Landscaping - Feeding Your Lawn With Fertilizer

The two most basic chemicals your lawn needs are water and fertilizer.

These two work together to give your lawn everything it needs from you. The rest it gets for itself. Even these, of course, may be supplied in other forms or from other sources, depending on the soil and climate.

One of the most common difficulties in proper lawn care is how much and when to apply either of these. To overcome those problems, though, is relatively simple.

Scotts and other commercial fertilizer makers have special preparations, with directions that show you how and when to apply the contents. Following the directions is about the simplest method for application.

Take care, though, to factor in specifics about your circumstances. Be sure to check the weather forecast for the upcoming 48 hours after the day you plan to apply. Some mixtures work best if they've been leached into the soil by a couple of hours of light rain or 15 minutes of sprinkler watering. Others will be washed away or diluted by that.

Applying the Spring fertilizer is best done as early as possible in the season. Clearly, if you live in an area where snow is still on the ground in May, you can't properly apply the compound with a spreader. But getting it down as early as possible has several benefits.

New seeds laid down the previous Fall will be starting to germinate. Giving them that additional assistance early will help them gain the most advantage over competing plants like crabgrass or weeds. Feeding early also helps when the mixture contains (as it frequently does) compounds which help fight lawn insects.

Japanese Beetle grubs and other insects destroy lawns. Most of them do this by feeding on the roots as the young shoots are sprouting when the insects are still in the larvae stage. Once they've begun that process, if not stopped right away, your lawn in that area is dead for at least that year.

Rarely will you be successful even replanting the same year, since the damage doesn't usually show up until later in the Spring or early Summer. By that time, the infestation is advanced. Sometimes it will take two or three years for the lawn to fully recover. Head the problem off by laying down grub-killing fertilizer before you even know you have a problem. These are sometimes called pre-emergent herbicides.

Fertilizers can be overdone, though, so exercise caution. Applying them too frequently or during hot weather can burn your lawn. Most contain the proper amount of nitrogen, phosphorus and other elements to help Spring blooming grass. But in areas where the soil is already amply supplied, the grass gets too much. Like any living thing, getting too much of an element is often as bad as getting too little.

Be sure to measure and factor in pH - the degree of acidity or alkalinity of your lawn. Lawns like a neutral pH, like that of water. Too acid and you'll have moss and other grass-crowding growth. Too alkaline and salts get concentrated and water absorption altered.

Keep to a regular fertilizing schedule with an adjustable spreader and your lawn will be green and weeds and insects will be minimized.

Landscaping - Design With Shrubs

Landscapers often consider the color provided by flowers, the convenience and beauty of stone walking paths, the shade and fruit of a nice apple tree and other elements. But no landscaping effort is complete without the proper selection and placement of some great shrubs. You'll want to select a shrub based on your desire to add a certain color, shape and size to your landscape design.

A Burning Bush, for example, provides an effusion of lovely red color in a big, round form. Perfect for Summer and Fall, these large shrubs make a great centerpiece.

China Holly is a good choice for anyone who wants some contrast against winter snow. The evergreen foliage and bright red berries help relieve an otherwise bleak landscape. Or, you may want to provide a nice green border in contrast to a white picket fence.

Shrubs have many purposes beyond adding color, though. You may want to have a row of hedges to complement its base or mask the foundation of your house. They can form the center of a circular garden design, with flowers or ground cover planted all around. Sumac, the non-poisonous and most common type, makes a colorful and shapely choice, for example.

You may want to show off your topiary skills by carving some shrubs into interesting shapes. 'Topiary' is the art of forming bushes into geometrical or animal shapes. You may have seen photos of some of the spectacular examples in the gardens of Versailles. Just keep in mind, that once you begin that practice, it takes a lot of effort to maintain the desired shapes.

You can select your shrub based on height, to get just the effect you need in a certain spot. Smooth Hydrangea, for example, grows from 3-5 feet. A Chinese Juniper, will reach 5-8 feet. Or you may need something smaller for those special spots where nothing else works. Try a Cranberry Cotoneaster or a Dwarf Honeysuckle that rarely get over three feet.

If you want shrubs that are easy to care for, you can look into a Bougainvillea. Its bright red leaves provide beautiful color while the bush is very drought tolerant and requires very little pruning. Or, for something a little taller, try a Mentor Barberry. These hardy plants require very little care to stay attractive year after year.

A Purple Sand Cherry will give you lovely flowers in May and colorful cherry berries in the Fall, making it a great multi-season shrub. The purple foliage lasts for months, persisting until winter.

You can supplement your shrub selection and placement with vines for a truly complex design. You'll find many color and shape options there, too. A climbing vine threading through a trellis set against the wall behind a shrub makes for a design worth photographing.

While you shape your landscape, let your imagination grow wild.

