How many of us remember growing up, lying under a shade tree with our back against the trunk, chewing on a piece of grass, reading a book or just sleeping?

In addition to great memories, trees bring beauty to all landscapes, and the right tree provides shade to your home, creating a cooling insulation from hot summer days. Evergreen or deciduous, many shade trees also have spectacular flower color, while others are better known for their foliage color or texture interest.

When planting your tree, consider how it might provide the maximum shade effect upon your home. A shade tree planted on the east side of your home will block the heat from the morning sun. Planting on the west and/or southwest side of your home shields the hot afternoon sun. And finally, a tree planted on the south side of your home can provide year-round sunblock protection. All three examples will help to keep your home cooler in the summertime.

If you select a deciduous tree, you will benefit in the winter from the opposite of the sun-shielding effect. Minus the foliage, the sun's rays can shine through the empty branches and help you warm the inside of your home. You certainly can't argue with that!

Along with the energy benefits, shade trees provide beauty to your landscape year-round. They offer habitats to birds, squirrels and other backyard urban creatures. Trees increase the value of our homes and the beauty of our neighborhoods. They also give back oxygen to our environment.

If you choose a deciduous tree, pick one with majestic winter form.

When you plant your shade tree, do not plant it too close to your home, patio or walls. Remember, the trees that we have mentioned all grow to heights of 30-50 feet and taller, which means they will also have a good spread and substantial root systems.

So come on in, and our staff of nursery experts will help you pick out the perfect shade tree(s) for your home. Then get ready to plop yourself under your new tree, cross your legs, pull your hat down over your eyes and ZZZZZZZ.
 

1. Plant all types of permanent landscape plants other than bare-root and tropicals.
2. Plant trees, shrubs and vines.
3. Choose and plant for permanent fall and winter color.
4. Continue to shop for spring-blooming bulbs.
5. Plant lilies as soon as you get them home.
6. Buy daffodils, grape hyacinths, ranunculus, anemones and Dutch irises; keep them in a cool, dry place until planting time.
7. Purchase hyacinth, tulip, and crocus bulbs and prechill them in the refrigerator.
8. Plant cool-season flowers for winter and spring bloom.
9. Plant cineraria for late winter and early spring bloom.
10. Plant wildflowers.
11. Plant cool-season lawns; this is the best time of year for this job.
12. Overseed Bermuda grass with annual winter ryegrass if desired.
13. Plant cool-season vegetables, year-round vegetables, including carrots and some perennial vegetables.
14. Thin out sweet peas and pinch them back to force branching.
15. Divide, trim, and mulch plants that tend to grow in a clump and that need to be divided, including Kahili ginger, clivia, iris, daylily, moraea, bird of paradise, gazanias, and perennials like Shasta daisies.
16. Cut back zonal and ivy geraniums; finish pruning Martha Washingtons.
17. Divide hardy water lilies.
18. Divide belladonna lilies.
19. Dig up, divide and replant perennials, or mulch them.
20. Cut off runners from strawberries, gather them in bunches, and prechill them for November planting.
21. Feed fuchsias.
22. Continue to treat blue hydrangeas with aluminum sulfate.
23. Stop fertilizing chrysanthemums and enjoy the blooms.
24. Fertilize poinsettias with a complete fertilizer high in bloom ingredients.
25. Feed roses early in October; don't fertilize in November.
26. Water deciduous fruit trees more sparingly in fall.
27. Water roses with up to 1 1/2 inches of water twice a week, unless it rains.
28. Finish pulling out faded annual flowers and cleaning pots and beds for fall.
29. Make a ball-shaped basket of malacoides primroses.
30. Thoroughly clean up the vegetable garden; pull up the last of the summer crops and compost the remains (if you have had fungus or disease problems, skip the composting and get rid of them instead).

Many people in colder climates think they can only grow a crop of summer vegetables due to a shorter growing season than southern parts of the United States. But with a little planning, you can not only enjoy fresh vegetables before Thanksgiving, but the cooler growing season allows you to grow varieties that you wouldn’t normally grow in the summer. 

