Garden Plants Information

With the huge growth that many cities and towns are experiencing we see the dwindling of Natural Meadows. With the absence of natural meadows, the habitat for butterflies, birds and other wildlife are dwindling too. Luckily butterflies are easily enticed back if you plant a garden where the caterpillar (pupa stage) has plants to eat and the butterfly has flowers to sip nectar. Butterfly gardens are easy to plant and will give you and your family a chance to see butterflies in their natural habitat.

The basics are an open space with tons of sunshine and a shield from wind. Pick a site with lots of sunlight with a few rocks or stones that can heat up on which the butterflies can bask in the afternoon sun. Try to place your garden near hedges or shrubs that will help shield them from the strong winds. If it is too windy, the butterflies won’t stay around for long. The hedge or shrub could become food for the caterpillar. You can find out what the caterpillar likes best from your Nursery Garden Center. Butterflies love mud puddles where they can drink the water and soak up minerals. A patch of damp soil will make them happy. Most important of all is that the garden be pesticide free. Many people like to use pesticides to chase away unwanted pests, unfortunately it will chase away your butterflies too. Put your butterfly garden in a corner where there will be no chemical pesticides used. Better still, ask your Garden Center about organic gardening.

Flowers with nectar are a must for a butterfly garden. When planting these nectar sources try to put in plants that will provide flowers throughout the growing season since these are the source of food for the butterflies. Don’t forget shrubs and wildflowers. Roses, geraniums and lilies have no nectar so plant them somewhere else. Keep your garden diversified to attract the most number of butterflies. Another component for the garden is a source for larva food. The caterpillar needs food to grow into a butterfly. If there is no food supply they will die. Plant some herbs for both of you. They like dill, fennel, and parsley on the menu. What they don’t eat you can harvest for cooking with fresh herbs.

You could also plant a butterfly site in garden containers. Buy some pretty pots and plant them with flowers that have a wonderful scent as well as bright beautiful colors (available at your Garden Center). Petunias, daylilies or sweet alyssum will do the trick. Of course the butterfly bushes are a natural, or plant some hanging baskets with Impatients (you’ll need some shade here).

Some gardeners like to make there own feeder and solution. And it is simple to do. Put 4 parts water to 1 part sugar in a pot and boil it until the sugar dissolves. Let it cool. Get a shallow garden container, saturate a paper towel with the solution and place it the garden container. Put a stone in the garden container so the butterflies have a place to perch while they are feeding.

Get the kids interested. Have them keep a journal of each of the different species that visit your butterfly garden. Let them look up the butterflies on the computer to learn all about each particular butterfly and it becomes not only fun, but a learning experience also.

Since there are so many growing zones in the United States you will want to talk with your Nursery Center for suggestions of what plants to use for attracting butterflies in your particular zone.

There is an old American Indian Legend about butterflies: “To have a wish come true you must capture a butterfly. Whisper to the butterfly what your wish is and then set it free. This little messenger will take your wish to the Great Spirit and it will come true.” What a great legend.

Copyright © 2005 Mary Hanna All Rights Reserved.

This article may be distributed freely on your website and in your ezines, as long as this entire article, copyright notice, links and this resource box are unchanged.

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About the Author

Mary Hanna is an aspiring herbalist who lives in Central Florida. This allows her to grow gardens inside and outside year round. She has published other articles on Gardening and Cooking. Visit her websites at http://www.GardeningLandscapingTips.com, http://www.ContainerGardeningSecrets.com, and http://www.GourmetChefAtHome.com

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Finding the Spot. The winds of change have blown through the gardening world during the last twenty years. With the modern trends now turning towards smaller and more minimalist gardens and the rise in popularity of planned low maintenance and theme gardens from oriental to modern contemporary styles and even prairie, there has been a renewed interest in ornamental grasses. Many grasses are undeniably elegant and graceful adding structure and form to a garden. In the breeze they bring movement and sound. Many have beautiful flowers and later seed heads that last right through the winter season.

Grasses are probably the most highly developed and most widely distributed of all plants. Grasses remain one of the most important plant groups as they include all the cereal and rice crops that sustain man and feed and fodder for our animals, They provide roofing thatch and building materials, alcohol, and over millennia most of our fossil fuels.

Grasses are the most undemanding of plants they require little care except a brush up and trim once in a while. There are grasses to suit all garden sizes and soil types from the stately Cortadiera and Stipa gigantica down to the dainty “Acorus gramineus.”

In order to understand how to grow grasses successfully in your garden its important to understand a little about their growth habits. Perhaps the most important thing to know if you are unfamiliar with grasses is that grasses reproduce both vegetatively, that is by sending up new shoots from their roots or rhizomes and by seed distribution.

