Simple Tips to Bring Autumn to your Front Door this Season

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Wreaths or Swag

Wreaths or swags are possibly the most common elements that are used to décor the front door during autumn. What you have to take care is if the front door wreath is complementing to the design and color of your porch and entryway. Traditional harvest, autumn foliages, artificial or natural fruits and flowers, peacock feathers, acorns, pinecones, etc. are common materials used for making such wreaths. You can either buy or custom-make such a wreath and hang on your front door.

Instead of wreaths, you can go for buckets full of fall flowers too. Attach a hook to your door and hang one or two rustic-style bucket filled with fall blooms like small sized flowers and red-colored berries. Swag wreaths offer a gorgeous way to display rustic elements like this Autumn Wreath Swag are nice additions to welcome guests. Visit our fall wreaths on How to Make a Burlap Wreath!

Use Fall Harvest & Plants

Gourds and pumpkins are common fall harvest and are essential part of fall décor. Line the front steps of your home with metallic or wooden gourds and pumpkins and pots of fall flowers like asters, mums, heuchera, verbena, oxalis, etc. Hang a door-framing garland made of black feathers. This garland and pumpkins will bring an early Halloween feel into your porch.

How To Plant Beautiful Flowers Year Around

Building a Garden with Flowering Shrubs & Beautiful Flowers

It’s always helpful to use a planner to watch your garden’s growth and to keep track of what is growing each season. By recording the seeds you planted, you can see which plants are faring well and know which ones are in bloom. Secondly, you will need to study the appropriate flowers in your area. What grows in Southern Georgia isn’t necessarily going to grow well in Wisconsin. Utilize a combination of hardy perennial wild flower seeds, annuals, and container plantings to add color and life to your garden. For cooler regions, look to foliage for added color and dimension to the garden. We may not think of lush greenery as interesting but when it’s cooler outside with no spring color, that lush green can add life to our home. Another trick is to ensure the beauty of the garden by planting at least two items that will grow together in harmony. You don’t want one plant to overpower another but to rather be gracious roommates.

These 17 Beautiful Flowers produce year around color from HGTV.

Beautiful Flowers for Your Garden Planters and Flower Beds

Always be sure that your garden area is filled with plants that will do well with the amount of sun and shade your area provides. Our next suggestion is to incorporate plants that are native to your area, it promotes healthy support of local plants and foliage so that they continue to thrive. Those of us working closely with the land can respect the importance of supporting the growth of the natives! A few suggestions for your year round garden include:

Spring Flowers Varieties 

• Pansy
• Tulip
• Peony
• Snowdrop
• Daffodil
• Crocus
• Hellebore
• Grape Hyacinth

Summer Blooms

• Coneflower
• Zinnia
• Bee Balm
• Black-Eyed Susan
• Hydrangea
• Guara
• Nasturtium
• Verbena
• Marigold
• Hibiscus

These summer gardening tips will help you have beautiful flowers!

Fall Flower Types

• Asters
• Mums
• Begonia
• Sumac
• Beautyberry
• Goldenrod
• Russian Sage

Winter Landscaping and Flower Types

• Camellia
• Holly
• Firethorn
• Chokeberry
• Winter Jasmine
• Cotoneaster
• Nandina

Read our best winter gardening tips here. 

The Best Gardening Tips for Container Plants

If you wish to utilize containers in your gardening, you can plant just about anything in those to spruce up your window boxes and decorative containers. Some plants really should be in containers, such as any kind of mint, because of their invasive nature. There is nothing worse than planting an invasive plant in the ground and having it completely take over your garden. Here are out top picks for your containers:

Beautiful Flowers for the Spring

o  Cineraria

o  Oxalis

o  Heuchera

o  Edibles (Oregano, sage, thyme, mint, parsley, lemon balm)

Summer Flowers for Container Gardens

• Ageratum
• Coleus
• Double Impatiens
• Ivy
• Petunias

Fall Flowers

• African Daisy
• Snapdragon
• Twinspur
• Sweet Alyssum
• Coral Bells

Sunflowers make gorgeous container flowers!

