• How To Grow an Award-Winning Garden Right Now
• Discover The World Of Herb Gardening
• How To Create a Putting Green In Your Backyard
• 5 Strategies For Weeding Your Lawn & Garden

How To Grow an Award-Winning Garden Right Now

No matter where you live, homeowners can grow their own fresh-from-the-garden fruits and vegetables to eat all year long. Using just a little space in your yard and following a few professional tips, you can grow and maintain a sensational garden.

As many know already, hormones and pesticides sometimes contaminate the food you buy from the grocery store. Rather than exposing your family to such a risk, why not grow your own fruits and vegetables in a garden?

Sound too difficult?

Guess again. Simply use a tiller to grind up the soil in one corner of your yard, and you're all ready to get started. Follow the guidelines below for developing your own award-winning, healthy, garden.

Planting Your Garden

• Seed Distance. 20 inches between the rows is recommended for most vegetables in a carefully managed home garden. Larger yields need 2 feet between seeds.
• Arrangement. In most instances, smaller crops should go towards the front of the garden while corn and other tall plants should be set at the back.
• Depth. Depth varies from crop to crop, but you should start out planting your seeds at a depth of 6 inches. This will allow the roots to take hold once a seed germinates.

Regular Garden Maintenance

• Pruning. Separate plants that are too close together and clip excess foliage.
• Watering. Water frequently and deeply to ensure proper growth.
• Picking. Follow the seed recommendations for pulling ripe yields.

Let's face it. There's no better feeling than the satisfaction of serving a wholesome meal of home-grown vegetables. As they say, there's no time like the present. Start growing your garden today!

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Discover The World Of Herb Gardening

Not everyone has the ability to create a large garden. Afterall, large garden means a large amount of maintenance. This might not be your idea of how to spend a relaxing summer.

There's good news. Herb gardening may be more up your alley.

Herb gardening is a wonderful hobby that gives you the opportunity to use your yield to season your favorite summertime recipes. There's nothing like being able to mention the great taste from your cooking came from your own backyard.

Herb gardening is the perfect project for you if you're a new gardener or just don't have the time and energy to devote to a full time garden. Herb gardening supplies are fairly inexpensive and everything you need to start your own herb garden can be found at your local home and garden center. There are several types of herbs that you can begin your gardening project with. Here are a few of the more popular herbs that gardeners are using.

• Thyme. Thyme is a shrubbery like herb that has leaves that are cut and dried before using. This herb grows very slowly and can reach heights of up to 12 inches. Thyme works great for poultry and various soups.
• Sesame. Sesame is an herb that is recognized by its white leaves and pinkish leaves. This is a warm temperature herb that should be planted in the late of May or early June. As you already know, sesame seeds are perfect for flavoring bagels, breads, and crackers.
• Sweet Basil. This reddish herb is also grown best in mid to late May and can reach heights of 18 inches. This herb works great in salads and tastes excellent when used to season your favorite tomato dishes.
• Borage. The leaves of this popular herb range from pinkish to blue. Borage is an annual that also should be planted in May. This is a delicate herb that really colors and add some great flavor to your spring salad mix.
• Sage. Sage features bluish leaves that are popularly known for their color and texture. Sage can grow to a height of 24 inches and should be grown with plenty of space. This is the perfect herb for flavoring your favorite meats and dressings.

Herb gardening is a wonderful way to enjoy the benefits of a garden without exerting as much energy and patience. Yet you can still enjoy the benefits of using the yield of your herb garden in your own home-cooked, healthy meals.

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How To Create a Putting Green In Your Backyard

Yes, this a luxury item and not for everyone. What golf enthusiast with enough space in their lawn or garden wouldn't want to have a great putting green to shoot a few holes after a long day at work?

However, many professional golf course experts do their best to dissuade homeowners from building a real golf putting green in their backyard. They say the installation and maintenance are just too much.

Do they have a point? You decide.

You see putting greens aren't just lawns with nicely cut grass. They are quite intricate and their whole eco-biology is built from the bottom up. While homeowners don't have to consider even close to the number of factors a golf course designer does, many of them cannot be ignored.

