The Garden Crossings Blog

Posts Tagged ‘fertilizer’

Amazing Pretty Much Picasso & Snow Princess Petunias Planted in a Pamela Crawford Basket. The transition this planter has made over the past 2 1/2 months is amazing. Diane has done an excellent job in keeping her plants well watered and feeds them often. Pretty Much Picasso is a very thirsty and hungry plant and does require good care to keep it looking this amazing! Photos by Diane K.

May 10, 2010

June 10, 2010

July 28, 2010

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Keep in mind that your beautiful combination containers are really small scale gardens. Healthy plants, good quality potting soil, and fertilizer are great garden starters but with a little tender care your containers will remain healthy and gorgeous all season long.

Observe your containers regularly. Don’t forget to take down your hanging baskets to take a look inside. Some birds seem to think they are great nesting sites! Check the undersides of leaves and stem branches for bugs and insects. Remove any bugs you see and if necessary consult with your local garden retailer with any questions. Clean out any dead foliage to prevent rot and try to avoid excessive wet foliage and poor air movement to keep your plants healthy. Deadheading or cutting off spent flowers will improve the look of your plants and promote developing new flowers.

Most plants tolerate and even benefit from pruning and trimming. As the season progresses more vigorous plants can be trimmed back to blend in better and any untidy growth may be removed. A fresh reshaping of your planter will improve the look of your design and a healthy trim will produce a thicker, more lush new growth. Taller varieties of plants may also benefit from staking to improve the form of your combination containers. With a little TLC you can enjoy a full season of fantastic container gardens!

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Maximize the beauty of your container gardens with careful planning. Observe and measure the amount of sunlight your containers will receive so you can choose your plants accordingly. Drainage holes are a must for your containers!

A quality potting soil is a “must have” for container gardens. You will need a mix that offers good drainage but also has a good water-holding capacity. Too much water may cause root rot while some plants may not recover well from being too dry. Easy to install drip irrigation systems are available to help with consistency for your watering needs.

Your container plants not only need water but food for healthy growth and blooms. Fertilizer is a must! Slow-release as well as water soluble fertilizers are available to provide the nutrients your plants will require.

Your garden professional will be able to supply you with a quality potting soil and fertilizer to help you grow stunning garden containers and keep them fresh looking all season long.

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i3 Planters

• When watering your baskets make sure that the water is dripping through the bottom of the pot. Many people just give it a splash of water every few days, this is not enough. In most cases your baskets will need to be watered every day to every other day depending on the temperature, humidity and wind in your area.
• Another thing I always recommend is to feed your baskets about every other week with a water soluble fertilizer like the Proven Winners Water Soluble Plant Food. Your plants use up the nutrients in the soil along with them getting flushed out with watering.
• Worrying About Watering?
  With the New Proven Winners® WaterWise Easy Container Watering Kit your worries are over. Our easy-to-use, self-contained kit makes it simple to water container plants, hanging baskets, flower boxes, and landscape beds automatically. In fact, you can water up to ten containers or 30 feet of landscape beds from a single faucet.
• Another great product that helps to keep your baskets looking there best is our i3 Planters. The i3 Planters are a gorgeous hanging basket solution for both indoors or out! i3 Planters have a unique combination of a bell shaped low voltage lighting fixture, hanging basket and the patented Aqua-Air™ liner to make your hanging baskets hassle free. It can also be easily attached to your existing sprinkler system or attached to a water source for automated watering. Even when you are gone for the week you can come home to beautiful baskets that have been watered hassle free while you were gone enjoying yourself.

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Annual Aftercare

Most annuals are easy to grow and require relatively little maintenance to keep them looking great. After planting, the primary activities include feeding, watering, mulching, and deadheading.

Most annuals perform best when grown in fertile soils. Mulching the flower beds with compost each year often supplies an ample supply of nutrients. In beds covered with bark mulches or those with infertile soils, it is recommended to fertilize once or twice per year with a general purpose fertilizer. When applied at planting, slow release sources of nitrogen can often supply adequate nutrients for the entire growing season.

Annuals with a general yellow coloration often indicate that there is a shortage of nutrients available for the roots to uptake. If the plants appear yellow, it may be beneficial to side-dress them with a granular fertilizer or make applications using liquid fertilizers. Applying too much fertilizer causes many annuals to grow too quickly and may decrease the number of flowers produced.

For optimum growth, it is recommended annuals receive approximately 1 inch of water per week either by rainfall or through irrigation systems. When providing irrigation, it is important to thoroughly soak the soil and not just wet the surface. To prevent foliar diseases, avoid applying water to the foliage and flowers. Soaker hoses and drip irrigation systems work well for this in many scenarios. If irrigation is applied using sprinklers, run them in the early morning to allow the foliage to dry quickly in the sun.

Mulches consisting of numerous organic materials, such as shredded leaves, bark chips, and compost, are commonly applied around annuals to help retain moisture in the soil, decrease the emergence of weeds, and to add organic materials to the soil as they break down. Apply a 3-inch layer of mulch around the plantings in the late spring, leaving about a one inch radius around the stem of each plant that does not have any mulch applied.

Many annuals benefit from deadheading or removing faded flowers and dead flower heads. This practice keeps the garden looking nice and encourages many annuals to continue blooming for an extended period. Removing the faded flowers allows the plant to put its energy into making new flowers rather then making seeds. Not only does this practice promote more flowers, it creates a longer blooming period.