Winter

• Yucca
• Japanese Pieris
• Boxwood
• Japanese Sedge

Year round gardening is possible with a little know-how and some tenacity. Be sure to consult your local gardening center to help with finding the right plants for your area. Even picking out the right sunflower will ensure a successful and beautiful garden that will brighten your home no matter what season you are in. Gardening in all seasons will teach you plenty about your property and how to care for the soil in ways that will ensure healthy gardening in years to come.

For more beautiful flowers and gardening tips on Stagetecture, click here.

Typically, sunflowers are very easy to grow. They require minimal maintenance. You just need to sow the seeds in your garden, sprinkle some amount of water every day and thin the sunflower seedlings as they start to sprout. But sunflowers differ in their varieties. Knowing which variety fits you provides additional reasons to awaken your garden with gorgeous yellow throughout the spring and summer.

Gardening Tips: Choosing The Right Sunflower To Grow

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The Farmers Almanac gives you a good overview of how to grow sunflowers too!

Here are some tips on choosing the right sunflower to grow in your garden:

Varieties of Sunflowers: Teddy bear, Elf or Junior

This sunflower variety is great for a garden with limited space. This type doesn’t require too much space as they are typically smaller than any sunflower variety.

Sunflower Gardening: Solar Flare

This is a dazzling flame-type sunflower. The vibrant colors of this type will truly dazzle and impress anyone who can see it. You can get sunflower seedlings and seeds here.

For Sunflower Gardening books, look at these helpful resources:

How to Grow Sunflowers

Sunflower Gardening Book

Two of the Harlows or Lemon Queen

If you want to see multi-branching sunflower type, this is your best choice. This type is also good for homes with limited garden space.

How to Grow Strawberry Blonde Hybrid Sunflowers

If you aim for uniqueness, this is it! The Strawberry Blonde Hybrid is considered as the first rose-pink sunflower. Now, isn’t that unique? This type is exceptional in beauty and rarity.

Chianti Hybrid

This is another hybrid sunflower variety. It is not your typical yellow sunflower. The Chianti Hybrid sunflower an eye-catching wine-red velvet petals with spotted gold. These are gorgeous for decorating your home or for giving in a lush bouquet.

Try looking at sunflower gardening inspiration before growing your own.

Sunflower Gardening: Fantasia Mix

Make your fantasy come to display with this extraordinary array of flower colors. This type provides a fancy look in your garden.

When it comes to your home garden, you don’t settle for anything less. Plant your sunflower of choice and see how it electrifies the beauty of your garden.

For more gardening tips on Stagetecture, click here.

Greenhouses are a great way to achieve optimal surroundings around your plants, as well as keep your plants from being chewed up by animals and pesky insects that would normally be found outside in the open air.

You Tube Video – How to Build a Greenhouse

Hobby Greenhouse Building & Construction Planning 101

Owning a hobby greenhouse is probably every gardening enthusiast’s dream. This is because greenhouses allow you to grow the kind of plants that you want at any time of the year under controlled conditions.

• But before you rush into constructing one, here are some very important points that you need to determine first before starting anything and if you get stuck read additional green building plans.

If gardening really is your hobby, then it is best to invest in the biggest greenhouse that you can find.

1. It may be an expensive initial investment yes, but it will be more costly to get a smaller spaced greenhouse and have it expanded later.
2. Most of the time, you are bound to fill up your greenhouse space in no time at all so it’s best to utilize what space that you have rather than invest in more costly expansions in the future.

Build a Greenhouse: Heating and ventilation requirements

This is probably one of the most important parts of a greenhouse.

1. The real essence of greenhouses is the ability to grow plants at a controlled condition and this can only be done through proper heating and ventilation systems.
2. There are actually a number of heating systems available in the market – from the natural gas, electric, gas and propane heating.
3. It is just a matter of your budget and the availability of these heating systems in your area.
4. One of the most convenient systems to use is the electric system but can be a problem during blackouts and power shortages.

Siding materials for your Greenhouse

The kind of siding materials you use is very important because this will affect the amount of sunlight penetrating into your greenhouse during the day.

