The Organic Rose Gardener

The Organic Rose Gardener

Most gardeners today are learning everything they can about organic paths to plant care, and back-to-natural rose gardening is experiencing resurgence among rose growers. Since ancient times people all over the world have been cultivating roses, and until the past century it had always been done organically. Since man-made pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers were introduced in the 20th century, gardeners have turned their backs on natural methods of protecting and nourishing plants. Thankfully for roses and rose growers everywhere, that trend seems to be changing as a large number of growers rediscover organic plant and garden care methods, and that goes for beginning gardeners as well.

Creating and maintaining a garden organically will actually benefit not only your roses, but the flora and fauna around them as well. Roses are particular about their needs and preferences, and respond to natural cultivation procedures by living longer and flourishing. The added bonus is protecting your family, your pets and area wildlife from the harmful chemicals of man-made pesticides and fertilizers. Earth has managed to maintain its organic balance without the aid of man-made chemicals for millions of years. This natural balance gets thrown for a loop when humans decide that we can outdo nature; the natural system of animal and plant life loses its mojo, and in time becomes dependent on man-made chemicals to survive, since their inherent skills have been eradicated.

Through their roots, plants absorb the water and nutrients necessary to survive, while their leaves stay busy working with sunlight to produce energy. Natural organisms in the soil serve provide pest control, pH, and nutrients in a cycle too perfect to replicate artificially. Chemical pesticides and fertilizers snuff out the soil’s natural organisms, interfering with the productive efforts that occur between the earth and your roses. Chemicals kill off favorable …

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Perennial Flower Gardening For Beginners

Perennial Flower Gardening For Beginners

Successful perennial flower gardening for beginners comes down to two main points. Proper site planning and proper plant selection of plants that do well in your area. After you get these basics right, you can then start to learn more about pruning, dead-heading, pinching, fertilizing and all the other activities that go on during the year in a perennial garden. But, I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s start with the basics I first  planning and plant selection.

Site Planning

The very first step in planning your perennial garden is to decide how much time you want to spend maintaining it. Perennials, by there very nature, require some maintenance from time to time. So, decide whether you want to spend 30 minutes or 30 hours a month working in your garden before you go any further.

If you don’t want to spend much time maintaining your garden, stay away from plants that have to be pruned and sprayed a lot such as roses. But, on the other hand, if roses are a “must have” for you, check-out the variety called Knock-out rose which requires less spraying. Talking with those who work at your local garden center about high-maintenance and low-maintenance perennials is helpful at this planning stage.

You will also need to look at site conditions such as the amount of sun or shade your future site has, what type of soil it has, whether the site gets a lot of wind, if it’s next to any buildings or structures, and even if there is competition from tree roots. Keeping these things in mind now will save you time and money in the future.

Plant Selection

The next step in perennial flower gardening for beginners is plant selection. Once again the garden center in your area will be able to …

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