Dear ##firstname[Friend]##,

Kirsten Sweet

It is finally spring. It is a brand new season and time for a fresh start in the garden! DIY is all the rage right now and small garden projects are a perfect way to add some innovative touches to your garden. Try a vertical herb garden or tipsy pots to showcase your plants. And while you’re at it, give some of these new plants for 2012 a try!

Happy Gardening!
–Kirsten

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READ ON TO DISCOVER...

• Birds & Blooms Blog

• Plant of the Month

• Recycled Backyard

• Question of the Month

• Frugal Backyard Tip

• Submit Your Story

Birds & Blooms Blog

Visit the gardening section of our blog for gardening advice and ideas from our bloggers and Birds & Blooms staff. Want fresh herbs? Get tips for planting an herb garden.

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RDA/GID

Plant of the Month

Candytuft
Roll out the white carpet for your garden with candytuft. This groundcover forms a dense mat of pale blooms perfect for borders, rock gardens, or containers. Clusters of flowers bloom from spring into summer, leaving its evergreen foliage to maintain interest the rest of the time. Candytuft adores the sun, but go ahead and take some indoors - the cut flowers are beautiful.
Common Names: Candytuft.
Botanical Name: Iberis.
Hardiness: Zones 5 to 9.
Bloom Time: Spring to summer.
Size: 6 to 18 inches high, 6 to 24 inches wide.
Flowers: Mainly white, but occasionally purple, pink, or red.
Light Needs: Full sun.
Growing Advice: Cut back in spring to encourage new growth. Mulch in colder areas to protect foliage.
Prize Picks: Purity and Snowflake are favorite and reliable white selections. For a mix of colors, try Flash Series (Iberis umbellata).

Take a look at our Top 10 Groundcovers list for more groundcover plant options.

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Recycled Backyard

Don’t toss that empty tissue box in the trash. Glue colorful buttons on it and plant something pretty inside. Find out how to create your own!

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Question of the Month

Rainbow Hydrangea
My neighbor’s hydrangea is blooming in four colors: pink, purple, blue and white. I’ve never seen this before. Have you?
—Emily Werner, Milford, Ohio

Melinda:Your neighbor’s plant is a bigleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla) that produces pink flowers in alkaline soil and blue flowers in acidic soil. I often see this color variation when gardeners are adding lime to make the soil more alkaline or acidifying it with sulfur or aluminum sulfate. The pH (measure of soil acidity and alkalinity) will often vary throughout the treated root zone, resulting in this colorful variation on one plant.

For answers to your gardening questions, visit the Plant Doctor section of our website.

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Frugal Backyard Tip

Chair Planter Idea
When our granddaughters visited us one summer, we made a rocking chair garden together. My husband dug the old chair out of a Dumpster, and I painted it and added their names. They picked out the flowers and planted them. It was fun to share gardening with them. —Linda Brown, Germantown, Ohio

For more money-saving ideas for your backyard, visit the For Less section of our website.

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Submit Your Story

Have you used cardboard in your garden? Show us how! Send us your photos and projects using our Submit Your Story form.

Submit your story»

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