Watch as Kaleb @WyseGuide adds some instant color to his decorative front flower pots.
Kaleb uses Espoma Organic All Purpose Potting Mix when adding new plants to his outdoor containers.
When planting, we always recommend adding in some Espoma Organic Bio-tone Starter Plus to help provide the nutrients plants need to thrive in their new location.
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Edible landscaping is a fun way to add beauty and flavor to your garden. You can enjoy the beauty of plants and gorgeous curb appeal, while also harvesting delicious fruits, vegetables, and herbs. It can add flavor, nutrition, and beauty to your garden, and provide food for your family. Here are 10 tips to get started.
This blog is inspired by Episode 91 of Growing Joy with Maria Podcast, where host Maria Failla interviewed her mom, lovingly referred to as “Mama Failla” to share her top 10 tips for Edible Landscaping and Gardening.
Start Small
Take the time to familiarize yourself with your land and start with a small section or specific edible plants that you love to eat. This approach allows you to learn and adapt as you go. Maria and her Mom suggest starting with herbs, as they are easy to grow and provide a variety of flavors and colors. Basil is their favorite!
Understand your light and water
Keep an eye on your garden’s light and water needs. During the warmer months, track the sunlight patterns in your garden to ensure adequate exposure. For convenient watering, plan your garden near a hose or irrigation system. If you’re hand-watering, make sure your garden is a manageable size and within your ability to water effectively. When planting, you can use Espoma Organic Bio-Tone Starter Plus to promote strong root development. This will enhance water absorption for your plants.
Understand your soil
Know your soil by getting a local soil test. Then get it ready for planting season by adding a healthy dose of compost and organic matter. Compost is like a multivitamin for your soil, providing essential nutrients and improving soil health. Choose soil and compost that you can transport easily such as Espoma Organic Land & Sea Gourmet Compost.
Check out this fun compost bag hack, Maria’s plant friend Melody taught her.
Pick what you can do, what you want to do, and what you can afford to do
Choose plants that suit your taste, capabilities, and wallet. Divide and reuse perennials to keep costs down and select plants that grow joy. Consider a blend of annuals and perennials for season-long blooms, and boost the soil with Espoma Organic Bulb-Tone when planting bulbs like daffodils and tulips.
Get family and friends involved
Turn gardening into a bonding experience by involving your loved ones in composting and gardening tasks. Assign different garden tasks to family members and share cuttings and plants with neighbors. Teach children in your neighborhood about how plants grow.
Get your gardener involved
If you’re a novice or unsure about your soil, bring in a gardener to give you a hand. They can help pick the right plants and assist with composting and waste disposal. Espoma Organic Garden Lime can adjust your soil’s pH, creating the perfect environment for your plants under the guidance of your gardener.
Plan your seasons
Strategize your garden layout with the seasons in mind. Plant bulbs in the fall for a burst of springtime flowers and add annuals for a summer color party. Plan for winter too with sturdy plants like cabbage and nourish your plants throughout the year with Espoma Organic Plant-tone and Garden-tone.
Start with annual color
Brighten up your garden with vibrant annuals like impatiens, begonias, and coleus. Play with textures for extra visual appeal, unless you’re aiming for a specific plant variety. Improve the growth and vitality of your flowers with Espoma Organic Flower-Tone, a premium flower food that promotes abundant blooms and vibrant colors.
Choose a time to devote to your garden
Gardening loves regular care, so it’s important to set aside specific time to tend to your garden. Three times a week should do the trick, preferably in the cooler mornings. Regular maintenance, like weeding, keeps your garden looking tidy. Use Espoma Organic Weed Preventer to naturally control weeds and create a barrier that saves you time and effort.
Mama Failla’s rules for protecting yourself in the garden
Enjoy gardening but remember to stay safe. Dress in closed-toed shoes, long pants tucked into socks, and a long-sleeved shirt with cuffs that cover your hands. Double-glove to keep your hands clean. Top it off with a hat and sunglasses to protect your skin from the sun, and consider a visor to shield the back of your neck.
By following these tips and putting in the necessary time and effort, your edible landscape will flourish, providing you with a source of joy, beauty, and fresh, homegrown produce. Enjoy your gardening journey and reap the rewards of your efforts!
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Are you adding roses to your garden this season?
Follow along with Laura @Garden Answer as she helps her mom beautify her garden by planting a variety of bare root roses. Laura demonstrates a clear approach to handling bare root roses, from hydrating the roots prior to planting, proper spacing and planting depth as well as the importance of using a good starter fertilizer to help mitigate transplant shock as well as provide the proper nutrients for the plant to mature successfully. Laura uses Espoma Organic Bio-tone Starter Plus to enrich the soil and create an ideal growing environment for all her new plantings.
Learn more about Garden Answer here:
https://www.youtube.com/c/gardenanswer
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Watch as Laura from @gardenanswer freshens up her window boxes with beautiful vibrant flowers. Laura, with the help of @EspomaOrganic demonstrates how you too can add a pop of color to your home this spring.
Learn more about Garden Answer here:
https://www.youtube.com/c/gardenanswer
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https://www.instagram.com/gardenanswer/
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Watch as Laura from @GardenAnswer along with the help of Espoma Organic Seed Starter, takes you step by step through the process of planting and caring for multiple varieties of geraniums.
Laura feeds her indoor geraniums with Indoor! Espoma Organic liquid plant food.
