Create a Hummingbird Garden Habitat

It's not difficult to create a garden that will attract hummingbirds, but if you'd like to build a habitat in which they will happily nest and live throughout the northern summer, you need to provide them with more than a sugar-water feeder and a plant or two. An active hummingbird garden doesn't need to be large, but it will have all of the following key ingredients to attract and keep the attention of "nature's fairies".

Choose plants that attract Hummingbirds. Flowers are, of course, the key ingredient in attracting hummingbirds to your garden. The tiny birds feed on nectar that is produced by
flowers, and they seem particularly attracted to plants with trumpet or tubular bright red and orange flowers. Favorites include rhododendrons, azaleas and rose of Sharon bushes. For northern gardens that attract the ruby-throated hummingbird, choose plants that flower at different times during the blooming season to provide food for them
throughout the spring, summer and fall.

Landscaping for Dogs

By Lynda Harrington

I am a certified master garderner from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Our family has two Old English Sheepdogs and a Golden Retriever. We struggled with dog vs. garden problems for many years. The sheepdogs laid on the plants and then the retriever would go along and dig them out. The lawn had burned patches all over it, and in other areas the grass wouldn't grow in spite of my best efforts. The trees were chewed, as were the garden tools. Ralph - the retriever left new holes for us each day. As my interest in gardening grew,  my frustration with the damage the dogs  were creating,  greatly increased.

April Gardening Tips

One of the nicest months in the southwest. (if the wind is not blowing) You may plant just about anything such as tomato plants, fruit trees shade trees, evergreen shrubs, flowering shrubs, bulbs etc. It is also the month that garden centers usually are fully stocked, at least in the southwest.

Gardening in Our Communities and Schools

By: Yvonne Savio

Great things happen when a community or school garden gets started. Neighbors and passers-by exclaim joy and relief that "something's finally happening" to a blighted or underused plot of land. Order comes out of chaos. Weeds are displaced by fragrant and rich-brown, newly turned soil. Plots of tiny plants in neat rows or groupings take the place of the jumble of wild things. Colorful flowering vines and roses climb unattractive chain-link fencing.

Camaraderie

From inside the fence, even more wonderful changes are happening. Individual, isolated gardeners share their techniques and concerns and joys, learning from one another. Exhilaration from exercise and fresh air and jokes floating across garden pathways invigorate everyone's spirits.

Spring is a time of joy. It is a time of everlasting love, birth, and growth.
We see tiny sprouts of green peeking through the dark brown black forest floor, which is moist and soft. The forest floor has rested during the long winter months, the remains of summer past, turned into a rich, moist, inviting soil for the new creations of spring.

We hear the mating song of the robin while he sings. He sings of his worldliness, his beauty, and his desire. The red winged black bird is a welcome song. His wings puff out and his throat bulges momentarily as he fills his lungs to produce his call to his mate.
The buds on the trees are swelling to the promise that each new day will bring them sunshine and warmth so they may complete the process for which they exist.

As the strength of the sun increases, the earth vibrantly awakens as if nagged from a long quiet sleep. She is cleansed with the warm spring rains which holds the nutrients she needs to flourish once again. The wind is warmed by the sun and as it caresses the earth it dries and soothes the rugged terrain left by winters wrath.

Life is renewed. The earth feels peace. My soul is in need of spring. My soul is in need of peace. I welcome the robins, the rain and the wind. I will welcome the peace.

Spring is coming fast and with it the colors of the world come to life. The spring season is not just a time for the gardens to bloom, but a season for the butterfly to come to life as well. Your garden is an ocean of color and to keep this ocean of color coming back in the spring, your use of perennial bulbs, flowers, seeds, and shrubs will lessen tasks in the early spring. Butterflies that add that complete 'special touch' to your gardens will eagerly look for homes in your gardens if you can provide what it is they are searching for.

So what are the colorful butterflies searching for arriving at your garden? Flowers such as the Butterfly weed, the New England aster, Blue false indigo, Cheddar pinks, Blanket flowers, Shasta daisies, Garden phlox, Showy stonecrop, Orange cone flowers and the Red valerian are a few of the most popular plants that butterflies will seek out.

In warm winter areas, prune climbing roses. To stimulate more flowering canes (2 year old canes), prune back all the side branches to 2 or 3 buds. These buds will produce canes next spring, which will produce more roses.

The ABC’S of Gardening

I have read some very interesting and informative articles which include the ABC’S of gardening. The articles remind me of the “Chicken Soup” series of every subject that exists. So, I thought I would list my ABC’S of gardening, and my husband’s ABC’s of gardening. Believe me, it will never make it in the chicken soup series. Take a note and see how verbal he is. I can never get him to talk or look at me when he is in front of the television. He gets angry whey I start to tell him things when we finally get in bed and there are no distractions. I think that is a perfect time to catch up on things I forgot to tell him. He calls it pillow talk, and it is not allowed. I get to talk once by mistake before I am banned to the couch to sleep with his snoring dog. He turns the radio up when we are in the car everywhere we go. If I say something he certainly can not respond because the radio is louder than the engine, the trucks, and the whining dogs in the back. I am not sure what he is trying to tell me. But, as he enters the herb garden he is all talk.
You may think to yourself, “ Isn’t that nice, they spend good quality time together in the garden.” “What a lovely way to spend a day with your significant other.” “This is an example of true love.”

Don’t get too carried away. There are two lists of ABC’S, and one is not pretty. First of course I will list mine. Short sweet and interesting.
A- Anise I-Indigo Q-Quassia Y-Yarrow
B-Basil J-Jasmine R-Rose Z-Zanthoxylum
C-Coriander K-Kelp S-Sage
D-Dill L-Lavender T-Thyme
E-Echinacea M-Marjoram U-Uva Ursi
F-Feverfew N- Nutmeg V-Valerian
G-Ginger O-Oregano W-Wisteria
H-Hyssop P-Patchouli X-Xeranthemum

Okay, I know I stretched it a bit to find x and z. But at least they are plants. Now it is time to read my husband’s list. The following presentation is rate PG and may not be suitable for readers under the age of 13.

October is a month of beauty and abundant crops. October brings to our attention the changing of the seasons. The nights are cooler and the air is crisp in the morning. Everywhere you look there are the colors of orange, red, yellow, and gold. Try as we might, man cannot duplicate the colors of nature. Nature’s colors are pure, simple, rich and unique.

Pocket gophers can devastate a planting of spring flowering bulbs. Before you plant deeply till to disrupt the gophers' tunnel system. Also, make a 3-sided gopher-proof cage using hardware cloth and place it and bulbs in a 1-foot deep hole.