1. As much as possible, you would like to have the most amount of sunlight into your greenhouses because it is essential for plant life.
2. The best siding option here would be glass. Aside from light diffusion, insulation is also an important factor.
3. Siding materials should be able to keep your greenhouses well insulated and prevent too much temperature fluctuation, which could damage or even kill your plants.

Greenhouse Framing Ideas

Frames should be strong enough to support your entire structure during harsh weathers – from heat, rain or snow.

• The choice of framing materials will depend in the kind of siding you use. Use stronger frames for heavier sidings.
• Wood is great aesthetic-wise but PVC and aluminum frames are mode durable and requires less maintenance.

There are actually hobby greenhouse kits available in the market.

• They come complete with materials and instructions and with pre-measured materials so make sure that the kits you buy fit your space.
• This can save you the hassle of buying and selecting materials one by one. But if you want a more customized greenhouse and love the work, then by all means, go the other way and start your greenhouse from scratch.

Aside from these, you also need to keep in mind that some areas may require local building permits for greenhouse constructions so check if your local government requires them or not before starting the work.

Love to garden? You may like this Container Gardening post too!

For more DIY Saturday‘s on Stagetecture, click here.

Weekend Gardening: Edibles to Grow This Spring

How to Grow Container Herbs

Herbs are ideal for container gardens. They are easy to plant and thrive and they are low-maintenance. Having your fresh, favorite herbs ready to be used is the ultimate key to creating delightful dishes. Some of the herbs like mint are better to be grown in containers since they can grow easily and take up a lot of space if planted in a garden. Some ideas for herbs to be planted are oregano, parsley, thyme, and cilantro, all of which can be harvested and dried if needed. Other ideas are to plant basil, lemongrass, and rosemary. Those herbs require larger containers if not planted in a garden. Here are some herbs we love to grow.

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Weekend Gardening: Learn to Grow Strawberries in a Container

Strawberries are great to be grown in containers or a garden. They can be harvested and turned into delicious marmalades, desserts, sauces or ice cream and even be frozen to be used at a later time. Containers are ideal for growing strawberries because they will grow over the edges and not get in touch with the soil, making them easy to thrive and eat. Hanging containers can also add to any balcony’s appeal. Just make sure to plant a lot of strawberry plants, since you will want to have many of those aromatic fruits to enjoy.

How about a yummy Citrus Plant for your Weekend Gardening?

Although many think citrus trees grow only in warm climates, you can succeed in growing your own lemon, lime or orange tree even in colder areas. Just plant the tree in a large pot and move it into a warmer place – even inside – in the cold months. They may not produce very big citrus fruits, but they will be for sure filled with taste, juice, and fragrance.

These are just some ideas of many edibles you could plant that are easy to grow and to maintain without much effort. The effect, though, of having your own oranges or basil to use is so much greater than the effort it takes. Just go ahead and plant your favorite edible to enjoy them throughout spring, summer and even fall!

For more gardening ideas on Stagetecture, click here.

But growing evergreen plants to crawl on your walls  isn’t done overnight. It involves proper procedure and training of this type of plant to dwell against your walls. You have to spend time and dedication to make sure that your evergreen plants will grow healthy and grassy.

How to Train Climbing Plants (Video) 

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Video: How to Train Climbing Plants

Link to Video –> Training Climbing Plants

Check out these effective tips on training evergreen plants to grow against walls:

How to Train Plants to Climb Walls

• Make a frame over your wall area that you want the evergreen plant to cover. This can be done by placing equally spaced nails on your wall area. It is very important to use hot-dipped galvanized nails to prevent rust developing on your walls.
• To make sure that the evergreen plants are stuck in your preferred area, knit thin galvanized-steel wires and linking each nail one after the other.

• Monitor the plant’s growth. When you see a stretch of branches growing, strap it up gently with a piece of string to the galvanized-steel wires. This will serve as guiding force to the evergreen plants to grow according to plan. There’s no way that the branches can just grow anywhere. This process will keep the branches under control and influence their growth direction.
• Prune the branches on a regular basis or as it is necessary. For best results, take advantage of the spring and winter seasons. These seasons stimulate growth of the evergreen plants. For plants with flowers or berries, midsummer is the best pruning season.

