If you’re thinking about starting a garden, the first thing you need to consider is what type of garden you will have. There are many different choices and often it can be hard to pick just one, but hopefully you can narrow it down. And by narrowing it down, you’ll make the gardening experience easier on yourself and the plants. If all your plants are similar, then it shouldn’t be very hard to care for them all. So here are some of the main garden ideas for you to choose from. (photo courtesy: Breck’s)

If you’re just looking for something to look nice in your yard, you’ll want a flower garden. You can easily design a flower garden with perennials and those gorgeous colorful annuals that show up in the spring. Perennial flowers are flowers which stay healthy year-round and are basically called weeds because of their hardiness, only nice looking. Different areas and climates have different flowers which are considered perennials. If you do a quick internet search for your area, you can probably find a list of flowers that will bring your flower garden to life. Breck’s has a great selection of perennials that are of the best quality so be sure to check them out. Perennials usually only require work in the planting stage – after that, you can relax and enjoy them.

Another choice for your garden is to have a vegetable garden which requires a little more work and research than a flower garden, but can be much more rewarding. No matter what time of the year it is, you can usually find one vegetable that is still prospering. You can design your vegetable garden to give you produce almost every day of the year! When starting a vegetable garden, you should build it with the thought in mind that you will be adding more types of veggies in later. This will help your expandability. Once all your current crops are out of season, you won’t be stuck with almost nowhere to put the new crops. A vegetable garden is ideal for someone who wants some produce, but doesn’t want to devote every waking hour to perfecting their garden.

One of the more difficult types of gardens to manage is a fruit garden. It’s definitely the most high-maintenance because when growing fruits, many more pests will be attracted to their sweetness. You not only have to deal with having just the right dirt and fertilizer, you have to deal with choosing a pesticide that won’t kill whoever eats the fruits and hopefully you will consider getting an echo-friendly pesticide. Your fruit garden will probably not produce year-round. The soil needs to be just right for the plants to grow, and putting in another crop during its off-season could be disastrous to its growth process. If you’re willing to put lots of work into maintaining a garden, then a fruit garden could be a good choice for you.

So now that I’ve outlined some of the main garden types that people choose, I hope you can make a good decision. Basically, the garden type comes down to what kind of product you want, and how much work you want to put into it. If you’re looking for no product with less work, go with a flower garden. If you want lots of delicious product, and you are willing to spend hours in your garden each day, then go for a fruit garden. Just make sure you don’t get into something you can’t handle!

It is starting to warm up a bit in some areas and there are lots of things you can do in your garden to get ready for spring season. Hopefully, you took care of your plants before the cold weather by watering them and adding lots of mulch to your shrubs and trees. Also, during really cold fronts, like the one we just had here in Florida, you covered your perennials and all tender shrubs with blankets and quilts. (photo courtesy: wikipedia.org)

But as you look around your garden, you see those sad looking flowerbeds that are still frozen and actually crunches when you touch them. Some perennials, pansies and snapdragons may be drooping and when you touch the soil it is frozen solid. Gosh! It really is sad to see your garden look like this. But this in reality is what happens to your garden during the colder months in the northern areas or even cold fronts like we have here in Florida.

If you have hardy perennials in your garden, the good news is that snow and ice act as insulators and this actually may have helped the plants survive the cold weather. Some gardeners believe that after a big freeze or cold front, you should not wash the ice or frost off the plants because it may damage the plants. Leave the frost alone and wait until the soil is completely thawed and dry before working on the garden.

Once the soil is frost free, water it lightly to make sure the roots don’t dry up completely. Don’t over water as this may cause your plants to rot. Once it starts warming up in your area, start removing the damaged leaves from your perennials and other plants that were affected by the freeze. Be sure to remove any leaves that look mushy, yellow or dried out to prevent the spread of disease. Remember that the roots of these plants were somewhat protected even during a cold front and these should come back healthy in the spring.

The exception to this is tropical plants that are sometimes called “woody” plants. Don’t prune plants like hibiscus or lantana right after a big freeze or frost. These plants are best pruned in the spring or once the danger of frost is gone. Wait until you see new growth beginning to sprout or you can scratch the bark lightly until you see green wood. If the green is there, go ahead and prune your tropical plants.

It is October and cooler temperatures are in the horizon signaling the end of busy summer gardening chores. There are no set standards to winterize your garden because it really depends on where you live and weather conditions in your area. But there are some things you can do now without much effort. Start by taking inventory of what worked well in your garden during the summer and what you would like to change. (photo courtesy: Breck’s)

Remove all the annual plants that should be just about gone by now and figure out if you want to plant fall flowering plants in the bare areas left by the annuals. Choose your fall flowering plants carefully as not all do well in cold weather. But it is still early enough for you to have a beautiful fall garden. Also, the fall season is the time when perennial plants need to be pruned and trimmed before these go dormant for the winter months.

