Container growing with fruit trees is a marvelous idea for gardens or yards that have poor soil plus the fact that you can move them around to protect them from freezing conditions. Container growing with fruit trees can be done with regular sized fruit trees but only for a couple of years and then they need to be planted into the ground.

Growing fruit trees in containers is more suited for the dwarf varieties and it makes caring for them much easier. You can find dwarf varieties of almost any common fruit tree, but citrus trees are the most commonly grown. Some of the most popular dwarf citrus trees to grow in containers are the Meyer lemon and Dwarf Kaffa lime.

A meadow of wildflowers would be a pleasant sight in any backyard garden. In nature a meadow of wildflowers is renewed every year. The seeds that are produced every fall will all be sprouting in the spring. Now is the time to plant those wildflower seeds in an area of your garden.

In the Rockies, Midwest, and Northeast, the hard winter sections of the country, calls for a dormant planting of wildflower seeds. This means that after a killing frost you plant your seeds the same way as if you were planting in the spring. Do this before the ground freezes and this planted seed will be in bloom around two weeks earlier than the same ones planted in spring.

The spring bulb and when during the fall and winter we should plant them. We live in a big country and the climates vary from coast to coast and from the northern areas to the Deep South. Most of the gardening literature is based on the Northeastern area and upper Midwest part of the country along with the marketing strategies. The reasoning behind this theory is because the ground has a tendency to freeze before any other part of the country.

The spring bulb planting time drives gardeners in other areas of the country crazy because some areas do not have problems with the ground freezing and they have to guess as to when to start planting. The West Coast, sometimes as far as Seattle, WA it is rare that the ground will freeze. Gardeners in the south, in the desert southwest, and up and down the California coast there is usually no frost at all.

The gardeners chores for winter are just as important as they are for the other seasons. Many gardeners choose to leave the ground inert and wait for spring to roll around but now is the time to prepare everything for the upcoming growing season. Winter is a good time put in cover crops to improve the soil and it is a good time to mix in some compost.

Some of the popular cover crops that will improve the soil are rye, clover, and vetch. These cover crops are also referred to as green manures since they render a natural fertilizer. Legumes such as lima beans and vetch take care of the nitrogen in the soil and all these crops should be planted in the later part of fall for best results.

We have more winter flowers to enjoy and that is the holly bush. These winter flowers do not actually produce flowers they give us beautiful berries. Most often we think of the holly as a bush or shrub with spiky, lustrous green leaves and red berries. But there are many different types of holly bushes and are most often affiliated with Christmas here in the Americas and also in Europe. 

We are very familiar with the holly leaves that are used for decorating at Christmas, but did you know that the genus Ilex has roughly 600 species of holly trees and bushes? They can range from 6 inch dwarf holly bushes to 70 foot holly trees. Their leaves can either be spined or spineless, and the colors range from dark green to light green and some are variegated. The berries can be other than red such as yellow, orange, or black. Some are deciduous and some are evergreen.

One of winter's flowers, the witch hazel, is a pleasant surprise to see while walking in the woods in late autumn. This tall shrub is covered with star like yellow flowers and is native to North America. Witch hazel, one of winter's flowers, has developed this late blooming strategy and takes advantage of pollinators at a time when there is not much else for them.

Witch hazel hamamelis virginiana may begin blooming in the early days of October before their yellow leaves have made it to the ground. More often they will flower after the leaves have fallen and some of these shrubs may be flowering in December. Witch hazel usually grows in a forest or wooded area and is not normally seen unless you wander in.

Indoor pest control, what some indoor gardeners seem to forget about when it comes to their year round growing of vegetables and fruits. Indoor pest control is a very important factor to remember when using hydroponics for indoor gardening. Since the majority of hydroponic plants are fruits and vegetables, if we do not have good pest control habits these plants will not be worth eating.

Indoor pest control products are sometimes included in the expansive hydroponic kits. Otherwise you will need to purchase them as part of your hydroponic gardening supplies. You have the option of selecting organic or chemical based remedies for controlling the pests in your hydroponic gardening. The invasion of insects when it comes to hydroponic systems can have a much more destructive impact than for those grown outdoors.

Indoor gardening and growing flower bulbs lets us have the colors and aromas of spring in the dead of winter. For indoor gardening there are two types of to choose from, those that need to be chilled ahead of time and those that do not.

I am going to talk about the bulbs that do not need to be chilled. These bulbs are native to the warmer climates and consist of the amaryllis bulbs and paperwhite narcissus bulbs. These two bulbs can grow in a container with potting soil or in a shallow pot filled with marbles or small stones in order to hold the bulb in position. All you do is add water and blooming can start in about four weeks. In order to keep short sturdy stems start the bulbs out with indirect light and temperature of roughly 50 degrees F. for the first few weeks and then gradually increase the temperature and give them brighter light. If you are going to grow your bulbs without soil, you should cover the bulb about 1/4 to 1/3 of the bulb with water.