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Many people are under the misconception that bonsai are tiny, delicate trees that must be babied and cultivated indoors. To the contrary, there are both indoor and outdoor bonsai trees. And since most bonsai are just trimmed and miniaturized versions of ordinary trees, many species thrive better in an outdoor environment. These ornamental trees make wonderful additions to your deck, patio, or garden.

Outdoor bonsai species fall into two categories: deciduous and evergreen. Deciduous trees have leaves that turn color in the fall and then fall off, while evergreen trees keep their needles or leaves year round. There are flowering and fruit-bearing versions of each. Good deciduous bonsai tree species include Japanese red maple, Chinese elm, Japanese larch, and gingko. Evergreen bonsai species that are easy to maintain outdoors include blue moss cypress, boxwood, blue spruce, and Japanese black pine.

Proper watering is an important part of caring for an outdoor tree. If the soil dries out completely, the roots will be stressed. On the other hand, if you overwater, you can cause rot root. To see if your bonsai needs watering, poke your finger into the soil about an inch. If the soil is dry, water until the water begins to flow from the bottom of the pot. Hydrate your bonsai with a gardening can or with a gentle stream of water from a hose. Using a spray attachment on a hose can produce a jet that is too powerful and you might wash nutrients from the soil. Of course, summoning a good rain is always the best way to water your bonsai tree!

To keep your bonsai healthy, you will need to replenish nutrients in its soil by fertilizing. Most all-purpose fertilizers found at garden centers and nurseries are fine for bonsai. Experts recommend using the fertilizer at half its recommended strength. You’ll need to feed your bonsai at least once a month, except during its dormant period when you should water but not fertilize.

Periodic trimming and pinching are necessary to keep your tree small. You should pinch back and trim most signs of new growth, but leave some buds and new shoots to keep your bonsai strong. Your outdoor bonsai will also require repotting when its root system has filled the container. When you repot, you are replenishing your tree’s soil and encouraging the development of a compact root system. Most deciduous trees need repotting every two to three years, while evergreens should be repotted roughly every four to five years. Because trees grow at different rates, you will need to watch your own bonsai tree’s roots for signs that it has become pot-bound; re-pot if you see visible roots circling the bottom of the pot.

All outdoor bonsai like morning sun and afternoon shade, so find a location where your tree will get both.

Many of these outdoor varieties, especially the evergreen conifers, will require a period of dormancy over the winter. Dormancy is a survival technique in which the tree’s internal clock slows down to prepare its soft tissues for cold temperatures. Most bonsai gardeners begin to prepare their trees for dormancy right after Thanksgiving; the quiet period usually lasts about three months. Trees must be protected from frost, yet not brought indoors as they need a certain amount of cold in order to break dormancy and resume growing again. You can protect your bonsai from harsh weather by covering it in mulch up to the lowest branch. If you do bring your tree inside, keep it in an unheated room such as a shed or garage.

Everyone likes to have a garden that is a bit unique, or that at least looks good. There are a number of things that you can do to spice up your garden and some of them are quite cheap to do too. Simply by arranging plants in a triangular shape, or placing them on items in the garden can make them look quite good. Something that has become more and more popular in the last few years is to use older ladders as decorations in the garden. Generally these are designed for plants to sit on, which spreads them out and puts them into a nice looking format.

The best ladders to use are older timber ones as they blend in well, but then I have seen people use aluminum ladders and even concertina ladders to fill this purpose. By leaning a ladder up against a tree, extending the rungs a little bit and then putting plants on each rung you end up with something that looks quite attractive. Gone are the days where everything in your garden has to be placed on the floor! If you are good with timber then you could modify two ladders to form a full on pyramid.

Some businesses are even using ladders (usually these are purposely designed for this though!) indoors and place small pot plants on them. This is a great way to fill a corner and make it look more homely and comfortable! Next time you see someone throwing out an old ladder just have a think about what you could do with it; the options are quite good!

In Today’s throwaway society, there is absolutely no need to go out and purchase mulch material for your garden, unless it is for the particular aesthetic appearance, “The Look”, sake of the mulch material.

Were you aware that there are a number of mulching materials that you can obtain from around your own community that are free, and some of which can even be even delivered to you for nothing as well.

Impossible you might say. Well I mulch my gardens fairly heavily, and I never pay a cent for the mulch material. As a matter of fact, most of the mulch is willingly delivered to my home for nothing. As the former owners are only too glad to see the back of it, as it would cost them money, time and effort to find other ways of getting rid of it.

