Are you ready to bring succulents into your home but not sure where to start? Laura from Garden Answerhas you covered! In this video, she shares her top seven beginner-friendly indoor succulents and simple care tips to help them thrive. Laura recommends starting with a high-quality organic potting soil like Espoma Organic Cactus Mixand feeding with an organic fertilizer like Espoma Organic Cactus! Liquid Plant Food.
When planting onions from seed, Espoma Organic Seed Starter is a key component in promoting root growth and improving moisture retention. Check out how Garden Answer uses it!
https://www.espoma.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-09-29-at-9.59.14-AM.png397806Danielle Kirschnerhttps://www.espoma.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/espoma-logo340w-1.pngDanielle Kirschner2020-09-29 10:22:172024-09-26 15:55:18Video: Time for Fall Wall Planters with Garden Answer
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Fall crops already? That’s right! Join Garden Answer and get some great ideas for food crops in the upcoming season.
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English cottage gardens date back centuries. They were used to grow vegetables, herbs for healing, fruit trees, perhaps a beehive, and common flowers. The informal style went through a renaissance in the late 1800’s when they became somewhat more nostalgic than practical.
The informal aesthetic of dense planting and natural materials is still en vogue today. In this video, Laura outlines 10 design principles to help you design a cottage garden. Before you start, make sure you have plenty of Espoma’s organic Bio-tone Starter Plus plant food to make sure your plants get the best possible start.
No Straight Lines
Cottage gardens are always informal and a touch whimsical. Avoid straight lines. Gently curving edging looks more natural and playful. If your site restricts you to a straight edge, let the plants spill over it to create an unrestrained look.
Large Groups of the Same Plant
White cottage gardens are more relaxed in their design, it is still best to use large sweeps of the same plant. Think of planting in groups of three, five or seven. That is far more restful to the eye than a jumble of onsies and twosies.
Spacing Doesn’t Matter
This is one time you do not have to follow the advice on the plant tag. Cottage gardens are always densely planted and generally grow more densely packed with time. Annuals and biennials are often used in cottage gardens and will self-sow in the border. Biennials are plants that take two years to grow and flower from seed like the foxgloves shown. Another advantage to planting things close together is that there is less room for weeds to grow.
Color Harmony
It’s very important to pick a collection of plants that have harmonious colors. Without that the border would look chaotic. Garden Answer uses a collection of soft pinks and peaches with touches of blue and lavender. It needn’t always be soft colors, but they do need to be unified in some way.
Use Varied Heights and Textures
In any planting, it’s a good idea to think about texture, height and foliage color as major design elements. Nothing blooms all the time. Varied foliage forms and colors will create interest even when the flowers aren’t in bloom. Laura uses Heuchera specifically for the silvery foliage color.
Anchor Plants/Structural Elements
This is sometimes referred to as the “bones” of a garden. It’s a structural element that all of the other plants get woven around. In this case, it’s a beautiful shrub rose named Rose ‘The Lady Gardener’, a fragrant beauty with full, apricot blossoms. The rose is repeated three times. Repetition is soothing to the eye. It’s possible to use evergreens for a slightly more formal feel, or whatever peaks your interest.
Fragrance
The first thing everyone does when they pick a flower is to hold it up to their nose. Cottage gardens are known for their fragrance. Try to select varieties that smell good at the garden center. Roses, lavender, sweet peas, and sweet alyssum are all good choices.
Not Perfectly Maintained
Along with relaxed design principles, comes relaxed maintenance. Planting tightly will discourage weeds. Annuals like poppies will self-seed and move around the border, just like the biennial foxgloves. Weeding everything that comes up might mean that you weed out these plants and inhibit their spontaneous movements.
The Look Will Change Over Time
This style of gardening is the exact opposite of a formal border filled with geometric shaped boxwood. By its very nature this is meant to be more random. People often sow cosmos, violas and other plants that have a tendency to move around. Let them surprise you. If you really don’t like where one popped up, it’s easy enough to remove.
Be Patient
Being patient is really what gardening is all about. A garden is never really finished. Enjoy the journey!
Garden Answers Plant List
Nepeta ‘Cat’s Pajamas’ – catmint
Achillea – pink yarrow
Allium ‘Serendipity’ – ornamental onion
Rose ‘The Lady Gardener’
Heuchera Dolce ‘Spearmint’ – Coral Bells
Clematis ‘Brother Stephan’
Digitalis Foxy Hybrids – foxglove
Lobularia ‘Blushing Princess’ – sweet alyssum
Here are more videos from Garden Answer we hope you will enjoy.
Separating large aloe plants into several smaller ones is a wonderful way to propagate new plants to share with friends and family or to use in other projects. It’s also a great way to save money. The large Gold Tooth Aloe Laura from Garden Answer divides in this video cost $22 and produced over 20 new plants.
Aloes are desert plants that are hardy in zones 9-11, or to about 20 degrees Fahrenheit. In cooler regions they may be grown in containers and brought indoors for the winter. Aloe is a clump-forming plant meaning they naturally produce many baby plants called offsets. Mature plants flower in late spring and early summer with bright orange-red blossoms that attract pollinators.
