How you prepare your garden for winter will have a huge bearing on how easy and successful gardening is the following spring. There’s still time if you haven’t already winterized your garden. Plan to spend a few hours outdoors the next time it’s mild and dry, even in the dead cold of winter you do get a few scattered warm days. Here’s the to-do list that I follow each fall and winter:

• Trim back damaged or diseased plants and tree branches. Do heavy pruning any time between early and late winter, when the tree is dormant and the leaves are gone. The benefit of pruning during this season is that you can see the tree’s form very clearly, making it easier to prune accurately. You’re less likely to spread disease when trees are dormant, as well.
• Fertilize the lawn in late fall, according to Cornell University. You don’t want to fertilize while the grass is still actively growing. Wait instead until growth slows down, but before the ground freezes. The fertilizer will reach the roots, providing food for healthy growth in the spring.
• Clean out rain gutters. This is an absolute must so water drains properly from your roof. Remove debris with a broom or rake, and wash the gutters out with a pressure washer set on low, or a garden hose with a sprayer attachment. Seal any holes or leaks with a silicone caulking, and replace nails and screws.
• Clean outdoor furniture with water and a gentle scrub brush. Remove rust from metal with a steel brush and apply new paint, if necessary. Some wood furniture may benefit from oiling and restaining as needed. Store all outdoor furniture, such as benches, propane fire pit tables that are now a backyard fixture in most yards, in a shed or garage, or cover them with plastic tarps. Exposure to rain and snow will rust or warp outdoor furniture, reducing its lifespan.
• Clean and sharpen your garden tools before storing them. Here’s how: Brush off dirt with a brush or your hand. Mix 3/4 quart motor oil with sand in a 5-gallon bucket, adding sand until you have a mixture that is moist, but not wet. Place your tool blades in the sand to remove remaining dirt and condition the blades. Remove rust with a steel brush. Wipe the blades with motor oil or W-D-40, and sharpen them with a file or whetstone at a 20-degree angle. Store tools in a dry shed.
• I can’t tell you how many times I’ve lost wooden-handled spades or weeding forks in the garden because I can’t see them from the dirt and grass. Last year, though, I got smart. I bought a can of bright red spray paint and painted all the handles after I had cleaned them for the winter. Voila! Cute, attractive garden tools that never get lost.
• Remove garden debris. I sometimes leave perennials in place to insulate the plants’ roots or provide shelter for birds and rabbits, but I always clean my vegetable garden out. Leaving garden plants through the winter results in a slimy mess to clean up in the spring. It also promotes disease and provides shelter for insects to overwinter–two conditions I try to avoid.

While this seems like a lengthy list, you can easily complete most of it in a weekend. Although I’m always sad to tuck my garden in for the winter, I enjoy snuggling indoors with a warm fire or watching the snow fall on my bare trees.

As William Blake once said, “In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.”

Photo by meganpru

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I received a beautiful bouquet of 20 rainbow tulips from ProFlowers, pictured to the left, and they have been so great to have around the house. They are amazing quality and all flowers from ProFlowers are guaranteed to stay fresh for a minimum of seven days.

The lucky winner of a $5o ProFlowers gift code is Melanie!

Congratulations!

If you didn’t win the giveaway but are still looking for phenomenal Mother’s Day gift ideas, be sure to check out ProFlowers and their coupon site, ProFlowers Coupons where you can find a variety of deals, including 20% off your order as well as a free vase and free weekday delivery.

Disclosure: I received a bouquet of 20 rainbow tulips from ProFlowers in order to write a review, as well as the opportunity to host this giveaway.

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Mother’s Day is rapidly approaching and while people will be frantically trying to think up new gift ideas to show their mothers, as well as the mother-like figures in their lives, how special, important and very much needed they are, one gift option that has always been appropriate and thoughtful is a beautiful bouquet of flowers.

It can be pretty difficult to really differentiate between the many professional flower arrangement and gift companies and when you find yourself in the position where you need one, you’re more likely to check out a company that has been recommended by a friend. So let me tell you about a company that I have had the opportunity to experience myself.

ProFlowers is a company who has been delivering fresh-from-the-field flowers and other amazing gifts meant to delight and pamper, since 1998 and they recently sent me the gorgeous bouquet of 20 rainbow tulips pictured above.

My bouquet arrived in a large cardboard box with a note on the inside flap that holds a personalized note from the sender to the recipient. Once I opened the box, my cats’ interests were immediately piqued.

My bouquet arrived just the day after being emailed about my order and with it, was a complimenting green vase. The flowers were fresh, beautiful, and have stayed fresh throughout the past few days. In fact, all flowers from ProFlowers are guaranteed to stay completely fresh for a minimum of seven days.

I haven’t received many bouquets of flowers before so admittedly, I didn’t know exactly how much I should cut from the bottom of each stem, what temperature the water in the vase should be initially, or what that flower food substance was all about. Luckily, ProFlowers sent along a handy sheet of care instructions that answered any questions I could ever have about the care and keeping of my bouquet, along with some tips on caring for tulips specifically.

ProFlowers has outstanding deals for anyone looking for Mother’s Day flower arrangements. Be sure to check out ProFlowers Coupons to save 20% and receive a free vase and free weekday delivery, amongst other deals.

Giveaway

In celebration of Mother’s Day, we are giving away a $50 ProFlowers gift code to one lucky Woman Tribune reader to spend on a gift for your mother, another woman who is special in your life, or even on yourself (hey, you deserve it!)

Required Entry

Visit the ProFlowers website and leave a comment on this post telling us what gift you would choose.

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Leave a separate comment for each additional entry.

