Back

Table of Contents

• Beginner’s Guide to Growing a New Garden
• Gardening Zones and Frost Dates
• Garden Features And Upkeep
• Basics Of Trees, Shrubs and Ornamentals
• Growing Blueberries
• Growing Raspberries
• Growing Grapes

Beginner’s Guide to Growing a New Garden

• Make your plans on paper before you set foot in the garden. Plot the size and content of your garden using graph paper, with each square of grid representing 1 square foot of garden space. If your garden is too large or complex for a single sheet, use separate sheets for different beds and borders.
• Test the soil to determine its pH and nutritional status, or ask a gardening neighbor about conditions in the area. Add lime (i.e., calcium-based alkaline product) to neutralize acid soil, sulfur to neutralize alkaline soil.
• Determine how much sunlight your garden receives, and let this guide your choice of plants. Most flowering plants and vegetables require at least six hours of sun each day.
• Lay out new beds and borders with string stretched between stakes; use a flexible garden hose to define curving edges.
• Condition soil that contains too much sand or clay by applying soil conditioner, leaf mold, compost or other soil amendments. Spread it from 2 to 4 inches deep over the beds.
• Dig the planting site to a depth of at least 8 inches for most bedding plants or to the depth of the rootball for trees and shrubs, stirring in the soil amendments. Remove large stones and extraneous roots. Break up lumps of soil with the edge of a spade.
• Apply a fertilizer that is suitable for the types of plants you will be using.
• Rake the site level. Use the front and back of the rake to make a fine, crumbly surface.
• Plant seeds or transfer ready-grown plants from containers.
• Water seeds or transplants thoroughly at the time of planting. In the absence of rainfall, water daily until established (when they begin growing well) and weekly thereafter.
• Thin seedlings, leaving room for the strongest plants to develop to maturity. Most flowering annuals need to be spaced 6 to 12 inches apart; perennials may need more room. For vegetables, follow the directions on the seed packet. Use scissors to decapitate unwanted seedlings instead of pulling up roots, which can disturb neighboring plants.
• Weed regularly and place mulch around plants to help control the weeds. Organic mulches such as shredded pine bark and wood chips are the most attractive types for flower gardens. Straw, sawdust and compost are often used for vegetable gardens.
• Control insects, pests and diseases; check with experienced gardeners to learn which of these are most troublesome in the area and what controls are most effective. Flower gardens are less vulnerable than vegetable gardens and shrubs less vulnerable, but slugs, snails, rodents or deer may need special controls.
• Remove faded flowers from long-blooming plants to prevent seed formation, which can steal energy from flowering.

This article courtesy of Scotts

Gardening Zones and Frost Dates

One of the most common questions I receive from fellow gardeners is "What hardiness zone do I live in and what the heck is a hardiness zone anyway?"

Well, it is an important question in helping decide what plants to use in your garden. You see, all plants are cold tolerant to a certain temperature and unless you plan on treating a plant like an annual, meaning that it will only live one growing season, you need to know if it will survive through the winters in your area. This is especially important with big-ticket items like trees, shrubs and roses.

To help gardeners with this information the U.S. Department of Agriculture developed the Plant Hardiness Zone Map. This map divides the continent of North America into 11 regions or zones. The average coldest temperature for that region determines each zone. The coldest zone is zone 1, which includes areas such as the extreme northern parts of Canada, parts of the Yukon Territory, and the Alaskan interior. Average lows are about – minus 50 degrees F in zone 1 (now that's cold!). Zone 11 is the warmest zone with average low temperatures being 40 degrees F. The other zones fall in between these extremes. What this means is that if you buy a plant that is cold tolerant to zone 7 and you live in zone 5, that plant is not going to make it through the winter.

In addition to the Plant Hardiness Zone Map, many people also reference the American Horticulture Society's Heat Zone Map, which helps you determine if a plant will survive the summer weather in your area. The AHS explains the map this way:

"The 12 zones of the map indicate the average number of days each year that a given region experiences "heat days"-temperatures over 86 degrees (30 degrees Celsius). That is the point at which plants begin suffering physiological damage from heat. The zones range from Zone 1 (less than one heat day) to Zone 12 (more than 210 heat days)."

