Spice up your meals this winter with herbs grown right in your kitchen. A little creative container gardening will go a long way in the flavor department, and can add a little spice to your kitchen decor, as well. With so many herbs to choose from, combining different plants in a single container can produce very eye-appealing greenery in your kitchen. Parsely, sage, rosemary and thyme are not only popular song lyrics, but a beautiful and aromatic herbal bouquet of shapes, shades and textures when planted together. Tarragon, oregano, basil and cilantro make a lovely combination as well.

Most herbs love bright sunlight. Small containers placed on a sunny windowsill, or a hanging basket suspended from the ceiling or window frame will do very well. For low light areas, however, several varieties of mint can be grown quite heartily with minimal sun. If you would like to enhance your kitchen decor, use containers that match your color or theme. Antique cooking utensils or garden containers, like an old watering can or strainer basket, can give a more rustic look and feel to your kitchen garden.

Be careful not to overwater your herbs. Always feel the soil first before watering. Allow it to dry out thoroughly between waterings and then fill until the water starts to run out the bottom holes of the planter. Also be sure your herb garden receives plenty of light. If there is not sufficient natural light, add fluorescent, spot or track lighting in your kitchen garden area. Improperly lighted herbs will be weak and wilty. Finally, harvest the flavors of your labor, and promote regrowth of your established herb plants by snipping often.

Herb planters make great personalized gifts for holidays and special occasions, too. You can root new plants by taking any leftover sprigs not used in cooking, stripping the stems of their bottom leaves and placing the stems in a jar of water. Within days, roots will form and your newly rooted herb will be ready for planting.

Most of the plants that you’ll put in your yard or garden have a one year or less. Trees, however, represent a long term commitment.  The type of tree that you choose will be with you for many years to come.

If you’re looking for a tree that will provide a return on that long-term investment, you’ll be looking for a fruit tree.  The type of fruit tree you choose will depend on several factors.  Consideration #1 – climate.

Apple trees grow well in the northern parts of the US.  Drop a little lower and peach and avocado trees are popular.  Here in the south, we’ve got  citrus trees – orange, lemon, grapefruit.  Citrus trees require relatively little maintenance and are fairly tolerant to heat, cold, and drought.

A less tolerant, less well known, but delightful tree is the Lychee tree (inexplicably known as the lychee nut tree among the true southerners).  As long as temperatures don’t drop below freezing for more than a few hours in a year, the lychee tree will grow well and produce many seedlings.  One nice feature of the lychee is that the aesthetic appeal.  The lychee grows its fruit in hard shells (the mythical ‘lychee nuts’) that  look a lot like giant, wooden strawberries.

The fruit itself is a delicacy that has never quite caught on in America.  What is virtually unknown here is a favorite in Asia.  Friends with lychee trees have reported that Asian-Americans have stopped at the house and offered to buy their entire crop on numerous occasions.

If you plant a lychee, that may happen to you, too.  But once you get a taste of the wonderful soft fruit, you won’t be willing to give it up.

Whatever type of tree you choose to plant, make sure it is agreeable to your climate and reflects the available space and character of your garden.

Keeping a lush and lovely garden in the presence of pets can be a challenge. Animals have a tendency to want to munch on the green stuff, but some plants, pesticides and herbicides can be toxic for your pets. To maintain a safe and beautiful lawn and garden area, try these pet-friendly tips:

Using a natural herbicide, such as vinegar or the oils extracted from the leaves of the black walnut tree can help you avoid unwanted chemical exposure for your pets. Likewise, using homemade remedies to eradicate garden pests can help protect your beloved animals. A couple of tablespoons of dishwashing liquid mixed with water in a spray bottle applied to plants, particularly on the underside of the leaves, can help remove and prevent infestation of aphids and other pests. Peppermint and spearmint are natural pest deterrents, too, and planting them can help keep your garden free of rodents. Mint and lavender are good for fending off fleas and ticks, as well. Layering topsoil with cedar chips will also keep ticks and fleas away from your plants.

You need to be careful, too, what you plant in your garden, because some flora can be extremely toxic to your furry family members. Some of the more popular plants that can poison your pets include azaleas, rhododendrons, oleander, lily of the valley, and sago palm. Animals that ingest these and other toxic plants can experience a range of difficulties from upset stomach and diarrhea to seizures and liver failure. Lists are available online of plants that should be avoided by your pets. Instead, enhance your garden with pet-safe plants like ferns, zinnias, bamboo, spider plants, and snapdragons. Some flowers which are not only non-toxic but nutritious for your pets to eat include dandelions, petunias, hibiscus, lavender, pansies, geraniums and hollyhocks.

Unless you live in very low desert regions, lemon, lime, orange and other citrus trees are not recommended. However, some wonderful fruit trees are suited for higher desert climes. All of these include varieties that are self-pollinating and need a good winter chill for continued fruit production year over year.

