Remember...

Mother's Day
is Sunday, April 11th!

English Gift Baskets
make great gifts!

Make Mom feel appreciated this year...give her an English Garden Basket from Sun River Gardens.

Living, flowering plants arranged in a lovely basket are a reminder of your love and gratitude for weeks to come.

Longer lasting than an ordinary bouquet... Order yours now for best selection.

Everyone loves a secret place they can run to when they want to get away from the stress of everyday life--a quiet, secluded spot for times of reflection or privacy. Wouldn't it be great if you could create a place like that right in your own backyard?

Often an unfinished side yard or a hidden corner can be turned into a cozy nook for sitting and relaxing. It can be as simple as adding a bench or a garden swing under an arbor and surrounding the area with colorful, fragrant plants and flowering vines to stimulate the senses. In fact, any outside space, from a balcony to an acre estate, can benefit from including a nook.

First, think about your purpose for the nook. Perhaps it could be a place for morning coffee, a place to sit and read, or a quiet spot for an intimate dining space with a loved one or friends. The key is to make it secluded and partially hidden from the rest of the yard or home. You can create this by using taller plants, a lattice or an arbor that narrows and defines the entrance but invites discovery.

It's important to create boundaries for your nook. Try to enclose at least three sides by incorporating existing walls, fences, trees, and strategic plantings. Another way to define a nook's space is to use a different type of surface from the rest of the yard. This could include brick, pavers, a wood deck or a concrete pad surrounded by ground cover. Consider a cover overhead, such as a pergola, and outdoor lighting.

Now it's time to add greenery for color and texture to your space. Start with fragrant plants for privacy such as butterfly bush, lilac, honeysuckle, michelia or even a bush or small tree. Colorful tall shrubs to consider are nandina, plumbago, smoke bush or physocarpus (Ninebark). Perhaps you'd like a small focal tree such as a Rose of Sharon or a tree rose.

Add a few colorful vines, like bougainvillea, clematis, trumpet vines or a climbing rose. Now fill in the area with more fragrant plants such as calycanthus, chamomile, gardenia, jasmine, lavender, lemon balm, monarda or scented geraniums. Fill in any leftover space between plants with fragrant mint, thyme or verbena.

Make sure that whatever furniture you use is comfortable, whether it is a simple garden bench or bistro set. Now add some elements for sound, such as a fountain or a set of wind chimes. Touch up the area with tall, colorfully glazed containers and you'll be set to go!

Make sure the view looking into your nook is as good as the view looking out. Having a great view will add to the pleasure of your time spent there. Using these principles, you will create a cozy nook that will give pleasure to everyone who visits and uses the space.

Try to include some greenery in your nook if it isn't there naturally. It will add color, texture and luxury to the space. If you can, include a favorite piece of whimsy that personalizes your nook.

SunRiver Gardens has a complete landscape department ready to help you create a garden nook -- we can help you plan your nook, provide the plantings and even construct a fountain as a focal point. Call today for your new garden nook design.

We all have been thrilled by the Queen of the Garden this Spring. Don't you agree? The first rose bloom has been absolutely fabulous. If you haven't been by the garden center and wandered through the rows of hybrid teas, floribundas, English, Romantica, tree roses and climbers, we invite you to do so. The color palette and fragrant bouquet are out of this world.

Roses perform best in bright sunny areas. Choose a location where access for pruning and maintenance is easy and where the plant is not likely to be exposed too much overhead watering, (such as lawn sprinklers) which could result in continual mildew problems. Although bare root planting was in early spring, you can plant roses now before it gets into our summer hot weather.

Almost everyone loves roses but many people don't grow them because they think roses are difficult to care for. Not so. They do require some care, but new resistant varieties are much easier to care for than the roses our grandparents grew. Here are the basic care tips for growing this Queen of the Garden.