Climbing Frames for Plants:

Looking for ways to make indoor plants climb? Look to plant climbing frames to help. Here’s some helpful resources for a climbing plant frame.

Frames for climbing plants

Climbing plants frame

These are just some of the helpful tips on training evergreen plants to perfectly grow against walls. It may take some of your time and efforts but when you see the result, everything will be all worth it!

For more outdoor gardening ideas, click here.

For more DIY ideas on Stagetecture look to these plant ideas.

Container Gardening: How to Start a Vegetable Garden

Image via: Agnieszka Bladzik

Choose bigger pots for container gardens

The greatest challenge of growing vegetables in containers is watering as soil tends to dry out faster in pots than in the ground. But as larger volume of soil won’t dry out that fast, it is advised to choose the biggest pot possible. You can mix compatible plants in a single container if you may desire. Also, make it certain that any pot you choose has holes so that excess water can easily drain away from the soil.

We like these helpful container gardening resources to get you started:

Container garden kit

Container gardening tips book

Pots for container gardens

How to grow vegetables in pots

Container garden ideas

Begin with harvesting vegetables that are easy to harvest and takes up little space such as lettuce and other salad greens. The best part? They can grow in containers even when accompanied by flowers or in partly shady areas. Alternatively, you can consider growing tomatoes in hanging baskets or other pots at a spot where they will get lots of sun. But remember they take some work. We recommend beginning with smaller varieties of tomatoes like cherry tomatoes.

We love these 121 container gardening ideas from Southern Living.

Creative ideas for vegetable garden design

No matter which spot you choose to start your vegetable garden, you can boost the style quotient of that area by using colorful, bright pots. Containers in shades like orange, blue, and yellow will help to instantly add interest to your space. You can also get creative by using recycled containers such as wine crates especially for small varieties like lettuce and carrots. To add more visual interest, select containers in different sizes and create a grouping.

How to choose the right area for your vegetable garden

While patios and porches might be the best spots for container gardening, we have some more ideas for you. For instance, you can tuck large containers into your flower or landscaping for an instant mini vegetable garden. Or how about arranging a collection of pot grown herbs by the kitchen door for easy snipping? We even love the idea of planting herbs in glass jars and placing them on sunny windowsill.

Have a look at these tips for creating a small vegetable garden from Country Living.

Apart from the obvious- joy and bounty, one of the biggest advantages of container gardening is that you skip the backbreaking task of weeding and amending soil. So, use the ideas above to set up your own vegetable garden and get off to a good start.

For more gardening tips on Stagetecture, click here.

DIY Fairy Gardens: How to Find the Perfect Plants

Image via: Plow and Hearth – Fairy gardens starter kit 

Fairy Garden Supplies:

A large enough container (the size depends on your other supplies and how you want your fairy garden to look like)

Fairy garden kit

Fairy garden house

Fairy garden furniture

Fairy garden figurines

Succulent plants

Succulent potting soil

Image via: Etsy – Beach Cottage Boutique – Fairy gardens planter

Fairy Gardens: Easy Directions:

You can watch a video on how to make a fairy garden to get some inspiration.

Find the link to the video on how to make fairy gardens here.

1. Fill your container about 2/3 up with potting soil
2. There are a lot of ways to design your fairy garden, so take a few moments to imagine the layout of your plants and chosen items. You can loosely arrange them before putting them in to place, so that you will be happy with the result the first time around.
3. Plant your plants near the one side of your container or wherever you planned them in the previous step.
4. Place the items you chose and gently push them into the ground. Make any additions or adjustments you want and let the fairy magic begin!

Image via: Echo Valley – Gnome fairy gardens starter kit

Fairy houses and garden statues:

You can’t really make fairy gardens without fairy houses and at least a couple of fairy statues. You can find a vast variety for such supplies online and in garden supply stores, so it will be easy to find the ones you love. For a little bit of mystery, try having a large rock to represent a mountain and glue a simple fairy door to it.

