Tips on Planting Many Types of Plants

Garden Vegetables
This may sound a little obvious, but grow what you like to eat. No matter how good a crop you turn out, it's a waste of time and money if no one eats it. The second important consideration for a cost-effective plot is to grow only those crops which are cheaper to grow than buy. Why toil over a bed of spuds when you can buy 10 pounds for $1.59? Actually, there are a couple of sound exceptions to this rule. If your heart's desire is for a vegetable variety unavailable at the grocery store, grow your own. If you worry about an organic diet, grow your own. But if cost is a factor, leave the cheap vegetables to the truck farmers.

Herbs
Herbs are among the most trouble-free plants to grow, rarely bothered by pests or diseases. This is an endearing quality to the gardener who likes to save time and money. Most are attractive plants that add beauty to the landscape and many are exquisitely fragrant. They fit in anywhere; interplant into a border or grow in containers, a windowbox, or a pot on a sunny kitchen windowsill.

Look at some of the wonderful ways you can save money through the benefit of homegrown herbs. Grow gourmet cooking herbs such as Italian parsley or cilantro, that are often difficult to find in grocery stores. Common culinary herbs such as dill, oregano, sage, and tarragon transcend into gourmet delights when homegrown and just-picked fresh. Moreover, all herbs seem to taste better when you know you didn't have to pay the high prices they bring at the market. Grow mints, chamomile, and lemon balm, among others, to create your own soothing teas at a fraction the cost of store-bought. You can also dry herbs to use and enjoy all through the year, or to give as gifts.

Small Fruits
Berries and other small fruits add a touch of sweetness to the summer garden. While expensive in the supermarket, most small fruits are easy to grow.

Annual and Perennial Flowers
We appreciate flowers for their marvelous colors, textures and aromas. Annuals provide color all season, while gardeners wait patiently for perennial favorites. By blending the two types, you can create a lasting portrait in living color.

Turf and Ground Covers
Choices in ground covers have expanded wildly in the last few years. From play turf to low-maintenance 'Blue Carpet' juniper, there is something for every lifestyle and every pocketbook. As nice as a lawn is, consider the time and expense that goes into maintaining it, and alternatives become all the more attractive. Many tolerate drought much better than a lawn, which saves you money on watering. And most add visual interest to the landscape that turf can't touch. Those listed tend to spread readily to cover the area, another valuable characteristic.

Climbers and Vines
Climbers and vines add interest to spaces that might otherwise go bare. Use them to create a privacy screen or to obstruct an unpleasant view. Quick growing annuals are handy for a nearly instant solution to such landscape problems, while perennials provide long-term cover. Growing and training vines is easy. Direct seed or transplant annuals where you want them to grow, and provide a trellis or other support structure at planting time. Plant perennial vines as you would other perennials. The method differs somewhat for container plants and bare root plants.

Landscape Shrubs
The main reason for landscape shrubs is to provide visual interest in the yard or garden. Those that stand out remain attractive even after their main growing season. Shrubs also provide a haven for birds.

Shade and Landscape Trees
Few things in life are more rewarding than trees. They provide shade, privacy, and good company. Recommended types on the next page are low-maintenance, and offer at least two seasons of interest.

The Value of a Plant's Character

What characteristics do you look for in the plants you choose? Do you prefer a particular size and shape, a certain flower color, or productivity in food plants? As mentioned before, only the plants that suit your taste as well as your site, belong in your garden. But once you have decided your preferences for the more obvious qualities, consider some characteristics that will really save you money in the long-run.

Disease Resistance
Two rose bushes are next to each other in a border garden. One is practically defoliated, with the remaining leaves covered in black blotches. The other has full leaves and boasts blooms to boot. What makes the difference? Some plants are just naturally more resistant to disease than others are, and we don't always know why. Perhaps the cuticle, the waxy coating, on the leaves of the healthy rose bush is thicker, less acidic, or tougher than that of the sick rose bush. Physical and chemical attributes account for much of the mystique of natural resistance. We may not know exactly whysome plants resist illness, but we know disease resistance exists. Unfortunately, resistance often varies with climate or locale. Still, resistant varieties help you save money fighting plant diseases or replacing lost plants. Look for varieties that are resistant to diseases that are particularly prevalent in your area. Don't assume that just because you bought certified disease-free plants or resistant varieties, your plants will never get sick. The rest is up to you. Just as you can keep susceptible plants healthy with proper care, disease-resistant plants can get sick if not maintained properly.

