One of the challenges many gardeners face is how to add texture and interest to the landscape. One of the best ways to do this is by adding ornamental grasses to your garden. They have a natural fountainous growing habit and many produce beautiful flower blooms that will light up any garden.

Ornamental grasses are incredibly low maintenance, grow quickly, and are naturally disease and insect resistant. Add to that, their natural swaying movement in even the slightest of breezes and you have plants that add unparalleled beauty to any garden setting.

Another great feature of ornamental grasses is the fact that they come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and color. There are many grasses that are perfect for creating borders and others that provide a nice backdrop to other plants or look perfect as individual featured specimens. The colors range from gold, green, silver and blue to shades of purple, burgundy, red and orange.

While most ornamental grasses prefer moist soil conditions, most become quite drought tolerant once established. They require very little fertilization and can get by with a single feeding of plant food per year. Most shorter varieties require no pruning at all (short of removing any spent flowers) and the only maintenance taller varieties require is a crew cut in late winter (down to 4-6" inches above ground level) to encourage new growth in spring.

We have a great selection of ornamental grasses just waiting for an opportunity to add interest and beauty to your garden.

Prices are skyrocketing, the economy is not in the best of shape--but we still have to feed nutritious meals to our families. What's the solution? Grow your own cold-weather vegetables! And if you've never grown a vegetable garden before, relax. It isn't rocket science, and the rewards far outweigh the effort. In fact, you can incorporate your vegetables into your floral gardens and increase the visual impact with different colors and textures.

If you've decided to commit to a vegetable-only garden, first pick a 10 square foot area with plenty of sun, as well as a reasonable amount of shade. Work the soil up to a depth of 6 inches, mix in some organic fertilizer, smooth out the surface, and you're ready to plant. Which leads us to...what can you plant?

Cooler weather means leaves, roots, flower buds and pods in the vegetable garden. Leaf vegetables include chard, all lettuces and spinach. If you're in an experimental mood, try planting collards, kale, mustard, endive and chicory. Keep the soil nearly constantly moist as leaf vegetables like their water.

Root vegetables include beets, carrots and radishes. Combine them with onions, leeks and garlic, and along with your lettuces, you'll be salad-healthy all winter long.

Broccoli and cauliflower represent the flower bud category. These plants "head up" best when temperatures at night average about 45-50 degrees Fahrenheit, so be sure to take a break from your gardening to watch your local weather man!

The pods are just that: English peas, snap peas, and sugar peas. (More common beans prefer a warmer season.) And your peas, like your leaf vegetables, like a regular watering schedule, just not as moist or as frequent as the leaf veggies.

When you're steaming your veggies, be liberal with fresh lemon squeezes. And toss the used lemon segment into the steaming water, along with freshly ground pepper, tarragon, and rosemary. This will infuse your vegetables and enhance their already-delectable taste. Bon appétit!

Should I use bone meal or bulb food when I plant my bulbs?

Answer:
We recommend bone meal at the time of planting, then applying a balanced bulb food, such as Whitney Farms Bulb Food, once the foliage appears above the soil line in late winter/early spring.

There are a couple of reasons for this. Nitrogen can burn the actual bulb, which only needs the phosphorus and potash from bone meal in order to stimulate rooting. But once the bulb is sending out a stem, it needs nitrogen to become strong so it won't bend over from the weight of the flowers that it sets. This is especially important for bulbs with large heavy flowers, such as tulips, ranunculus, and hyacinth.

It's also important to dig the holes or trenches a little deeper than the bulb needs to be, applying some bone meal below the bulb, then a little more soil so the bulb doesn't sit directly on the food but has access to the food as it sends out roots (got to give those roots some incentive to stretch).

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Perhaps one of nature's greatest miracles is the flower bulb. It goes into the ground as a crusty brown bulb, and over the course of four to five months bursts through the soil and becomes a beautiful blooming flower. And who doesn't love to see daffodils or tulips and other flower bulbs in their full-blooming glory? For many of us, it's the first sign that spring has truly arrived.

Tulips, crocus and daffodils are the traditional standby bulbs. But for those who like the unusual, there are many spectacular varieties to choose from. They can be layered in containers or in your flower bed so that the colors just keep popping up. It's best to consider how many layers (or rows) you want to plant and work, from low bulbs in the front of your planting bed (or outside edge of container) and then gradually increase the height towards the back of the bed (or inside of the container).

Three bulbs need to be chilled for 4-6 weeks prior to planting in order to replicate their natural native growing environment: crocus, hyacinth and tulips. Simply place them in a paper bag in the back of your refrigerator and do not remove until your holes are dug and you are ready to plant. Drop them into their holes and cover them immediately.

Two spring-blooming bulbs that perform better on their own are bearded iris and amaryllis bulbs. Bearded iris re-produce themselves and spread out over time, so give them lots of room. The giant Dutch amaryllis perform better forced indoors in containers where their beauty can be enjoyed without venturing outside.

Lilies, narcissus and hyacinths need to be planted in the fall as well. Don't forget that hyacinths and Oriental lilies are fragrant. Plant them where your nose as well as your eyes can appreciate their beauty.

And last, fall is the prime time to plant garlic bulbs, onion sets and seed potatoes. Plan ahead so you can enjoy a delicious summer harvest by planting these bulbs in the ground by the end of November.

So don't be disappointed when your neighbors have beautiful flower bulbs popping up in their gardens next spring and you have bare ground. Plan and plant ahead! Choose your bulbs now and plant in the fall to see the beauty of their blooms in spring.

Paperwhite narcissus are one of the most fragrant and easiest bulbs to grow. The heavily scented, spring blooming, white trumpeted flowers can be grown both outdoors in the garden or forced in containers where their wonderful sweet scent can fill a room.

Paperwhites can be planted outdoors in the fall. They prefer a sunny location but will tolerate some partial shade if that is all you have. Simply dig up the area you wish to plant in, scatter some bone meal or bulb food down and set your bulbs in place. (Make sure there's at least an inch of soil separating the bulb food from the base of the bulb.) Then cover them up, water them in and wait for them to come up in early spring. Don't forget that they look their best when planted in bunches.

The most popular way to grow paperwhites is to force them to bloom indoors during the winter. Simply fill a shallow bowl or container halfway with decorative stones or gravel. Place the paperwhite bulbs onto the stones, pushing them down just far enough so the bulbs are supported in an upright position. You can place the bulbs fairly close together; they don't mind being crowded.

Add water just to the bottom of the bulbs. If the water covers too much of the bulb, they can rot. Now put them in a cool, dark place for one to two weeks. When the bulbs begin to root and the plant has started to grow from the bulb, move your container out into a brightly lit room. Four to six weeks later, your paperwhites should be ready to bloom!