Gardening made easy

Unkillable

Planting and maintaining your garden does not need to be a complex ordeal. With the right techniques—and the right attitude—you can be enjoying flowers, fruits, and vegetables in no time.

Flower gardening
What could be more welcoming at the end of a long day than a beautiful array of spring and summer blooms? Whether outside or in, flowers add color and life to any home. If you have tried to grow flowers before and have been disappointed by their appearance or duration, you may just need some simple, basic tips for better results.

• Bulbs. Flowers such as the tulip, snowdrop, dahlia, and crocus are planted as a bulb and grow from there. When buying bulbs, they should be plump and firm, and free of any signs of decay. As you might assume, the largest bulbs in a batch will provide the most blooms, while the smaller ones may have a smaller output.

• Flower beds. Most bedding plants are easy to raise from seed, though it would be best to research each type or consult a professional before committing to each seed—some, such as begonias are notoriously difficult.
  
  You can also purchase seedlings with two or three leaves already sprouted. Usually purchased by mail order, these come in trays of between 100 and 400 plants. Soon after they arrive these will need to be transferred into seed trays or pots.
  
  Plugs are young plants that are more advanced in their growth than seedlings and are ready to plant out immediately. Plugs should have good root growth and the leaves and shoots are not damaged or turning yellow. If you are looking for an easy care garden, this may be the way to go.

Some basic rules of thumb to keep in mind almost no matter what kind of flowers you have are:

• Keep soil moist by watering regularly in the hot summer months.

• Plants in containers and hanging baskets will need particular attention in dry, hot weather. This could be as much as twice a day.

• Remove dead blooms regularly to encourage more flowers.

Vegetable and fruit gardening
A big part of growing vegetables is knowing when to plant. Of course, different species require different conditions.

• Early season planting. Some vegetable do best when planted as soon as the soil can be worked. Peas, lettuce, and green beans all grow well in colder soil. Extremely dry, warm soil can ruin your chances for a productive plant. Radishes, which also enjoy the cold soil, can be replanted in the early days of the fall, before first frost.

• Later planting. Squash, sweet peppers, tomatoes, and cucumber will all do better if you wait until the soil is warmed before planting. Don't wait until too far into the season, though—you still need to give the plants enough time to grow and the vegetables to ripen before the weather again turns cool.

While many people spend hours out of their weekends tending to their vegetables, those same people may never consider all the fruits that are easy to grow. Not all fruits grow on large, high maintenance trees.

• Berries. What says summer more than a helping of cool, sweet berries? Blueberry bushes can last for years. They like full sun and acidic clay or rocky soil. If planting more than one bush, space them at least five feet apart. Now, you probably won't get fruit until the third season, but from then on you can count on an abundance of these summer treats.

• Melon. How would you like fresh honeydew melon right out back? It is not difficult. Plant honeydew seeds a week or so after last frost. Place seeds about a half inch deep, with two seeds per mound. Space mounds about four feet apart.
  
  Like honeydew, watermelon likes warm soil, so don't plant until daytime temperatures are in the sixties or seventies. Try creating a mound of soil and compost in your garden and planting there. This gives watermelon vines room to meander where they please. Water liberally the first few weeks. And soon you'll be enjoying this wonderful staple of summer foods.