Cherries are a popular choice in the higher elevations of the southwest. Their lovely pink and white blossoms adorn the branches in spring or early summer, depending on the variety. As a rule of thumb, sour cherries tend to be self-pollinating while the sweet ones are not. So if you plan to plant sweet cherry varieties, make sure they are near their corresponding pollinators.

Pomegranates do well in arid climates, as the shrubs can handle all-day sunlight and are able to grow well in soils that are more alkaline. Shrubs grow to about eight feet in height, and can be planted to form a hedge if spaced about four feet apart.

Peaches and nectarines usually produce an abundance of fruit annually. Both trees should be kept tightly pruned, as the can reach twenty five feet in height and since nectarines only grow on the tree’s first year growth, pruning will help when harvest time comes around as well.

Plums are less adaptable to the heat of the desert, especially European varieties; Japanese plums do much better. One self-fertile variety is the Santa Rosa. Plum trees can grow to fifteen feet, and fruit ripens in mid-summer.

Fig trees tend to grow fast, reaching heights of 15 to 30 feet. They also tend to grow well proximal to a south facing wall, if not planted too close. Figs often ripen in late summer, and after harvest is a good time to cut back on watering because this will help your trees become more cold-resistant prior to the onset of winter.

You’ve worked hard on your garden. You’ve spent months cultivating those tiny seedlings. You’ve banished weeds and bugs as best you could.  Your toil has been rewarded with some fruits, but there’s still more on the vine.  And now… vacation time.

If you’re relatively new to gardening, it can be a worrisome thing to let go of your garden for a week.  You’ve been its caretaker, and it has been your hobby and your respite from the busyness of modern life.  Now you’ve got to give it up to the care of either another person or to providence.  Either case can be concerning.

There is another option.  With a little bit of forethought, you can make preparations for your garden’s care while you are away.  You can purchase a timer system for watering the plants for about $25 to $50, depending on the size of your garden and the number of zones needed.  With a timer and some well-placed sprinkler heads, you can leave your garden for up to a week without worrying.

Bug protection is another matter altogether.  There’s not much that you can do to protect your garden from the creepies while you’re away.  The best alternative that I know is to have a friend come by once every three days or so to give it a spraying.  If any alert readers have a better plan for protecting the garden while they’re gone, I’d love to read it.  It’s so devastating to come home and find your prize pumpkin/eggplant/fill in the blank eaten up, leaving only a shell to mock you with its size and sheen.

The next time you’re going out of town for a few days, remember to plan ahead for the care and protection of your garden while you’re away.  It will be well worth the effort, expense, and favors called in when you come home to a rich, full garden.

Even if you don’t live in a drought area where water is scarce – and perhaps especially so – xeriscaping your lawn or garden will create a unique and beautiful landscape. Some people view xeriscape as just a bunch of rocks and dry, colorless plants, but the truth is there is much beauty to be found in the desert. Blending the vivid and muted colors as well as the sharp and soft textures of the flora can be both intriguing and delightful.

Limit lawn grass by creating a rock base layer on the ground. Choose contrasting colors of rocks to create paths between “islands” of desert foliage. In larger areas, you may want to consider making a rock garden, placing larger boulder-sized rocks intermittently throughout the yard area. Use these as anchor points for plant clusters, or simply leave them as solitary focal points in the landscape.

Plants that will beautify and enhance your xeriscape without requiring much water or specialized care include yucca, various aloe plants and other succulents, prickly pear and other cacti, willow trees, oleander and sage, and ornamental grasses. The array of colors offered by some of these plants may surprise you. The grasses can be red, green, yellow, purple and blue. There are red, orange and yellow species of aloe. For even more color and a softer texture, choose from common wildflowers that grow freely in the west: pansies, marigolds, poppies, hollyhocks and petunias, for example.

To give a more western or southwestern feel to your xeriscape, you can accent the area with old buckboards and wagon wheels, terracotta or clay pots with native designs, or hang windchimes or chile ristras nearby. Xeriscape can be challenging, but the result can be quite rewarding. Create beauty, conserve water. It is a win-win endeavor for you and the environment.

Every garden needs mulch. It serves several important purposes.  The two biggest are moisture retention and weed control.

A good, thick layer of mulch will hold in significantly more moisture than the soil alone would normally retain.  This is one of those multiple blessing kind of applications.  It’s good for the environment, because you’re not needlessly funneling excess water through to the aquifer.  It’s good for your wallet, because you don’t have to water as much.  It’s good for your garden, because the plants are more resistant to the occasional lapse if you miss a scheduled watering.  In other words – it is a good thing all around.

Another key benefit of mulching is that it will impede the growth of weeds.  When it comes to mulch, the thicker the better.  A rookie mistake that many new gardeners will make is spreading the mulch too thin, either because they don’t know any better or to try to save money by spreading the mulch farther.  Don’t do it.  Pile the mulch good and deep.  Weeds are survivors; they’ll  find a way to grow in almost any conditions.  You need that thick barrier to stop most of the weed growth and to retain a good level of moisture.