There are lots of branches that need to be cut from trees and bushes and this is actually good for the plants in the coming spring season. Most gardeners agree that pruning and trimming at this time of the year is good for the dormant plants as these will support new growth during the spring.

If you need to trim some trees of branches that can be easily removed, be sure that you have the right tool for the job. In general, big tree trimming should be done by a professional arborist. However, if a pole pruner is all you need, then be sure to remove no more than a third of the total bud and leaf-bud bearing branches. (photo courtesy: hometips.com)

Avoid scalping a tree and be sure to cut to the tree’s natural shape. Remove dead branches but make sure these are not dormant ones that can stay on the tree. One way to find out is if the branch looked dead and had no leaves in the summer, it is time to remove it. Take a look and prune out diseased limbs and cut below the diseased areas. If you see branches that are in your way where you walk or mow, trim them. Branches should be cut next to the branch collar which is the area that the bark and trunk meet.

If you have dogwood, walnut, birches and maple trees, these should be pruned in the summer or fall because these will bleed sap when pruned in early spring or late winter. Use caution when pruning evergreens that have needles such as pine or spruce because these will not bounce back from a bad pruning. My recommendation is to only remove diseased or dead branches from evergreens.

And don’t forget your roses. If you have a rose garden, be sure to prune them in the fall or winter if you live in northern regions. Somehow, roses do benefit from fall and winter pruning and will come back stronger in the spring. Climbing roses should be pruned right before the leaf buds break and in colder climates this should be done late winter or early spring when danger of frost has passed. If you live in southern regions, chances are that you will have roses all year round and pruning can be done several times a year. (photo courtesy: missouri.edu)

Get beautiful color during the winter months by planting Cyclamen. It is native to the Mediterranean region from Spain to east of Iran, and also in northeast Africa. Although Cyclamen has been confused with Persian violet or primrose, it is actually in the myrsinaceae family and has nothing to do with primroses or violets.

Cyclamen are herbaceous plants with a surface or underground tuber which produces leaves and blooms during the winter months and continues to bloom until April each year. They can be propagated from seeds but usually takes between 9-18 months to reach the flowering stage. For this reason, it is best to buy the plants at a local nursery which are already established.

These garden beauties rarely do well in warm weather and they do have a dormant period during the summer months. One key feature of Cyclamen is its unusual variety of leaves and markings which range from round to oval, arrowhead shape, and ivy-leaved ones. Cyclamen is a tuberous potted plant that loves the cool weather and indirect sun light. They thrive in temperatures ranging from 55 to 65 degrees.

This gorgeous plant will give you lots of much needed color during the winter months and will continuously bloom all season long. The leaves are deep green heart-shaped with silvery marbled patterns. Cyclamen will do well if planted in the garden where winters are mild, but my advice is to plant them in containers and place them in the patio. They also do well in balconies, window boxes and large flower pots.

Caring for Cyclamen is easy as these require very little care. Just make sure that the soil if kept moist but be careful not to over water them and that they have indirect sun light. With proper light, adequate moist soil and cool temperatures, you will have beautiful color in your garden all winter long. If your garden lacks color during the long winter months, go ahead and get some Cyclamen plants and place them in your garden. To get you started, here are some Cyclamen that I am familiar with.

Hardy Cyclamen Lily Pad White – Botanical name is Cyclamen coum Lily Pad White

Photo courtesy of Park Seed Co.
This hardy Cyclamen blooms continuously from December to April with gorgeous white blooms above silvery green foliage. The blooms seem to arch above the wide rounded heart shaped foliage which looks like little frogs jumping from one lily pad to the next. The leaves usually arise in autumn and are olive green shade with silver overtones. These will tolerate frost and other inclement winter conditions and around December, white blooms will appear which will continue for up to 5 months. Lily Pad White likes the shade and thrives in zones 5-9.

Hardy Cyclamen Neapolitanum – Botanical name is the same

Photo courtesy of Park Seed Co.
Wow! This Cyclamen is hardy even in 20 degrees Fahrenheit. This dainty Cyclamen is ideal for planting under the shade of trees to add beauty and color to your garden. It offers masses of lilac flowers with rich dark eyes and petals curving upward above heart shaped foliage. It thrives in zones 5-9 and in the shade beneath trees and shrubs and can also be planted in containers or pots.

Hardy Cyclamen Lily Pad Pink – Botanical name is Cyclamen coum Lily Pad Pink

Photo courtesy of Park Seed Co.
This Cyclamen actually tolerates frost and inclement winter weather. Recommended for the shade garden, Lily Pad Pink blooms continuously from late winter to mid spring. It has lavender-pink flowers and two tone green foliage marked with silver. Plant these in containers or large pots or even beneath trees or shrubs for a stunning winter flowering garden.

To a beautiful winter garden,
Diana