Simple DIY Backyard Greenhouse Plans & Ideas For Building a Small to Medium Size Greenhouse at Home…!

We recently moved into our first home (lived in apartments before). I have always been sort of a frustrated gardener- I’ve had lots of container plants. Now that I have a HUGE yard, I want to start a vegetable and herb garden. The problem is, we have lots of rabbits that visit our yard every day, and there are mice in the field behind us (they come into our yard sometimes). I am an animal lover and do not want to poison, trap, or otherwise “get rid of” these animals, but I don’t want them to eat all my veggies (or make the mouse problem worse). Is there anything I can do to protect my garden or discourage these animals from coming in my yard (I have a dog and a cat, but they still come in).

Any serious ideas would be appreciated.

The activity of gardening is gaining in popularity since it is being viewed as an extremely rewarding pastime that provides plenty of fresh air, exercise, and “beautiful” results. But most people are not content with just a garden full of ordinary plants, but wish to create a landscape of extraordinary flowers! And so the entry of “flower gardening”!

But wait a minute! There should be no mistaken belief that creating a garden full of flowers is an easy task. It involves tough physical labor and demands dedication. Only then will you be able to produce a “work of art”.

Any outdoor activity should be acceptable to the surrounding ecosystem; so also flower gardening. The suggestions listed below should help you to grow healthy plants–

(1) It is important to know the “hardiness zone” of the area you are located in. The USA and lower Canada have been divided into various hardiness zones by the USDA, according to a 10-degree Fahrenheit difference in the average minimum temperature. This division will allow you to note which plants can survive in which zones (seed packets or flower guides carry this information), and you can purchase the appropriate flowers for your garden.

(2) You have a vast range of flowering plants to choose from, including butterfly bush, butterfly weed, foxtail lily, African lily or the lily of the Nile, lantana and delphiniums. Nice insects like butterflies and bees will feel like visiting your garden!

(3) If you are unsure about the type of plants you need to pick for your flower gardening, take the help of garden guides and catalogs. They can provide you with all the information you want, including useful tips.

(4) Some of the tips given concern having a mix-and-match garden that displays flowers and plenty of colors all year round! There are early bloomers, late bloomers and mid-season bloomers to choose from. The “early” ones and “late” ones can grow in side-by-side rows, to exhibit alternate blooming times. So also perennials and bulbs. Many more combinations can be tried out, depending on your creativity!

(5) Though most plants have green leaves, there are some with silvery-colored leaves. Some exhibit burgundy-colored leaves. These can become “space fillers”, to make up for those flowers which have not yet blossomed/finished blooming.

(6) Before actually starting on your flower gardening project, keep aside a book as a gardening journal. This is what seasoned veterans do, and recording their earlier mistakes have helped them to do better the next time round.

Start off by preparing a sketch or plan of your new garden. Fill in all the details like–the location of your garden, its proposed shape, the flowering plants that you wish to have, a rough arrangement of the plants, and so on. Place pictures too, as you go along. Record your successes and failures. Over a period of time, this journal becomes a “chronicle” of your flower gardening efforts!

(7) Are you planning to have a container garden or a purely outdoor garden? If it is containers that are going to hold your plants, then ensure that the soil conditions are just right inside them. Also, you have to get only those plants that can tolerate temperature changes and exposure to sunlight, because all plants cannot face environmental changes. Again, all plants cannot be grown inside containers.

(8) If it is going to be an outdoor garden, the soil has to be tested first with the help of a soil testing kit. Many local gardening supply stores stock it; in case they are not able to supply one, they can always refer you to a place where the kit is available.

Even without a kit, you should be able to judge the quality of the soil in your yard with the help of your hands. Take some soil in your hand, and rub it back and forth. If the soil comes apart, it indicates the presence of too much of sand. So it cannot store nutrients. Sticking together, indicates that there is too much of clay in the soil. This type of soil does not drain well, and does not allow roots to penetrate easily.

Loam soil (equal amounts of clay and sand) is the best for flower gardening.

(9) Now that you chosen the spot for your garden, start digging. When you have gone about 8 inches to 1 foot in depth, extract the rocks and other unwanted debris that you can find there. Use a rake to split up clods of earth and level the area.

(10) The next step is tilling. About one inch or more of manure or compost is to be added to the dug-up soil. Add even more if it is of poor quality. Grass cuttings or peat moss help to increase water retention capacity if the soil has too much of sand in it. For acidic type of soil, add lime.

When you mix the soil and all the organic components that you have added to it, turning the whole thing over and over a few times, you have “tilled” the soil.

(11) Use the rake again to level the new bed. Some more ammendments have to be added to the soil. Compost goes into the top soil (about 6 inches), along with a general-purpose fertilizer (10-20-10).
(12) Do not start planting your flowers as soon as you have finished adding ammendments. Give them time to enter the soil and spread all across the plot designated for your garden. A few weeks of waiting is necessary. Meanwhile, you can browse the books again so that you are thoroughly prepared when it is actual planting time, with the plants as well as all their requirements.

