Vines are climbing or trailing plants that can be used to decorate your flower garden in many ways. The best thing about vines is that they always look good and require very little maintenance. If you have an area in your garden that just doesn’t look good and you want to cover it, plant some vines. Keep in mind that there are many different types of vines. Some you can plant on the side of your home, in the ground as ground cover, or even plant them to grow up a tree. (photo courtesy: thisoldhouse.com)

There are many varieties of ground vines that look great as ground cover for those bare areas in your garden that you need to cover. Usually, ground cover vines grow very fast and strong covering bare areas in just a few weeks. You can also weave ground cover vines in between other plants in your garden to prevent weeds from growing wild or to cover dirt or ugly looking mulch. Believe it or not, you can find a vine variety that is resistant to being stepped on making it ideal for the whole garden area. You can have kids or even a dog step on this type of vine and it will survive.

If you are looking for a climbing vine, then you might like the twining type. It is called twining because it just continues to climb. What you will need for this type of vine is a lattice or something that has a porous surface so the plant can climb up. Once this type of vine starts climbing, they loop around whatever is nearby. Twining vines are ideal to plant under trees and it will climb up rapidly. When you first plant them, you will need to guide them a bit but after that, they will go wherever you want them to. (photo courtesy: gertens.com)

What about Ivy you may ask? It is one of the most popular vines in the market and one that you see in lots of places mainly because it is easy to grow and it adapts quickly to any area. My recommendation is to not let Ivy grow up your house. A recent study suggests that when Ivy grows on a building or a house for many years, it can cause some deterioration to the building structure. My advice here is to keep it away from your house.

Vines in general are very popular plants that look good as ground cover and on lattices and you can actually blend them in to accentuate the structure of your house. You can do this through the use of vines with small tendrils that have adhesive tips that extend from the vine and attach themselves to any surface. If you have a garden that is adjacent to your house, you can start by planting a few vines near the base and serve as a camouflage for the wall. There is a vine called Virginia Creeper and if you plant this one the entire wall will be covered in months. This type of vine grows wild so be careful where you plant it as it may cover your entire house. (photo courtesy: sunset.com)

Remember that vines are easy to grow and require low maintenance but you need to be careful where you plant them. Do some planning before you buy them and figure out what it is that you want to do or what area of your flower garden you want to cover. Find out from your local nursery if the vines that you want to buy have any negative qualities such as damage to the structure of your house.

If you are a gardener like me, then you know how frustrating it can be to find holes in all your plants and flower petals that have been eaten up by pests. The amazing thing with garden pests is that they can do lots of damage very quickly. You may check your flower garden early in the day and by the end of the day, you can find damage done by pests. There are lots of pests that can destroy your garden but some of the most commonly known ones are slugs, caterpillars, snails, birds and worms. From experience, there is no way to get rid of these pests completely but you can control them and save your garden. (photo courtesy: gardenersworld.com)

What about insects you may ask? They are one of the worst things to have in any garden because they can live in weeds, piles of leaves, under the soil and many other places. What I normally do to try and keep insects away is to get rid of places in the garden or even near the garden where the insects could be living. Decaying matter, weeds, old leaves or old mulch must be removed from the garden or yard as this is where insects could be living and destroying your garden. Make it a point to regularly turn over the garden soil and break apart large clumps of dirt. This will eliminate the living spaces that insects may use to hide underground.

There is a dormant garden spray that you can use to get rid of garden pests but you need to be very careful using it. It is called dormant because you normally use it around February or March when plants are dormant and it will keep pests under control. But you can also kill your garden if you don’t follow the instructions given carefully. You can’t just spray this dormant spray everywhere as it will kill your plants. What you need to do is find the places where you know from experience pests can hide and spray just those areas.

Birds can be another problem for your garden if you have fruits and vegetables. Somehow, birds tend to leave flower gardens alone but they love to eat your veggies and fruits. Chasing the birds out of your garden won’t help because they come right back for more. But if you put a large bird feeder somewhere in you yard, it will help to keep the birds away. Be sure to get a squirrel proof bird feeder. Yes, some birds will continue to come back to your garden but not as often because now they have a place with food to eat. If you have a dog, let it loose near the garden and the birds will fly away fast. My dog chases anything that moves in the backyard! (photo courtesy: backyardbird.ca)

There are lots of other pests that can kill your gardens but the ones I mentioned above are the most common ones. The best way to keep your flower garden free of pests is to check it regularly and if you see a problem try to eliminate it as soon as possible. If you are not sure of what the problem is, visit your local garden center and ask for help. Explain to them what is happening to your gardens and they can recommend a course of action to get rid of the pests.

