Here is a quick tip from www.melindamyers.com:
Enjoy fresh herbs all winter long by bringing a bit of your herb garden indoors. Take and root cuttings of oregano, rosemary, sage, and marjoram for your indoor winter herb garden. Take 3- to 4-inch cuttings from healthy plants. Stick the cut end in a well-drained potting mix. Keep the soil moist and place in a sunny window to grow like your houseplants.
By Gail Frezzette
Moana Nursery Color Buyer & Successful High Desert Gardener
This plant is perfect for our Nevada climate and soils as well as for our bunny and Bambi populations which seem to turn their noses up at these plants.
My garden is the home to several plants from this mint family (or hyssop, as your grandmother may have called it). When I planted up my first quart size agastache in a large pot along with some penstemon and delphinium, my intention was to make an irresistible little garden for the hummers and us to enjoy. However, the next spring I was disappointed that few if any of the plants had survived and the pot was relegated to a back corner to await a makeover. Spring turned into the 4th of July and I discovered this lone surviving agastache had grown to 3’ high plant loaded with hundreds of light orange trumpet flowers which filled up my big, old pot. That pot was then given center stage in the front gardens so we could enjoy the show of the flowers and hummingbird wars that continued all season. After that I added more of these easy to grow natives.
I planted one called ‘Bubblegum Mint’ with an ‘Orange Crush’ rose, some salvia, California fuchsia and thyme ground cover; the combination was a show stopper for the entire season! The flowers lasted well over two months and were still going when the hard frost hit in late November.
Watch for Gail’s full article in our September newsletter.
Check out this cool article from foxnews.com!
Here is a great article about trees planted in your grass. Take a look!
We here at Moana Nursery believe that gardening should be FUN. It is a great way to de-stress and enjoy the beautiful environment in which we live. So when we found this little list (see below for link) we were excited to share it with you! Just remember that our team is trained to help you with all your gardening challenges, may it be bugs or just some simple tips. We want you to enjoy your yard and be successful with it! Click on the link below for article.
http://gardening.about.com/od/gardendesign/a/Gardeneasy.htm?nl=1
From MSN.com
You may garden just for fun, but you’re also protecting your mental and physical health, too.
Spring’s here, and though some of us are dealing with freak spring snowstorms, it’s getting warm enough in most of the country to start prepping your backyard garden with peas, lettuces, and spring flowers. If the idea of digging in the dirt has never much appealed to you, consider this: A growing number of studies are finding improved mental and physical health benefits of gardening that extend far beyond the obvious rewards of exercise and fresh air. And in this economy, the free food certainly doesn’t hurt. There’s no need to dig up your entire backyard, either.
You need only a window box or a few houseplants to see these improvements in your health:
#1: Improve your satisfaction with life.
It’s hard not to enjoy life when you’re surrounded by flowers, vegetables, and all the wildlife they attract—and now there’s science to back that up. Professors from the University of Texas and Texas A&M asked 298 older adults how they would rate their “zest for life,” levels of optimism, and overall resolution and fortitude and found that gardeners had significantly higher scores in all those areas than non-gardeners.
Considering that antidepressant use among adults over 65 has nearly tripled since the 1980s, gardening could be be as useful as Prozac for warding off the blues in our aging population.
#2: Lower your osteoporosis risk.
It’s probably no surprise that gardening, and all the physical activity that goes along with it, leads to weight loss and better overall physical health. But that physical activity can improve your bones as well. In a study of 3,310 older women, researchers from the University of Arkansas found that women involved in yard work and other types of gardening exercises had lower rates of osteoporosis than joggers, swimmers, and women who did aerobics.
That likely has to do with the fact that gardening is sort of like weight training, the study authors note; you have to pull weeds, dig holes, carry heavy loads of soil and compost, and do other forms of weight-bearing activities that ward off osteoporosis.
#3: Lower your diabetes risk.
One of the primary components of managing diabetes is getting enough physical exercise. Active gardeners easily get more than the recommended 150 minutes per week of exercise, and those who garden just for fun get just slightly less than that, according to research from Kansas State University.
And if you grow food in your garden, you have another diabetes-management tool at your disposal: fresh produce. A number of studies have found that diabetes rates are lower in areas with community gardens, or places where backyard gardening is more common.
#4: Better sleep.
The mental health benefits of gardening are so strong that a field of medicine called horticultural therapy has been developed to help people who have psychiatric disorders deal with their conditions. Studies of people with dementia and anxiety have found that gardening helps calm their agitation, leading to better sleep patterns and improved quality of their rest.
There’s no reason the rest of us won’t benefit, too. Researchers from the International Society for Horticultural Science interviewed 42 people both with cancer and without cancer, and found that all of them used gardening as a coping strategy for stressful life situations. The less we’re all stressed out, the better we’ll sleep.