With the aid of the hardiness and heat zone information you can select plants that are right for your climate, but it is also important to know when it is safe to put plants out in order to protect them from a late freeze or to allow them enough time to get established before winter sets in. For guidance you can use the average first and last frost dates in your area. The first frost date occurs in fall and the last frost date is in spring. These dates will determine your growing season.

There are also various ways of describing a frost. Usually the first frosts of the season are light (above 32 degrees F) and the amount of damage caused depends on the duration of the cold temperatures. If the mercury hovers around the mid 30s and dips to the freezing point for a few hours, many cold hardy plants like chrysanthemums can take it without skipping a beat. In the spring, after I have put out my lettuce, broccoli and other cool season crops, I am sometimes surprised by a late frost. I know the damage will be minimal if the weather warms up the next day. However if a blackberry winter sets in and the temperatures stay cold for several days, I know I must protect these plants with a cold frame.

Now, there are also light, moderate and hard freezes. A light freeze occurs when temperatures hover between 29 – 32 degrees F. This is what usually kills all my summer annuals in late fall, but many of my perennials and shrubs will be unaffected. Again, the damage will depend on the duration of the freeze. And as you might expect, colder temperatures means more widespread damage. A moderate freeze is considered anything between 25 – 28 degrees F. And a hard freeze is anything below 24 degrees F. While this seems like a lot of detail this is good information to know when it comes to protecting your plants during cold weather.

ZONE AVERAGE LAST FROSTDATE AVERAGE FIRST FROST DATE
Zone 3 1 May / 31 May 1 Sep / 30 Sep
Zone 4 1 May / 30 May 1 Sep / 30 Sep
Zone 5 30 Mar / 30Apr 30 Sep / 30 Oct
Zone 6 30 Mar / 30Apr 30 Sep / 30 Oct
Zone 7 30 Mar / 30Apr 30 Sep / 30 Oct
Zone 8 28 Feb / 30Mar 30 Oct / 30 Nov
Zone 9 30 Jan / 28Feb 30 Nov / 30 Dec
Zone 10 30 Jan orbefore 30 Nov / 30 Dec
Zone 11 Free of Frost throughout theyear.

This article courtesy of P. Allen Smith

Garden Features And Frost Dates

• Trees and massed shrubs: If the right size shrubs for their location are selected, they may need no care other than feeding and watering when necessary.
• Ground covers: Ground covers require quite a bit of weeding the first three years, until they are established and cover the ground, but after that require little care.
• Perennial flowers: In beds or borders, perennial flowers can be low-care. Select flowers that don't require deadheading, staking or trimming other than cutting back in the fall.
• Annual flowers: Annual flowers are high-care because they require digging up and replanting at least once a year—twice a year in mild-climate regions—as well as deadheading and cutting back regularly.
• Vegetables: Vegetables are the garden feature requiring the most care due to the high susceptibility to insects/pests, diseases and weeds, and the different lengths of time they require for maturity and harvest.

This article courtesy of Scotts

Basics Of Trees, Shrubs and Ornamentals

• Be sure to select trees and shrubs that will grow well in your climate; ask a local nursery for advice.
• Choose plants with healthy, vigorous top growth that have a good root system with noû signs of disease, pests or damage.
• Plant a variety of low-growing evergreens in various heights, colors, shapes and textures.
• Be sure to give the trees and shrubs you plant plenty of room.
• Deciduous trees should not be planted too close to the house, as they may interfere with the foundation or wiring, drop leaves into the gutter, and be more trouble than you ever intended.
• Don't plant a tree too close to your neighbor's property.
  Many evergreens are ideal for foundation plantings.
• Pyramidal yews and junipers may be used as strong vertical forms at the front of a house or on either side of an entrance.
• Large conifers planted on the west or north sides of open space can shield a home from the wind, reduce heating costs and make outdoor activities more pleasant.
• Broadleaf evergreens often produce flowers or berries and maintain their leaves throughout the winter.

• In addition to light and water, trees and shrubs need a regular diet of minerals and other elements.
• For acid-loving shrubs, such as rhododendrons, try Miracle-Gro® Water Soluble Azalea, Camellia, Rhododendron Plant Food.
• For evergreen shrubs, there are specialty plant foods, such as Scotts® Evergreen, Shrub & Tree Food, to keep them growing healthy and strong.
• Light applications of fertilizer at regular intervals greatly increase growth and stimulate flower production.
• An easy way to feed most of the trees and other shrubs in your yard is with products such as Miracle-Gro® Tree & Shrub Fertilizer Spikes, which comes in three different varieties.
• Keep all fertilizers away from tree trunks and water deeply after fertilizing.

