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The smell of autumn was in the air when I ventured outside this morning and as well all say every year at this time, wow summer went by really quickly. Of course we still have months of good weather so don’t get into a tizzy and start polishing your snow blower just yet.

I ran across a short piece this morning titled Be Proactive In Your Garden and with the time fast approaching to put our gardens to bed for the winter it is a good reminder.

“Proactive gardening is simply doing the important things to ensure the health of your garden before you see a problem. It’s providing the best growing environment, including sunlight, great soil and putting the right plant in the right place. It’s spacing your plants appropriately for air circulation and sunlight; it’s watering properly and using plenty of mulch.”

And staying with the theme of auttumn I ran across a great piece about indoor gardening that is avaialbe in Michagan. It seems that the county is offering rasied plots in their 30,000 sg foot greenhouse allowing you to grow veggies and plants all through the cold weather.. Now is this a good idea or what.

“Oakland County is now providing an option for gardeners who want to continue growing plants and veggies through the cold winter months. They’ve got 30,000 square feet of prime greenhouse space in Waterford and it is all up for grabs.“  Green Thumbs Can Toil In The Soil This Winter.

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Choices for the look of your walkway or patio have never been as abundant as they are right now. There are dozens and dozens of different textures and colors and textures to choose from when you are looking at pavers. And pavers have never been easier to install for the do-it-yourself homeowner, there are a multitude of how-to videos that are produced by the manufactures along with great entries from homeowners themselves and cable stations like the DIY network.

Once you have that dream walkway, patio or garden area done and it has been exposed to the weather for a number of cold New England winters even using the strongest and best made pavers there is bound to be a need for some maintenance. Tom Phelan has written a good primer on repairing your paver installation titled Resurrecting fallen walkway pavers.

“Once you have removed all the stones from the reconstruction area, you will need to spread a new layer of sand, and level it to receive the stones once again. The level of the sand must be slightly high, because it will be compressed during the reinstallation process. To level the sand, cut a screed board with notches at each end. The notched ends will rest on the stable pavers. The depth of the center of the screed should be about 1/8” less than the thickness of the paver. Fill in the low areas, level with the screed board, tamp, and repeat until you feel you have a level, firm base.”

A little TLC can go along way in keeping your paver installation looking great for decades or even longer. If you have a great tip about pavers please leave a comment below…

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A Bonsai tree is not really a particular species of tree, rather it just means a small tree or plant. The Bonsai is a traditional Japanese planting that many people love. The reason I’m writing about this today is that I came across an article in the Northampton Chronicle (UK) that lays out the procedure to start your own voyage into the art of the Bonsai plantings.

Northampton Garden Centre’s (UK) Lee Whitestone shares a wealth of information about Bonsai plantings in her article titled How To Grow A Bonsai Tree.

What do Tomatoes, Sweet Peppers and Arugula have in common? They belong to a group of vegetables that according to some people are worth your time and effort to grow because you get a positive return on your investment (ROI).  When you take into account the time, water and land you have to invest into a vegetable garden you may find some veggies are much cheaper at farmers markets or in your neighborhood store.

Of course I’m not talking about the intangibles of fun and satisfaction that you gain from growing your own produce, those are to quote a well know advertising campaign “priceless.” For many putting the time and energy into a vegetable garden is the reward itself and the harvest of ripe and succulent veggies is frosting on the cake and not the only reason for the effort. At WalletPop, Sarah Gilbert writes about ROI in an article titled Garden Crops That Make Financial Sense. Check it out.

To most vegetable gardeners saying a plant does not have a positive ROI is like telling a Bonsai lover that their time and effort does not make sense because you’ll never be able to chop a Bonsai Tree into firewood to sell or keep you home warm. This way of thinking misses the point entirely.

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I saw an interesting story this morning over at the San Francisco Chronicle talking about how as part of a recovery program teens are asked to volunteer to work in the organic gardens at the center where they reside. “In addition to contributing to a healthy diet, gardening gets teens outdoors and involved in a hands-on activity. Surrounded by the peacefulness of nature, the garden can be a meditative place to relax in between therapy sessions, educational lectures and 12-Step meetings. It also introduces teens to various recovery concepts and builds their confidence.” To those of us who love gardening and landscaping it comes as no surprise that working in a garden can have huge benefits to how these troubled teens view themselves and the world around them. Good luck to all of them.

Another story about getting kids involved in gardening comes from the Northampton Chronicle in the UK. It seems that their idea center around getting kids to visit and get involved with the gardening movement at an early age. “The youngsters learn about the different parts of the plants that get eaten whether it is the flower of a cauliflower, the stem of some celery or the root of a carrot. And they have a tasting session to really get the idea.”  In addition to getting more people involved the food grown is distributed locally to those in need, seems to me it’s a win all around for this project and who knows how many bright and creative landscaping minds will be sparked by their time spend at the community gardens.

