Secret Home Garden Tips & Landscape Ideas For Spring Gardens

A garden in the Spring, sounds like Paris in the spring and just as romantic and beautiful.

The Spring Garden is a rebirth of life, everything is born again, and more vibrant than last year. Watch the plants grow up through the hard winter earth and sieze the day, they are an inspiration to each and every one of us, if a little crocus can do it so can you.

Here are a few articles that will help you make the best of your spring garden and build a strong foundation for the rest of the year.


"Spring Gardening Ideas for the Family," by Susan Dunn, The EQ Coach Spring is the perfect time to plant a garden with your child.ren It's educational, good exercise, a great bonding activity, and great for self-esteem.

PROPER TOOLS

Little hands need the right sized tools or they'll be frustrated, and "toys" are not sturdy enough. Child's garden gloves are available here: www.mybackyard.com/acatalog/.mybackyard_Shop_Child_s_Garden_ Gloves_110.html. Gardens4Kids ( http://gardens4kids.com ) offers a package: a set of 3 children's hand gardening tools, 1 set of children's gardening gloves, and a child's watering can.

They also offer a gardening kit with tips for planting with children. It contains: seed packages with instructions written for new gardeners and/or children; materials and materials needed checklist; a planting map; a harvest guide activity worksheet and calendar for predicting harvest dates; plant labels; a waterproof pencil; and 20 grid markers. (http:// gardens4kids.com )

THEMATIC

Try planting a small plot around a theme - A Pizza Garden with tomatoes and herbs. A Salsa Garden with hot peppers, onions and tomatoes. A Butterfly garden with bright flowers and butterfly 'food' (see below).

MAKE A GRASS SNAKE OR SCARECROW

To make a grass snake, fill a sock with dirt and grass seed, place it in the sun and keep it damp. In 7-14 days, the 'snake' will have 'hair'!

To make a scarecrow, take a large piece of cardboard and let the child lie down and get in a funny pose. Trace around the child and then cut the scarecrow out. Decorate him or her with yarn, waterproof markers, googily eyes, old pieces of clothing - whatever you have on hand. You can mount it on a stake.

TEE PEE

A bean tee pee brings great results and is easy to so. Use stakes, poles or bamboo poles 12' long. Arrange them teepee style in a 5' circle, leaving room for a small entrance and pushing the ends into the ground. Tie the tops together with heavy twine or masking tape. Plant different kinds of string bean seeds (something that'll grow in your region) at the base of the teepee, and in a couple of months, the teepee will be covered with beans, leaves and vines.

BUTTERFLY FEEDER

This is exactly what you'll see in botanical gardens. Take a plastic pot saucer, sand and about 1 T. of cow or horse manure and an overripe piece of banana, apple or pear. Place sand and manure in saucer with small amount of water and add fruit. Voila! Butterflies will come!

SIMPLE BIRD BATH OR BIRD FEEDER

Here's an idea for a simple and inexpensive bird bath or feeder. Use a tomato cage, anchoring it firmly in the ground. Put one plastic plan saucer inside the top ring of the cage. Plant vining plants such as nasturtiums or morning glory around the bottom. Fill the saucer with water for the birds, of poke a few holes in it for drainage and fill it with birdseed.

EDUCATIONAL

? Use a digital or throwaway camera to record progress in the garden and learn more about nature and photography.

? Place a rain gauge in the garden.

? Study the insects that come and what they do.

? Read about vegetables, fruits and flowers on the Internet.

? Be sure and don't take "the sun" for granted. Water and sun and good soil are what gardening is all about.

? The garden will need to be tended and this teaches responsibility. It needs to be watered, fertilized and weeded. Establish a regular schedule for tending the garden.

CELEBRATE THE HARVEST with flowers on the table, or a pizza, or hot sauce, or whatever the garden harvest has brought.

(c)Susan Dunn, The EQ Coach, offers coaching and Internet courses for your personal, professional and parental development. The more EQ you have, the more you can pass on to your kids and EQ is more important to their success than IQ. www.susandunn.cc and mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc for FREE ezine.

Spring Gardening Tips

by Robin Nobles

February 2 is Ground Hog Day, when Punxsutawney Phil comes out of his hole to look for his shadow. If he sees his shadow, he considers it an "omen" of six more weeks of bad, winter weather, and he goes back in his hole. If he doesn't see his shadow, he considers it a sign of spring and stays above ground.

At Groundhog.org, you'll learn the history of Ground Hog Day, and you can even learn past predictions of Punxsutawney Phil dated back to 1887. http://www.groundhog.org

Since Phil will be giving his annual prediction as to the coming of spring, this is a good time to start thinking about our spring gardens. After all, we need to be prepared for Phil's predictions!

An excellent place to start our tour is at About.com, which is a comprehensive site offering articles and links on spring gardening, including tips for breaking dormancy, ways to attract hummingbirds and butterflies, and even an index of quick "how to's" for the spring gardener. Learn why seedlings fail, or what you should do when a cold snap meets a sprouting bulb. The quick gardening guide offers tips on testing your soil, on making compost, on growing plants from cuttings, and much more. http://gardening.about.com/cs/msub112/

At the Gardener's Diary, you'll find a month by month listing of gardening tips, which will prove very helpful to those who enjoy working in their yard all year round. http://www.insideout- gardening.co.uk/gardening/articles/spring.html

For a Spring Gardening Vegetable Planting Guide, visit: http://www.eugeneweekly.com/gardens/gardensguide.html

Though certainly not limited just to spring gardens, PageWise's gardening section is outstanding. Learn tips on growing various vegetables and fruit, or learn how to build outdoor structures, such as a stone wall in your garden or a lean-to green house. Discover how to make an outdoor garden foundation or how to create garden stepping stones. How can you attract wildlife to your garden, or how can you keep squirrels out of your bird feeder? Learn plant propagation techniques or how to grow bonsai. How do you prune shrubs or fruit trees? This site offers gardening techniques that are sure to answer almost all of your "how to" questions. http://www.essortment.com/in/Gardening.Growing.How.To/

Let's close with Garden Advice, which is an excellent site for beginners and experienced gardeners alike. Learn how to plan your garden, or how to take care of roses. Under Gardening Projects, learn how to design a container garden or how to repot houseplants. You can even sign up to get free e-mail gardening reminders from Miracle Grow to take the guess work out of what you need to do and when in your garden. http://www.gardenadvice.com/

Robin Nobles, Director of Training, Academy of Web Specialists, (http://www.academywebspecialists.com) has trained several thousand people in her online search engine marketing courses (http://www.onlinewebtraining.com). She also teaches 2-, 3-, and 5-day hands-on, search engine marketing workshops in locations across the globe with Search Engine Workshops (http://www.searchengineworkshops.com).

Copyright 2003 Robin Nobles. All rights reserved.

If you have any tips or ideas of your own, just send me an e-mail and I will include it in my tips & ideas page.

Send to: Spring Garden Tips & Ideas