I also combine these outside sources of mulch with my own compost, weeds and other organic matter mixed through to achieve a great result in my garden, and so all that it costs me is time and effort.

So what am I talking about? While some of the below list is delivered free, other items I pick up myself, depending on time, circumstances, importance etc.

Grass Clippings from other people in the area or from lawn-mowing contractors.

Wood shavings from local wood turners and carvers, ( Do not use shavings from treated timber).

Small amounts of solid fill from friends who are excavating. This is to assist in raising garden beds, in my heavy clay soil.

Light prunings from shrubs which is shredded by me or put whole into garden

Heavier sticks and logs, which are turned into trellis, garden stakes, garden edges, seats, frames, log planters etc. while they slowly decay.

Newspaper, cardboard, non-rubber carpet underlay, and even carpet and carpet squares. Which is put under other mulch to prevent grass and weed regrowth

Animal manures sometimes mixed with straw from places like Racetracks and Showgrounds, Pony Clubs, Stables etc. I contact them well beforehand to see if any is available.

To this I also add my own weeds, throwing away some which can still be a potential problem, or burying them below the bottom most layer of mulch material to stop them regrowing.

Another item I add is any old potting mix from deceased plants or when repotting plants.

Being a fairly lazy gardener, I throw the material around a bit at a time, as they are available, and let nature mix them for me. On a couple of occasions I have received a bit too much wood shavings so these became path material between some of the garden beds, with a heavy underlay of newspapers. People even tell me that it looks and feels good underfoot.

Never put a large amount of fresh animal manure on any garden, as it will burn any plant around it. Be extremely sparing or let it age first for a few months before applying it to the garden.

I have been living in my new house for about fifteen months, and the mulch layer in all my gardens (there were no gardens originally), is about 10 cm or 4 inches deep. None of which I have paid for and little that I have had to even pick up for myself.

People are even starting to comment on how fast the plants in my gardens are growing in the local heavy black clay soils, and they are surprised when I tell them that I have never bothered to fertilise the plants. The reason for this is that the earliest laid mulch material, is now broken down into plant nutrients and is now feeding my plants as a plant nutrient soup aided by the soil life which has suddenly started appearing in my gardens.

Another benefit that has started to appear in the last few months is the arrival of insect eating wildlife into my garden. Predatory insects and birds are now visiting my gardens on a regular basis, where I saw none this time last year. Bees and butterflies are also starting to visit many of the plants, which have come into flower for the first time this year.

So what can you do to start locating your own supplies of free mulch material, well here are a number of suggestions.

Put a little sign near your gate, something along the lines of ‘Organic mulch required’, or ‘Lawn clipping wanted’. There are sure to be a number of local people who are currently throwing theirs away in your community or even local area. Never mulch solely with grass clippings as they form an impenetrable layer that air and water cannot get through. Always mix it with other things to stop it ‘thatching’, just like a roof over the soil.

See if you can get into contact with local people who are into woodturning and carving, or even local sawmills. And come to some arrangement about unpreserved wood shavings.

Check the local phonebook for local showgrounds/racetracks/stables etc, to find out if any have stable or manure waste to give away, for people willing to pick them up

In other words, start talking around the place that you are after mulch materials and they will soon start coming to you.

The only caution with using other peoples waste material is the chance that you might also import other peoples pests and weeds. I have rarely found it a problem because of heavy mulch on mulch routines. But it is possible.

One point being that when you first start applying mulch to your garden you may see some nitrogen deficiencies occur in some plants. This is because the organisms that are breaking down the mulch material are using up all the available resources of it during the initial breakdown. Once you have gotten past this time the old composted material provide more than enough nitrogen for future processes.

Another thing to be careful of is not to bury or mulch up against the stems of wanted plants, as it may cause further problems for your plants in rot problems around the collar of the stems.

So get out there and talk around the community, find the contacts, believe it or not they will be as grateful as you to solve their particular problems of waste reduction. As well as that, you may start making some new friendships out of the deal; I know I have.

Garden insects: know your friends & foes
Learn to identify and manage three basic types of garden pests

Why is it when 97% of the world’s insects are considered to be either beneficial or harmless, your garden attracts only the remaining 3%  that are considered PESTS? Although it may seem this way, there are both “good” and “bad” insects in your yard.

