beautiful symmetry. Gousha says walls of foliage also make the perfect outdoor room. "When my husband and I sit out here, we're just a few feet from the street. But we have complete privacy."

Read the entire article, here:  http://goo.gl/WfL6S

Hummingbirds see colors the same as we do, but they have no sense of smell. They’re drawn to bright colors like red, hot pink, fire orange, and gold, but they explore other colors of flowers, too. Hummingbirds visit both large and small flowers; wherever there’s nectar.

Read about some of the hummingbird's favorite plants, here:  http://bit.ly/MUt7ja

Miniature living walls, or vertical gardens, framed like art!

Make one or two of your own! Find out how, here:  http://goo.gl/uHUAn

University of Wisconsin-Madison turf experts are getting a lot questions about how to grow a healthy lawn with minimal risk to the environment and human health. The questions come from both homeowners and lawn-care professionals, says Doug Soldat, a soil scientist and UW-Extension turf specialist.

Choose your grass carefully if you want a low maintenance lawn, says UW-Madison soil scientist Doug Soldat, author of a new factsheet on alternative lawn care. Dandelions have overwhelmed this narrow strip of perennial ryegrass but not the tall fescue that surrounds it, despite the fact that the two received similar treatments. Tall fescue is a relatively uncommon grass in Wisconsin that performs well in low maintenance situations.

 Read more UW suggestions for reduced-risk lawn care, here:  http://goo.gl/Q1jUN

Miss Sobule’s tongue-in-cheek approach isn’t just for laughs. None of us want to see flies that are the size of our heads or experience an over-heated, premature summer in January in Manhattan or Tokyo.

Listen to Jill Soluble's song, here:  http://goo.gl/jmZZd

This backyard adobe oven is modeled after mud-brick ovens used around the world, from the Southwest to Mexico, Italy, and France.

Building it takes about two days of grubby work, but the reward: wonderfully rustic pizzas, roasts, vegetables, and crusty loaves of bread from your own backyard.

The instructions for building an oven of your own are here: http://goo.gl/yXPQu

A patio floor does double duty as a Scrabble board. 

Read about how to make your own, here: http://goo.gl/EuE0R

An international consortium of researchers at UC Irvine and elsewhere discovered that different species of the Heliconius butterfly are crossbreeding to more quickly acquire superior wing colors. They also have a surprisingly large number of genes devoted to smell and taste.

The use of color to attract mates and fend off predators is widespread in daytime-loving butterflies, while night-flying moths are famous for having large antennae to sniff out potential mates’ pheromones. Thus, researchers predicted that because they’re such visual creatures, the butterflies would not be able to smell or taste very well.

Read more, here:  http://goo.gl/M0Acz

Old shovels are arranged into clever conifer cone sculptures.  By artist, Patrick Plourde

View more, here: http://goo.gl/WVbJ6

No need to miss out on growing tropical plants when you live in the northern, colder gardening climates. There are many beautiful plant varieties that can easily be grown in containers. Passionflower, Gardenia, Mandevilla, and Star-Cluster are beautiful when nurtured in northern container gardens; but the three stunners below are some of my favorites.

Read more here:  http://bit.ly/JcH1sW

There are several ways to keep weeds out. In Paris, people leave the dirt bare and pull weeds continually. Many people in this country tend to spread mulch in the vacant spaces between plants.

Another option is to place low, spreading plants referred to as ground cover in between the feature plants or shrubs. These rambunctious growers reduce or eliminate the need for mulch and help keep out weeds.

Commonly used greens are myrtle and pachysandra. However, using slightly more exciting specimens can perform the job sufficiently and increase garden interest. The following plants can begin going to work in your garden with just a few bits picked from a friend's as long as roots are still attached.

Read more, here:  http://goo.gl/pshrK