Spice up your landscape with garden tips from Chalet and other experts
Appearing in the Saturday, Mar. 21, 2009 edition of SeattleTimes.com’s Home & Garden Section, Nina A. Koziol of Chicago Tribune offered “8 tips to spice up your landscape,” including advice from Chalet and other Illinois landscaping experts. In the sixth tip, Tony Fulmer of Chalet, said to “plunk a pot.” He said an annual application of organic compost from your own back yard can make a dramatic difference in the borders of your yard, “Top-dressing with compost, whether it be around shrubs, perennials or annuals, encourages microbial activity in the soil and that’s good.” He recommended saving those one-gallon plant pots, too, suggesting that after washing them out, to place them over newly emerging perennials. “You can dump the compost throughout the bed so it’s one or two inches deep. Pull up the pots and you have perfect circles around each plant. It’s an effective time saver and you won’t have the comopst resting on a plant’s tender stems,” Fulmer said.
Advice from others included trying new plants, add and tend to plants gradually through the spring and summer for changing colors, cover young plants to keep unwanted bugs out and hide weeds once you’ve pulled them for instant compost. Learn more about these tips and see the rest of the list on the SeattleTimes.com website.
Tags: Chalet Landscaping Nursery and Garden Center, Chicago Tribune, SeattleTimes.com