Image via: Etsy – Laurels Fairy Doors – Fairy gardens door

How to choose succulents for fairy gardens:

If you’re stumped on what type of plants to use in your fairy garden, Empress of Dirt has a good article: Best Plants for Miniature Gardens to read. It will help you choose the right plants and ensure they thrive with enough water, air, temperature and more.

If you love succulents take a look at this topiary succulents sphere tutorial on How To Make a Burlap Wreath.com

Image via: Etsy – Succulent Salon – Succulent care

Making your own fairy gardens is a lot of fun and a wonderful hobby. It can help calming anxiety, get your imagination running and the results are such beautiful gardens that can be thoughtful presents for anybody. Especially children will really appreciate fairy gardens and will drive them to tell fun stories and even believe a little in magic! We love the guide to miniature fairy gardens from Martha Stewart which helps learning more about how to make and care for fairy garden.

For more succulent gardening ideas on Stagetecture, click here.

DIY Forced Spring Blooms – Choosing the Best Flowers & Materials

Image via: Woven Home

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Materials Needed:

• Working gloves
• Pruning shears or scissors
• Plant container (bottles, vases, or jars)
• Floral preservatives

Choose your preferred shrubs or trees:

• Shrubs:

  • Forsythia
  • Wintersweet
  • Honeysuckles
  • Spiraea
  • Flowering squince

• Trees:

  • Red Maple
  • Pear
  • Apple
  • Redbud
  • Apricot Cherry

  

  Image via: The Cranes Nest

Procedure:

1. Cut the branch of the shrubs or trees. Make sure that you carefully identify the swollen or plump buds before cutting.
2. Trim the ends of the branch. Remove any twig at about 3 – 4 inches from its bottom.
3. Slit the branch in different directions. It should be around ½ inch long. Use the pruning shear or sharp scissors to perform this step. Mash the ends of the slit into a hard surface. This will allow the ends to splay and encourage water absorption.
4. Submerge the branch completely in a container of cold to lukewarm water. Have the branches soaked overnight.
5. Position the branch upright in your container and place it in a cool and dark area. A basement or hall closet will do. Leave the branch until buds are beginning to show signs of growth. This is about a week or two depending on the type of branch you choose.
6. Then, relocate the plant into your desired location.

The whole process doesn’t end in relocation. You should take care of the plant more than ever. Perform a normal maintenance procedure just like any other plant. You will be surprise that you just did it!

For more gardening tips on Stagetecture, click here.

Plants are generally dependent on their environment. The winter environment has something to do with their capability to bloom. But with proper intervention, you can make it possible.

How to Force Blooms from Tree Branches for Spring Flowers

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Consider these effective ideas to force spring flowers to bloom during the cooler months. Here’s a helpful bulb calendar to know when to plant your bulbs to force blooms. Empress of Dirt has a great article about forcing bulbs to bloom. We love their chart below:

Image via: Empress of Dirt

Proper timing to cut tree branches

The majority of spring flowers requires an ample time of cold dormancy. This will allow them to adapt to indoor locations and force them to bloom. It is best to cut the branches while it is still relatively warm. You can opt to start in mid-January until late February or early March. See to it that the branches are well taken care of during this transition period.

Spring Flowers: Know what to cut

This is a crucial step in the whole process. This will make or break everything that you plan. When cutting, make sure that you look for swollen and plump buds.  Look for larger and rounder buds for a better branch. You have to cut it long enough to display the branch at an angle. Use proper cutting tools in this process.

Avoid branches getting dry

You have to maintain proper moisture to the branches. Cover the branch with a plastic bag loosely or have them mist daily to avoid drying. Make sure that the water doesn’t stick in the container and becomes cloudy. Place the container in a cool place for quick recovery and transition.

Expect to see the buds starting to open within 1 – 6 weeks. But the care and maintenance for the spring flowers should be consistent all throughout.

For more gardening ideas on Stagetecture, click here.