Container Gardening

Summer is here and now is the time to relax and enjoy your garden. This is my front garden. As you can see it is in full Summer bloom.

There are still some gardening maintenance tasks but they can be done at a leisurely pace. Water your container plants in the evening during hot dry weather so the plants have the cool of the night to absorb the moisture.

Deadhead your flowers (picking of the spent flowers) to keep your flowers looking great all summer. It will not only spruce up the look of the container, it will often encourage the plant to produce more flowers.

If certain plants get too large, don’t be afraid to cut them back by half or more. Other than lilies or peonies, most perennials will respond well to pruning during the summer. Tall growing plants might need to be staked. This is easiest to do when the plants are first planted because they can be be firmly fastened to the support as they grow taller.

Enjoy the fruits of your Spring labour.

Lori

Tags: gardening

Having humming birds in my garden is a great enjoyment. From their perch, these tiny birds keep a constant eye on their surroundings. With agility and speed, hummingbirds launch at any intruder and after a quick battle the birds return to their perch and are on the lookout again.

A hummingbird’s speed and agility, squeaky chatter, and buzzing sound make them unique and amazing. They are guided by visual means and are attracted to certain shades of red as many red coloured flowers happen to be good sources of nectar.

The following plants are some of the hummingbird’s favourites:

Annuals: Begonia, impatients, canna (red), cosmos, zinnia, petunia, salvia (red), fuschia

Perennials: Columbine, bleeding heart, hollyhock (red), delphinium (dark colours), bee balm

Shrubs: Buddleia, Weigelia

Vines: Honey suckle, red morning glory (annual fast growing vine which produces flowers throughout summer), cardinal climber (annual)

Also, think of adding water, a waterfall with its trickling and splashing water sounds will act like a magnet for humming birds.

By making these changes to your garden you too can enjoy watching humming birds dart in and out of the flowers drinking your morning coffee.

Lori

Tags: attracting humming birds, gardening, humming birds