(13) Now that the time has finally arrived, start sowing the seeds, or planting the seedlings. Smaller ones should take the front seats, while the bigger ones should be placed at the back. Ensure a distance of 3 feet between the plants and any buildings/fences. Also, there should be at least 20 feet of space between your flowers and large trees. Large bushes should maintain a distance of 5 feet from your plants. Other trouble spots to look out for are–steep slopes, places where water tends to stagnate and shallow and rocky soil.

(14) Now that you have come this far in your flower gardening project, it is time to put down a layer of mulch (indicates compost that has not completely decayed) over the garden. A word of caution–ensure that it does not come in contact with the stems of the plants. A layer of 2 to 3 inches of mulch should remain around the plants all the time, especially during the growing seasons.

Weeds can prove detrimental to your garden. As an added precaution, keep layers of wet/damp newspapers under the mulch.

Why mulch? The benefits it provides to the soil include–stabilization of temperature, increase in water retention capacity, addition of nutrients and prevention of excessive growth of weeds.
(15) Do not go in for synthetic substances or chemical pesticides, despite advice from some professional gardeners. You have been “organic” so far; no point in going back to “inorganic”! All that you need to do to make a success of your flower gardening project is to keep the soil quality in top condition. Try to combine plants so that one acts like a “pesticide” for the other. For example, plants like rose and garlic are beneficial to their companions in the garden.

(16) If you are in a hurry to start growing your flowers, there is another option available. Get some jiffy pots that are made from compressed peat moss. Put in potting soil or starting mix. Sow the seeds. Place the pots inside the house in an area where they can can get sufficient sunlight.

Once the plants have attained a height of 4 inches, place the jiffy pots outside in a pre-designated location. The pots rot away and the plants get “attached” to the natural soil by their roots.

In addition, you can look for tips and information about seeds on the backs of seed packages, such as–when and how to sow the seeds, distance to be maintained between plants, etc. Seedlings of course, should be planted as soon as possible.

(17) Like many others, you may not really have an idea about compost or how it is prepared. So, here is some information about this “organic manure”.

How is organic matter different from inorganic materials? When there is decaying of the dead remains of animals and plants (remains of any living things, in fact), the decomposed material returns to the soil. The soil therefore gets enriched with vitamins and other nutrients. Its fertility is enhanced, enabling plants to grow healthy.

Thus, when soil is of poor quality, it can be “ammended” with the addition of natural manure or compost. Being totally organic in nature, it causes no harm to your garden or the surrounding environment.

Since compost is easy to make on your own, you save on costs as you do not have to pay for readymade manure purchased from the local gardening supply store. You save on time too. The environment will be thankful to you as you are taking care of the large amount of material collecting in landfills!

If your garden soil contains too much of sand, compost will help to retain water. If there is too much of clay, the compost enhances the soil’s capacity to drain well. And of course, plenty of nutrients get into the soil with the help of this organic manure.

(18) Finally, how do you prepare your own compost for your flower gardening project?
Dig a pit. Fill it with whatever organic wastes that you can get–lettuce leaves, tea leaves, coffee grounds, banana peels, grass clippings, shredded branches, hay, chopped leaves, garden plants that are free of disease and have finished their season, straw, weeds, shredded papers and newspaper. No bones or meat are to be put in. Whatever is put in, should be small in size–so use a lawn mower or a shredder to reduce the size of some materials.

Once the pile has attained 6 inches in height, use finished compost or soil or manure to cover it. The covering layer should be about 3 to 6 inches thick. Repeat the process of alternate layers of organic materials and finished compost/soil/manure. The final height of the entire pile should be 3 feet.

The compost pile should be started in a shady location. Whenever it seems to go dry, sprinkle water on it; enough to keep it damp, not to make it soggy. There is heat generated that helps to sterilize the forming compost. Keep turning the pile to ensure circulation of oxygen.

When there is no more heat being produced, the pile is ready for use. This compost has to be mixed with soil before planting flowers. It can actually be used in any way possible–as mulch, soil ammendment or potting soil. But use it as quickly as possible since the nutrients in it tend to get dissipated.

Thus, your flower gardening project has been entirely “organic” in nature!

A lot of people seem to think that an organic garden is just for hippies and vegetarians. They think it is a difficult and hard way to grow vegetables and flowers while in fact they could not have been further from the truth. Having an organic garden is not difficult at all and it certainly is not just for hippies and vegetarians. When you know that most organic fertilizers are made from animal products you will understand that vegetarians need to be very careful with organic gardening.

Owning a organic garden is not hard at all the only thing where you should be aware of is that you do not use synthesized products. You can use normal seeds and plants they do not need to be organic at all. The only seeds you can not use are genetically modified seeds.