And finally today I saw that in Antioch, Illinois they just dedicated more space to expand the community gardens for residents. For just 25.00 you get the rights to grow veggies and flowers in a 10×12 foot plot of land. The town trustees are thinking of expanding the number of plots next year from the current twenty because of demand. Besides the obvious benefit to the community of civic pride and neighborliness people in the project will be giving some of the produce to a local project to help families that are in need.

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I came across an interesting article this morning in the Seattle Times titled No Space For Plants. The story is a well written primer on vertical gardening and very friendly to all levels of expertise. I’ve always loved vines and flowers that cover brick walls, it seems to bring a serenity into the yard that was not there before the plantings matured.

Here’s an excerpt from this story “The trendiest vertical gardening technique is living walls — fences, patio walls or other surfaces covered in plants, flowers, succulents, even fruits and vegetables.”

I like the idea of living walls, growing up I always liked how some of my neighbors used trellises covered in vines and flowers to mark out different areas of the yard. The trellis were kind of magical portals into places like the vegetable garden, the pool, the yard itself and even the gardening shed had a trellis covered in green. But you don’t need to erect a trellis in order to create a vertical garden, you can use almost any vertical surface in your yard.

On another note, I came across this video about the University of Maine’s gardening program. The gardens are open to the public. So if you are traveling to Maine this summer check out the U of Maine in Orono.

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Now that summer is in full swing many of us will be jumping into landscaping and gardening with all the free time we have. Before you start putting in lots of hours making your yard and gardens beautiful you might want to read this article titled, Celebrate National Gardening Day without injury. The article has some good common sense ideas for avoiding injury while doing the gardening we love.

I’m not sure the term Sumo Gardening will catch on but you might find the story of one gardeners struggle to keeps things moving forward in her yard.

Finally today I came across the most amazing idea I have seen in a long time, the company is called Farmscape and is located in Calif. The PBS article tells the story of how a number of neighbors got together and hired Farmscape to help them build a number of raised gardens and teach them to have green thumbs. Is this a great idea or what. You can read all about it here Farmscape helps home gardeners make their brown thumbs greener Just think of the benefits of learning and getting fresh produce as well. Happy Landscaping and Gardening.

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Suns out and this weekend is a great time to do a whole house and property inspection. There are always little things about to go wrong and by visually checking everything out you can save yourself tons of headaches and money later on.

Here is a list of things to check, look for things like wood drying out or rot as well as surfaces that may need resealing.

With your knuckles rap on wood to see if there are any hidden things going on.

1. Roofs
2. Window and Sills
3. Gutters
4. Pavers
5. Fences
6. Trellises
7. Pool Liners (equipment)
8. Foundation – outside and in
9. Driveway surfaces
10. Mulch quality
11. Ceilings
12. Floors
13. Under Sinks
14. Behind Toilets
15. Garden Walls & Retaining

Doing a yearly check will go along way toward avoiding those nasty surprises. I’m sure you get the idea. Start at one corner of your home and yard and look over everything. Spending just a couple of hours twice a year will save you a lot in the end.

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I found this little video and thought it was worth sharing, it is a simple tip that can make a huge difference in getting your design just right.

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Landscaping projects done by professionals look great there is no doubt, but doing the design and work needed to transform your own yard or garden area is within your reach. Most homeowners don’t have the time to design and build their own landscaped paradise but to those of you who dream of a DIY project there are tons of tools and resources available to you.

An alternative to a total DIY project is to hire a landscape designer to create the plans and walk you through them. Once you have the plans in hand you can start creating your dream design over the summer. Make no mistake it won’t be an easy task but if you think through each step and back everything up with good research you can succeed.

If you are in search of a vacation this coming August may I suggest flying of to Worthing, England for the 14th annual Worthing International Birdman Festival. The Birdman is a flight competition for human powered flying machines held each summer in the picturesque seaside town of Worthing on England\’s South Coast. Now this just might be just what you are looking for.

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Most of us in New England have not had to worry about watering our lawns during the month of May, with all the rain our sprinkler systems have had an extended holiday. But the rain will not last forever and when the dry days of summer come along we will be firing up our water delivery systems so as to not lose our lawns and gardens.

Have you thought of integrating satellites to control when your sprinklers turn on and how much water they deliver. You read that right. “satellites”. More and more satellites are being used to make our lives easier and in the case of water lawns and gardens satellites can save on the amount of water used and tell you sprinklers when and where to turn on. I’m sure someone will create an iPhone or Droid app soon so you can communicate with your sprinkler system when you are halfway around the world.

I ran across an interesting group while surfing on the web. The group is called the Quiet Garden Movement. This movement was started by Quaker members in England to build more spaces affording people space to reflect, relax and just chill out. I think it is a great idea and one I hope will spread to more groups and individuals as a way to promote time for quiet reflection.

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