Even though I’ve been a bit lazy this year doesn’t mean everyone else has. To be honest, I haven’t even started planning my garden, let alone buying up supplies. About all I’ve accomplished is on a whim grabbing a package of mixed pepper seeds. It looked fun, and I figure I can just toss them in the ground to see what comes up. We need more than just pepper seeds, though. We also need some more gardening tools since mine all have seemed to walk away. That’s when I turn to one of my favorite stores for gardening supplies online – Nature Hills Nursery. This store has got just about everything you could think of for plants, seeds, and trees. Not just dried bulbs and seeds either, but LIVE plants. They’ve also got books, weeding supplies, and garden decorations. About the only thing I couldn’t...
It’s about that time of year again when we have to start planning our gardens and figuring just what we plan to plant. Instead of re-hashing what we covered last year, we figured we’d just give you a few links to our 2009 gardening series. It covered all the main topics and ideas for planting flowers, herbs, and vegetables both from seeds and bulbs/plants. If you haven’t done so already, be sure to request a free catalog from Nature Hills. Sometimes the best ideas for what to plant come from just browsing a catalog! Plus of course they have some really interesting plants and seeds for sale, so do check them out after you request a catalog. To start the series, we started with the obvious – planting seeds inside. This included flowers, vegetables, and herbs. Generally on spring break is when we start planning our garden,...
This is part six of our Gardening Ideas Series, which talks about where to find vegetable plants online and offline. See the rest of the series in our Gardening section. While I personally buy my vegetable plants in local greenhouses, I know not everyone has that option. Which is why Nature Hills is a great place to look when buying vegetable plants online. Click the banner above for more information on their selection, including organic plants of all kinds. This year we plan to plant our three favorite vegetable plants. We didn’t start them inside because it’s just easier to buy them, and we know they’ll grow well if we do. Here are those three: - Tomatoes, Better Boys Easy to grow just about anywhere, although it’s been our experience that a new garden freshly dug up will product the absolute best crops. The first...
This is part five of our Gardening Ideas Series, which is all about finding bulbs for your flower garden. To see all the past ideas, be sure to see our Gardening Section. Perennials are probably my favorite types of flowers, since they require little to no effort on my part and can fill in anywhere in your flower garden. While some flower seeds are classified as perennials due to their ability to reseed themselves, your best bet for a beautiful flower is to buy bulbs (or get starts from friends and neighbors, of course). There are simply too many different types for us to list here, so I recommend heading over to Nature Hills Nursery, Inc. to see what they have available. Walmart is another option, although there’s a good chance they wouldn’t grow. Best to stick to trusted sources or live plants in your area. Around my yard...
This is part four of our Gardening Ideas Series. To see all the past ideas, be sure to see our Gardening Section. If you haven’t started your seeds indoors yet, now is the time to do it. Unless you plan to either plant your seeds directly into the ground or buy plants, you may be pushing the clock slightly. Certain vegetables absolutely need to be started inside first, which I hope you have been following our series and already done. While the weather might not be perfect for getting things planted, it’s a perfect time to start some major planning. Depending on what you are growing you’ll need to plan accordingly. Vegetables that grow on vines such as zucchini, squash, and pumpkin are going to need lots of space to grow. Corn needs to be planted in rows, or else it will not pollinate correctly. Other types of vegetables...
This is part three of our Garden Ideas Series, which will be talking about basic herb gardens and ideas for starting them indoors. See part one on flower seeds and part two on vegetable seeds. We’re trying something new this year. Never before have we grown herbs, but we will be this year for a very specific purpose – to keep the squash bugs away from our precious pumpkin patch. That, and we thought it would be fun to have some home grown herbs as well, since we do a LOT of cooking. Two types of herbs we started indoors already, and will be planted near our pumpkins along with several other types of flowers. These herbs are the following: - Dill This is one of my absolute favorite herbs, so I was pretty excited to see it on the list of potential plants which attract the squash bug’s enemy, the tachnid fly. I do love cooking...
Since spring is almost here, it’s time to start planning and planting those seeds, bulbs, plants, bushes, flowers, and vegetables. If you need some help, Nature Hills has free catalogs available. If you are going to buy online or by mail, I highly suggest this particular store. Their prices are reasonable and selection is just outstanding. They’ve got just about anything you can think of for all gardening supplies, making this an excellent place to request free gardening catalogs. Click here to order a Free Nature Hills Nursery Catalog Read More →
This is part two of our Gardening Ideas Series, which will talk mostly about vegetable seeds and where to buy them. You can see part one here. Our garden wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t have some type of veggies planted. In past years we’ve taken the easy route and purchased most of our plants, but lately we’ve begun to start quite a few indoors. While we do plan to buy several plants this year, there are a few we’ll be starting in pots come spring break. Here’s what we plant to start in pots: - Strawberries We’ve actually already started these, since I found some cute mini kits at Target around Valentine’s day. Although I have my doubts they are going to grow right (due to an accident involving cats and tiny little pots), so I may just buy some more seeds and try again. The tricky thing...
This is part one of our Gardening Ideas Series, and will talk mostly about flower seeds. As in where to buy flower seeds online, and when to plant, and what we plan to add to our garden this year. I love flowers. One of my fondest childhood memories was taking a walk through the greenhouse next door to my dad’s. I also loved the smell of the walk-in cooler with the carnations, baby’s breath, roses, and assorted flowers. It’s no wonder I have flowers growing all over my small yard. In addition to the perennials that come up every year (which I’ll talk about in the flower bulb installment of our series), I’m planning to plant the following annuals and perennials this year: - Four O’Clocks While these are suppose to be in full sun, last year I planted them around my tree. They were absolutely beautiful,...
Since spring is just around the corner, we’re starting a brand new series on gardening here at the blog. For the next several weeks we’ll be bringing you tips, ideas, and where to buy seeds, bulbs, and live plants. This series will including gardening ideas for flowers, vegetables, and herbs. Being a farmer’s granddaughter and having a weekend dad who was once in the floral business (who also still lived next door to a greenhouse), I know that gardening and farming is in my blood. When I bought my first home, I couldn’t wait to start adding my own personal touch to the floral decor and growing my own food. Eight years later and I still get excited when the snow starts to melt, exposing my garden once again. My house isn’t big, and I don’t live on a very large lot. One lonely tree stands in front of the...