Drought Resistance
Plants that evolved in arid places had to adapt in order to survive. Thin leaves, a glossy coating, fuzzy stems, or fleshy plant parts all help prevent water loss. Cacti are the classic example of drought resistance. But other plants also tolerate a lack of water. Remember that newly transplanted specimens usually will need to be kept moist until they adapt to their new surroundings.

Cold Hardiness
Frost damage can affect plants in many ways. Spring frosts may kill flowering buds, ruining a flowering or fruiting season, but causing little or no permanent damage. Severe winter cold may split branches or stems, which can kill the plant.
Gardeners who live in cold climate areas, including high elevations or northern latitudes, learn quickly to rely on short-season, late-blooming, and cold-hardy plants. If you garden in such an area, look for these designations when choosing varieties. Plants that evolved in cold climates developed some clever tricks for foiling frost. Short-season varieties take less time to flower or fruit than others of their type. They don't really tolerate cold, they avoid it. Late bloomers don't break bud in the spring until after hard frosts, hopefully. And cold-hardy perennials, shrubs, and trees have a unique method of surviving winter's chill, called super-cooling.
Cool temperatures alone don't cause winter damage. Dehydrating winds, bright sun, and temperature fluctuations all contribute to damage. Water retained in cells, freezing and swelling, and thawing and refreezing causes structural damage to plants. Cells burst and irreparably damage tissues.

Sun and Heat Tolerance
Severe cold as well as unrelenting heat, can damage plant tissues. With too much sun and heat, blossoms fade and fall, leaves drop, and fruit fails to develop. Even if plants are well-watered, the rate of transpiration (see Chapter 1) often outpaces the ability of the roots to absorb and replace lost moisture. But some plants have found ways to beat the heat.

Why You Should Go Native

The plants best suited to your area are those nature put there. Check with your County Extension Service for ideas and sources. The trick to incorporating native plants is to get rid of any images of perfectly mowed grass surrounded by a neatly trimmed hedge. Wander out into the country and look at how nature arranges plants. A word of caution is necessary here. Not only is it bad manners to go out and lift plants from the wild, in many cases it is downright illegal. Check with your local Audubon Society Chapter or native plant society to determine whether a plant is endangered. Removing endangered plants from the wild is prohibited, and even collecting seeds from such plants may be restricted. In the case of others, you must have permission from a private property owner before digging up desirable natives. You can, however, make note of the plants you want, and gather seeds in the fall. Going native doesn't necessarily mean including only local plants in the landscape. Your hometown surely is unique, but there are other regions throughout the world with similar climateslatitude, altitude, and distance from large bodies of water. Plants from similar zones often grow equally as well in one as in another. For instance, Rugosa roses, native to the Far East, thrive in seaboard towns everywhere. Alpine plants from Switzerland flourish in rock gardens in Minnesota and Oregon. Cacti from Arizona prosper in any dry area. The idea is to use plants found in similar regions.

Nursery Shopping Strategy

The very best way to get top-quality plants from your local garden center or nursery is to get the best service. The people who work there are your most valuable resource. They know the quality of their product, their wholesalers, when the plants arrived, how they were cared for, and any problems that may exist. Do yourself a favor; get to know these folks.

Know When to Shop
Plants arrive at the garden center from the supplier in the best possible condition, given the rigors of shipment. They sometimes go downhill from there. When scouting for plants, call and ask when the store expects to receive their shipment from their best supplier, and show up when the plants arrive. Not only will you get the healthiest possible plants, but you will also get first pick.
You won't get a bargain if you wait for plants to go on sale. If a plant has been sitting on a rack for months, especially if it doesn't receive proper care, then it probably won't amount to much. The best bets among such plants are perennials, but only if the price is really low. If you feel you can bring a plant around, then by all means take a cheap gamble. Otherwise, spend wisely, and buy early.