Putting Green Drainage

The central factor to any putting green is drainage. You can't overemphasize the importance of making sure that water (whether from rain or from your sprinkler) can be reasonably absorbed. Poor drainage will immediately cause pools of water and make your green unusable and disease ridden. The safest and surest way to do this is to actually build your putting green above the level of your lawn and garden. In addition, the surface of green itself should be sloped so that any water is always heading off of the green. Plus the grade adds an element of challenge to your putting. No pain, no gain right?

Putting Greens are Built on Sand

The reason greens are so sensitive to water is because the rooting soil of your green needs to be quite sandy and sandy dirt isn't porous. In other words, water won't sink into it like a normal lawn. The soil needs to be sandy to maintain its putting green architecture and withstand more regular foot traffic.

Have To Have a "Green Thumb"

A big element to maintaining a home putting green is to be both a lover of golf and one who loves your lawn and garden. Not many of us fit this profile, so consider yourself politely warned before venturing into the tall order of building a home putting green. Once you build it, you'll need to take care of it.

Synthetic Putting Greens

An alternative is to install a synthetic putting green using fake grass. We've all seen these. Synthetic grass companies are quite confident that their putting greens blend in perfectly with your "real" lawn and garden and that their synthetic nature can't be discerned by the naked eye. If you're an avid lover of golf, but don't necessarily possess a "green thumb", the synthetic option might be more up your "fairway".

Happy putting!

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5 Strategies For Weeding Your Lawn & Garden

Here are five great weeding strategies to help you attack and beat your weedy lawn and garden.

Mowing Against Weeds

Though only temporary, mowing your lawn is one of the most efficient ways to get rid of weeds. Plants reproduce with their flowers (think dandelions or buttercups.) A plant that can't bloom won't set seed. The more often you mow, the less likely the weeds will be able to spread.

Even if mowing doesn't affect thistle-like weeds from reproducing, it will give your grass an even look.

Mulch Against The Weed

To clear out your garden area, you might want to lay down a layer of weed-suppressing mulch. Unwanted plant friends won't be able to penetrate the layer of wood chips or other mulch material. According to the Seattle Post Intelligencer, tests showed that about 80 percent of an ivy stand will be killed within three months by an eight to twelve inch smother mulch of coarse bark chips.

If you have time, try sheet mulching. Put a mixture of green grass clippings and shredded dry leaves or straw on top of the area you want to garden. A layer 2 feet thick is not too much.

After up to two years, this material gradually rots into compost, ready to be planted. In the meantime, almost anything already growing there will be smothered by such a heavy blanket and no new weeds will grow through it.

Torch those Weeds

If you are starting growth on a terrain from scratch, torching weeds away can be quite a satisfying experience. But it is highly dangerous and won't work if you are working around vegetation that you do want to keep. Be careful and do your due diligence when it comes to this option.

Chop and Un-root Weeds

Tall weeds like nettles and blackberries may need firmer treatment. Here, the solution is to first cut back their prickly top growth (wear serious gloves when you do this) and then dig out as much root as possible. In grossly over-grown situations, you may need to use machinery as powerful as a bobcat to dig up those persistent roots.

Combination Attack on Weeds

Using a variety of attacks on your weeds is best. Combine them. Mow down as much growth as you can. Dig out the bigger stuff, getting as much roots as you can. Then cover the remnants with deep mulch or another choice topping.

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A healthy lawn is the first line of defense against weeds, insects and disease and the following maintenance techniques will greatly improve the health of your lawn.

• Lawn Mowing Tips that will reduce weeds, enhance drought tolerance and disease resistance and increase tolerance to insect feeding.
   
• Watering Techniques that will reduce weed invasion, enhance drought tolerance, reduce or eliminate disease, and kill insect pests.
   
• Weed Buster Strategies that will reduce disease and improve the appearance of your lawn.
• Landscaping & Gardening Tips that will make your property looks it's best.