• Feed trees and shrubs in the early spring.
• Feed spring-flowering shrubs and trees again after blooming to encourage better blooming next spring.
• Acid-loving plants such as rhododendrons and azaleas thrive when fed with a specially formulated plant food such as Miracle-Gro® Water Soluble Azalea, Camellia, Rhododendron Plant Food, every 7–14 days.
• Mature trees need little or no feeding.
• Feed fruit trees equal amounts of fertilizer four times at evenly spaced intervals between early spring and late June.

This article courtesy of Scotts

Growing Blueberries

Blueberries are related to azaleas and rhododendrons, and like a very acidic soil like their cousins. The best soil pH would be about 4.5. Mixing of peat moss into the soil to be planted in helps to lower the pH.

Most blueberry plants have fairly shallow roots and since they will be in place for years the preparation of the soil is critical. The best is a loamy mix, consisting of 4-7 % organic matter like compost. If the combination of acidity and drainage is not feasible you may want to consider raised garden beds.

How many bushes should you plant? That, of course, will vary with the size of the family you need to feed, but four to six bushes can service and average family. The spacing should be five to six feet for the large varieties, and maybe three feet for the lowbush blueberries.

Wait to plant until after the last frost date. When you are planting, dig a hole large enough to have 3 to 4” of space around the entire root system. As you backfill the soil in around the roots, cover the stem slightly. (Where the roots meet the branches). This will encourage runner development.

These bushes need at least one or two inches of water per week. Keep in mind that tap water can affect the pH and mineral content of the soil so when possible use rainwater. To help retain water and reduce watering needs a tow to four inch layer of organic mulch is recommended. This will naturally help suppress the weeds as well.

Use a fertilizer that won't increase the alkalinity of the soil. It's also best to avoid concentrated fertilizers, since it is easy to damage the roots of your bushes if these aren't properly diluted. Organic fertilizers like soybean or cottonseed meal work very well, or you might use an organic azalea fertilizer as they are formulated for to maintain lower the soil pH.

Blueberry bushes will likely not blossom until their second year, and many suggest removing any blossoms the first year to encourage stronger root systems and improve the long term yields of the bushes.

Birds are the most common pest problem with blueberries. The simplest solution to controlling birds is bird netting. Just remember that when you put up bird netting, the birds can land on the ground and walk under it unless you secure it to the ground around the bushes. Sometimes you may have problems with rabbits or other small rodents. An effective solution there is to put a small chicken wire fence around your blueberries.

You probably won't need to prune your blueberry bushes for the first three years. Remove blossoms in the first year to stimulate strong new growth. When the time comes to prune, do it in in the early spring on dormant plants. Thin out the dead and weak growth, and be sure to open up the middle of the plant to allow light and air to the center of the plant. You should know that the blossoms bud out of two year old or older growth. Finally, when you have fruit set, like any fruit tree or bush, it's important to thin it out as if too many berries are on the bush they will not develop adequately

Growing Raspberries

At least 6-8 hours of sunshine per day. If you can grow great roses in this spot, you can grow raspberries. The key to obtaining good berries is to have good soil with even moisture when the berries are setting flower and fruit. Without the moisture, your berries will be small and tough. Raspberries thrive on organic matter and adding compost or composted material will aid in producing great harvests.

• Put new plants 18-inches apart in the rows. Put the rows at least 4-feet apart.
• Rogue out the dead and weaker canes in the spring to only leave 6.

• A berry grows a cane the first year (doesn't fruit on it). The second year, this cane fruits and then dies.
• You'll know the berry is ripe when you can put your fingertips on it and gently pulling – separate it from the core.

Because a raspberry cane grows in year one (doesn't fruit) and then produces the fruit in year two, you'll always have year one and year two canes in each square foot.

In the early spring, reduce the number of canes to six per square foot. Do this by removing all the dead canes first (they're brown and gray and obviously dead). Then, prune out the weak and smaller canes leaving 6 big thick canes in each square foot of row. These strong year two canes will produce fruit and another crop of young canes.