Signs of a Good Investment
Blossoms are the one feature that attract buyers most readily. Yet seedlings that have been forced into bloom in order to make them more tempting to buyers can actually result in less productive plants in the long run. The stress of life with few roots and a big head slows plant vigor.

Look for compact, vigorous plants that appear healthy. Pass by plants with dead or yellowing leaves or those that have grown leggy. Be wary of unstable stems or plants that look poorly rooted. Well-rooted plants will recover from transplant shock much more quickly than those with poorly developed roots. If you can find plants that are not yet in bloom, consider them first.

When buying perennials always look at the roots, because that is the future of the plant. A healthy root system ensures the plant will live to bloom for years to come.

No matter what type of plant you are buying, look it over thoroughly for any signs of pests or diseases. Never buy sick or infested plants at any price.

Two More Tricks to Cheap Seeds

Once upon a time I ran a bedding plant business. I think I made about $200 that year. But from that experience I learned something so obvious it's embarrassing. Wholesale is cheaper than retail. And nowhere is that more obvious than in the seed business.
Owning a small greenhouse business has its advantages, not the least of which is you get to write things off on your taxes and maybe even realize a profit. You also get to buy from wholesale distributors. The price is always much less than retail. The catch is you must buy in quantity. This is not really a problem since most seed keeps for years, or you could resell some, perhaps at a reasonable mark-up, to gardening pals.

If you are not interested in going into business, then watch those seed-rack displays. Seed companies only sell seed packaged for the current year. At the end of each season, you can get mega-bargains on this year's product. Often seeds that sold for $1 a packet, sell at ten packets for $1 when the stores are clearing inventory. Garden centers offer the least drastic discounts, while grocery stores, hardware stores, and other stores not normally in the garden supply business just want to get rid of them. A word of caution, however, is remember that the perfect environment for storing seed is a cool, dry place. Don't buy from seed racks exposed to rain or excess summer heat. The seed may be ruined.

Dealing with Seed Bargains

Mail-order catalogs and display racks everywhere from garden centers to grocery and hardware stores sell seeds. Which sources offer the best bargains?

Mail-order seed companies are big business. Pick up a catalog and wander through those glossy pages of perfect plants; you can't help but be tempted to order many. Rule number one is to take the pictures with a grain of salt. Your plants probably won't look just like the picture-perfect ones.

Compare several catalogs, and you will quickly find that most are selling the same seeds, packaged a little differently in a range of prices. Look for the best-priced varieties with the color, flavor, texture, growth habit, or other traits you desire. Hint: It's not always the biggest company that offers the smallest price. Furthermore small seed companies often focus on local conditions and offer varieties that will thrive in your immediate area. Check them first if there are any near you.

Gardening magazines often have a seed-savers exchange section. Someone has saved variety X and would like to trade for Y. These are a great way to get seedsoften rare or heirloom varieties that are hard to find elsewhere. There are seed-saving clubs, such as the Seed Savers Exchange, the members of which trade thousands of seed varieties. (See page 156 for address.) Finally, plant associations abound for nearly every kind of plantfrom alpines to water lilies. National groups usually send out a newsletter in which members often list plants they have to offer. If you have a real passion for a particular kind of plant, get involved with the local chapter of the appropriate association. (Of course, the really cheap way is to become friends with someone who is already a member and borrow a copy of the newsletter!)

Where to Find Homeless Plants

Digging up someone else's landscape is obviously a bad idea, but there are a number of valuable resources for finding unwanted plants. Landscape companies frequently redesign existing plantings, both residential and commercial. Construction firms remove existing plants everyday when expanding structures, usually with a bulldozer. If you make contact with these people and offer to remove unwanted plants for free, you may find yourself with more plants than you can handle.

No matter what the source of a secondhand plant, transplant only healthy-looking specimens. A free diseased plant can become quite costly.