Gardening Tips

Tips for Flowers

Tips for Flowers

  • Pick faded flowers off fuchsia when they start wilting – this forces more blooms.
  • Water container plants daily
  • Feed every two weeks
  • Perennial flowers for next year can be seeded at the end of June.
  • Cut flowers early in the morning
  • Cut the steams at an angle with a sharp knife
  • Remove all leaves that would be under water

Tips for Vegetables

Tips for Vegetables

  • For the best results with warm-season vegetables, plant before June
  • Once your rhubarb plant is 4 years old, divide it and replant
  • Asparagus and Rhubarb leaf stalks should be cut after their tops are killed by frost
  • Do not store apples or pears with vegetables
  • General Yard & Garden Care
  • Don’t install edging after long periods of rain, this causes swelling and once dried, it can move
  • Water your lawn regularly
  • Never start a garden when the ground is frozen or soaking wet
  • Situate your garden so it can receive 6 hours of sun per day. Normally, your spot would face due south or southeast
  • Keep your garden away from mature trees – as they could invade your soil with their roots
  • Make sure to provide plenty of air circulation around your garden and plants
  • Use some sort of border for your garden – such as plastic, metal, wood, or stone
  • Try to spend % hour a day tending to your lawn
  • Water when the soil feels dry or when plants are drooping
  • Water in the early morning, or later in the evening

Tips for Fruits & Berries

Tips for Fruits & Berries

  • Keep grass around your fruit trees trimmed and short.
  • For best flavor, pick strawberries at first sign of ripeness
  • Protect precious strawberries from birds by covering with netting
  • Remove suckers from blackberries and strawberries as they appear
  • Pick your strawberries early in the day – they keep better

Tips for Planting Bulbs

Tips for Bulbs

  • Plant spring flowering bulbs, for example, Daffodils, Tulips, Crocus and Hyacinths in the fall (before the first hard frost, which is typically from mid-September to mid-October).
  • Plant summer/fall flowering bulbs like Gladioli and Dahlias in the spring (May in northern Minnesota). They will flower in 3 months.
  • Lily bulbs (Asiatic) can be planted in the spring or the fall, or immediately you acquire them. They do not like to dry out.
  • Bulb foliage moves nutrients to the bulbs, so avoid removing the green foliage until it has turned brown.
  • Spring flowering bulbs can be left in the ground, but the best time to move them or divide them would be when the foliage has turned brown.
  • Gladioli and Dahlias need to be lifted before the onset of winter and stored appropriately – in a dry, dark place with good air circulation at temperatures between 35 and 55 degrees.
  • For best results, aim to plant your bulbs in groups.