The key to a great fall harvest is to plan early, select cool season vegetables that take only 60-90 days to reach maturity and sow seeds from August to early September. The fall growing season will allow you to select from great tasting varieties such as Broccoli, Cabbage, Carrots, Cauliflower, Celery, Greens, Kale, Lettuce, Turnips, Winter Squash and Zucchini. 

These types of vegetable plants will thrive until soil temperatures fall consistently below 55 degrees which usually does not happen until late October to early November at which point, the plants will stop growing and any ripe fruit should be picked off before colder temps damage them. 

If you want to extend your season even further consider covering your vegetables garden with a homemade hoop house covered with thick transparent plastic. This will allow the sunlight to heat up the garden during the day and slowly cool down at night, helping to avoid extreme temperature fluctuations which could take place in late fall. 

Remember for the best tasting vegetables feed once a month with an organic vegetable food and only water when the top of the soil dries out. Then sit back, relax and wait until those great tasting home-grown vegetables can be enjoyed at the dinner table!

By Tamara Galbraith

Calendula, widely recognized as the Flower of the Month for October, comes from the Latin word calendae, meaning "throughout the months." Gardeners who plant this long-blooming herbaceous annual will find it certainly lives up to its name.

Although members of the marigold family, calendulas' needs are quite different. They actually prefer cooler temperatures and evenly moist soil, and at 1-2 ft. tall, calendulas can get quite a bit bigger than your average marigold, too. If you're putting in transplants, use a slow-release fertilizer at planting time. Calendulas also do great in containers.

As your calendulas grow and flower, prune back spent blossoms to prolong blooming; some will continue to bloom into late fall, a nice treat since calendula's predominantly orange and yellow flowers fit in with autumn's color scheme. In hot climates, calendulas will continue to grow throughout the winter.

Calendulas can continue to perform even after they're cut. Add the dried flowers to vinegar and use as a fish marinade or salad dressing. (In fact, the leaves themselves can be harvested for salads.) Tea made from calendula flowers is said to make a soothing eye wash, a mild treatment for skin irritations or a remedy for upset stomachs.

Give this hard-working beauty a try, and you'll be enjoying the calendula--as its name says--throughout the months!

Now is the time to prepare your soil to plant wildflowers. You may plant successfully through early November. Plant at this time and you will have larger plants with many more flowers than if you planted this next spring.

To have a good display of spring flowers, you can just sprinkle out the flower seed and rake it into the top 1/4" to 1/2" of the soil and let mother nature do the rest. But if your want to ensure a great color display next spring, it is best to prepare your ground as you would any other seed bed.

• Start by removing weeds.
• Next add a good compost on top of the ground. A 2 cubic ft. bag will cover approximately 100 square feet.
• Turn over the ground with a shovel or rototiller. You may skip this step if the area is exceptionally large.
• Rake out the area, removing any weeds or dirt clods. Sprinkle the seed evenly and rake lightly so that the seed is about 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep.
• Water well so the ground is moist but not soggy.

Most of the seeds will sprout in 3 to 8 weeks. Help Mother Nature a little by watering during dry spells and feeding with a balance commercial fertilizer. Then stand back and watch that old neglected area turn into a riotous array of color next spring.

How can I get my flowers to bloom more?

Answer:
Most flowers and flowering plants need three essential ingredients to bloom: sunlight, nutrients, and warm soil. Even shade plants like azaleas and camellias need some sunlight in order to bloom. If your flowers are sun lovers, make sure they get at least five hours of sunlight per day--the more sunlight the better.

Key nutrients for blooming plants are phosphorus and potash. While most plants need some nitrogen to help them grow and stay green, too much can focus the plant on growing instead of blooming. Nitrogen is also more readily available in the soil and more easily taken up by the plant.

Feed flowering plants with a high phosphorus and potash but low nitrogen flower food. If that still doesn't work, starve it of nitrogen by feeding it with a 0-10-10 fertilizer.

Finally, make sure you don't water your plants too often. Allow the soil to dry out some between waterings. This allows the soil to warm up. If you water too much, the plants will often produce excessive fleshy growth and no blooms.