In a prior blog, I reminded you that fall is the optimal season in which to install trees and shrubs. So, I've been digging in the dirt - transplanting new seedlings and installing 'vendor test' plants.
As I worked outside, I noticed the color of my second season blooming Encore Azaleas. Somewhat new to the market, I've tested these plants for a number of years. While Encore Azaleas provide color with their blooms in spring, summer and fall, did you know that they also provide winter color with their foliage?
Autumn Princess' leaves turn a striking deep purple, as do Autumn Amethyst's leaves. Autumn Empress, Autumn Sunset, and Autumn Sundance all don a reddish bronze color in winter, and Autumn Ruby turns purple/brown.
Changing foliage is just another way that these Encore Azalea® varieties celebrate colder temperatures -- and when warmer temperatures return, they return to their previous gorgeous green hue.
If you are like me and enjoy digging in the dirt, you too will like the seasonal affect of these plants. For more information on all 24 varieties of Encore Azalea®, visit www.encoreazalea.com.
Join me in my quest - dig in the dirt and install plants that provide color and interest through out the seasons! Together, let’s create gardens of diversity.
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Container Gardening
Try container or raised bed gardening -- I wrote this for LifeTips several years ago...http://raisedgarden.lifetips.com/cat/62709/benefits-of-raised-gardens/index.html.
The environmental advantages of raised bed gardening include:
•Organic gardening compost to help raise healthy plants--sphagnum peat moss, organic manure, mushroom compost, leaves, grass clippings, rotted hay or straw--even leaves!
•Plants that are sustainable in any type of soil, even heavy alkaline
•Organic gardening that respects the seasons--if you've started your planting late, radishes, summer squash, lettuce, mustard greens, yellow wax beans, green beans, cucumbers and broccoli grow and ripen quickly. Roses are resistant to 100-degree summer heat, and raised garden beds make watering easier.
•Design that can use whatever you have on hand as a frame.
•Recycling! You don't have to bulldoze to have raised garden beds--all you might have to do is clear grass and topsoil.