August 2010

Your typical outdoor yard decorations can include outdoor garden statues, some outdoor art, and much, much more. Outdoor yard decorations are available in many different options and styles but it is best to have a plan in mind before you implement any of your ideas. Even if you are a beginning gardener and want to start out with plants that are easy-to-grow you can make it more colorful and lively with a small garden statue or some garden artwork.

A larger garden area can handle larger decorations or several different items such as birdbaths, fountains, or birdhouses. You can add Halloween or Christmas decorations to your garden or yard during the holidays. Sometimes if you decide on a theme for the garden the decorating will become much easier. If you keep a theme of some sort changing your decorations for the holidays will be a lot more fun. You can also include outdoor yard lights to enhance the area after the sun goes down.

Fall foliage colors can be found anywhere you find deciduous trees or shrubs. Fall foliage can be seen throughout the woodlands all the way to the mountains and from small or large cities to the rural countryside. After the long hot days of summer we all enjoy the cool days and beautiful colors of fall. As we watch the trees transform from green to the brilliant colors of yellows, oranges, and reds we are assured that fall has arrived and winter will be upon us sooner than we think.

The leaves on some of the trees will always turn yellow but never red such as the Tulip Poplars, Redbuds, Birches, and Hickorys. The leaves of a few other trees including Dogwood, Sugar Maple, Sourwood, Sweet Gum, and Black Gum will usually turn red but sometimes yellow during the fall. Maple trees, for example, come in a number of different varieties and each one will have its own distinctive collection of colors in the fall. The Hedge Maple will turn gold or yellow just as the Japanese Maple can be turning yellow, bright orange, red, or sometimes purple. The Crimson King Maple, as its name suggests, will develop into a luxurious reddish-orange exhibit of color. A common Sugar Maple has beautiful foliage that can be orange and yellow in its autumn colors.

You can use garden forks to open up the earth to lift out plants and weeds. Garden forks, spading forks and digging forks are garden tools with a handle and usually four short sturdy tines. They are generally used for loosening, lifting and turning the soil in gardening.

They are similar to garden spades but for the most part are better because the tines will allow you to push the tool into the ground easier. They can rake out stones and weeds and easily break up clods of dirt. The stones will not stop them from penetrating the ground and they will not cut through the weed roots as does the garden spade.

Your outdoor landscape will liven up when you start using ornamental grasses. Ornamental grasses used in an outdoor landscape have become much more popular because of its versatility and durability. These grasses can be used as ground covers, background plantings, fillers, or you can grow them as container plants. They have always been part of the earth's natural landscapes. If you replace all or part of your lawn with these ornamental grasses you can eliminate some of the money and time spent mowing.

Their soft and gentle beauty makes them great accompaniments for flowering plants or woody companions. In order to fully appreciate the usefulness of these ornamental grasses they need to be seen in a garden atmosphere. They are available in a wide selection of shapes, textures, colors, and sizes. Their flowers and ensuing seed heads are equally disparate that can range from just so-so to completely elaborate making your outdoor living landscape fascinating.

Fall garden flowers should be incorporated in the landscape along with the shrubs and trees that will bear colorful fall leaves. Planting fall garden flowers makes a landscaping enthusiast stand out. He will plant some tender annuals such as marigolds in between some of the other fall flowers to bring color into the garden and landscaping during the fall months.

Planting fall flowers livens up the landscaping that is already being graced by the fall foliage of your shrubs and trees. If your landscaping only has evergreen trees and shrubs you can always add some of the non-living decorations such as carved pumpkins, gourds, scarecrows, or cornstalks. When do you begin fall flower plantings? You really do not want to wait until fall unless you are in a warm climate. Even if you live in the North it may still be too hot to plant in the first part of August. You almost have to play it by ear. Some summers, mid-to-late August will be rainy periods which would be the perfect time to plant your fall flowers. But sometimes August will give you excessive heat so it would be better to plant in early September.

Home aromatherapy in the garden can be accomplished by planting aromatic herbs and flowers. Home aromatherapy and the use of herbs are considered the spice of life, they are very useful plants, and their fragrant aromas perk up our senses. Many of them will add substantial flavor to whatever you are cooking. A wonderful way to grow these aromatic flowers and herbs is in good-size containers that can be lifted to eye and nose level. This will make them easy to tend to, appreciate their aromas, and to harvest when we need them. Besides the herbs for cooking, you may like to grow some herbs that are traditionally valued and used for medicinal purposes.

Most of the herbs like plenty of sun and moderate watering, but the mints like to have moist soil and will tolerate some shade. So for best results choose a sunny spot and fill a sturdy wood planter with drainage holes with well-drained sandy loam and you are ready to plant. In order to maintain the taste and aroma of your herbs you want to keep mulching and fertilizing to a minimum. It is better to give up a lush growth than aroma and taste. Growing herbs in containers helps to foil the weeds and it takes less water over ground planting. When you fill those pots, always leave room for watering about an inch from the soil surface and the rim of the container. You also want to check the planter regularly for dryness; most plants will need about an inch of water a week.

Fall crocus, autumn crocus, meadow saffron, and naked boys are the common names for these beautiful flowers. The fall crocus botanical name is colchicum species, hybrids, and cultivars. The bloom time for these flowers is late summer and into fall.

You want to plant the irregular shaped colchicum bulbs in late summer as soon as they have been purchased. If you delay planting you might find that the flowers have already started blooming inside the package, this can cause some stress to the corms. You need to plant them 4 to 5 inches deep in well-drained, fertile soil in the sun or light shade. Colchicums will tolerate drought quite well throughout the summer but could rot if the soil remains too wet. If you plant them in your lawn, delay your spring mowing until the foliage from the bulbs has ripened - in rough grass you will seldom have a problem. If landscape planting under a specimen tree or shrub, you want to mass the colchicums so they will bloom after you remove your summer annuals, being careful so you do not disturb the corms when planting the annuals. Remember the foliage should fit into all your spring plans. You also want to protect the blossoms from slugs because they like to feed on them.

Compost tools come in very handy now that composting has become the newest trend in home gardening. Acquiring the right compost tools to manage organic material at home will lessen the amount of waste that gets sent to the landfills and creates an asset to your landscaping and gardens.

Compost Pails - These containers are very handy for collecting your kitchen scraps. They are usually small pails made of chrome or ceramic that can hold a gallon or more of kitchen scraps that sit on your counter top. These containers are air tight and will contain a replaceable carbon filter to combat any odors. These handy compost pails give you the opportunity to stockpile the scraps for several days before making a trip out to the compost bin.