There are a several simple ways to group grasses for the novice. First by their growth habit, some form clumps and tussocks and usually reproduce through seed production, as a rule are quite well behave. The others are spreaders or runners who produce new shoots through spreading roots and rhizomes and can tend to march. Most domestic lawns are made up of a mixtures of these running grasses.

The other important grouping is to distinguish between what are known as warm weather grasses and cold weather grasses. The impact on the plant can be quite dramatic if you are dividing plants for propagation and you choose the wrong time of year to do it. The difference between warm weather and cold weather grasses should not cause you any problems if you are just transplanting from a small pot to a larger one or direct to the garden.

Sedges are not true grasses though they are often lumped together with the grass section at retail outlets. Although very similar to grasses the are in fact a very much older species. Sedges tend to prefer wet or boggy situations and are dealt in a separate section to avoid confusion.

Most grasses enjoy sunlight, as much as possible, however there are a number of varieties that will tolerate shade for part of the day. Most grasses are totally unfussy about the type of soil they are in as long as its not water logged. Grasses have an incredibly sophisticated and efficient root system making them extremely exposure and drought tolerant. Most grasses prefer a very free draining soil that is almost impoverished if they are to perform well. There is very rarely any need to feed as to much nutrient makes the grass over lush and it tends to collapse. If your soil is very heavy or clay try digging in plenty of sharp sand. One other benefits of grass is you can mulch with grave. Gravel not only highlights the grasses features but the gravel will eventually work its way down into the soil to the appreciation of the plant.

Grasses on the whole do not suffer much from pests and diseases. Most problems that are likely to be encountered will be from trying to grow a plant in the wrong place especially if the ground is waterlogged. Wet ground combined with environmental extremes such as freezing conditions are probably the only sure way to kill most grasses. Don’t forget to water container grown grasses occasionally and grasses that are exposed to warm or cold drying winds. If your grasses are showing any signs of stress the best thing is to up with them and shift them somewhere else, it wont harm them, they are survivors and want to survive and do well just as you do.

Finally once again consider the size of the plant you are buying do your research. A giant Cortadiera in its infancy in a 1 litre pot looks insignificant when stood alongside a Miscanthus sinensis in a 2 litre pot in the garden centre. Ten years down the line however the Miscanthus will have probably made 80cm x 70 cm but wow! the Cortadiera selloana will be in the region of 3 meters by 3 meters. If you have a small garden there wont be much left and don’t forget to consider the shade that these big guys throw out.

Choose carefully and enjoy your grasses they are truly worth the time an thought.

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Every gardener knows that trees are the thing that makes a garden, tree create the outline of a garden, can be used to separate different parts of garden to be used for different landscaping and sometimes used to create ea feeling of solitude and isolation form external features like neighbors or buildings.

Naturally some of us, even the ones who are not the average gardener, simply love trees for what they are, to hear the wind blowing their leaves away or just for relaxing or taking a nap under a trees shadow is enough to appreciate a tree. But these days trees are becoming much more than that, with growing awareness to the environment trees are becoming a product, they serve as gifts and as special features in gardens and in front of houses.

The gardening industry has expanded beyond simply cutting flowers and mowing the lawn, now there are garden designers, landscape artists and many more titles that are concerned with the general look of a garden, one of the important responsibilities when thinking of a garden design is to create harmony and balance which is impossible without trees, and when experts do the work they want very particular tees to complete the picture and this is where the new attitude toward trees begins.

For example there is growing awareness to the olive tree today, since it is so hard to find and such a strong and wonderful tree many people would like to place it in their gardens as a symbol for the family to remember, the palm trees are growing in popularity because of the certain feeling that they give to people and many more other trees correspond to different needs.

A crabapple tree is one of the most impressive trees you can have in a backyard or a garden, it is a tree that is of the family of the rose trees and its floors are magnificent, when you have such a tree in your garden you will surely pay attention to it and once it starts flowering you will have something very special happening just before your eyes, which by itself is a wonderful experience.

Although owning trees may sound a little bad it is not at all the case, in fact the growing use of trees in private houses is contributing o the understanding and love of trees, it is very important that we lead to identify trees and that we recognize tree as a living thing that we all use in our every day activity, it is wonderful that children live by trees and learn to accept different trees as part of their family heritage, continuing it after their parents and creating a society that will love and protect trees in the future.

Even if you do not have a house of your own and live in an apartment youu can still grow trees, bonsai trees are famous for their need of dedication and treatment, it is also known that many take their trees with them once moving out of places, strengthening the bond between human and plant, man and tree.

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