DIY Gardening Tips

submitted: Jun 11th 2008 | by: Admin | Total views: 191 | Word Count: 510 | |

Including perennial vegetables in your landscaping designs maximizes your available space, making it very helpful for you. Tearing into your lawn so you can put in a traditional garden can be very damaging to your landscape, so instead, simply put the vegetables and herbs into your current landscape.

Perennial herbs and vegetables can easily be as beautiful as your traditional landscaping plants and there is a wide range which you can use. They're doubly great, too, because there´s no need to replant them every year. You can have a stunning landscape supplying you with fresh food each year after planting once and providing a little continuous maintenance.

Good conditions are a necessity for perennials from the very beginning. Planting an annual in poor soil only wastes one year, but planting a perennial in poor soil wastes what could have been many good years to come.

Selecting the right location from the very beginning is your first goal for planting perennials. You should research the growing conditions necessary to the variety you've chosen to plant and you should be sure that you've picked a place with the correct level of sunlight. You should always take nearby plants into account: the area you've chosen may be sunny now, but it may be shady in a few years after the surrounding plants have grown to a larger size.

Make sure your soil is ready before you start to plant. Fixing the soil before you plant anything is much easier than trying to fix it later. The soil should have appropriate pH and nutrient levels and it should be able to allow for the correct amount of moisture for your plants. Having the right balance is crucial, because differences in plant varieties mean differences in soil requirements.

Keep your zone in mind. There are some perennials which are incapable of surviving extreme temperatures to one direction or another. The purpose of using perennials instead of annuals is that they return on their own every year, but if a harsh winter or an arid summer kills them entirely, they won't be coming back. That's why your zone is so important.

A number of perennial herbs can be superb in a landscape. There are a lot of kinds of mint which are perennial in many zones. Their foliage is beautiful, and several varieties also have quite appealing blossoms. Some other options in the perennial herb category include lavender, French tarragon, English thyme, Greek oregano, chives, garlic chives, sage, and lemon balm.

Vegetables are the same way--very attractive in a landscape. Chard, broccoli, and beans all have perennial varieties which look wonderful in a landscape. Other choices include fennel, asparagus, sorrel, chicory, artichokes, Jerusalem artichokes, ginger, sweet potatoes, rocket, and rhubarb.

There are still more options for edible plants in landscaping. Fruit trees are not the least among them. They often have lovely blooms. Apple trees, cherry trees, and plum trees are included in these. Their fruit can also add a great variety of color to your landscape.

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