4 Best Ways To Use Fall Leaves In Your Garden

The tree leaves that accumulate around your yard or garden can be a valuable natural resource for you to use because they provide a good source of organic matter and nutrients.

Leaves don't always seem like a good thing however, especially when you have a lot of raking to do, but if you can, be thankful and hang on to your leaves.

Leaves contain 50 to 80 percent of the nutrients a plant extracts from the soil and air during the season, so if you can, use and recycle your leaves around your property rather than raking them up and throwing them away.

Here are 4 of the best ways to use leaves in your yard, garden, or landscape:

1. Leaf Uses - Mowing
Mowing leaves that have fallen on your lawn area is most effective when a mulching mower is used, but if the leaf drop is light, a regular mower will work just fine. In fact, during times of light leaf drop, or if there are only a few small trees in your yard, simply leave the shredded leaves in place on the lawn. They will act as a beneficial mulch and compost and will help your lawn.

2. Leaf Uses - Mulching
Leaves can be used as mulch in vegetable gardens, flower beds and around shrubs and trees. The best way is to rake the leaves into a pile and then shred them with your lawn mower or a shredder if you have one.

It you have the option, use a lawn mower with a bagging attachment because it is a fast and easy way to shred and collect the leaves. Leaves that have been mowed or run through some other type of shredder will decompose faster

Leaves that are not shredded won't decompose as well and will only smother what they are put on. Try and never let leaves remain on a lawn without raking them up or they can smother the grass underneath.

• Apply a 3 to 6 inch (7.5 to 15 cm) layer of shredded leaves around the base of trees and shrubs making sure not to put any right up against the trunk or main stem of trees or shrubs.
  
  
• In annual and perennial flower beds, a 2 to 3 inch (5 to 7.5 cm) mulch of shredded leaves is good.
  
  
• For vegetable gardens, a thick layer of leaves placed in between the rows work both as a mulch and as an all-weather walkway that will allow you to work in your garden during wet periods.

3. Leaf Uses - Soil Improvement
Leaves that have been raked and shredded can be worked directly into your garden and flower beds. A 6 to 8 inch (15 to 20 cm) layer of leaves tilled into a heavy, clay soil will improve aeration and drainage. The same amount worked into a light, sandy soil, will improve water and nutrient holding capacity.

Note: A basic strategy for using leaves to improve soil in vegetable gardens and annual planting beds is to collect and work them into the soil during the fall. This allows sufficient time for the leaves to decompose prior to spring planting. Adding a little fertilizer to the soil after working in the leaves will hasten their decomposition.

4. Leaf Uses - Composting
Leaves are great to add to your compost pile or bin. Once again, shredding them first will help them decompose faster, but whole leaves can be added in as well.

Other Helpful Articles:

The Complete Guide To Mulch

Mulching - How Much and How Deep?

For more Gardening Tips and Gardening Advice visit our main gardening website at Weekend Gardener Monthly Web Magazine

Have great week!

Keep Tulip Bulbs Cold!

One of the most common problems with tulip bulbs is that they don't need that much warmth to start breaking dormancy and begin growing.

So it's not unusual to see tulips growing in the middle of winter during a brief warm spell only to be killed or ruined by a heavy frost or snow a few days later.

To avoid this problem, keep your tulips as cold as possible - as long as possible.

Here's What To Do:

1. Tulips need to be planted in cold soil so they don't send up shoots. Tulips planted in warm soil, or even soil that gets a lot of sun during the day where it can warm up won't do as well.

2. Plant tulips deep! Plant them 8 to 10 inches (20 to 25 cm) deep because if they are planted too shallow, it can lead to premature growth. Deep planting also will produce large, uniform flowers for many years, plus deep planting also makes the bulbs less susceptible to mouse and squirrel damage.

3. Mulch the soil - but only AFTER THE SOIL FREEZES. A 2 to 3 inch (5 to 7.5 cm) layer of shredded leaves, wood shavings, or compost in the winter will keep the soil consistently COLD (not warm).

Other Helpful Articles:

How To Buy Flower Bulbs

Confidently Forcing Bulbs - The Best Ever!
Professional tips and insights into forcing bulbs

The First Flowers of Spring
Five delightful plants that flower well before other, more popular spring bulbs

For more Gardening Tips and Gardening Advice visit our main gardening website at Weekend Gardener Monthly Web Magazine

Have great week!

Late Fall Tilling

Tilling your soil in the late fall can be very beneficial, but there can also be some drawbacks.

Benefits:

1. It can help control insects, such as corn borer, corn earworm, cucumber beetle, squash bug, slug eggs, and vine borer because it exposes overwintering insects to winter conditions.

2. It can also make spring soil preparation easier because by adding organic matter now, your soil will be in better condition in a few months and will be easier to dig and plant.

3. Tilling in the fall allows a large amount of organic matter such as guano, compost, bark, and manures to be turned into the soil. This organic matter will start decomposing because the microbes are active currently and ready to start breaking everything down.