Learn more about Garden Answer here:
https://www.youtube.com/c/gardenanswer
https://www.facebook.com/gardenanswer
https://www.instagram.com/gardenanswer/
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Seed starting is easy when you follow along with Wyse Guide! Bundle up your seeds this winter with Espoma Organic Seed Starter, and by the time it’s warm enough to put them outside, you’ll already have beautiful, strong root growth. Watch the full video below for a step-by-step introduction to spring your seeds into action!
Learn more about Wyse Guide here:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheGrayBoxwood
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WyseGuide/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/WyseGuide/
Website: https://www.wyseguide.com/
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Hang out with Laura @Gardenanswer as she gives her plants some TLC and provides some essential indoor plant care tips!
Laura feeds her indoor plants with Indoor! Espoma Organic liquid plant food.
Learn more about Garden Answer here:
https://www.youtube.com/c/gardenanswer
https://www.facebook.com/gardenanswer
https://www.instagram.com/gardenanswer/
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Who says you can’t pot plants in the winter?
Watch as Laura from @GardenAnswer shows you what she’s planting this time of year while using Espoma Organic Potting Soil Mix and Bio-tone Starter Plus! Laura takes you on a tour of her majestic greenhouse and beautiful plant studio. Take notes as she shares valuable plant care tips that you can utilize to be successful his winter.
Learn more about Garden Answer here:
https://www.youtube.com/c/gardenanswer
https://www.facebook.com/gardenanswer
https://www.instagram.com/gardenanswer/
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People are spending more time than ever indoors and at their screens, and that’s why it’s never been more important to have plants in our living spaces. This blog covers the benefits of having plants indoors and provides simple and affordable tips for greening up your own living space to be more in sync with nature.
This blog is inspired by Episode 113 of Bloom and Grow Radio Podcast, where host Maria Failla discusses why and how to green up your living space.
Why Should I Have Plants Inside My Home?
Being around plants has been proven to have a variety of benefits for humans. Plants can increase your creativity, alertness, productivity, cognitive performance, and concentration. They can also reduce stress, help lower blood pressure and heart rate, and reduce mental fatigue. Not to mention… plants look beautiful! Who doesn’t want a more picture-perfect home?
What is Biophilia?
If you’re reading this, you’re probably already a fan of nature. Biophilia is a hypothesis initially created by psychoanalyst Erich Fromm and then made popular by biologist Edward O. Wilson that states that humans have an innate desire to be around other living things. We are nature, therefore we seek to be around other natural things. It’s why we feel so calm around our pets, or so peaceful in natural settings.
How to Green Up Your Living Space
The best tip to make your space greener: always have a plant in your eyesight. This is especially important for areas you spend a lot of time in: the kitchen, living room, and home office. Make sure that where you look, there is some iteration of plant.
1) Use Plants or Images of Plants
If you have a window in your space, make it a focal point. Place a desk, table, or couch against the window for that visual connection with nature. Put plants within the eye-line of your tables or any place you’ll be looking frequently. Another option is to put pictures of plants on the wall, so if you can’t have the real thing, you can still benefit from seeing pictures of nature. Photos, watercolors, paintings, or even botanical wallpaper can invoke that feeling of plants in your space.
“Maria’s favorite botanical wallpaper is from Rifle Paper Company”
2) Incorporate All of Your Senses
Different sensory inputs can mimic nature in your space too. Think of ways you can incorporate sounds, smells, and textures in nature. A small trickling water fountain, a soundtrack of calming rainforest noises or birdsongs, and scented plants, candles, or diffusers can all help green up your space.
Our favorite scented plants:
3 ) Use Your Space Wisely – Look up!
If you have a small space, this is especially important. Using vertical space to display plants or images of plants can really help fill in empty areas. You can use shelves, install hanging planters, attach plants to curtain rods, or even create green walls. Don’t just let your bookshelf be all business–let it be a little planty as well.
4) Mix Up Your Textures
Greening up your space doesn’t have to be with just living things. There are so many patterns in nature that show up and have been proven to relax us. Consider having accent details in your space made of natural wood grains, leather, stone, fossil textures, or bamboo as a way to mimic being outdoors in nature.
5) Think About Your Light Setup
A window with natural light will of course give you lots of options for plants. But if you don’t have a window, you’re certainly not out of luck! Picking plants for your space is all about understanding your light setup.
Remember: plants use light to make their food. So no light = no food = dead plants. If you truly have no natural light in your home, opt for a grow light.
Suggestions for low-light homes:
Suggestion for high-light homes:
However you choose to green up your living space, remember that plants are our connection to the natural world. Spend screen free time with them everyday. Use watering or caring for them as an excuse to get up from your computer and take some “me time” because plant care is self care.
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Check out Maria’s Planty Home Office Tour for an in-depth look into her setup and her new book Growing Joy: The Plant Lover’s Guide to Cultivating Happiness (and Plants).
For a deeper understanding of the science behind biophilia, read “14 Patterns of Biophilic Design” by William Browning, Catherine Ryan, and Joseph Clancy.
About Bloom & Grow Radio Podcast
Bloom & Grow Radio Podcast helps people care for plants successfully and cultivate more joy in their lives. Host Maria Failla, a former plant killer turned happy plant lady, interviews experts on various aspects of plant care, and encourages listeners to not only care for plants, but learn to care for themselves along the way.
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Another win for Garden Answer! From boxwoods to trees to a brand new bulb-garden, this planting haul is one for the books. Honorable mentions? Espoma Organic’s Bio-Tone, Potting Soil, and Bulb-Tone are the true heroes of this epic. See how they’re essential for long-lasting healthy blooms in the video below!
Learn more about Garden Answer here:
https://www.youtube.com/c/gardenanswer
https://www.facebook.com/gardenanswer
https://www.instagram.com/gardenanswer/
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