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Garden
Year-Round in Your Home
It's hard for an avid gardener to put down their spade
come winter. That's why so many choose to garden
year-round.
Whether it is wintering expensive outdoor annuals inside
your home, investing in a small greenhouse or growing
miniature indoor gardens on window ledges and in special
containers, there are many ways to continue gardening all
year.
Growing plants and flowers, both indoors and outdoors,
adds an element of beauty to your yard and home that can
be very satisfying. It's also profitable. Well-placed
trees, shrubs, flowering plants and an attractive lawn can
increase the value of your property by as much as 10 per
cent.
A greenhouse or solarium, or miniature indoor gardens that
allow you to garden year-round, also add beauty and value
to your home. A greenhouse, in fact, can be therapeutic.
Not only can you watch flowers bloom and harvest
vegetables and herbs 365 days a year, you can work the
soil and tend to it regardless of weather conditions.
So, if you don't want to give up the spade this fall,
begin to consider the following options now.
Bringing your fancy annuals indoors
In addition to the inexpensive annuals such as the
impatiens and petunias most of us plant to add colour to
our gardens, you could consider investing in more
expensive but interesting and hardier annuals.
It is well worth the extra investment because most of the
more expensive annuals will winter quite well inside your
home, adding colour and brightness to those dull, dreary
winter days. Plants that perform well over the winter
include hibiscus, lantana, Mexican heather, passion
flower, lithodora, the Mandevilla hybrid, geraniums and
others available in spring at most garden centres.
After enjoying their beauty all summer long, cut them back
before the first frost in fall, pot and place them in a
bright spot indoors until the following spring when you
can slowly re-introduce them to the outdoors. Don't forget
to include some herbs such as rosemary, which stay well
indoors over the winter, too. Don't expect the plant tags
to tell you these plants thrive for more than one summer,
though.
Invest in a greenhouse
A greenhouse can be the key to year-round gardening for
many avid gardeners. There are many greenhouse models on
the market today, in varying sizes and prices to choose
from. You can build your own, buy prefabricated kits which
must be assembled or have one custom-built for your home.
Greenhouse gardening requires plenty of sunlight. So
choose the location carefully and consider the possibility
of future expansion when deciding on the size. Greenhouses
require fans, heaters, vents, sprinklers and shelving
units. A variety of glazing materials are used to promote
thermal efficiency, including glass, acrylic, film and
polycarbonate. These materials can increase the rate of
plant growth by as much as 50 per cent.
A greenhouse can be an avid gardener's dream come true.
You can grow exotic plants and vegetables, experiment with
new gardening techniques and experience the warmth of a
summer garden on the coldest of winter days.
Creating an indoor garden
Greening your home with indoor plants is fun and a bargain
compared to filling up and brightening spaces using
furniture and other decorative techniques. You can hang
them from the ceiling, set them on tables and other
furniture pieces, perch them on window sills, prop them in
empty comers - the possibilities are endless.
Don't settle for just simple houseplants. There are many
varieties of plants to choose from, including dwarf trees
that can easily raise a crop of grapefruits, lemons or
oranges right in your living room - but you should expect
a three to five year wait for the first fruit to develop.
If you don't have a big home or big ideas about indoor
gardening, miniature house plants can be very cheerful and
great decorators. Because they occupy less space, you can
also grow more of them and in greater variety. Dwarf
geraniums will do well on a narrow window sill.
Windows can be the best places to decorate with a living
garden, as long as all the plants are not haphazardly
arranged. It should be an artistic composition, an
arrangement of plants and containers that create an
attractive, refreshing and charming effect. |