You can get all the mulch you need for your garden without breaking the bank.  Many municipalities recycle wood from lawn pickup and provide it back to the taxpayers as mulch.  Check your local landfill to see if they have a mulch bin.  Some landfills will have different types available.

Some common variations available are fine, course, and glass mulches.  Stay away from the glass mulch for anything other than decorative planter areas.  Even if your local landfill doesn’t separate out the fine and course mulch, you can still have your choice.  The course mulch will be on the top of the pile.  Fine mulch will work its way to the bottom and can generally be scooped up at the edges of the pile without much trouble.

Whatever kind of mulch you choose to use, with a trip to the landfill and a little sweat equity you can save money and get a high quality mulch for your garden.

Enjoying the view of your flower garden should not have to end when the sun goes down, especially when there are so many wonderful options for garden lighting on the market today. If you are considering adding or changing lights in your garden, you should first decide what theme or mood you want to create. Perhaps you have several dainty, pastel flowers and want to establish a romantic mood; or maybe your garden contains large, bright colored flowers and you prefer a more festive theme. You may even have a xeriscape garden where you would like to create the ambience of a desert sunset.

No matter what visual mood you want, it is important that the light fixtures you choose coordinate, rather than contrast, to maintain continuity of form and style. All of the lighting does not need to be identical, but it should be similar in color and shape. If you choose copper plated globe lights for the garden path, for example, use rounded copper plated lights throughout. Do not switch to polished nickel lamps with sharp, squared edges. Using a variety of structurally similar lights at varying heights and intervals will give your garden a unique visual appeal.

Along with choosing the right lights, supplying the right amount of light is essential. Stick with your theme and add subtle lighting that will enhance your garden for the proper effect. Ideally, you do not want your garden as heavily lit at night as it is in the day. Fewer lower wattage lights, strategically placed, can produce a beautifully dramatic mood for any garden theme. Use colored bulbs or filters for color scheme: pink, yellow and blue for sunrise; red, orange and yellow for sunset; greens and blues for sea or forest effects. Following these basic rules will help you make your night time garden shine.

Just like in real estate, the three most important factors in gardening are location, location, and location. This point was driven home to me recently when I moved my papaya tree ten feet to the left. One day in the full Florida sun and the leaves turned yellow and shriveled to nothing.

One day.

Before you ask, I had the little tree in a container awaiting planting in the ground. Did you know that there are male and female papaya trees? Apparently you don’t need both to cross pollinate, but you need to have a female to produce fruit. And you can’t tell if it is male or female until it flowers. So… you end up with the little tree in a pot for nine months, just in case it is a boy plant, and you have to take it back to the nursery.

Anyway, while the effects of proper water and nutrition are obvious, placement is less obvious but equally important. I’ve had two eggplants side by side and one thrived while the other merely survived when they were no more than three feet apart. Elephant Ears grow like weeds along the side of my house but will shrivel and die three feet away. Not enough sun – bad. Too much sun –even worse.

If you’re planting a new crop in a new location, I’d recommend starting the seeds in a pot. Once the seedlings are healthy enough, set the pot in your proposed location and watch it like a hawk for a day or two. Only when you are convinced that you’ve got a location with the proper balance of sun/shade, then go ahead and plant in the ground.

There is likely no better way to interest a young boy in gardening than to help him start a terrarium filled with alien-looking plants that eat bugs. Carnivorous plants are unique and offer a wide range of interests to occupy young minds. Some of the more common plant insectivores are the venus fly trap, pitcher plant and sundew. Such plants excrete a type of nectar or odor which attracts various insect species on which they prey. When the lured insect tries to extract the nectar, it becomes trapped on the plant’s inner surface and is then consumed. It is important to note that, although the term ‘carnivorous’ means “meat-eating’, you should never feed these plants raw meat; it will kill them. These plants are strictly insectivores. Sometimes the insects randomly available in the environment will be enough for your plants to feed on, but always follow the instructions for the specific plants you are growing, and provide proper nourishment accordingly.

Despite their exotic nature, these nontraditional house plants are fairly easy to grow. Carnivorous plants require a great deal of humidity, so are ideally suited to growth in a glass or plexiglass, partially open terrarium. Soils should be quite acidic – that is, lacking the nutrients needed by most plants – and saturated with moisture. Sphagnum moss works well as a base, mixed coarse sand and orchid bark to prevent caking of the peat. Distilled water should be used if rainwater is not available, as it prevents mineral build up, and never overwater. Do not fertilize carnivorous plants; it is not good for their sensitive roots. These plants need very bright light, so keep them in view of a full-sun window if possible. If you use artificial light in your terrarium, go with fluorescent, as incandescent lighting can get too hot and fry your plants.