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Articles & Books From Lance Walheim
Create an eye-catching outdoor oasis with this no-nonsense guide to landscaping As families spend more time at home, they're expanding their living space to their yards, decks, and patios. When you're ready to upgrade the look of your landscape, Landscaping For Dummies offers advice on installing fences and walkways, choosing hardy plants and trees, and enhancing natural habitats for the critters and creatures lurking in your neighborhood.
Cheat Sheet / Updated 03-08-2022
Putting together your perfect landscape starts with making a wish list customized to your needs, planning out your landscaping, and purchasing plants best suited for your landscape plan and hardiness zone. This Cheat Sheet can help you keep track of these details.Creating a landscaping wish listMake a wish list when you begin landscape planning and use your imagination to customize it around your needs.
Cheat Sheet / Updated 02-07-2023
Growing your garden requires the aid and cooperation of many forces including the climate in your hardiness zone; insects, good and bad; fertilizers; and soil amendments.Decorative material (such as mulch, stone, sand, and gravel) adds a nice finish, so know how much you need to buy. Adapting each element to your garden's needs — as best you can — leads to a successful gardening experience.
Step by Step / Updated 03-27-2016
Laying sod is a gratifying experience—you get a new, green lawn in no time! The time to lay sod is early morning before it gets too hot. The soil in the planting area should be moist, not soggy or dry. Water thoroughly one or two days before the sod is delivered so that the top several inches of soil are wetted.
Step by Step / Updated 03-27-2016
Growing perennials from seed gives you the chance to start literally hundreds of plants from one package of seeds. Most perennial seeds don’t germinate very successfully when planted outside. By starting the seeds indoors, you can create an artificial environment to meet their needs.
You can grow perennials indoors any time of the year.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
Just as you harvest different herbs at different times, you collect different parts of your herbs — leaves, stems, flowers, fruits, seeds, and roots — at different times. The timing of your harvest also depends on how you expect to use the herb: to make tea, for example, or to make a wreath or a nosegay. Annuals, biennials, and perennials have their own quirks, but the rules for harvesting are pretty simple and straightforward.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
Face it. Dry climates, such as the desert Southwest, and the amount of water that a lawn needs make having a lawn out of the question for some people. Here are some more usable or low-maintenance alternatives:
Plant ground covers: Ground covers are usually low-growing, often spreading plants that form a uniform layer of foliage when planted close together.
Article / Updated 02-09-2023
Rosaceae is the third-largest plant family. This family includes many ornamental landscape plants, fruits, and berries, including apples, cherries, raspberries, and pyracantha, characterized by the shape of the hypanthium (the part of the flower where the seeds develop) and by petals in groups of five. Roses are members of the plant genus Rosa.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
You can plant vegetable seeds indoors or outdoors. If you plant seeds indoors, you transplant them into your garden later. With direct seeding, you skip the indoor step and sow the seeds directly in your garden. If you're serious about growing vegetables, you'll probably end up using both options. Consider these points when making your choice:
You get a jump on the growing season when you sow seeds indoors.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
Of all the senses, smell most strongly evokes memory. The strong perfume of sweet peas, or the spicy smell of nasturtiums can bring back an acute longing for a favorite garden from the past.
The flower fragrances you prefer are as personal as the perfume or aftershave lotion you choose to wear. Plant generously so that you have plenty of flowers and leaves to pick for bouquets and bowls of potpourri.