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Month: March 2018

Summertime and the Growin’ is Easy

Posted on by Blackwell Digital

Gardening can be a great de-stressing activity that gives you something to be proud of. But when the heat of the St. Louis summer kicks in, you may find yourself more interested in a cold glass of lemonade and some air conditioning rather than digging in the sweaty sunshine.

Here are some easy plants to grow outside that we recommend to even the most novice gardener so you can sit back, relax, and bask in the glory of your garden without breaking a sweat.

Easy Care Outdoor Plants to Enjoy All Summer
Daylilies

These beautiful blooms continue to blossom throughout the warmer months, are impervious to drought, and can even handle areas of low sun. You can have your pick of colors—from vibrant oranges to sunny yellows—with very little effort and a whole lot of payoff.

Hostas

If flowers aren’t your thing, hostas are incredibly easy plants to take care of. They’re a hearty plant that can cover a lot of area with their vibrancy. They’re typically green with white-edged leaves but come in lots of varieties of different colors, including a green gradient like that found in liberty hostas, or even a beautiful teal like with the colossal blue variety.

Bonus: Hostas are perennials, so you can really minimize your gardening work and maximize those lazy days of summer by setting up a drip irrigation system that gives them just enough water without drowning or damaging them.

Catmint

These low-maintenance garden plants beauties pack a punch of purple along with a beautiful scent all summer long. They’re tough enough to withstand long periods without much rain or excessive watering and are also deer-resistant, so you won’t have to worry about them blooming and then disappearing right away. Just be sure to plant them in a pot with the lip above ground or they will take over the rest of your garden!

Hardy Hibiscus

If you want florals that pack a punch, these are it! With blooms as big as dinner plates, these will make a big, beautiful statement in your yard or garden and will bloom well into the colder months. They’re also known to attract butterflies (and not deer), making them doubly beautiful.

Wood Fern

Wood Ferns are an excellent way to create a lush-looking garden with minimal effort. Their bright green color and dynamic leaves create volume and height, and they can thrive in complete shade or full sun. They require moist soil, but little maintenance, all of which can easily  be achieved with an automated sprinkler system. Use wood ferns to fill empty spots in your garden, create borders, or highlight bright florals.

Little Bluestem

These gorgeous grasses bring color and privacy to any garden. These easy-to-grow outdoor plants boast a unique bronze and blue color combination that shines throughout the warmer months and turns to a lighter tan (while still standing tall) throughout winter.

Stonecrop

Stonecrop is a beautiful flowering plant that works well for garden borders because of its durability against the elements. Stonecrop, also known as sedums, come in both tall and creeping varieties, so you can use them to create any shape you can imagine. Another perk of these tolerant, tough plants is that they come in a huge variety of colors, from copper to deep purple. An automated, climate-controlled irrigation system like Solar Sync will help maintain these foolproof plants and make use of every drop of water without any waste.

Want to see how you can enjoy your garden without having to spend a ton of time working on it? Contact Pro Outdoor at (636) 692-4441 or fill out a service request form here to learn how to save water and money and have the most beautiful lawn on the block.

Informational sources:

8 Best Gardening Apps to Make Your Life Easier

Posted on by Blackwell Digital

Who doesn’t love gardening? It’s such a relaxing, fulfilling activity that lets you enjoy the fruits of your labor (and show it off to the rest of the neighborhood too).

But as the summer months heat up, getting out there and mulching, digging, planting, and pruning can be a sweaty and daunting task that’s more work than fun.

With the help of a few top gardening apps, you can spend much more time enjoying your garden than stressing over it. 

These apps are designed to make your life easier while keeping your garden healthier. What’s the best gardening app for your needs? Curious about what time-savers could be hiding in your phone? Read on!

Getting Started with Gardening Apps

1. My Garden (Formerly GRO), Free (iPhone/Android): This is an excellent app for the gardening rookie. Although it’s created and sponsored by Scotts Miracle-Gro, there are tons of helpful gardening tips for beginners and instructions for every step of the gardening process. They’ll help you pick your plants, monitor their upkeep, and provide specific articles on tricky topics like plants that can resist drought or when to plant tomatoes to prevent frostbite. 

2. Perennial Match, $4.99 (iPhone): This is basically the dating version of the garden planner app. Perennial Match will tell you if your favorite plants can grow happily together (also known as companion gardening) or if their relationship will end in heartache. The app also takes your sunlight, climate type, and aesthetic preferences into consideration as it gives you recommendations.

You put in basic information like your weather and climate, and Perennial Match will provide you with perfectly-coupled plants that will make even the pickiest homeowner happy—down to the maximum height of the shrubs and color of their blooms. 

Planning Your Garden Landscape

3. iScape, Free (iPhone/Android): This awesome garden planning app lets you create the layout and details of your ideal garden or yard digitally, saving you lots of time and work by letting you visualize your space before you shovel a single scoop of dirt.

You can customize your garden’s square footage, choose your favorite plants, and even buy the supplies and plants you decide on directly through the app. There is a paid version, but the free trial will get you plenty of access to game-changing gardening tools.

4. GrowSquared, Free (iPhone): GS is a simplified garden planning app. In contrast to the hyper-realistic images in iScape, GrowSquared uses a very basic lawn app that allows you to create garden bed sizes and choose types of plants for your space with the ease of dragging and dropping.

One feature of GrowSquared that iScape doesn’t offer is a calendar option, which helps you create a planting and watering schedule, as well as harvesting guidelines.

5. Garden Plan Pro, $7.99 (iPhone): While some gardening apps focus on the layout of your lawn, Garden Plan Pro tells you what will thrive and what may suffer in your area. The app uses your phone or tablet’s location services to determine a very nuanced climate report, helping you choose your desired plants and estimate their productivity based on the exact location of your greenery.

Troubleshooting and Showing Off

6. Garden Compass – Plant and Disease Identifier, Free (iPhone/Android): There are several plant-identifying apps out there, but this app sets itself apart because of its diagnostic qualities. If you see something funky growing on a leaf, notice a sudden change in one of your crops, or see patchiness in a particular spot of grass, just snap a photo of the problem area on your phone or tablet and upload it to the app.

Plant pros receive your picture and give you a full assessment of the issue, along with solutions they suggest to get things growing in the right direction. It’s like WebMD but much less scary.

7. GrowIt!, Free (iPhone/Android): This app is perfect for someone interested in growing an incredible garden and showing it off. GrowIt! boasts an extremely comprehensive glossary of plant types which you can filter by your location and preferences to find out exactly what will work for you.

Once you’ve created an enviable garden, you can use the app’s social networking feature to share photos of your handiwork and offer tips on how you made it happen and to offer help with gardening to other aspiring gardeners.

Bonus Gardening App

8. BeeSmart, Free(iPhone/Android): Want to grow a beautiful garden that also helps the environment? Why not, right? BeeSmart is an app created by Pollinator Partners that helps you choose the best plants for bees that can thrive in your specific location. Win-win.

Curious about how Pro Outdoorrigation can help your garden bloom? Call us today at (636) 692-4441 or contact us online and we’ll set up a free consultation to get things growing.

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