• “Like” ProFlowers on Facebook
  By “liking” ProFlowers on Facebook, you will also receive 20% off your order.
• Subscribe to Woman Tribune
• Follow @WomanTribune on Twitter
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• Blog about this giveaway with a link back to this post and details about ProFlowers. (This entry is worth five entries, so leave five separate comments with the link to your blog post.)
• Tweet about this giveaway. Feel free to use the following tweet or write your own. (This can be done once a day, leave a link to your tweet in your comment.)
  

  Win a $50 gift code to ProFlowers just in time for Mother’s Day from @WomanTribune http://bit.ly/e0z61E ends 4/29

This giveaway ends Friday, April 29th at 11:59 p.m. ET. This giveaway is open to anyone over the age of 18 at the time of entry. The winner will be randomly chosen and contacted by email; they then have 48 hours (2 days) to respond to that email or another winner will be chosen.

Full Contest Disclaimer

Disclosure: I received a bouquet of 20 rainbow tulips from ProFlowers in order to write this review, as well as the opportunity to host this giveaway.

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Spring is definitely a time where we start to rely on slow cookers and comfort food less and less and start implementing more fresh vegetables into our diets; it seems like as soon as we start seeing nature getting back its green, we start getting it back on our plates as well. But fresh produce can become a little costly, especially if you’re looking for organically-grown goods and don’t have a local fresh farmer’s market in town.

More and more people are starting their own gardens for the convenience of not having to run to the grocery store every few days and the peace of mind in knowing that there were no hard, damaging chemicals used on their produce. But we don’t all have big yards with perfect gardening space; as a woman who is living the apartment life, I know that sometimes, we don’t even have yard at all. So when I stumbled upon this awesome video from Becky Stern for Craftzine on how to set up your own hydroponic herb garden.

Above is an in-process picture of Becky setting up her hydroponic herb garden. A DIY system is the best way to go about starting your own hydroponic herb garden, especially if you’re a complete beginner. In the video, Becky used the Rainforest 318 system made by General Hydroponics.

In all, you will need:

• A light-tight container
• Nutrient solution
• A water pump and tubing (available at most pet stores)
• Small plant-sized containers
• Expanded clay pebbles or other growing medium

Head on over to Craftzine for the complete how-to.

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Companies want you to buy organically–Food, bath and body products, laundry detergents and so on, but when I got down to thinking, one place where you should most definitely be letting your eco-friendliness shine is when you’re using your green thumb.

Don’t let your plants and flowers soak up all the green in your garden. Many gardeners don’t realize simply how ironic it is that you’re growing green but you’re not necessarily going green when it comes to most small gardens and one of the most controversial elements when it comes to your garden are the products you are using to help keep your garden beautiful. One of the biggest things that can keep your garden from looking it’s best are weeds and instead of spending an entire day pulling weeds out by hand when you can be tending to the other aspects of your garden, you must find yourself an excellent weed killer.

Weed killers aren’t environmentally friendly; in fact, weed killers use harsh chemicals to kill weeds, but while you may think that they are getting the job done in that department, they are also harming your other plants–And that goes triple if you have a vegetable garden! Luckily, there is now an organic herbicide that is safe to use for you, your pets and children and the environment.

Nature’s Avenger is an all-natural organic herbicide that is completely natural and designed to meet the needs and demands of gardeners, homeowners and Mother Nature.

It has been approved for use in organic production, is fast-acting with visible results in just two hours or even less and it is also highly biodegradable. It is made with natural citrus oil, which means you aren’t dealing with harsh chemicals with harsh chemical smells. With Nature’s Avenger, your sense of smell, braincells and health of pets and children are fully taken care of.

Nature’s Avenger is available is a 24oz pre-mixed, pre-measured, easy to use spray bottle and also in 32oz and 1 gallon concentrates and can be purchased through their website or on Amazon.

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Now first of all, my partner is very much unlike most guys you will meet–He loves to decorate, he has an eye for what colors and fabrics look best on me and he has a knack for cleaning the house a whole lot better than I could! I am a very lucky woman to have somehow attracted my very own straight gay man.

While thinking about this garden that he would love to have, we talked about not only having fresh flowers we wouldn’t have to pay an arm and a leg for, but also our very own produce; which of course, with the rising cost of gas to get to the store and the twenty percent increase in food prices that have hit America hard, having our very own vegetables would be a dream!

Being the dedicated blogger that I am, I thought I would share some information I picked up on how to make the thought of your very own vegetable garden a reality.

Like any major endeavor you plan to take on, a vegetable garden takes planning. You can’t just go out to your yard, pick a corner and start planting, you need to take into consideration how much sunlight your crops need, how many different varieties of vegetables you will be growing and where everything is going to go.

Vegetables have very particular needs unlike any other plants. Your vegetables required deep, fertile soil, a level ground and six hours of full sun every day at the very least. You also need to take into consideration that raised beds are better for growing vegetables because they have good draining, which rids your vegetables of disease and suffocation of the root systems. Raised beds also warms the soil a lot quicker than a regular bed and of course, since vegetables need six hours of full sunlight daily, they could use all the warmth they can get!

It is much easier to sketch your plan out on paper before you begin to plant. Decide what vegetables will go where as well as the size of the beds you will need. The best type of paper for this endeavor would be graph paper so you can plan to scale and also make sure you know how big your crops will grow so you can make sure that they are spaced out properly and not overlapping onto each other.

To make the raised beds that I mentioned earlier, mark off the bed layout with string and bamboo stakes. Make sure that your beds are not wider than 36 to 40 inches and using a shovel, carve out a series of lowered paths around the staked-off areas. Then, mound the soil onto the beds and use a rake to level the soil.

If you currently have your own vegetable garden, tell me about it in the comments, I could surely use all the help I can get and if you’re feeling really adventurous, take some pictures and send them to me using the contact form.

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