Landscaping - Attracting Hummingbirds and Butterflies

One of the most beautiful landscape designs incorporates plants and structures to attract hummingbirds and butterflies. These colorful creatures add a wonderful natural touch to a garden and landscape. Hummingbirds, with their colorful bodies and fast-flitting flight, are a delightful contrast to the multi-colored butterflies who move slow enough to be caught by hand.

Hummingbird feeders are one popular way to attract these tiny birds. You can stake a cane-shaped pole in the middle of your garden to hold a feeder, or just hang the feeder from a tree branch. But the most fun way is to select flowers that the hummers naturally enjoy. That delights the birds and adds color to your garden.

You have many choices, though there are some limitations depending on your zone. One excellent option is a Red Columbine, which will thrive in zones 2-8. Their color adds to your garden and they bloom early, making them a perfect attractant for those hummers returning after the end of Winter.

Delphiniums are another great choice. Hardy from zones 2 through 9, they can grow up to five feet tall, making them perfect for the rear of a garden near the house. You'll have a great view, without being too close to these nervous little girls and the flowers come in a variety of colors. You can't go wrong!

Hummers and butterflies can easily occupy the same space. To attract the latter you can plant a verbena bush, or hang a fuchsia depending on whether you have sun or shade. Butterfly bushes, appropriately named, are another popular choice useful especially for attracting swallowtails.

Marigolds make for great butterfly nectar-producing flowers and their lovely color adds a bright splash to your design. Sunflowers are another favorite and you can use the seeds to feed other birds or even squirrels.

Which flower you choose will be influenced also by which butterfly species you want to attract, but they will still need to be native to your area. Monarchs like Rabbitbrush and Canada Thistle, Swallowtails like Geraniums and Lilacs. Queen butterflies are very fond of daisies. Gray Hairstreak is favored by many different species.

Take care if you want to keep your plants attractive to butterflies. Many common insecticides will do more than just kill bugs that eat the leaves, they'll make them toxic to butterflies as well.

You may also find there are common wildflowers that butterflies like, such as Dandelions. They have an attractive flower for both human and butterfly, but they tend to get out of control, as the flowers change into seed balls that are blown by the wind. Also, some weeds (certain kinds of milkweed and thistles) are great butterfly food, but they can be invasive and some areas require they be plucked regularly.

It's easy to add a dynamic look to your garden by bringing it even more alive. Add some flowers to feed the hummingbirds and butterflies. They'll give you hours of viewing pleasure.

Landscaping - Annuals

Most flowers, and some non-flowering plants, can be divided into annuals, perennials and biennials. Biennials bloom only every other year. Perennials will lose their flowers, but then come right back the following year - often for many, many years. Annuals, by contrast, bloom one year and never again, typically dying out entirely.

As a result, annuals have to be freshly planted every year - hence the name. But as a kind of reward, they offer gardeners and landscapers the widest array possible of stunning color and style choices. Annuals are the brightest, the most intense and among the most beautiful flowers available.

If you want a garden that is full of the deepest colors - shocking yellows, deep purples, vibrant reds - annuals are your best bet. If you want to pack your garden with an effusion of flowering plants, annuals will give you what you're looking for. Just don't forget you will have to re-do the effort every year. But then, for some, that's part of the fun!

Annuals can be further divided into Spring, Summer and Fall annuals. Spring annuals such as pansies, violas or snapdragons can be planted in early Spring. Summer annuals, such as petunias or impatiens should be planted later, in order to avoid exposure to any late cold snap.

Unless you grow from seed, you'll pick up some annuals already growing, probably already in bloom. Look for soil that has been kept moist but not wet. Excessively wet soil promotes diseases and harmful growths that often don't show up until after you've had the plant for a while. Soil shouldn't be too dry, either. That leads to sickly plants that sometimes don't survive transplanting.

Young annuals are fragile and if the conditions in which they were raised before you acquired them aren't right, they often won't last very long. Best to invest your time and money in ones that have the best chance for survival.

Give them that chance by planting in loose, well fed soil. For fertilization, fish emulsion or other commercial mixtures containing the right amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and other nutrients are a good start. Just follow the directions on the package.

Annuals can be planted close together, provided each has adequate soil, water and nutrients. A good guideline is to observe wild flowers in a densely packed area. Nature has figured out long ago how much room, sunlight and water a plant needs to thrive.

Many annuals are best acquired before they've begun to blossom. When you find young ones that have many healthy looking buds, you can bet you'll have lots of flowers before long. Since they haven't blossomed yet, they'll have the maximum life span.

Picking out healthy plants isn't hard. If it looks healthy, it usually is. Straight sturdy stalks (for those that grow that way naturally), no wilting, bright greens (with little or no browning), and other obvious signs rarely lead you astray.

Don't worry too much if your first experiments aren't 100% successful. In some cases, plants will die no matter how well you treat them. Annuals are relatively inexpensive and you'll have plenty of room in your budget to create that carpet of color you want.