The same people who think that having an organic garden makes you a hippie also often think that your organic garden needs to be animal friendly. Well most gardeners also those who have an organic garden are not always the greatest friends of the local wildlife. And be honest would you be, when your carefully grown crops are being eaten by some rabbits?

There are all kind of gardeners and those that have a organic garden will never use chemicals or pesticides but some are known to shoot a rabbit occasionally, to scare it away or to eat it. A more natural meal is hard to find.

Is an organic garden the same as a natural garden?

A natural garden does not exist, every garden is in fact artificial when you are the one that decides what to grow and at what place in contrary to nature where nothing is planned. a organic garden is not a natural garden if we have land where we let nature do its thing we usually do not call it a garden we call it wasteland. In our gardens we like to decide what are considered weeds and what we consider to be plants or flowers and a organic garden is no different. If our organic garden is suffering from drought you would be crazy not to water those carefully planted flowers and vegetables. As you can see an organic garden also takes some unnatural growing methods.

Vegetarians who own a organic garden should be aware that many of the
fertilizers and other organic garden products contain animal products like fish oil, leather and bone. They need to read all the ingredients on these products.

Although it is not necessary to call your garden an organic garden a very good and “natural” way to control bugs and pest is to mix specific plants together, if you do some research you learn that by placing for example onions and carrots together you will reduce pests and insects. Sometimes you can even use certain weeds to repel bugs and pests. You can also use insects like ladybugs to reduce louse, the ladybugs eat the louse and your organicly grown roses will be more beautiful then ever.

Many gardeners have given up on the idea of a garden because they lack space, time or lots of experience. But if growing plants is an interest of yours container gardening could be your answer. Container gardens will allow you to enjoy “playing in the dirt” without investing a lot of time or money. You can get very creative in container gardening using vegetables, decorative grasses or flowers and herbs. You can plant a container garden with any plant that would grow outside. The trick is to come up with some creative ideas for your container garden.

You should do some research at your local nursery or on the internet to choose the plants you wish to grow to help you come up with some ideas. Try to use plants that complement each other and have the same basic needs for water, air and light.

A container garden idea that has taken off recently is the landscape container. Some people plant a simple evergreen tree in a container with good drainage to place at their front door. Or you could plant an assortment of flowers for a bright and beautiful vista. If you do plant flowers, add plants that spill over the sides of the container to add more visuals and interest. What ever container gardening idea you can come up with can be placed on a deck, patio, and balcony or by the front doors. Put them somewhere that your family and friends can enjoy.

You can grow vegetables in containers but choose wisely. Vegetables like squash and pole beans need lots of space, while tomatoes need a deep pot. When you grow your own vegetables you will have tasty produce not the bland stuff that is in the grocery store. Nothing tastes better than a tomato right off the vine. There are many chefs and good home cooks that grow their own for just this reason. Don’t forget to pot some herbs, they are pretty plants and add zest to your meals.

But don’t just stick to vegetables and herbs; why not add fruit trees too? Instead of using an evergreen tree, pot a fruit tree instead. There are many dwarf varieties available that work best in pots since with pots there is less soil therefore less nutrients to draw from. If you live in a year round warm climate citrus trees are perfect. In other regions, stick to pear, apple and cherry trees. Another good container gardening idea is to grow strawberries. With strawberries climate does not matter since you can bring the container inside. Fresh strawberries are amazingly sweet and delicious. Imagine how good a bowl of fresh strawberries will be, strawberries that you have just picked.

Remember that container gardens dry out more quickly than traditional gardens. Be diligent about watering your plants if you don’t want your container gardening ideas to wither and die. Container gardens must be fertilized too. Keep a small notebook handy so you can write down the needs of your plant so you will always know when to water or feed. Keep an eye out for pests. If you find a container that has an infestation, isolate it immediately and treat it with a natural pesticide. You don’t want harsh chemicals on fruits, vegetables or herbs. A good natural pesticide recipe is:

In a jar, combine 1 teaspoon dishwashing liquid and 1 cup vegetable oil. Shake vigorously. In an empty spray bottle, combine 2 teaspoons of this mixture and 1 cup water. Use at ten-day intervals (or more often if needed) to rid plants of whiteflies, mites, aphids, scales, and other pests.

So, do some research, come up with your own unique container gardening ideas, gather your materials and get to work. The fruits of your labor will be amazing.

Happy Container Gardening!

Copyright © Mary Hanna, All Rights Reserved.

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I eat organic foods whenever possible. I’m going to be making a vegetable garden that is pesticide-free and, therefore, organic. However, I do know that chemicals linger in non-organic produce (which is, of course, why I don’t buy it!). Will compost made from non-organic foods compromise the “organicity” of my garden and vegetables? How do you know? Thanks!