Pink Apple Blossom Flowers In A Garden In Brazil

These pink apple blossoms inspired me on the first days of spring.

Eren Mckay .. I live in Brazil - http://www.embracinghome.com/meaning-color-pink-roses/

Know Thy Neighbor

If you have neighbors who plant vegetable gardens, then you should ask them what they are planting and plan your own garden around their list. If the family across the street is planting regular old zucchini, then maybe you should plant yellow zucchini instead. We all know that zucchini grows like crazy and a normal garden will have tons to spare. In other words, make your neighborhood gardens like a co-op and share the bounty.

Plant Bulbs and Perennials

You can save a lot of money by planting your flower beds with bulbs and perennials. These types of flowers come up every year without much help from you. Save the annuals for container gardening where you only place pots here and there around your deck or patio. Planting bulbs and perennials may cost a pretty penny up front, but in the long run, it saves you money.

Composting

Composting may seem like a hard thing to do, but once you get it set up, it’s really easy. Compost made from coffee grounds and kitchen scraps will make a much better fertilizer for your gardens than any bag of potting soil you could buy at the store. Potting soil has become really expensive and if you need a lot of it, it can run your garden budget dry in a hurry. Besides, any good gardener knows that recycling is a good thing to do, right? Here is my post on using alternative fertilizing options for your garden.

Use Rocks or Wood Chips for Ground Cover

Like potting soil, mulch can get expensive, even if you purchase it from the big discount stores. Why not try using rocks or wood chips for your ground cover instead. You should use a landscaping fabric like black plastic first and then place your rocks or wood chips on top of that. Landscaping fabric has a second benefit for your gardens, it keeps the weeds from growing. That’s a bonus in itself! If you need an inexpensive way to landscape your yard, here is my post on Landscaping Designs – Ideas4Landscaping Product Review.

Quality Gardening Tools

It is better to spend a little extra money to buy top-quality gardening tools right from the start. When you purchase the cheaper brands to save money, you won’t save a dime because you wind up having to make the same purchases every year. Gardening gloves are a good example. Buy the inexpensive cloth kind and you usually have to replace them before the season is even over. Invest in good gardening tools if you are serious about your gardens and you will save money in the long run.

Buy using these home gardening tips, you will not only save money, but your vegetable garden or flower gardens will look beautiful year in and year out.

Double Tulips

Flower bulbs don’t look all that great when you take them out of their packages, but they are one of the most beautiful plants you can grow in your garden. Put that bulb in the ground and with a little warmth and moisture, you have a picture of beauty come spring. The scents, shapes and colors are awe-inspiring to even those who don’t garden.

Bulbs come in many forms such as true bulbs, tubers, rhizomes and corms; tulips, crocus, gladiolus and daffodils are some of the most popular flower bulbs. They can be planted in flowerbeds, containers and some can be forced to grow indoors. You can start them from a bulb or you can replant them from a pot.

Growing bulbs can be really easy. Here are the keys (in simple terms) on how to plant bulbs in your garden.

Bulb Planting Tips

Timing – Plant most bulbs in the fall before the first frost; about a month or so is good.

Area – Plant your flower bulbs where there is good drainage and lots of sunshine.

Planting – Most bulbs are planted about six-inches under ground, in loose soil. Most garden companies will give you the right instructions for your type of bulb.

Placement – Put the flower bulb into the ground with the pointed side facing up towards you.

Here are more tips for successful bulb care and flower growth.

Because flower bulbs are so striking when you look at them, people think they are hard to grow. Not true. Anyone can grow these types of flowers with great success.

Container Gardening

Container gardening is a growing trend because anyone can find room for a container no matter where they live or what kind of yard, deck or patio they have. Here is more information that I have provided if you want to try container bulb gardening.

Bulbs can be grown indoors as long as the growing conditions are similar to outside. You can force bulbs to grow and flower as well. If you have a sunroom, you can go crazy with container gardening!

Flower bulbs are quite possibly the most readily available plant to gardeners. There are so many choices that you can surely find the right one for your soil, growing season and conditions, and you don’t need the best of “green thumbs” to do it.

“The deep dark color of the Black Jack tulip is one of my favorite surprises every spring. I have teamed them with bright yellows and white tulips, both of which haven’t bloomed quite yet.

The asiatic lillies will start to bloom when these are done, so I have a whole summer to enjoy the brilliant colors. Next I will be planting Cosmos, which is not a bulb, to bring even more color to that area of the yard.

Should be a beautiful summer!”

~Nancy Kraska~ http://www.inthe-garden.com

Think of all the wonderful colors that tulips come in. The pastels alone are enough to make any mom sigh. I tend to think of pastels in the spring and the more darker colored flowers for summer. Mother’s Day is right on the cusp so your color choice could go either way depending on what you like.