We know that the word perennial means lasting through the year or possibly many years. Of course, that is what is so desirable about planting perennial flowers in your garden. All you have to do is plant them once and they come back every year without you having to spend lots of time caring for them. Did you know that perennials are also considered a weed? Indeed, and this is one weed I don’t mind having in my garden. The best part about gardening with perennials is that you can plant them anywhere in your garden. They are ideal as borders, against walls, along a fence or even around some evergreens or shrubs. (photo courtesy: gardeningtips.com)

Perennial flowers are usually local flowers that don’t require much care and are very strong. One of the things I like is that during their off season, perennial flowers and stems die back but you can’t really tell that the plant is there. Somehow, perennials are not like other plants when they die because they don’t leave a huge brown clump of dead plants in your garden. Just leave them alone and when it is time for them to bloom, new flowers will come up where the old ones were.

Before you plant perennials, make sure that the soil has proper drainage and if the area gets saturated for long periods of time you should build a raised bed. Once this is done, it is time to start selecting your perennial plants. Your goal should be to have the perennials flowering as much as possible through the whole year. The best way to do this is to research the types of flowers you want in your garden and create a list of when these perennials bloom. If you plan this right, you can have blooming perennials all through the year. Keep in mind that getting the right mixture of plants will give your garden a constantly changing array of colors all year long.

Some gardeners start their perennials using seeds but I prefer to go to my local nursery and buying established plants. I also prefer plants that are already flowering so that I can see the color of each plant and figure out the color scheme that will blend in my garden. When visiting your local garden shop or nursery, be sure to ask the employees how well the perennials will do in the area that you live. As an example, when I buy perennials I always ask if they will survive in the ever changing climate that we have here in central Florida. (photo courtesy: mooseysgarden.com)

Use mulch when planting perennials. It will save you lots of time and work by reducing the amount of weeds and increasing water retention. We have lots of pine trees in my backyard so I collect all the pine needles and use them as mulch. This saves me lots of money and it works great as mulch. Be careful with fertilizers on perennials. Use it sparingly once your plants start to come up. Make sure you read the directions that come with your perennials and plant them accordingly.

Some perennials tend to spread out while others just grow tall and if they are planted too close together they might end up choking each other out. What I normally do is plant tall perennials at the back of a wall or you can plant them in the middle of an island bed. You can also plant shorter ones towards the outside so that they look like a border in your garden. Most perennials are easy to grow and require little maintenance. Just water them and watch them grow beautifully. Plan your perennial garden carefully and remember that you don’t have to be an expert gardener to have an awesome display of flowering perennials in your garden. (photo courtesy: thayernursery.com)

Creating a raised bed in your flower garden can be a challenge when you have plants that require good water drainage. I know how frustrating it can be to have a yard that just won’t cooperate when some plants can handle the excess water in an area that doesn’t drain properly but some will not. The plants that do well will benefit from the excess water and it might help them bloom quicker and more beautiful. But other plants just don’t cope as well and these may die quickly. What I normally do when I buy plants for my garden is to check the drainage required for each plant and figure out the area where they will be planted so they get proper drainage and there is no conflict with other plants. (photo courtesy: stauffersdreamgarden.com)

To figure out how much water your designated patch of soil retains, dig a hole about ten inches deep. Fill it with water and check it in a day when all the water has disappeared. Fill the hole again with water and if the second time the hole is full of water, your soil has a low saturation point. This is not good for almost any plant to survive and you need to fix it. The method for improving drainage in your garden is to create a raised bed. You can create a small border for a raised bed and add enough soil and compost to raise it above the rest of the level of the yard by at least 7 inches. Just doing this small border will improve drainage significantly.

The two main areas that you would want to build a raised bed are on grass or dirt. Both of these situations should be built slightly different. If you want a raised garden in a non grassy area, this will be easy to build. Just find some type of border to retain the dirt you will be adding. What really works for me are the good old two by fours. Just grab a few and place them around the area where you want your raised bed. Once the two by fours are in place, add some soil and maybe some manure. I normally wait a while before planting on the raised bed just to make sure there is no deterioration taking place. (photo courtesy: srgc.org.uk)

If you are planning to build a raised bed where sod already exists, this may be a little more difficult to do. For starters, you need to cut the sod around the perimeter of the garden and then flip it over. This is not as simple as it sounds and you need something that has a very sharp edge to slice the edges of the soil and be able to get under it. Once the sod is turned upside down, you can add a layer of straw to prevent the grass from growing back up. On top of the layer of straw, you can add all the soil and manure that a normal garden would need.

After your raised beds are built, you can start planting your plants the same way you’ve planted them before in any other areas of your garden. Be careful and make sure that the roots don’t extend too far into the original ground level. Keep in mind that the whole point of creating a raised bed is to keep the roots out of that ground level that saturates easily. The beauty of a raised bed is that you will notice a great improvement almost immediately after planting you new plants. The new soil added facilitates better root development, evaporation is prevented and decomposition is completely discouraged. Combine all these things and it makes a perfect environment for almost any plant to grow beautifully. So go ahead and start building that raised bed and you will see that the results are worth every bit of work you’ve put into it. (photo courtesy: thenaturalgardener.co.uk)