Planting: Once you have chosen a location, plant your rose carefully to ensure a healthy start. Use a quality soil mix to blend 50/50 with your existing soil. Dig a hole 1.5 times as big as the container size you are planting. Use your soil blend in the bottom and handle the root ball carefully, using two hands to place it inside the hole. Next, using your soil blend, fill in around the sides of the root ball. Water the root ball thoroughly and let the soil settle naturally. Remember to water daily, as the rose gets established. You can begin fertilizing in 2-3 weeks.

Once the first blooms fade, what is your next step? Deadhead, water, fertilize and mulch. Pretty darn simple.

Deadhead: This encourages your rose to grow more secondary canes that will give you the next bloom cycle. So, unless you like to grow rose hips, then cut off these blooms. Make your cuts just above (1/4") an outward facing 5-leaflet. How far down the cane? That is your choice. During the bud/bloom time, some cut long stems to take into the house. Others cut back to shape and maintain a certain size to the rose bush throughout the season. Cut off cross canes and any canes coming up from below the graft union (those are suckers from the root stock).

Water: Roses love water. Keep the soil moist but not with standing water.

Fertilize: Roses love to eat - wouldn't you after all the work of these blooms! We recommend you use Dr. Earth Rose & Flower. Just a quick product note--if you use a systemic food with pesticides, it is will not kill just rose pests, but beneficial insects as well.

Mulch: Cover the soil with ~2-3 inches of mulch (cocoa mulch, small or shredded bark) surrounding the rose bush. Keep mulch away from the main stem/graft area. Mulch will keep weeds down, moisture in the soil, and increase the health of your soil.

Consider giving Mom a rose garden this year that will thrill her by living for years to come, instead of a bouquet of roses that will fade in a few days. We look forward to strolling with you through the rose section of SunRiver Gardens and helping you with the best selection of roses for Mom's garden--or for your own!

Dr. Earth Organic Rose & Flower Food

Hey, are you looking for a secret to beautiful and abundant roses? Feed them with Dr. Earth Rose Organic Rose & Flower Food. It contains a superior blend of organic ingredients in addition to beneficial soil microbes and mycorrhizae. You'll get exceptional results with Dr. Earth because the nutrients are released quickly into the soil for a stronger root system, lustrous foliage and what everyone wants, a greater abundance of large and fragrant blooms. So don't delay. Give your roses what they crave. Feed them Dr. Earth Organic Rose & Flower Food.

Many home gardeners grow tomatoes, peas and string beans vertically on trellises, but few realize you can grow other vegetables vertically. Many space-challenged gardeners opt out of growing squashes and melons because they take up so much room in the garden. That's a shame, since these are some of the most rewarding summer crops to grow.

The best part of growing squashes and melons vertically is that you will have room for more tasty varieties. The key is to make sure you have (or build) a sturdy support structure for these babies; no string trellises here. Firmly attach a wood or metal trellis to your fence or individual posts. You can even use a strong garden arbor.

Squash and melons grow fast, so a couple of plants will cover a trellis in no time. For an arbor, select four different varieties and anchor two on each side. This unique growing method will also add visual appeal to your garden. Just imagine an arbor covered with dozens of vibrant squash or fragrant melons hanging like ornaments. This growing method will also encourage you to harvest more frequently, before your squash get too large and tough-fleshed.

Besides saving space, growing vegetables vertically will expose them to more sunlight, allowing for more even ripening. It also increases the air circulation around the foliage and fruit so your plants will be less troubled by mildew and other diseases. And, since your fruit is now off the ground, it will be less susceptible to rotting. So when you plan your vegetable garden this year, go vertical!

What is the best way to get rid of slugs and snails?

Answer:

First, make sure you have slugs and snails, not earwigs (pincher bugs). The best way to tell is if you see shiny snail trails around the garden.

Sprinkle pet-safe snail bait such as MN pest fighter pellets around the plants you want to protect, or create a barrier between where they hide during the day (under decks, dark places, and leaf matter) and where they feed at night.