My Valentine's Day Potted Tulips

I wouldn’t recommend getting a pot of tulips. My husband got me potted tulips for Valentine’s Day and the local flower store had watered them so much, I believe the bulbs were already rotting. The blooms didn’t open and they died quick. So unless you know what you are buying, I would recommend just purchasing a bouquet.

I have used Pro Flowers for ages. My Mom has never received a bad bouquet of flowers from them, and she is the flower queen let me tell you. If my mom says they are awesome, then they are.

Pro Flowers have delivered on time-every time, and their prices beat most other online flower delivery places by quite a bit. I have purchased plants and flower bouquets and have never had a problem. Ever.

I didn’t intend for this to be a post about Pro Flowers, but hey, they are my choice and I don’t mind saying so. I will give my mom Mother’s Day flowers and this year, I am going to send tulips. She will be so surprised.

What are you giving you Mother or female person in your life this Mother’s Day? Even if it is not tulip bouquets or even flower related, we would all love to here your ideas.

Hyacinths In A Garden In Michigan

Hyacinths are one of my favorite bulb plants. These started out with only 5 bulbs and have spread throughout the garden area so much so that this spring I will have to split them to get bigger and better blooms next year.

~Nancy~

Senior-gardening is just starting but these lovely red tulips are blooming on all their own

My senior mom is just starting her gardening projects for the year, but thanks to some sweet person from the past, we are enjoying the fruits of their past labor with the lovely tulips that popped up at my grandkids house. Talk about a sweet treat for this busy member of the Sandwich Generation along with my whole family.

~Kaye – Kentucky~

Tulip Garden By Michael ~Tennessee~

It started as lets see if I could grow something. I’ve become real fond of it over the last couple of years.

~~Michael~~

You can send in your bulb and flower garden photos here: http://www.tulipcaretips.com/submit-your-flower-garden-pictures. I would love to show off your flower garden to all my readers.

Photo Submitted By: Nancy Kraska

Gardening is more of a hobby of mine. I don’t claim to be an expert, but go with instinct more than knowledge. In the spring I have tulips of every size and color along with crocus and a handful of other early bulbs. During the summer months a wide variety of lillies grow.

~~Nancy~~

You can send in your bulb and flower garden photos here: http://www.tulipcaretips.com/submit-your-flower-garden-pictures. I would love to show off your flower garden to all my readers.

Naturalized Pink Tulips

If you would love to see beautiful bulbs scattered all over your landscape, but you don’t want to put in the major hours it would take to maintain the view, then naturalizing bulbs is the answer to your bulb gardening prays. Planting and caring for this type of landscape is simple. You do it once and maintain your bulbs with minimal work, year after year.

Choosing the Right Bulbs

Not just any bulb will naturalize so be very careful and do the research. Select bulbs that will grow in your climate and in your landscaping. You have to have the right amount of space and planting area like a meadow type section of your property or a shaded woody area.

I have talked before about the sun and shade and how you have to match the bulbs to the right sun coverage, moisture levels and soil conditions. The same goes when you are naturalizing bulbs.

Here is the post that deals with that topic Caring For Your Bulb Garden During the Hot Summer Months

How to Naturalize the Traditional Way

This may seem silly, but if you want your bulbs to spring up out of the ground and look as if they were there naturally, then you only have to do one thing; throw them. Yes, you toss them around and let them fall. Then you take your bulb dibber and you dig the hole right next to where the bulb fell, place the bulb in the hole, cover and you are done. Your little flower meadow will look like it just came up in the wild. Pretty neat!

If you want to make your landscaping look even more natural, start at one end of your planting area and throw the bulbs out in a gradual pattern, starting out sparse and gradually adding more bulbs as you move away from your starting point. Make sure the bulbs are far enough apart so they have enough growing room. When the bulbs bloom, it looks like they branched out all on their own. Beautiful.

Follow Regular Bulb Planting Instructions

You plant bulbs for naturalizing the same way you would for your regular beds. Plant at the proper time of year at the correct depth for the bulb type. Once the bulbs are planted then your work is done. You should see beautiful bulbs every year and all you had to do was plant one time.

Divide to Decrease Overcrowding

After a few years your bulbs will have naturally separated and branched out so to speak. When this happens, you need to dig some of your bulbs up. Move them to a different spot or give them to your friends and neighbors. It may be hard to give up such an abundance of beauty, but if you don’t, you won’t have nearly as big of blossoms as you could have with fewer bulbs.

Naturalizing bulbs is easy. You just need to take that one initial step to plant them, but once you are done, you will have the most beautiful blooms and lots of them, year after year.