Backyard Container Gardening Advantages

Anyone can enjoy a backyard garden even if you’re limited on space. That’s the great thing about backyard container gardening. When you live in the city where you don’t have the room to plant a garden or if your backyard is not suitable for growing vegetables, this is the next best thing. Backyard container gardening can be done on small porches, patios, decks or even balconies.

You can grow a number of different vegetables but some of the best choices include tomatoes, parsley, cucumbers, peppers, squash, radishes, eggplant, green onions and a variety of herbs. Since you have quick access to your garden and it’s in a controlled environment, you have fewer problems with pest so your plants are healthier and yield better vegetables.

You have a large selection when it comes to containers because almost anything will do as long as it hasn’t housed any type of chemicals. Everything from drums and gallon jugs to wooden boxes have been used. However, clay pots and hard plastic containers seem to be the most popular. Backyard container gardening allows anyone to grow and enjoy fresh vegetables no matter where you live.

Tips for Trimming Hedges

Trimming hedges is a fairly simple task for the most part but it can often be difficult getting the shape and size the way you want it. However, there are a few tips that can help make this part of the job go much smoother. Your goal is to create straight lines and edges to give the hedges a uniform appearance in the shape and size that you choose. With the right tools and the proper planning, you can achieve this goal.

Tips for trimming hedges:

• Gather together your tools which should include the hedge trimmer, strong contractor string, metal or wooden stakes and a sledge hammer.
• Decide what your landscaping goal will be. In other words, how tall and wide do you want the hedges to be when you’ve finished trimming?
• The next step is to build a frame that will go around the hedge in the dimension that you want it to be when finished. Allow an extra foot or so for the stakes to be placed in the ground.
• Now, drive a stake on both sides of the hedge. Make sure you measure the distance between the stakes so you can place them the desired distance apart. Measure from the ground to the top of the stakes to make sure they are the correct height.
• Tie the contractor string on the top of both stakes and pull tightly. Now your hedge is framed in and you have a visual outline of where the hedge should be trimmed.
• Start by trimming the sides of the hedge first. Begin at the bottom and work your way upward keeping the trimmer straight. The bottom portion of the hedge should be a little wider than the top for the best results.
• Use the string as a guide and trim the top of the hedge using a sweeping motion while continuing to go in the same direction from one end to the other.

The tips above can help you create the perfect size and shape every time. If you keep your hedges trimmed on a regular schedule, it will keep them looking great and make the job much easier. Don’t use any trimmer that is damaged and always keep your blades sharp for a more professional look.

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Square Foot Gardening

If you haven’t heard of square foot gardening, you’re about to learn one of the most useful and versatile gardening techniques ever created. Conceived by Mel Bartholomew, author of Square Foot Gardening, the techniques have been enthusiastically adopted by gardeners all over the world. Square foot gardening is eminently suited for container gardening, patio and roof gardening, backyard gardening, organic gardening, herb gardens, vegetable gardens, flower gardens and more.

The basic concept is to start small – the unit of measure is the square foot. Although Bartholomew’s original square foot garden was four feet square, many schools, community gardens and home gardeners start even smaller – a couple of one square foot containers is plenty to get you started. According to Bartholomew though, a four square foot garden provides just enough harvest for one person.

How to Create A Square Foot Garden

Creating your own square foot garden is as easy as building (or buying) a box in which to garden. My own first square foot garden was a two square foot garden on the cement apron outside my back door in a city apartment. I used four square wicker plastic lined wicker wastebaskets bought for a dollar apiece at the All-for-a-Buck store. Any container that can hold 6-8” of dirt, and has drainage holes in the bottom will work. The biggest requirement for location is sun – choose a nice, sunny spot to place your garden.

Did I say dirt? Amend that. Bartholomew recommends what he calls ‘Mel’s mix’ instead of soil. Mix 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss and 1/3 compost to fill the squares of your box or container. A 10 pound bag of each was plenty to fill my little 2 square foot garden.

Choosing and Laying Out the Plants for Your Square Foot Garden

The most important factor in laying out your garden is the one-square-foot grid. You’ll be planting one type of plant in each square – how many of them depends on the recommended spacing between plants – which you’ll find on the back of the seed packets. Depending on the needs of the specific seedlings, you can plant 1, 4,  9 or 16 plants in each square. To break it down - if the recommendation on the seed packet is 1 foot apart, you can plant 1 in a square. If they need six inches between plants, you can plant 4. Two inches gives you room for 9 plants, and one inch spacing means you can fit 16 plants into one square foot.

My own first square foot garden was a spaghetti garden with this layout:

   1 Basil Plant  4 Tomato plants

   1 Oregano Plant 16 Onion plants

After You Harvest Your Square Foot Garden

Harvest the crop in each square foot when it’s ready, and continue harvesting until it’s no longer producing fruit/vegetables. At that point, uproot the plants in that square (use them for compost!), and plant another, different crop. By refilling and rotating the crops, you avoid depleting the natural nutrients of the soil, and keep every bit of space productive throughout an entire growing season.