You can also place a bowl of beer out to attract them (stale beer works best). This way they'll have quite a party before they fall in and drown. (Probably won't feel anything either.) Just remove the bowl in the morning so the neighbor's pets don't get drunk.

You don't have to spend all spring and summer weeding your garden beds. Using a pre-emergent before those weeds start to sprout is a good way to keep your garden free of weeds--and your back free of kinks.

Now is a good time to apply a pre-emergent grass and weed prevention product on all of your garden beds. Read instructions carefully before applying.

Refreshing your mulch--or putting some down if you have none--will also help keep weeds away.

Product Spotlight: Easy Livin Weed & Feed

If you don't enjoy the thought of spraying for weeds in your lawn, consider using Easy Livin' Weed & Feed. It contains a superior blend of nutrients that will keep your lawn looking green and also control 35 types of broadleaf lawn weeds. This lawn food contains Trimec, a very effective weed control that knocks down weeds in a matter of days without harming your grass. Simply apply to your lawn and watch those weeds disappear. So stop fretting about mixing and spraying and apply Easy Livin' Weed & Feed today!

Adults emerge from over-wintered pupae April-June and begin laying eggs (150/200 per female) at the base of the plants all summer into the fall. These eggs hatch in about three weeks as larvae, which work their way into the soil and feed on the roots. They remain in the soil (overwintering) until the following spring. Repeat the life cycle. Lovely, right? No, of course not.

You can’t spray pesticides on your edible strawberries, so what do you do? In the summertime, when the adults are present, choose a safe foliar insecticidal spray to kill (smother) this adult stage. They are more active at sunset, and that would be the best time to spray. Killing the adults minimizes the deposition of eggs and the continuation of the weevil’s life cycle.

Fortunately, the strawberry weevil has a natural predator. The carabid beetle, Pterostichus vulgaris, feeds on strawberry root weevil adults, pupae, and larvae and may substantially reduce the population. Other natural predators include some birds, spiders, ground beetles and beneficial soil nematodes.

Insecticidal soaps containing neem, pyrethrum or Dr. Earth’s Fruit and Vegetable spray are recommended for edible plants. For ornamental plants, if these sprays do not work for you, ask one of our sales staff. We may recommend an alternative spray for you, like Hi-Yield Acephate.

One parting thought. If you have an annual problem with the strawberry weevil, try tilling your soil after your strawberries are done producing this year. Also, in addition to tilling the soil, consider growing them in a different area of your garden next year so that you can break the life cycle of the weevil.

Answer:

Double digging is an old garden technique of amending the soil in a flower or vegetable garden that is still as effective today as it was back in medieval Europe.

But be forewarned, double digging is a lot of work. In fact, just thinking about it makes us break out in a sweat. The term comes from "double the depth" of a normal spade or shovel blade--hence double-digging. You will also be adding one third of the depth of your spade or shovel in soil amendment to the entire garden you are digging in.

To get started, dig out the topsoil to the depth of your spade or shovel in a trench one spade wide along one end of your bed and set aside in a wheelbarrow or on a tarp.

Turn, break and aerate the next spade depth and width. Work in one third by volume of soil amendment. Blend together with turned-over soil and fill in the first trench.

Now repeat the process with another trench. Blend that soil with more soil amendment, and transfer to the previous trench. At the end of the bed, place the topsoil from the wheelbarrow or tarp over the last section, add amendment, and mix it in.

Make sure to remove any rocks or old pieces of roots as you fill in each trench.

Now--if you haven't collapsed yet--go ahead and plant your flowers. Better yet, plant a new crop of veggies. You'll need the vitamins to help you recover from the exhaustion! More seriously--if you have poor soil, double-digging is one of the most effective ways to improve the soil to a good depth--one that will allow your plant roots plenty of room to grow. Rototilling and such can help too but it doesn't improve much but the top layer of soil. Double-digging may be labor-intensive, but it works.