No matter who you are or where you live, growing a great garden is an excellent way to spend some quality free time. Let Home Depot help you enjoy the fruits of your labor by watching your garden grow from newly planted seeds to beautiful flowers, fruits or vegetables!
Planting annual and perennial flowers is an easy task, but with a few tips, your flowers will get off to a fast, healthy start that will reward you with bigger and better blooms down the road.
Planting Flower Basics:
— Look for short, stocky plants with few flowers and healthy, disease-free foliage.
— Although flowers are pretty, it's best to pinch them off.
— Plant flowers at same soil level they were in container. Mulch with aged wood chips, bark, grass, etc.
Caring for Annuals:
— It's not too late, even if you already planted.
— Good soil is necessity. Spread bed with 2" layer of compost. Work into top 2-3" of soil around annuals.
— Watering annuals is critical. Don't wait for them to wilt. Look for signs e.g. loss of gloss on leaves.
— Mulch w/1-3" aged wood chips, grass, pine needles, etc.
Pruning:
— Hybrid tea and most shrub roses need pruning to grow healthy.
— Prune dead wood back to live plant. You'll recognize living tissue by green bark and white-pith core.
— Cover each cut with drop of white glue or prune paint seal to ensure quick recovery and protection.
— Cut out stems that fill up the center. Remove all spindly growth — most canes thinner than a pencil.
— Remove remaining foliage from canes & clean up debris from around bush.
Products:
— VIVA! Sunpatiens ($4.97-$7.99): Exclusive to Home Depot. Great in flower beds or patio containers.
— VIVA! New Lemon Zest Petunias ($4.97-$7.99): Perfect petunia. Works well in patio pots, hanging baskets.
— Proven Winners Brand Annuals 4.5" ($3.87-$4.48) (1 gallon $4.97-$8.99): Spreading. Low maintenance.
— Premium Rose Collection 5 gallon roses ($16.99-$19.97): Exclusive to Home Depot. Masses of blooms.
— Controlled-release fertilizer (FREE w/every plant): Specially formulated for 6-8 months cont. release.
— For more ideas, visit: www.homedepot.com/gardenclub
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