Six Steps to Separating the Offsets
Gently slide the plant out of its container
Wear gloves when handling succulents with sharp foliage
Carefully tease the soil away from the roots
Select an offset and follow its stem down to the spot that it’s attached to the main plant
Break it off with gentle pressure, take your time to remove all of the others
Remove dead, damaged or dried up leaves
Replanting the Mother Plant
It is always best to use fresh soil when repotting since the nutrients in the nursery potting soil are likely used up. All succulents and cacti need a free-draining, organic, potting soil like Espoma’s Cactus Mix. Roots will rot in wet soil. The main plant will still have plenty of roots and can be repotted. Wait to water it for about a week to allow the leaf scars to callous over. This helps to prevent disease and infections.
Photo courtesy of Garden Answer
Replanting the Offsets
The offsets all have open wounds where they were broken off from the main plant. The wounds need several days to dry and callus over. One method involves letting them dry on a table in bright, but indirect sunlight for 5-7 days before planting. They may also be planted right away but not watered in for a week.
Care and Feeding
Aloe prefers full sun to light shade. These plants are drought-resistant but container plants benefit from some extra water during the hottest days of summer. Feed regularly with an organic fertilizer like Espoma’s Cactus! Always follow the package directions.
Check out these blogs for more information about growing succulents and the secrets to their care.
Spring has sprung and it’s time to get outside and plant up some early spring containers. A trip to the local garden center will surely inspire you. Plant big pots of brightly colored bulbs and annuals to liven up entryways, patios and balconies. Laura from Garden Answer shows you just how easy it is to do in the video below.
Laura fills her containers with tulips and violas, true harbingers of spring. Alternatively, you could also use daffodils and other cold hardy annuals like Iceland poppies or nemesia. In cold climates, it’s important to select plans that are hardy enough to withstand a cold snap.
These early spring containers will flower for a month or so, bridging the gap from early spring to the frost-free date. When it’s time to plant summer containers, replant the tulips out into the garden where they’ll bloom again next spring. The violas may also be moved to a lightly shaded area of the garden.
Four Easy Steps to Early Spring Containers
Prep Containers. Fill containers three-quarters full with good, quality potting soil like Espoma’s Potting Mix and prepare to plant bulbs at the depth they were in the nursery pot.
Add Nutrients. Add Bulb-tone fertilizer to the soil, following package directions.
Get ready to plant. Gently remove the plants from their pots and loosen roots. Add plants.
Finish it up. Backfill containers with more potting soil and water deeply.
Enjoy flowers for even longer by choosing tulips or daffodils that are not yet in full bloom. When finished blooming, just remove the flower stem. The leaves will still provide a vertical accent and the bulbs need the foliage to replenish themselves.
Taking time to deadhead the violas will extend their bloom time. If temperatures are cool, you may only need to water containers once a week.
Check out these videos from Garden Answer about tulips and early spring planting.
https://www.espoma.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Thumbnail.jpg10801920espomahttps://www.espoma.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/espoma-logo340w-1.pngespoma2019-03-19 14:13:302024-03-13 15:58:00VIDEO: Spring Flowers Melt the Winter Blues with Garden Answer!
Terrariums are back in style and they’re a fun, easy way to grow and showoff your plants. Terrariums are made of glass and are generally enclose or have a few holes in the cover to provide fresh air. The glass cover traps humidity and recycles it as water, keeping waterings to a minimum. Air holes allow air to circulate and keep the condensation down so that you can see the plants. If your container’s lid doesn’t have air holes, just take the top off from time to time. This is a great way to grow ferns indoors because they need humidity to thrive.
You may not be familiar with hydrostone, a product used for the base layer. It’s a soilless growing media that feels like pumice. It helps deliver the perfect balance of air and water to your plants. It’s a 100 percent recycled product, made in the United States.
Begin by adding a one inch layer of hydrostone in your glass container. Top that with a solid layer of sphagnum moss. This helps hold the soil in place and keeps the stone layer looking clean. Next, add an inch or so of Espoma’s Potting Mix.
Choose your plants. Laura uses maidenhair ferns because they require a high level of humidity, which work perfectly for this type of container. Birds nest ferns and staghorn ferns also work well and look terrific with the curly foliage of the maidenhair ferns. Fern displays are all about texture. Gently remove the plants from their pots and shake off as much soil as you can before nestling them into the new container. Top with a bit more potting soil if necessary.
Decorate the top layer with more moss, rocks, miniature fairy garden figures or natural products like pinecones. Whatever you think will look beautiful is the best choice. Leave one little spot of the top soil open. This way you can look at it to gauge how wet or dry the soil is. Mist soil lightly.
At first, it’s a good idea to check your container once a week for watering needs. In general, they’ll only need water about once a month but each terrarium is slightly different. Don’t kill it with kindness, in other words, don’t over water it. Set your new creation in bright light but not direct sun light as the glass can act as a magnifying glass creating too much heat. Fertilize every other month with Espoma’s Indoor! Liquid fertilizer. Now, sit back and enjoy your very chic looking new art project.
https://www.espoma.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMG_2894.jpeg31905684espomahttps://www.espoma.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/espoma-logo340w-1.pngespoma2019-03-01 11:15:262019-05-07 09:57:01Everything Old Can Be New Again with Terrariums
