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Flower gardening and you
Flower gardening has long been a rewarding and inexpensive hobby for both new and experienced enthusiasts. Selecting and planting flower seeds, bulbs or flowering plants is highly enjoyable, relaxing, and a physical outdoor activity people of all ages can enjoy alone or share with others. Joy and wonder are to be had by simply pushing several flower seeds into the ground and adding tap water. Seasoned and first time gardeners alike delight in the sweet fragrances and colors that blossom before their very eyes and noses.
Gathering information and seeds for successful flower gardening is simple and quick with the Internet. Mail order and Online seed catalogs offer an amazing variety of seeds and bulbs for every type of flower gardening. Although it can be exciting and somewhat overwhelming to discover the number of flower seeds one has to choose from, knowing your personal preferences for color and space available will help in making the best choices. Most seed catalogs and flower gardening sites offer beautifully coordinated combinations of seed blends that include flowers with different heights that aesthetically work well together. These pre-arranged flower assortments help make selection uncomplicated and inexpensive.
Flowers are classified based on the amount of time it takes to complete their life cycle; there are three divisions: annuals, biennials and perennials. Annuals are a great choice for parents and kids as a family endeavor as well as beginning gardeners. Flower seeds of the annual type are relatively large, quite easy to handle, and they are fast growing. Sunflowers, African Daisies and Dahlias are a few highly popular choices for annual flower gardening as they germinate quickly and will be flowering within weeks after the initial planting.
The life cycle of biennial garden flowers begins during autumn when they develop leaves, continues through the winter season and ends in the spring when they bloom, produce seeds and then die. Foxglove, Canterbury bells and hollyhock are popular biennials for flower gardening.
One advantage of perennials is there no need to plant them every year. After the second year, perennial garden flowers blossom yearly. Although some perennials only bloom for several weeks each year, with a well thought-out flower gardening plan, some perennials can be found in bloom most of the season in any garden. Shasta daisy, Black-Eyed Susan and Columbine are popular perennials for flower gardening in many different climates.
Flower gardening is truly a beautiful and pleasant pastime the young and young at heart can share. Indeed, with flower gardening, the bounty of nature received can be brought indoors to brighten your home or given to others to share nature’s grace.
Gardening Tips for Beginners
Gardening is a great and rewarding hobby that people in most parts of the world delight in doing. You visually get to enjoy the fruits of your labor along with getting fresh air and exercise at the same time. Sitting down in your front or backyard, putting your feet up and looking at the spectacular masterpiece you created, while you do something you love, is a wonderful feeling. Here are some great gardening tips for beginners just starting out on their gardening hobby journey. Remember that it is possible to create a beautiful garden, even on a tiny piece of land.
There are many gardening tips for beginners that help make new gardeners experiences pleasurable and successful. The two best gardening tips for beginners are to start small but think big. Do not start a gardening project that will take weeks or even months to complete, as this is a guaranteed way to become frustrated and upset. It is amazing how much a person can plant in eighty or one hundred square feet. If you are going to take on a larger project, divide it into sections and work on one at a time. You can enjoy each section as you complete it, build up your confidence and feel positive about the next area you are going to work on. Remember, a smaller garden is far easier to manage, as you learn the necessary basics and secrets on disease, weed and pest control, fertilizing requirements and watering needs. Once you have the skills and confidence, you can go back later and make the garden you designed and planted, larger or create a new one somewhere else.
Some more great gardening tips for beginners are the use of mulch to cut down on the amount of weeding required. While there are gardeners that love working in the soil and weeding, many would rather spend their time, tending the plants or sitting back watching their garden grow. Mulching, besides looking nice, maintains the soils moisture, holds back the weeds and stabilizes the temperature of the soil. Put a couple inches of organic or regular mulch down to save wear and tear on your knees. Another few gardening tips for beginners is that with grass and most plants, watering just a little but often, makes the plants roots stay near the surface of the soil. The best way to maintain healthy plants is to water less frequently but water longer, so you soak the soil well. Do your watering early in the morning. This way the plants leaves will dry during daylight hours thus helping to prevent fungal diseases.