Newbie Gardener Lessons Learned

Now that I have my own garden, I can cut fresh flowers for arrangements, which I absolutely enjoy doing. Tips: Cut the flowers with stems long enough for your vase. When possible, cut the flowers just as they are opening.  This will give them a longer vase life. Use green foliage plants to add color and to help with placement. Pick stems that have a V, so you can use the V to criss-cross the stems and help them stay in place.

The Passion Flower Vine Here is my first video.  I'm doing an introduction to the Passion Flower vine, which I enjoy growing and tending to.

My Third Year of Gardening So, a lot of flowers came back this year on their own.  I learned that if I leave my petunias alone, they will grow and bloom wonderfully on their own.  Yes, they do need pesticide spray.  The colors on this plant are miraculous. Irises - These flowers are resilient.  They come back in full force during spring. And they spread their seeds.  I have Asiatic lilies in my flower beds and they started out with 2-3 flowers, but this year, they came back with 8-9 flowers. I'm expecting them to multiply next spring. Swap out dead flowers and feed the new ones with Miracle-Gro food and spray a pesticide on them.

Year Two of Gardening I've been busy and I'm learning a lot.  I'll cut right to the chase. First things first.  You should know what Zone you are planting in.  For zones, refer to the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map.  http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/ Perennials vs. Annuals This was my biggest blunder.  I had picked out so many beautiful flowers when I first started gardening.  Here's a picture of the flower beds when I first started. I had quite a few perennials. I had a couple of annuals.  Well, as the summer progressed and fall came along, the temperatures began to drop and quite a few of the annuals began dying away.  I tried relentlessly to keep them alive.  Turns out, that's what they are supposed to do -- die away in fall/winter.  The perennials, however, lasted almost all the way past December.  And when their blooms fell off, they remained.  And they bloomed again in the spring time, bigge...