Garden and Outdoor Maintenance

Garden and outdoor maintenance is a task that never ends. With every season comes a new set of gardening chores and outdoor projects. From the articles in this section, you’ll learn about growing seasonal plants, trees and flowers, planning a garden both indoors and out, growing fruits and vegetables, controlling outdoor pests, and building an outdoor entertainment space.  

Gardening is such a vast subject, it can often be confusing to the new gardener where to start. In this basic gardening section, we will cover how plants are named, where to grow certain plants, soil types, what plants need to survive and basic tools that may be needed.

Plants want to grow and reproduce. If you get the environment right, your plants will reward you with vigorous growth, beautiful flowers or delicious fruit and vegetables.

Plants, in general, need four things in order to grow: heat, light, moisture and food. Deprive them of one of these and the plant will suffer, becoming sickly and liable to come under attack from pests and diseases

It's sometimes confusing when looking in gardening books, or looking at seed packets when the seasons start and end. Below is a rough guide to what month relates to which season.

Early Spring	March
Mid Spring	April
Late Spring	May
Early Summer	June
Mid Summer	July
Late Summer	August
Early Autumn	September
Mid Autumn	October
Late Autumn	November
Early Winter	December
Mid Winter	January
Late Winter	February

Plant Characteristics

Heights

Plant height is dependent on a number of factors including position, weather conditions, proximity to other plants and soil conditions. The scales below are plant heights when grown in Britain under average conditions.

Trees

Small - Up to 35ft (up to 10m)
Medium - 35 to 60 ft (10 - 18m)
Large - over 60ft (18m)

Shrubs

Dwarf - 1 to 2.5ft (30 - 75cm)
Small - 3 to 5 ft (1 - 1.5m)
Medium - 6 to 10 ft (1.5 - 3m)
Large - over 10ft (over 3m)

Tenderness

Hardy - able to withstand average British winter temperatures in open ground.

Half hardy - will be able to withstand average British winter temperatures if protected from frost and or snow, or planted in a sheltered location such as against a wall or amongst other plants. Half hardy also applies to plants only grown in the summer, such as begonia, marrow, marigold.

Tender - susceptible to frost, snow and low winter temperatures. Tender plants will need protection, bringing indoors or moved to a heated greenhouse.

Soil type

pH - acidity or alkalinity of soil. A pH level of 6.5 to 7 is neutral (green on a testing chart). Below 4.5 and the soil is very acid (red), above 7 and the soil is alkaline (blue), normally caused by a high lime content from underlying chalk or limestone.

Most garden plants will thrive in neutral soil, rhododendrons and heathers prefer a lower pH (acid) soil, whilst peonies and irises will tolerate an alkaline soil.

Always try to grow in your garden some plant or plants out of
the ordinary, something your neighbors never attempted.  For 
you can receive no greater flattery than to have a gardener of 
equal intelligence stand before your plant and ask, 
"What is that?" 
-   Richardson Wright