There is a constant battle going on to maintain a balance between these two groups. Toleration of some pests should be allowed as they provide a food source for the beneficial insects, allowing them to thrive in your yard and keep the pests in check. However, even in the best of gardens, uncontrolled outbreaks do occur. Preventing an infestation of bugs is an important part of gardening. By taking several precautions and putting forth a little bit of effort in the beginning, you will hopefully be rewarded with (almost) pest-free veggies and flowers.

Why are some bugs in your yard a good thing? A vast majority of the insects in your yard provide many services that improve your garden and lawn. Insects help pollinate the blossoms, which lead to more fruit, vegetables, flowers, and seeds. Insects improve the soil condition by crawling through the surface layer. Droppings and dead bugs increase the fertility of the soil. Earthworms and centipedes also help aerate the soil during their travels. Insects keep the numbers of bugs in line by capturing and eating other types of insects

Learn to identify and manage three basic types of garden pests:

Soil Insects: This type of pest feeds on the seed in the ground or small tender vegetation. They will also attack larger, established root crops (such as potatoes and carrots). Examples of soil insects include cutworms, white grubs, slugs, and mole crickets.

Sucking Insects: These insects have a mouth type to pierce the skin and to suck the sap from the plant. Sometimes the hole made by these critters is so small that it is unable to be seen without a magnifying glass. Severe injury or even death can occur once your plant has fallen victim to these sucking insects. A badly infested plant will become yellowed, wilted, stunted or deformed. Examples of sucking insects include aphids, leafhoppers, stinkbugs, spider mites, and squash bugs.

Chewing Insects: This group causes the greatest amount of damage to gardens and yards. They chew off all parts of the plant including leaves, fruits, vegetables and flowers. Chewing insects include Colorado potato beetles, tomato hornworm, cabbage looper, webworms, leaf miners and various caterpillars

There are even parasitic insects that live off “bad” bugs, eventually killing them! The braconid wasp larvae infests the tomato hornworm and uses it as a food source. Insects act as janitors for your yard. They search out any dead plants or animals and feast on them, which provides a cleaning service for you. Most important of all is the insect population control created through fighting among themselves.

Surveillance of your garden
Plant your garden in a location so you can constantly see it. If an insect attack occurs you can take care of it early.

Choose resistant plants
Your local nursery or Extension Office can help you select some plants that are less tempting to the pests in your area. Other information sources are seed catalogs and plant reference books at the library.

Proper conditions
Plowing and cultivating you garden brings soil insects to the surface. Birds and other predators can then feast on them as a snack.

Fertilize
Follow an organic fertilizing program and provide the proper amount of water. Strong and healthy plants will be less likely to come under attack by pests.

Practice “clean culture”
Remove debris, including old or dead fruit and veggies, before planting the next season’s crops. By either burning, burying or removing the debris, you will rid the area of insect infestation or disease. Keep surrounding weeds under control.

Encourage beneficial bugs
Do not use an indiscriminate insecticide. Try to use target-specific sprays.

Rotate crops
By moving your plants around yearly, any bugs specific to certain crops will be forced to relocate. Garden pests can be placed into three separate groups: soil insects, sucking insects, and chewing insects.

Grow a cutting garden and enjoy flowers indoors and out

If you feel guilty when you cut flowers in your garden, worrying that you’re destroying nature or leaving gaps in your flowerbeds, it may be time for you to plant a cutting garden, says the American Association of Nurserymen (AAN). A cutting garden is designed to provide flowers for indoor arrangements, and it will give you a new perspective on removing flowers from your garden.

Choosing the Right Flowers and Plants

As with any garden, the first step in planning your cutting garden is to select plants that grow well in your part of the country. Ask the experts at your local garden center for their suggestions, and keep in mind your soil conditions, the amount of sun or shade your garden receives and how much it rains.

Selecting a Color Scheme

After you’ve decided which plants will thrive at your site, choose a color scheme, whether bright and vivid primary colors, soft and muted pastel shades or dusty earth tones. Since the purpose of a cutting garden is to grow flowers to use indoors, think about how flowers of certain colors will look when you place them in main rooms of your house.

Finally, plant flowers and plants in such a way that no one will notice that you frequently forage for new material for your indoor bouquets. One way to achieve a continuously balanced look in your cutting garden is to group your plantings by color, so that when you clip several blue flowers one day and several yellow flowers another, the overall appearance of the garden is still one of continuity and growth.

You can also fill in around your flowers with shrubs and larger, bushy plants that can easily spare a few leaves or berries, as well as plant a mix of perennials, annuals and bulbs so your garden will bloom all year ’round.