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Shrub Aftercare

To optimize performance, improve plant appearance, and ensure longevity there are a few maintenance activities that gardeners should consider. Most shrubs can be grown successfully with relatively little maintenance, while other shrubs will require more work to keep the in good condition.

It is important to provide sufficient irrigation, particularly the first growing season after planting container grown shrubs. This is especially important for shrubs transplanted in the spring which have not become well established by the warm summer months.

Although most shrubs are not considered to be ‘heavy feeders’, it is important that they are produced with an adequate nutrient supply. Mulching the landscape beds with compost each year often supplies an ample supply of nutrients. In beds covered with bark mulches, it is recommended to fertilize once or twice per year with a general purpose fertilizer. Gardeners commonly apply a controlled release (slow release) fertilizer at the beginning of the growing season or make 2 to 3 applications using water soluble fertilizers throughout the spring and summer months.

Placing 2 to 3 inches of organic mulches (bark chips, pine needles, straw, or slightly decomposed or shredded leaves) around the shrubs will help retain moisture in the soil, decrease the emergence of weeds, and adds organic materials to the soil as they break down. Avoid apply thick layers of mulch against the base of the shrub as this often promotes shallow roots, disease, and pest injury.

Pruning shrubs will help them maintain an aesthetic shape, size, and appearance. The proper time of the year to prune them varies by variety. Shrubs that do not produce showy flowers can be pruned most any time of the year except late summer. Late season pruning softer results in a new flush of growth that may not harden off in time for winter and is likely to become damaged during the winter.

For flowering shrubs, the best time to prune them depends on whether they flower from old wood or new wood. Shrubs that flower on old wood produce flower buds in the year before flowering occurs. It is best to prune these plants just after flowering occurs so that new flower buds can be made on this season’s growth. Shrubs that produce flowers on new wood can be pruned anytime after they flower to just before they flush growth in the spring.

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Perennial Aftercare

To optimize performance, improve plant appearance, and ensure longevity there are a few maintenance activities that gardeners should consider. Most perennials can be grown successfully with relatively little maintenance, while other perennials will require more work to keep them in good condition.
Although most perennials are not considered to be ‘heavy feeders’, it is important that they are produced with an adequate nutrient supply. Mulching the perennial beds with compost each year often supplies an ample supply of nutrients. In beds covered with bark mulches, it is recommended to fertilize once or twice per year with a general purpose fertilizer. Applying too much fertilizer causes many perennials to grow too quickly and become floppy. Do not apply fertilizer directly on top of the crown or severe injury from the salts may result. Perennials with tall flower spikes or full heavy flowers, such as Alcea or Delphinium, may require staking to prevent them from toppling over following heavy rains and high winds.

Several perennials benefit from deadheading, thinning, or cutting them back. Deadheading entails removing the dead flower heads and faded flowers; this practice keeps the garden looking nice and encourages many perennials to continue blooming for an extended period and improves the appearance of the plant. A few perennials benefit from thinning or removing some of the stems from the dense bushy clumps in the early spring which allows more air circulation and reduces the conditions for certain foliar diseases such as powdery mildew. Similar to deadheading, cutting some perennials back after they flower will often rejuvenate the clump by regenerating new growth and may possibly lead to another flush of flowers later in the growing season. Cutting back is also used to prevent some perennials from flopping over or to prevent the centers of the plants from opening up and appearing ragged following bloom.

Another important consideration is to prepare perennials for the winter. Do not fertilize perennials after they stop growing in the late summer or early fall. This will allow them to prepare for dormancy rather than encouraging them to remain actively growing. Many perennials go completely dormant (die back to the ground each year) and should have the foliage trimmed back before winter. Removing the existing foliage will make the perennial beds look cleaner and will decrease the likelihood of diseases setting in over the winter months or being carried over and infecting next years growth. Other perennials, such as ornamental grasses, are often trimmed in the spring allowing the foliage to provide some structure to the winter landscape. In northern zones or where tender perennials are being grown (marginal hardiness in your area) it is beneficial to apply mulch after the ground has frozen to help protect these perennials during harsh winters.

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There is one place you need to start to begin a trouble free garden, that is the ground below. A reliable garden begins with reliable soil. So you may ask, what do I need to do to my soil to make  it grow good gardens? Well to start, you need to work the soil and loosen it up. Digging, turning, adding organic matter, and natural fertilizer will give you a good start.

There are many different types of soil out there so here is some help in determining what type of soil you have.

• Sand has large particles that are course and tend not to hold water so well causing your plants to dry out faster.
• Clay consists of very small particles that stick together and provide poor drainage. But when you mix in an organic matter and cultivate your soil you  are creating areas for air and water to flow along with nutrients which will better help your plants grow.
• Some of you have a thin layer of top soil and have to deal with a layer of hard subsoil underneath. So how can you dig through that hard layer of compacted hard soil and rocks when chipping away gets old? Here is a tip to help loosen the soil: water. Once you have a hole started, run water in the hole and and let it soak in for awhile, this should help loosen the soil.

Remember to continue to add organic matter  to your soil in the future to keep it rich. A typical plant should have 14″ of good soil to grow best.

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