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.

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.

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.

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.

Here are some other flower gardening sites that I found for you to browse. Thanks for visiting Best Flower Gardening!

At Longwood Gardens the clivia houseplant is anything but ordinary ...
Flower Gardens (@GardenOfFlowers) on Twitter
Moon Gardens Are a Popular Way to Relax Outdoors at Night - WSJ ...
I am looking for some PA gardening websites and blogs? - Yahoo ...
Washingtonpost.com: Live Online
AOL.com Video - 30 Minute Flower Garden

Technorati Tags: Ground Cover, Ivy vines, trailing vines, twining vines, vines, Virginia Creeper vines

Our days are getting warmer signaling the coming of summer and it is time to get our gardens in shape. There is a lot of work ahead for me as we had the coldest winter on record here in Florida this year. As a result, most of my flower gardens died and I just finished cleaning up all the dead plants, shrubs and some trees. Of course this is an extra expense that I don’t need but it has to be done. I need to buy lots of new plants and shrubs for my gardens but will be careful to stay on budget.

What I plan to do to save some money is to shop around for bargains at our local garden places and also change the landscape of the gardens and plant less than what I had last year. I am grateful that my rose garden survived the cold weather and the roses are coming back so no need to make changes there. For the rest of the gardens, here is what I will do and you can do this too and save some money.

Buy lots of Ground Cover Plants

Last year, I had many different species of small flowers planted in various areas of the gardens. This year, I will buy lots of ground cover of the same flower and plant them to cover large areas. Buying the same plant will save me some money as opposed to buying different species that are all different prices. Annuals are bountiful now and add gorgeous color to any garden so I will get a bunch of these keeping in mind that one Petunia plant can cover up to four feet of ground in the garden. The best thing about Petunias is that they require very little care.

Buy Flowering Gardening Herbs

Plant flowering gardening herbs mixed with other flowers. I will buy rosemary plants for my gardens and benefit from its beautiful flower and also use it in the kitchen for cooking. Definitely a way to save some money! Rosemary plants are very fragrant and have pretty violet blue flowers. Since Rosemary comes as a trailing plant, I can use it as a ground cover in some of the bare areas of my garden. There is an upright version of Rosemary but it grows up to 4 feet tall so be sure to plant it away from the smaller plants in your garden. Basil is another flowering herb that can be planted in your garden in between your other flowers.

Buy small Flowering Shrubs or Trees

On one of my gardens, I will buy a small flowering tree or an evergreen shrub and planted in the center of that garden. I will then buy a contrasting color ground cover to fill in the rest of the bare area around the shrub. Don’t do this in your garden in front of your home as it may diminish the view from your windows. This one garden I have is on the side of the house and away from the front windows. This will save me some money as I will spend approximately $20.00 for the shrub and maybe $15.00 for ground cover. Buying a variety of all different types of plants to cover that garden will cost much more than this. The possibilities are endless on how you can have a gorgeous garden and stay within budget to save money. So go ahead and experiment with some of these ideas and more importantly, have fun working on your garden.

Here are some other flower gardening sites that I found for you to browse. Thanks for visiting Best Flower Gardening!

Washingtonpost.com: Live Online
BBC - Chelsea Flower Show 2011 - List of show gardens with awards
Twitter / Flower Gardens: Flower Gardening Tips : Ho ...
2011 Rollouts Hit the Garden - WSJ.com
Flower Gardening: Stephanotis or Madagascan Jasmine - YouTube
flower owl | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Technorati Tags: Flowering Herbs, Gardening Money Savings, Ground Cover, Petunias, Roses, shrubs, trees