Sometimes we have trouble identifying a plant. The common names seem to provide many opportunities for customization and poetic license. Thus, we often fall back on the official botanic (scientific) name which can be off-putting because it is in Latin – so that names are the same no matter where you live. However, you can usually count on one hand the number of knowledgeable people knowing correct scientific names. So, we go to the tried and true reference books or Google a search for accuracy. Many times we are still stumped.
Did you know that there are some 375,000 plant species on Earth? Seems simple enough, but what if we told you that those 375,000 species are known by 1.25 million scientific names? This disparity can create a myriad of issues for anyone in the horticulture industry. Then, add to all the species their many cultivars, especially those found in gardens and landscapes. Wow … just when you thought you knew the correct name, another one appears or a strange cultivar name provides more questions than answers.
In an effort to help fix this disparity, an international team of researchers has created a “Plant List” which contains every plant known to man and every one of its aliases. Aliases are important because so many plants have scientific names associated with certain discoveries, locations and histories. In combining all the scientific names, the “total picture” can be learned. It is not unusual to unearth a finding of toxicity or a special property as you combine all the names. Many plants in disparate locations are identified differently and yet are the same. So, growing characteristics can be too narrow or too wide based on multiple definitions.
All this can be quite confusing and unless you are interested in a lot more than gardening and landscaping, this knowledge is like a “top secret” … “if we told you we’d have to kill you.” Happily, Moana has tested the plants it sells (and identifies) in the harsh test kitchen of the high desert. Thus, you don’t have to become a scientist to find out what will look great and grow healthy in your yard. Even better, the high desert conditions eliminate more than one million of those plant choices, so a walk through our garden centers is not a walk down Mystery Lane.
Bruce Gescheider, Owner, Moana Nursery
March 16, 2011
A great article/slideshow from MSN.com!
http://realestate.msn.com/slideshow.aspx?cp-documentid=28183427>1=35009#1
Start with a square foot garden in a raised bed with your favorite vegetables. Plant a grapevine, berry or a fruit tree in a wine barrel. Add an herb and tomato garden in an Earth Box – think salsa or pesto.
Set up your Season Starters to warm up your soil for earlier planting of tomato and peppers. Plant lettuce, peas, radishes, carrots, artichoke, bok choy, spinach, asparagus crowns and beets; if you have already planted them, plan a successive crop every two weeks to extend your harvest. Potatoes and onion sets can still be planted now virtually any where if you use a Smart Pot.
Pick a spot to set up a bird feeder and birdbath close to your garden and enjoy. Visit any of our three stores to see our edible demonstration gardens – planted to inspire you to grow your own.
As trends change and your landscape becomes overgrown, older homes look outdated and out of place. Consider giving them a fresh look by sprucing things up with a landscape makeover. This will easily improve the overall appearance of your home and make your outdoor living space a more inviting place.
Recreating your landscape may seem overwhelming, but it’s a rewarding task that will greatly impact the usability and value of your home. Start the process by deciding what look you want in your yard. If you need help visualizing, ask a professional landscape architect or designer for ideas and a landscape plan.
Think ahead before starting your outdoor remodel. If you also plan to renovate the outside of your home, you should do that before you install your new yard. Make sure your projects don’t impact each other. This can cost you time and money.
There are new things to consider with your landscape design. Fire safety is a real concern and you want to plant fire resistant plant material and mulch for the areas closest to your home. Junipers were used as foundation plants in many older homes, but they should be replaced because they are highly combustible. If your home is located in a high wildfire hazard area, be sure to visit http://www.livingwithfire.info/ to get more information on creating defensible space to protect your home from wildfire.
It’s also important to incorporate water conserving ideas into your new yard. Consider water-wise plants that don’t require a lot of water once they are established. A well-designed, efficient irrigation system, installed by trained specialists, is a must for conserving water and maintaining healthy plants.
Most of us have hectic lives, and a low maintenance landscape is a must. Use plants that are hardy for our high desert climate, slow growing and require minimal pruning. Ask an experienced plant specialist to suggest the right plants for your particular yard and tell you how to care for them before making your plant selections. Although no yard is maintenance free, good choices and planning can free up time working in our yards and reward us with time to enjoy them.
The process of removing, replacing, and choosing new materials can be fun, though overwhelming for many. Here are a few tips to help get you started:
Some people like the idea of designing and installing their own landscape. If you have the will, incentive and physical ability, you can definitely do it yourself. There are various landscape magazines, books and websites you can refer to for inspiration. A good place to start is the helpful Moana Nursery Plan & Plant instructions. It walks you through several simple steps to put together a complete, well thought out plan just for you. (Use this link or go to any garden center menu on the Moana Nursery website.)
Take the time to search out knowledgeable, local professionals with experience, reliability and awareness. With good planning you will be ready to transform your old landscape into something extraordinary.
By Dawn Donovan & Sally Hanrahan, Moana Nursery Landscape Designers