Keep rows as narrow as possible. (One foot is ideal for harvesting) – You can mow the adventurous shoots off or dig them up in the spring or fall. Keep rows narrow so the wind and sun can penetrate into the plants.

Everbearing plants grow like regular berries except the new canes produce a crop of berries on new wood in the fall.
The new cane produces a small crop of berries in the fall. It then overwinters and produces a crop of berries in the spring similar to the Junebearing varieties.

In order to get a spring and fall crop, treat your plant like the junebearers above. The second-year canes will give you a summer harvest while the new canes will give you a fall harvest.

To only get a fall crop, mow everything to the ground in the early spring and only allow the new growth to produce a fruit set.

Growing Grapes

Grapes like heat and most of the sweetest grapes tend to like plenty of sun and warm temperatures. Most of the continental US is in the grape belt between 30 - 50° N. latitude. Cool season plants produce less sugar and are higher in acid. Most areas can grow grapes but check with your County Extension service for tips on the healthiest, most productive varieties for your region, then research detailed cultivation types specific to that variety for the most reliable performance.

Depending on your purpose (i.e., eating, drying, or making juice or wine), climate, and cultivation, a single plant can produce as much as 25-30 pounds of fruit. To get the most from your plants, plant vines where they will get a good southern exposure. The optimum placement is in full sun oriented on a North-South axis. This provides the optimum amount of light and heat.

The growing season is about 150–180 days for standard varieties, though short and long season types are available. The key to production is to select a variety that matures during your growing season ... the earlier the better.

Grapes like deep, well-drained loam soils. Soils that are either too clay-ey or too sandy tend to retain too much water or drain too quickly, so amending the soil to maintain even moisture is important. They also like somewhat acid soils with a pH of between 5 and 5.5. Mulch with fir or pine needles to eliminate weed problems and maintain the pH.

Plant spacing should be about 5–8 feet apart in rows with 8–12 feet between rows. In home gardens, if you plant a sod walkway between rows and fertilize or compost the grass, you will probably not need to add extra fertilizer for the grapes which have far reaching root systems that are capable of harvesting nutrients from some distance.

Young grape plants like humid conditions and can be put outside if the temperatures are above freezing. Keep them out of direct sunlight until they are acclimated ... usually a week or two.

Pruning grapes is important to ensure large bunches of good sized grapes. Though the plants will grow without pruning, you'll notice fewer, smaller bunches over several seasons.

Because grapes are a vine, it's important to give them some structure. You can train them over an arbor, trellis, or along wires. The wire trellis systems used by vintners have sturdy 4x4 wood posts with tightly stretched 9–12 gauge wire running from post to post. Wire vise clamps can be used to secure the wires. Though there are different pruning systems for grapes, we use the 4-cane Kniffen method. It's fairly straight forward, so it's easy to maintain your grapes if the varieties are hardy and need no winter protection.

Because grapes produce fruit on year-old canes, you'll want to select four young canes to keep (two per side).The canes should be shiny, with a smooth tight brown bark. Canes that are two years old show cracking and peeling and will be removed. Select canes that are the diameter of a pencil or a bit more if possible, one on each side of the plant at a distance of about 36 and 60 inches from the ground. Use bright yarn or tags to mark the canes you want to keep.

Each cane should have well spaced nodes with no more than 10–20 buds per cane. Clip the canes if necessary. Generally, as yield increases, quality decreases so pruning in the early spring or late winter is vital as well as cluster thinning during the growing season if you have a more fruitful variety.

Leave a dozen short renewal spurs close to the main trunk on both sides of the plant at both the first and second wire levels. These will develop into next year's canes.

Pruning should be done early in the spring or late winter. Depending on where you live and your growing season, it could be from January to March. It's best to prune before the sap starts to run, however. Pruning a little too late means that you could leave exposed cuts that will drip profusely and that could attract pests.

Planting clean, disease-resistant varieties is often useful, especially if you want to avoid using chemical controls.

Birds are often a nuisance with many berries and fruits. Grapes are no exception. Netting to prevent birds from getting to the grapes or flash tape that flutters in the breeze are both effective ways to deter them.

Browse Lawn & Garden Supplies

Back