Drawbacks:

While all of the above are very good benefits, tilling in the fall should be done with some thought.

1. Soil erosion can be a problem if your area gets huge rain or winds during the fall and winter months. If that is the case, think about the tradeoffs of losing good topsoil to waiting and doing your tilling in the spring.

2. Be careful not to ruin your soil structure. Never work wet soil, especially clay. You may ruin the soil structure for years to come. Here's how to best determine How To Care For Your Soil Structure with this step-by-step article: Care For Your Soil Structure

For more Gardening Tips and Gardening Advice visit our main gardening website at Weekend Gardener Monthly Web Magazine

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Prehistoric Plants

This summer has been a good time to visit various botanical gardens and zoos and to notice that many plants that are used in these public displays today, are actually prehistoric plants.

Interestingly enough, one of the more popular themes within a zoo or botanical garden is the one that grows prehistoric plants.

Well, you can grow some of these exciting specimens in your own yard.

Some prehistoric plants which date back from 150 to 270 million years include:

Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides)

Maidenhair Tree (Ginkgo biloba)

Katsura Tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum)

Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum)

Bayberry (Myrica pensylvanica)

Boxwood (Buxus)

Larch (Larix)

Ferns

For more Gardening Tips and Gardening Advice visit our main gardening website at Weekend Gardener Monthly Web Magazine

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How To Start Cool Fall Crops During Warm Summer Days

The best time to start fall crops is in late summer for a late fall harvest. The problem however, is that the soil and the daytime temperatures can sometimes still be so warm that it can be hard to get cool-weather crops to germinate and grow.

Here is a way to get around that problem!

1. Dig a shallow trench that is about 1 to 2 inches (2.5 to 5 cm) deep.

2. Line the trench with come good garden soil or compost.

3. Put your seeds in the trench, and then cover them shallowly with more compost or garden soil. Don’t worry that the seeds aren’t planted as deep as may be mentioned on the seed packet. Just cover them shallowly.

4. Water the trench and seeds in carefully, but thoroughly.

5. Cover the trench with boards or very thick cardboard. The trick here is to keep the heat out and keep the seeds in the trench cool and in the dark. So the thicker the material you use the cover the trench, the better.

6. Check under the boards regularly, and as soon as you see small pale seedlings growing, remove the boards.

7. Grow your seedlings as usual now that they are started.

This trick works great with several fall crops like broccoli, cabbage, carrots, lettuce, and cauliflower.

For more Gardening Tips and Gardening Advice visit our main gardening website at Weekend Gardener Monthly Web Magazine

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Pepper Plants Have No Fruit

One of the most common complaints heard about pepper plants is that the plant itself is beautiful, but there is no fruit!

The reason is over-fertilization.

Pepper plants don't need a lot of food to grow and do well. They only need about one teaspoon (5 ml) of 5-10-10 at planting time, and another teaspoon at the flowering stage.

If you have fed your peppers more than that, you risk the plant putting all its energy into growing leaves, and not producing any fruit.

How to Fix:

Spray the plant with Epsom salts at the rate of 1 teaspoon (5 ml) dissolved in an old window-spray bottle of warm water. That's about 4 cups (1 liter) of water.

By doing this, you will give your pepper plants a boost of magnesium that is required by these plants at flowering time in order to produce fruit.

Spray them again 10 days later and in a few weeks you will have peppers that you can eat!

For more Gardening Tips and Gardening Advice visit our main gardening website at Weekend Gardener Monthly Web Magazine

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Grow Melons In A Water Well

To grow the best, juiciest melons, one of the most important things you need to do is to make sure that they get enough water.

By growing them in a "water well" you will ensure that they will.

Here's what you do:

1. Make sure each "well" is 5 feet (1.5 m) apart.

2. Dig a hole that is at least 4 inches (10 cm) deep and 18 inches (45 cm) wide.

3. Fill each hole with compost or good rich, loamy soil.

4. Water the compost in thoroughly and let it sit for a day or two.

5. In each composted hole, plant 6 to 8 seeds.

6. When the seedlings begin to emerge, apply a surface mulch of compost and then thin the seedlings to 3 plants per hole.

The compost-rich hole that you have created is retaining moisture much better than regular garden soil and is providing the melon roots the moisture they require to produce juicy, delicious melons.

During hot, dry days, make sure you water the melons deeply when the compost begins to dry out, which could be every day, or every few days depending upon your area.

Either way, make sure the that the soil moisture remains high, which the composted "water well" will greatly help you do.

Other Articles of Interest:

Grow The Juiciest Melons Ever

The Wonders of Mulch
A Complete How To Use Mulch Guide

Mulching - How Much And How Deep?

For more Gardening Tips and Gardening Advice visit our main gardening website at Weekend Gardener Monthly Web Magazine

Have great week!